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Sera tries her best to stay calm, but she can't help the shakiness of her hands as she wraps Emily's damaged wing. She'd tried healing in about six different spots, each a different angle and a slightly different purification, but there simply is not greater purity than angelic steel. Sera can do great miracles, but it's the medical equivalent of trying to stitch together an organ that's lost its lining- there's simply nothing to stitch.
Things could be much, much worse. She knows it. But it didn't feel right for Emily to be the one to face those consequences. Shouldn't they be hers alone to bear?
"You called for me, Your Highness."
Speaking of.
Sera rubs the bridge of her nose as Lute slams the office door closed behind her. She trudged to her desk like a child comes to the switch, dragging her heels and keeping her chin to her chest. "Take off the mask, Lute."
The angel glowers- parts her lips a second, then decides against it. Lute takes the helmet off, setting it on the table. Her golden eyes are frenzied behind the false calm of her face; a dangerous animal backed into a corner and sizing up its opponent. Any other day, Sera would take at least some offense. Today, though, it's almost understandable.
"For the love of the Speaker, Lute. You act like I'm going to kill you. At ease."
Her shoulders untense a little. It's not nearly as easy-going as Sera gets the impression Lute thinks it is. "It never hurts to be sure, Your Highness."
She scoffed. "You think me low enough to murder?"
Lute chews on that a second. Shakes her head. Looks disappointed about it, even. "I thought I knew where you stood, and I was wrong. But no. I don't think you would murder me."
(Only Lute could manage to make that an insult, Sera thinks.)
"Do you have anything you'd like to confess before we begin?" It's a shot in the dark, but Sera can't help but hope for... something. Anything. A hint of regret, or maybe a halfhearted excuse. Something to prove Lute realizes she's not in the right here.
Lute gives nothing. "I've committed no sins, Your Highness."
Damnit. The Exorcist was doing it on purpose now, goading her into argument. Sera knew that yelling would just give Lute permission to brush Sera's words off as 'heat of the moment'. The only 'valid' anger, in her eyes, was her own. Recognizing the manipulation doesn't make it any less enticing, however.
"You had one duty, Lieutenant. Protecting Emily. Instead, I witness you hurling slurs at the sole neutral party in Hell and inciting the explosion of a weapon made of angelic steel."
Lute doesn't accept the list of crimes without a little bellyaching. "I had nothing to do with the attempting bombing," she mumbles, looking eerily like a child with a hand in the cookie jar. "That was built and operated by the terrorist Vox."
Semantics. "You strove to break the chain of magic prematurely. The rebound alone could've set the device off- killing not just an entire city's worth of people, but also yourself, Emily, and Abel." She spelled it out with movements of her hand, slicing and pushing the air. "I just- what the fuck were you thinking? Has your hatred blinded you to the survival of your fellow angel?"
"I was following orders," Lute grits out between her teeth, still trying to maintain her composure. Her eyes darted to just over Sera's shoulder for a second, then back. "You ordered for the retrieval. The demon's whore intended to interfere, forcing me to act."
"Hmm," she hummed, not convinced. "And you don't find it at all odd that every fight you get into in Hell, duty or no, always seems to be with someone you already hate?"
Something inside Lute managed to quirk her lip. A half-smile. "Never."
Sera never expected to miss Adam, yet here she was. How was she to know he was somehow reigning in a greater pain in her ass?
She held her hand out. "Your sword, Lieutenant."
Finally, the mask chips. Lute's hands fly to her scabbard as she shifting the hip it rested upon away from her. "Sera, you can't!"
"I'm not firing you," Sera hastened to add. Keeping Lute bound to her side was much harder, but overall safer. If Lute lost her willingness to follow orders, Sera wasn't sure how long she could keep the woman contained. "I'll say it again, Lute. Your sword."
(To kill is not Sera's favorite option. This is Heaven, afterlife of love. Murder was to always be the last choice. But it was still a choice, and one she had been thinking over more lately. Sera had the raw power, but Lute's nimbleness might prove tricky.)
"You're demoting me?" Her voice was sharp and brittle. "For following orders?"
"Lute," she insisted.
Lute growls and unfastens the weapon from her hips. She hands it over with noticeably gritted teeth and wet eyes. Furious. Devastated.
Sera felt a pang of sympathy. She hardened herself to it. "You will be under my command specifically from now on. Heaven and Hell have reached ceasefire- and while I know you are not for this-" Lute's jaw opens to agree with her- "you are not allowed to ruin it." Recognizing the venom, her mouth snaps shut, if only briefly, to let her finish. "Hell has learned exactly how to wound us, and have successfully struck. Diplomacy is our best option to avoid destruction."
"But we don't need to roll over for them!" she argued. "The terrorists didn't even have a real plan- they still have no way of getting up here. With structured analysis and tactics, we could easily-"
"Soldiers don't plan battles, Lute. Stand down."
Lute slowly shook her head as she took an abrupt step back. "Sera, you can't possibly believe this is the end of our problem with Hell. Those monsters will use this time to regain their numbers, prepare another attack- and what if they do locate a way to Heaven? Would you really have us roll over and take it up the ass?" When she didn't deem it worth a reply, Lute's shoulders tensed. "Do you really think the Morningstar won't burn this kingdom down for his slut alone? The closest thing to a redeeming quality the devil ever had was loyalty to wife- if we're not ready for it-."
"I let her go."
She gaped at Sera like a fish out of water, suffocating but not comprehending why. "You what?"
"We lost the right to keep Lilith when Adam died. You know it, and I know it. I won't jeopardize this." Sera's voice was firm but defeated. Like an exhausted mother. "It's for the best. Hell's government is unravelling from Lucifer's curse. Lilith can fight back."
Lute took to her wings almost immediately, streaking down the hallway and into the beyond. Checking up on a certain beach chair, most likely. Perhaps hoping Lilith would be foolish enough to wait for an escort. Sera considers following her- Lute is likely to start throwing things when she got there- but decides against it. Sera was sure that, even if Lilith was just standing around, the queen of Hell was more powerful than a single, sword-less foot soldier.
Not for the first time, Sera felt her chest squeeze with unyielding anxiety. Heaven had been above Hell since the beginning (literally and metaphorically), a gleaming city of sugar and gold. Hell was filthy, overcrowded, and ruthless. It was also a plane of people Heaven had been suppressing since the dawn of time. For there to truly be peace, that meant Hell was to be regarded as equal. Sera didn't know where to begin- and neither did anyone else, from the sounds of it.
Perpetually exhausted, Sera left Lute to her scheming. She had bigger things on her mind- Lute had been a nuisance before, but never a threat. She really doubted the Exorcist had it in her- or, if she did, that Adam hadn't stomped out that resistance over the years.