I woke with the taste of blood in my mouth.
Not the metallic tang of fresh slaughter, but the old, cloying bitterness of a wound long scarred over. The remnants of the dream clung to me like smoke,flashes of wings torn from their roots, of swords shattering against divine armor, of screams that had once shaken the foundations of Heaven itself.
I sat up, the sheets of my obsidian throne sliding away like shadows retreating from dawn. My chambers were silent, the air thick with the scent of smoldering embers and forgotten wars.
What was that?
Dreams were not supposed to trouble me. I was not mortal, to be haunted by the phantoms of my own mind. And yet...
I flexed my fingers, watching the firelight dance across the jagged scars that marred my knuckles. Battle wounds that refused to fade
A memory surfaced
The War.
Not the petty scheming of lesser demons, not the whispered rebellions of upstart angels. The War. The battle with the divine ones
I remembered the moment the tide turned. My sins wrath standing in front of me kneeling as I turned back to land a blow, his head tilted up to the sky,his chest a mass of blood and dispalced flesh, "take my wrath my Lord and avenge my death " He fell after saying this, his face landing with a loud thud on the slate,all around us the war bled on.
And she had been there.
Delphine.
Her laughter had been a weapon sharper than any blade. She had fought at my side, her wings black as the void between stars, her hands drenched in the black blood of the divine ones.
"They will sing songs of this day," she had whispered to me, her breath hot against my ear as the battle raged around us. "Not of their victory,but of their shame."
My chest tightened, grief threatening to consume me, I needed to go for a walk in the gardens, something to distract my mind from digging up more painful memories.
Beyond the balcony the garden waited, I stepped into the cold night the air was thick with the scent of the blooming black lillies their petals wet with dew.i walked among the rows of black bells.
Delphine's favourite, i never understood why she loved them so very much, i disliked them they were fragile, their petals damaged too easily but i told the gardeners to plant them anyways for her sake. A Thorn snagged at the hem of my robe. I didn't flinch instead i reached for it and broke off the stem i needed to have a word with the gardener.
The dream clawed at the edges of my mind , a feminine voice whispered my name ,she had asked him for help, i had been in a crypt what were the enemies upto this time?
I would have to prove to them that Lucifer didn't have enemies he is the enemy .