When time had not yet learned to name itself,
when light and darkness were still two halves of the same breath,
Lucifer was born — radiant beyond every star.
And among the host of angels surrounding Him,
there was one who did not sing, did not kneel, but only listened in silence: Beliar.
They called him the Scribe of Reason, for he was the first to record the laws of Creation.
Each time the Lord declared, "Let there be light," it was Beliar's hand that carved those words into the fabric of nothingness,
and thus the world came to know that Light must have meaning.
But as the world grew, and the angels sang praises to the Creator,
Beliar began to ask — in a voice as soft as wind brushing over water:
"If everything has meaning, then what is the meaning of meaning itself?"
At that time, Lucifer was still the Prince of Light.
He heard the question and smiled.
"You are too clever, Beliar. Meaning is not meant to be understood — it is meant to be believed."
"Believed?" — Beliar tilted his head. "Then if belief itself is just another form of logic, which logic do You believe in?"
Lucifer did not answer.
The light upon His brow blazed too brightly to be looked at directly.
Perhaps that is why no one saw — in Beliar's eyes, a crack had begun to gleam.
On the Day of the Heavenly Assembly, when angels sang to sustain the Circle of Law,
Beliar stood beside the white stone table, gazing at the shining inscriptions he himself had engraved.
And he realized, among the thousands of perfect laws, there was one that had never been written:
"Every law must first be believed to be true."
And that — was the flaw of the universe.
"If one day," he whispered to himself, "I cease to believe that light is light, will it still shine?"
Lucifer came to him in the chamber of golden runes.
The Prince's radiance filled the air, yet it could not pierce Beliar's faint smile.
Lucifer: "You wrote the seventh hundred and seventy-seventh law wrong."
Beliar: "I know."
Lucifer: "Why did you change it to 'Reality exists because I think it exists'?
The true verse is 'Reality exists because He thinks it exists.'"
Beliar: "But if there were no one to think, would He still exist?"
Lucifer frowned. "You are tampering with order."
Beliar tilted his head, voice calm as stone:
"No, I am merely testing logic."
In that instant, a glimmer flashed in Lucifer's eyes — the light of understanding… and fear.
For the first time in all eternity, an angel had asked a question without an answer.
When the Great Rebellion began, when Lucifer cried the first vow of war,
Beliar stood there too — not holding a sword, not singing, only smiling.
Lucifer shouted:
"I will build a Kingdom of Freedom — where no Law shall bind the soul!"
And Beliar softly replied:
"Then You will forge the Law of Freedom. And bind Yourself once more."
Lucifer looked at him; the light in His eyes turned crimson.
"You do not stand with me?"
"I stand with no one," Beliar said. "For to take a side is to choose a corner of truth.
And I… I wish to see all of its faces."
Lucifer was silent for a long time.
Then He turned away, His wings burning bright — dragging half of Heaven down with Him.
Only Beliar remained, standing in the void between what was and what would be,
watching angels turn to demons, demons to ash,
and whispering, as if to himself:
"You chose rebellion.
I choose… contradiction."