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Chapter 1 - Chapter 1

Lucifer

The Scottish Highlands have always carried a quiet melancholy, as though their silent mountains sheltered secrets too ancient for mortal ears.

A northern wind drifted across the land, heavy with mist and cold water. The grass bent in slow, reverent waves beneath my presence. Loch Ness—deep and dark as unspoken mysteries—reflected the sky in a way not even Heaven in its original form ever had.

This place was different.

Alive.

Ancient, like me.

Yet endlessly new to human eyes.

I watched in silence, my wings folded and concealed within the soft glow of my blue grace. The Underworld was loud and oppressive, thick with decay and intent. Earth, however, had substance. Color. Scent.

And something more.

Something that, on that particular night, drew my attention.

The wind shifted, carrying with it a presence both gentle and ethereal—a warm light that came neither from the heavens nor from my own grace, but from someone else.

My gaze followed the current of the breeze.

That was when I saw her.

She walked along the edge of the lake as though she had belonged to the landscape since before time itself. Her loose blonde hair spilled down her back like strands of gold brushed by moonlight. Her pale skin mirrored the shimmer of the water, and her steps were slow and deliberate, as if she were in quiet communion with the earth beneath her feet.

It was her eyes that held me—a clear, piercing blue, impossible to look away from.

She seemed untouched by the cold, unconcerned with the solitude of the night. There was peace in her, a rarity among humankind so profound that it unsettled me, accustomed as I was to the hollow silence of the Underworld.

She was beautiful—not with the arrogance so often worn by mortals, but with a quiet, unguarded beauty born of inner light.

For a moment, I did not move.

I, who had witnessed the birth of the universe, who had watched stars ignite and worlds fall into ruin, remained still.

Not from fear.

But from fascination.

She lifted her face, as if aware she was being watched. Her eyes met mine in the darkness, and in that instant, something within me—something I believed had been destroyed with my banishment—stirred.

Curiosity.

Desire.

Perhaps… fate.

I could have disappeared. Returned to the Underworld without leaving a trace. Ignored the silent pull in her gaze.

But I did none of those things.

I stepped forward.

The grass bowed beneath my feet. The air warmed. The lake briefly caught the glow of my blue light.

And she did not retreat. She remained still, as though she had been waiting for me.

I approached slowly.

Moonlight revealed my face—and she smiled, soft and knowing, as if she recognized something neither of us yet understood.

That was how it began.

Not with thunder.

Not with divine omens.

Not with prophecy.

But with a banished angel stepping toward a mortal woman…

and a destiny poised to alter every realm.

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