01. punished angel.
Like a barge at sea, In the storm I stay clear, cause I've got my mind on you — yes to heaven, lana del rey.
Her name was Anadriel, and she was a celestial being, throughout her existence she lived within the celestial grounds. At the beginning of all known things, she was enchanted.
Anadriel loved very much all that her creator created, from the humblest of stars to the entire universe. She wandered through the stars touching them with her fingers, floated into constellations, and observed remote planets.
Anadriel knew that many of her siblings didn't have this opinion, but she fell in love with everything so quickly that the mere idea of existing to observe left her hostage to all splendor.
In times when the history of human beings was not even close to being initiated, they were created in pairs, Azafriel was Anadriel's pair and was the being with whom she shared her adventures through the creations.
The two were angels and Anadriel's crucial task was to assist the archangels in their battles; she used to clean and polish their weaponry, to serve them as needed.
"There is a rumour that the creator will create more beings this time," Anadriel joyfully commented, the spectrum of her essence becoming more enlightened. "They say they will have the spirit of the creator itself within them."
"And are you satisfied with that, Anadriel?" Azafriel's resounding voice expressed dissatisfaction. "The cherubim comment that the creator plans to empower them. Power over us."
The light in Anadriel became less glowing.
"But what's wrong, Azafriel?" She questioned without understanding her brother's sudden anger. "We were created to be servants..."
"You don't understand, sister," his voice became soft. "The creator will not always make the right decisions."
"Don't say something like that! Our creator never errs!" Anadriel's calm tone attempted to circumvent her brother's blasphemy. "Brother, I've never heard you say that."
"You don't understand, Anadriel,' he continued. "You should try to understand before it's too late."
"What are you talking about, brother?"
"I should hear the rumors, Lúcifer seems to share the same thoughts as us, I am just looking after you, sister."
Anadriel raised the luminous handles.
"Please, Azafriel, be careful. There is nothing in this kingdom that our almighty Lord will not hear."
That was the last conversation Anadriel shared with her brother, the creator began it creation and a third of the celestial beings were listening to Lúcifer very loud theories. Anadriel was lost, her generous spirit was the essence of love, in it was the gift of empathy and none of Anadriel's feelings could be negative, she couldn't consider her brothers traitors.
She loved them too much, more than her own existence, and also loved their creator.
On a moment when the great evil that surrounded the universe in that place of its existence where time hadn't yet been created, Anadriel sharpened the sword of a seraphim when the first great convocation took place in heaven.
It was the first moment that Anadriel met the creator face to face, and the last time she could see the great heavenly terrains.
After that, there was the fall.
And for her indecision, Anadriel was punished.
It was her first incarnation, she was one of the daughters of a weaver, in that life her name was Sara'el and she was the older sister and the pride of her house.
The memories of her heavenly soul were intact in her mind and she knew exactly what she should do.
Her uncle Ahaziah had abandoned the laws of the creator, had given his soul to a demon through a contract.
Ahaziah gave the demon hired the name Hieu.
"What was your punishment, sister?" he once asked. "Why didn't you fall with us?"
"The creator has punished me in being reborn and living the misfortunes of a human life, I have to kill a brother with my own free will," she said softly, her brother's eyes were full of indifference and yet she felt nothing but pure love for him. "It's the only way to break the cycle."
"Will you try to kill me, then?" A smile of scarium formed on Hieu's thin lips.
"No."
His expression was empty.
"And why not?"
Sara'el laughed quietly, shaking her head.
Hieu squeezed his jaw realizing his sister inside the fragile human shell, realizing that she was the only one who was not changing.
"What are you talking about? I would never kill a brother."
Sara'el died at the age of seventeen; Hieu's contract was still active when it happened.
He held her hand watching life move away from her brown eyes; with it, he was able to experience the remnant of heaven that he once left behind.
Finding a brother wasn't a recurring occurrence, she noted. Since her first life, she had lived three more to find a brother again.
In this case, it was a sister.
Under the orders of the contract, her sister was given the name Suzanne. It was France in the years that would one day be called the middle ages, the name her mother of that life gave her had been Florence.
Her father of that life made a contract with her sister to get the wealth he had, all the land and all the precious things he continued to receive was the fruit of what Suzanne had given him. Suzanne lived in her house in the guise of a nanny, Florence remembered how her fingers brushed her hair.
"Humans are funny creatures, Florence. You see, after all this time they can retain knowledge, they prefer material wealth," she heard Suzanne say. "I advise you to try to know earthly pleasures, to find consolation in someone's arms."
Florence smiled at the mirror.
"I am happy to have found you again, sister."
"Me too, and believe me, happiness is a foreign notion when you're a demon," Florence felt her sister kissing her temple.
Suzanne's contract was short and she left before Florence's death.
Florence died at the age of fifteen, but the demon who had been with her in that life placed peonies on her tombstone.
Eight lives later, she was reborn as Jiang Feng Mian and she felt something strange happening. Her memory was fading.
She remembered that she had once been a celestial being, but it was a blurred and unclear memory.
She didn't remember her first name and the image of the heavenly lands looked like a broken mirror in her memory.
Jiang Feng Mian was born to be a courtesan, she was sophisticated and adorable in the eyes of outsiders, but her mind was a storm. She dreamed of all the moments of her previous lives, she dreamed of her brothers and sisters, but it seemed difficult to access those memories in that lifetime.
To her surprise, one night while she was dancing, one of her brothers came in through the door. Her heart sped up, she hardly found her voice when she recognized his soul.
"Azafriel," she murmured as the warm tears rolled down her face, the most beautiful silk in the market embracing her body as she wrapped her arms around her brother's shoulders.
He did not immediately reciprocate, but then she felt his arms around his waist.
"Sister," he leaned his lips on her black and scented hair. "I finally found you."
Azafriel's name was Wen in that life, and Feng Mian was happy to remember his brother.
His contract was with a young courtesan like Feng Mian — she was trying to get revenge for her mother's death and Wen was there to help her achieve her goal.
"So your punishment is to kill a demon? We can look for one, it wouldn't be such an impossible task if I helped you," Wen told her when she told of her punishment.
"No, I can't kill any of you, Wen. I love them with all my heart, I wouldn't know how to move on after killing—"
"Listen to me sister, nothing is like before. There is no such union among demons, we are not the same as we were before the fall," he laid his hand on her head. "How would you kill a demon, after all? You look fragile like any other human."
"This is one of the few clear memories I still have. The creator told me that when the will to kill a brother blossoms in me, the strength I need will also blossom."
Wen sighed.
"But it never bloomed, didn't it?"
Feng Mian rested her forehead on his forehead.
"Not once in twelve lives." She whispered lovingly.
Wen kissed her cheek.
"Be careful, sister. Your soul seems pure and appetizing to any demon, don't go near them willingly in any of your lives, can you do this?"
"Yes, thank you, Wen."
Wen's contract ended thirty years after Feng Mian's death.
He held her in his arms when she died with the age of 14, poisoned by another courtesan.
Azafriel cursed the heavens for reminding him of what it was like to feel love.
In the twentieth life of that punished angel, she was reborn as a noble in Victorian England.
Francis' heart hurt when she realized that only one of her twin children was crying at birth, the second one coming out of her womb seemed to be asleep and her tiny baby lips seemed to be smiling.
The boy and the girl, however, were born healthy.
From that day on, Eden and Edward were the beloved children of the Midford house.
[author's note]
this is my first fanfic of Kuroshitsuji, english isn't my first language, so if you find any grammar mistakes, please, feel free to point out. Don't forget to left your review! Thanks for reading this story :3