Cassie and Azazeal, Elizabeth and Lucifer had been blissfully and wonderfully happy but the revelation that immortality would bind their fates together had put a small but unfortunate wrench in the works for both couples.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Azazeal said, irritated that she had chosen the moment that she had to tell him that making her immortal could possibly doom her to an eternity in the abyss with him or worse. Of course, because it could be eons before this became pressing, he had avoided thinking past the act of making her immortal which was why he was so shocked at being forced to consider what exactly might happen to them in the end. God had been very explicit in the Bible on what his fate was supposed to have been but now nothing was certain and she couldn't possibly understand what all this meant.
"To be honest, I'd kind of forgotten about it," she said in a snotty tone, "It's not really relevant."
"NOT RELEVENT!"
Cassie took a brief moment to revel in that fact that she'd turn the tables on him, but then returned to the matter at hand.
"You're being ridiculous."
"And you're being reckless. You can't just throw away your chance at heaven."
"Right, that's what I'm doing," she rolled her eyes to indicate that this was not how she thought of it, "You would see it that way and once again you're pushing me away."
"That's not what I'm doing," he said frustrated.
"Yes…it is."
"You don't understand."
"No, I understand perfectly. When you figure it out, let me know," and she stormed off.
Sara was also in a bad mood and dropped in on Malachi to voice her annoyance at not having been invited to the poker game.
"What kind of brother are you not inviting me? And I'm way more fun that Luke and you spend more time with him."
"Of course you're more fun," he said smoothly, he wasn't above manipulating his sister, "But aren't you being kind of weird? I mean we do all sorts of crazy things together. Remember when we dressed up and walked the red carpet at the Oscars and no one could figure out who we were?"
She pursed her lips and said, "Yes, but I was bored the other day and you didn't think of me."
"Luke and I wanted a boy's night, Ella didn't come."
"Well, I'm not Ella," she wined.
"Okay, we, uh, stole the Stone of Belial from dad and we're going to ancient Egypt tonight, Ella and I, do you want to go?"
"Luke's not going?"
"He's busy."
"See you didn't invite me until right now!!! Anyway, I can't go either, I have homework," she said and cross her arms and looked away.
"I don't think this is about me," he said with a smirk, "I'm starting to think this is about Luke."
"Don't be absurd!"
"I'm not the one passing up a chance go back in time because of a little homework."
Lucifer was staring darkly at Elizabeth after having found out from Azazeal what Elizabeth had kept from him.
"I cannot believe that you didn't tell me."
"I'm sorry," she said, "Cassie and I agreed not to mention it until we heard what Michael's message to you both was and then I didn't know if I should tell you." She was very concerned because he was genuinely angry with her and he usually didn't get much past mildly irritated.
"I don't keep things from you," he said still angry but sad too.
"I know and I'm grateful for that. I don't know what I was thinking."
"This is serious, Elizabeth, I might not…I have a lot to make up for. I never intended to let you stay with me if it came to…and I am not prepared for the possibility of you damning your soul by staying with me."
"That won't happen."
"I appreciate your belief in me but it's not that simple."
"It is that simple. I said I wouldn't leave you and I meant it. It's too late for you to change your mind on me now," she said firmly. "Besides," she added with a touch of a smile "How could I leave you after your big speech about not leaving you?"
He smiled at this but was not entirely convinced.
"You've trusted me with a lot already and I believe in you," she said, "This is nothing. Together, we can do anything."
He considered this but did not reply. She didn't expect a resolution tonight and let him take some time to think about it, which turned into several days.
Sara immediately went to Luke's room after yelling at Malachi at his presumption that she had any thoughts about Luke that weren't sisterly. She tried the door handle out of curiosity because she had noticed that he had been unlocking his door each time he would let her in and sure enough it was locked. She knocked at the door and waited while he shuffled about, then unlocked the door to let her in.
"What's with the door locking?" she asked right way.
"Nothing, really, I've just been working on something I didn't want anyone to see," he said with an excited smile.
"You're not going with Malachi tonight," she asked searchingly.
"No, I wanted to finish this up. Sit down."
She flopped down in his chair and watched him as he cleaned up the mess he'd apparently generated for this project.
"So, how's everything going?" she asked.
"Fine," he said, still tidying up and wondering why she wasn't more curious about his project.
"Didn't you want to go to ancient Egypt?"
"Uh, I didn't tell Malachi…but I don't need the Stone for that."
"You don't!?!?"
"Uh, no. Impressed?" He asked with a twinkle in his eyes.
"For once, yes, I am impressed. And here I thought you were only good at soccer," she teased. It was easier for her to talk to him when she was teasing him.
"I have other talents," he insisted with a mock pout also finding it easier to communicate this way.
"Alright let's see 'em," she laughed.
"Well, don't you want to see what I've been working on? It's for you, you know."
Sara was a little shocked and said with more excitement that she thought was really necessary after hearing herself, "Really?"
"Yeah, you know I like to make things and I wanted to try something new. I thought of something perfect for you so I created it."
"Show me!"
Luke went to his closet and pulled out something that appeared to be quite heavy and was covered with a black veil. He carefully placed it on the floor a few feet away from her and sat cross-legged on the floor behind it.
"You have to come down here," he said and she slipped down off of the chair to sit opposite him with the veiled item between them. She looked at him and he looked back at her with a mix of amusement and nervousness. He reached out his hand and lifted the black covering to reveal a beautifully crafted white marble horse about one foot high at the shoulder. It was standing as if for a photo with its head held high and its legs just so. She could tell that it was fine Italian marble but couldn't fathom how he had been able to get it much less carve and chisel this perfectly formed animal out of it.
She was staring at it in wonder and then looked up at him with delight. They both loved horses, which wasn't a surprise considering how much time they'd spent with them as a children, but this was more than that because this was a piece of fine art that he'd just created in his dorm room.
"So you like it then?"
"Of course," she gushed.
"Then I should tell you that it's not just a sculpture."
"Okay, what else is it?"
"Put your hand on it," he said with a mischievous smile.
She reached out her hand and as soon as the tip of her finger touched it, it tossed its head, stamped a front foot and turned to look at her, before walking over to apparently look for food in her hand. It was still a white stature but she could feel its gentle breath against her skin at it nuzzled her.
"He doesn't need to eat but he does like bits of apple and sugar."
"How did you…?'
"I just did. It's hard to explain."
Sara carefully stroked the little horse's neck and he seemed to like that too.
"And you can turn him off too, you just have to touch him again with that intent."
"I don't know what to say, Luke, I love him."
"Good," he said proudly and then got up abruptly, "Are you hungry, do you want to grab something to eat?"
"Sure," she said and touched her little horse again to turn him back in to a statue and leaped up to follow Luke.
When Sara returned to her room, she found her father sitting in her chair thinking.
"Well, imagine finding you here," she said pleasantly, but when he looked up she could see that he was unhappy.
He told her about his disagreement with her mother and she replied, "She believes in you, dad, and I bet that when you told her that you could redeem yourself, she didn't doubt for a second that you could do it. That's why she thinks you're being ridiculous."
"But the consequences…" he started.
"To her there is no risk. She loves you and you're telling her that you're going to give her up. Even if it's to save her that's not a good enough reason. You're not very good with women, are you?"
He smiled at her form of encouragement and stood to give her a hug and a kiss on the forehead.
"I seems that I have been overlooking your talent for giving advise."
"Yes, I am a fount of knowledge. Now go home, I've got homework to do," they smiled at each other and he went home to Cassie.
Azazeal walked over to Cassie and looked at her sadly. She returned his look with a kind smile.
"I've failed before," he said.
"Is that what this is about?"
"It's not a minor thing."
"It is to me."
"I'm corrupted, imperfect, not worthy."
She reached out to touch his face, "I don't see you that way. And I need you."
While she had already let him know that she understood that he needed direction and purpose from her and that she would not deprive him of that intentionally, he hadn't really expressed to her these feelings that still lingered deep inside.
"How can you be so sure that I won't fail again?"
"Because I love you and I won't let you fail. You're already a much different person than you were when I met you but you don't give yourself credit for that. I haven't helped by doubting you, but that's not true anymore. Let me help you."
He gave in with a smile and after a few kisses, he went off to kick everyone out so that he could get ready for this momentous occasion.
He told her a little later that what he would be doing was probably not what she would have expected. Her soul, as everyone's is, was already immortal. What he would do involved her body. He would fix her soul more firmly to this body so that it wouldn't fly off right away if the body was in trouble. She was unlikely to be hurt anyway, given her power and who she had looking after her, and she could easily be healed by one of the angels, but like Ella if one was going live here forever, you had to keep your body and soul together. She wouldn't be invincible but she'd be hard to lose. And, of course, he would then turn off the body's compulsion to age. It was just component of God's great plan and was not complicated to fix.
Lucifer and Elizabeth arrived a few hours later at Cassie invitation to an empty and partially rearranged church. Azazeal had created a circle about ten feet across in the center of the church out of the candelabras and changed the candles to mostly white with some black ones interspersed. All of the other candles in the place too had been changed even if they weren't part of the circle. The red carpet that usually lead from the front door to the alter area had been rolled up and the floor of the circle was bare wood.
Elizabeth whispered to Lucifer, "I had no idea it would be this involved."
He made a face, "It doesn't have to be. I offered to do it for him but he insisted on doing it himself. Now he's just being over cautious." Elizabeth laughed at Lucifer's annoyed tone.
"So, you'd cut out the unnecessary bits?"
"No, I'm just not fussy like he is."
When everything was ready, Cassie and Azazeal walked in to the middle of the circle and he put her in the very center. He turned to face east and crossed himself intoning words that Cassie did not understand. Then proceeding from east, to south, to west, to north he drew something in the air at each direction with his right finger then pointing at the center of each drawing intoned a single word. When he was back where he started he held his arms out wide and seemed to call on the angels Raphael, Gabriel, Michael and Ariel (those were the only words Cassie had understood thus far). He cross himself again as before and then after what seemed like a small smile and a quick glance in each direction, he went over to Cassie and put his hands on her shoulders.
They smiled at each other and then his eyes unfocused as he concentrated. She could feel what seemed like electricity filling the air around her and it made her skin tingle. It slowly built up more and more until she felt a great jolt run through her body accompanied by a flash of brilliant white light, leaving her with a sensation of weightlessness. It wasn't painful or pleasurable, just firm and strong and she could no longer see anything but white for a few seconds as the feeling subsided.
Azazeal came slowly back into view and was smiling at her but when her eyes cleared fully she could see he was weak and she realized that his hands were pressing harder against her shoulders then they were before. She moved forward to support him and was soon assisted by Lucifer and Elizabeth.
After they had helped Cassie get Azazeal sitting down, Elizabeth and Lucifer respectfully left, but as soon as they were home, Lucifer quipped, "And you think I'm dramatic."
Elizabeth just smiled and shook her head at him.
A note on the "ritual of immortality" - What I have described is basially the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. I don't actually practice magic myself but I have done some reading about it and this is a basic ritual performed to prepare and protect the space before performing anything further (Well, at least that's what I understand from what I've read). I picked it because it includes many references to God, like the sign of the cross while saying an abriviated version of the Lord's prayer, intoning of four of God's names as after the drawing of each Pentagram, and calling four Archangels at the cardinal points. There are other "non-Christian" versions as well. Anyway, I just thought it was interesting and this note would help you understand why Lucifer finds it to be overkill. :-)