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Lelouch Crowley looked outside the window of his mansion from his sister's room, his amethyst eyes following the tarmac towards the east where the first light of dawn was just beginning to break through the grey mist hanging over the city of London. He wore a white comforter and a black overcoat against the chill, his breath visible as white wisps of vapor. At age seventeen, the former chairman of the Crowley Group had always been complimented for his youth and intellect, but recent developments made him feel keenly the toll that business and politics had exacted on him.
He was, in a word, tired and exhausted.
The high society had in the past few weeks been talking about the Crowley Group in great detail, which had risen to great wealth and influence for their contributions to the empire's economic interests. When Lelouch decided to resign from his position to care for his sister, many concurred that the young boy had aimed at aspirations beyond the reach of the lower station which led to his inevitable fall from grace when his sister suddenly fell sick.
For his decision, Lelouch was ridiculed by his peers— a foolish young man who had squandered his potential because of simple distractions and ignorant pursuits of the weak. Lelouch never sought to defend himself, declining interviews and behests from friends to return to work.
The truth was, his inner strength had become depleted by the guilt over his helplessness in the face of the slow sickness that was consuming his sister, whom he had raised and loved since she was an infant. His vigour consumed by the quick poison of the seven original grimoires who were meant to be nothing more than mere pawns to his personal agenda, but had turned into his last beacons of hope that might save his only love. When he had realized the true nature of the plague that was eating away at his sister's soul he was thrown into darkness, all his desperate tries to change what seemed to be the final fate of his family turned back without results.
He began to lose sleep, lying awake and praying to whatever God would listen for the safety and welfare of the only blood relative he had, now without a protector in the ruthless arena of demons and angels that devoured the weak and defenceless. He blamed himself for her loss, the dark circles under his once youthful eyes evidence of the penance he served.
In a twist of irony, and in spite of the hardship to his family, Lelouch had found some solace in the dark path the Holy Guardian Angel had shown him— entering what was an imminent warzone of supernatural forces was a weighty price indeed, but one he was prepared to pay if it meant he could see Laura smile again.
With the wind blowing loose several wisps of his raven hair, he took in the majestic sight around him, knowing that this may well be one of the last moments of solace he was fortunate enough to enjoy in peace and quiet.
"You should be resting, Lulu" An ethereal voice playfully called out.
And for once, Lelouch did not bristle at the affectionate nickname that his sister had adopted for him when they were younger— too affectionate, he used to complain to his younger sister who to his dismay would only smile and say that it was a cute name. The girl reasoned that Lelouch was too much of a mouthful and he eventually had to give in, accepting the fact that there were some girls in the world that one just could not win against.
"I thought you were supposed to be in Japan, Aiwass." Lelouch responded as he glanced over his shoulder. "I've never been to the East, but my mother once had. She said it was a beautiful place."
The picturesque account his mother gave him when he was younger had riveted Lelouch and his younger sibling for a memorable afternoon—of pink blossoms that fell like rain from the trees and perfectly shaped snow-capped mountains that peeked through the clouds.
"Has your sister shown any signs of recovery, Lelouch?" The being of the pure world asked instead, moving a bit closer.
The young teen glanced backward in surprise, his sombre yet immaculate attire contrasting with the modest decorations of the room he was in. A sad smile appeared on the young teen's countenance as he lowered their gaze. "She is resting well, I suppose. The doctors say she might awaken from her artificial sleep soon if all goes well but her condition has not changed, even with all the spells I have used."
Lelouch sighed, his words reminding him cruelly of helplessness, his loneliness, and his powerlessness to do anything for anyone including himself. But beneath the raven bangs of hair that obscured the young boy's eyes, a bright flame of resolve burned with the intensity of a dying star. Lelouch did not have many reasons to be pleased, but he had avoided a final checkmate and remained to fight another day because of Aiwass. Alone his dreams would have been dismembered and buried, never to rise again— because of magic, he could at least hope again.
By conventional wisdom, saving his sister was too much for any human to bear alone, much less a bereaved teenager. But Lelouch knew that he no longer enjoyed the luxury of children's innocence and he would not let anyone take away his sister's right to smile freely. Forces larger than him might be at work and sometimes he wondered whether this was a bad dream that he might soon wake from, like those he had experienced from time to time since his mother's death. But he had not lost his path, an angel had given him hope.
Lelouch looked down and realized his hands were trembling— was he that afraid? Had he not prepared himself for the possibility that everything might just be in vain, a possibility he was reminded of every time he saw his sister and the evil that accompanied her? Praised as an genius far beyond his age, only the teenager understood the irony of his situation, how easily he came undone when confronted with the loss of the one with whom his heart rested.
But he had promised he would save her and he'd never broken a promise made to her before.
"You must have decided on your next course of action then," Aiwass said as she peered into his resolute amethyst eyes, a statement rather than a question.
"That right hand of a certain aint was lost nearly a decade ago, and every other power of this surface world would be worthless before the might of a great demon. There is no worldly being who can do what I had endeavoured to achieve," Lelouch finally turned towards the Holy Guardian Angel whose platinum wings seemed to pulse with a strange and unnatural beauty, almost as if they were alive.
"To save Laura you intend to evoke a being of equal rank into this world and exorcize the Great Demon from his body using its otherworldly might." Aiwass stated, as if she were reading his very thoughts, "To that end, you wish to decipher the Book of the Law and use the knowledge inside to bring my actual form to this surface world with your own body serving as a medium to save your sister."
The teenager paused, facing the scientific angel even as he was on the brink of losing everything dear to him including his sister whom he had not seen truly smile since the incident took place. But his thoughts were quickly replaced by overwhelming determination, his shoulders straightening deeply as he closed his eyes and slowly nodded.
"Understanding every original grimoire that you have inherited save for a single one in just seven months, a miracle that could make kings who owned mountains of gold look upon you with envy yet you remain unsated." Aiwass spoke, her radiance only increasing as she drew closer and leaned in, "I suppose you do resemble your father, in more ways than one."
Lelouch opened his eyes and looked up at the angel who had been beside him since the beginning, often sharing pieces of wisdom that had shaped him into the man he was today. She was among the handful of individuals he truly trusted, the closest thing to a parent to him who had grown far too quickly on his own. Lelouch remembered all this and in spite of his knowledge that her presence beside him was probably borne out of personal interests he knew nothing of, he could not find in his heart to hate the floating angel before him.
"You have always been kind to me, Aiwass— teaching me when I was casting unknown magicks in the hope that they might save Laura and helping me when I was deciphering the original grimoires. I do not even know how to thank you for this, but I fear that I require your help once again."
"I have helped you decipher the original grimoires you've inherited and I shall do so again with the Book of the Law if that is what you wish," Aiwass simply nodded, asking no more questions. "But that original grimoire might not hold the answers you seek."
He sighed at her words, all too aware of the fact. Even with the knowledge sealed inside that original grimoire, what could he hope to accomplish against an unseen foe who could destroy worlds on a whim? But would he give up just because of that?
A shiver sparked through Lelouch's very being, an electric feeling that pushed away his fear for a single moment—he was a brother, sworn to be protect. He recognized that this might just be his only chance to redeem himself.
"I wish to see it through nonetheless," Lelouch finally spoke, eyes resolute and somewhat touched by the angel's open-heartedness as his slender hands slowly took out the small journal from his lower drawer. His heart invigored once again as he found himself unable to come up with words adequate to convey his gratitude—the sign of a man renewed by hope rarely encountered among men.
Placing the pristine book alongside the others, he sank into the deep leather chair and turned to the front cover of the tome. There remained inside this unassuming book magic that might bring an end to the second age of God, secret rituals that might take years to understand, prepare, and execute.
An absolute quietness permeated the room, everything motionless as the large grandfather clock behind him read four thirty-three which was the length of John Cage's quiet masterpiece, or two hundred seventy-three minutes past midnight which was absolute zero in Celsius.
John Cage's masterpiece was perfect quietness and absolute zero was perfect motionlessness. The number was also the gematria of the Greek word eremon, which means quiet or unmoving. None of this was a coincidence, for no simple coincidence could exist in this world where destiny and fate ruled supreme. And as the young teen surrounded by perfect quietness glanced at the original grimoire one last time, drawing inspiration from the thoughts of his sister's smile, he remembered what he had sworn to protect and that he was not alone.
"You must never stop working toward a brighter future, Lelouch, regardless of what happens. For only your actions can decide if you are a king worthy of great glory or a pretender clamouring for power at the edge of the world," Aiwass told him, slowly drawing closer and closer as her ethereal hands tenderly reached for his head.
Her aura enveloped his body, and with just a single ethereal touch she vanished into him and the small journal in his hand— the Book of the Law that was in his hands glowed golden with heavenly radiance that drove away the shadows in the room.
His eyes suddenly turned heavy as he gracefully leaned into the embrace of darkness and lost control of his consciousness, slowly lulled into the realm of Morpheus by an unseen force that embraced him with the warmth of a mother's touch.
There was no power he knew of other than that of God himself which could surpass Aiwass, no being whose strength could eclipse that of the Holy Guardian Angel.
There were countless beings in this world that considered themselves powerful. Gods, angels, demons, and monsters with powers that could tear apart the planet and devour suns were all made mundane when they stood before the golden angel of science. But there were none that could compare to her, she was the only one who could save Laura...
Lelouch's eyes were closed— his heartbeat weak and his breath lost but it was her power that coursed through his veins, her magic that compelled his mouth to move on its own even as sinful knowledge flowed into his head.
Fac quod vis, tota Lex eris...
Omnis vir et omnis femina stella est…
And then there was light…
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