The Demon’s Bride

She was nervous and her shoes that she had chosen perfectly for the day to meet the Lord continuously tapped on the bottom of the carriage as she bit into her finger, trying to calm herself which only did the opposite effect. When the carriage door open, Monica's eyes turn to frown at his brother who had entered the carriage.

"You told me it would be easy to seduce her," huffed the sister and Elijah only looked at his younger sister without a word. His expression was worse than the one Monica had. His pride had been stained by the red-haired maid who called him a 'germ' right across his face and he wasn't in the mood to talk about it.

"What rumors did you heard from the maid?" Elijah asked her.

"Useless ones," Monica huffed while crossing her arm, "She used the time blabbering about how that red-haired girl caught Lord Ian's attention!"

"Only that?" Elijah pressed, learning forward on the seat as the carriage went away from White Mansion.

Monica raised her brow, "You don't believe what I am saying now?"

"I ask if there is more, the more rumors we need is better, don't you want the Lord?" questioned her brother which only had Monica to raise her brow even higher.

"Tell me why do you want to help me first," Monica wasn't stupid to not see how much her brother seemed to be invested in the idea of her marrying the Lord and separating the red-haired girl with the Lord.

Elijah knew his sister was quick to uptake when it come to things to this. He smiled, "For the sake of our family, if you manage to become Lord Ian's wife, this would be a good chance for us to improve our family. So tell me what rumors you heard?"

Monica narrowed her eyes, picking up the lies but then Elijah promised to help her and she brushed off her suspicions, "It was about a slave girl. They said that before the maid was a slave."

"Slave?" Elijah repeated and when Monica nodded, his smile twisted higher, "That's the rumor that we need." He wasn't satisfied with what happened today, but he knew what to do to make things right with the rumor he received.

Two days passed, and finally the day of the Winter Ball arrived. Elise felt alone, without her friends she didn't manage to go to Vella's funeral as she had been buried, but she prayed for her in the Church.

Exiting the church, Elise saw the same Father who she met last time. She looked at the man, wondering why did he seemed haggard when their eyes met and the man smiled, "Good afternoon, miss. I remember that you always visit the Church every morning mass."

Elise looked at the man who seemed to be in his early thirty, he didn't appear to look like a priest as he didn't wore the uniform but rather a simple white shirt and black slack with an outer black coat. "Do you remember me?"

Father Redrick smiled, "Yes," he replied beginning to walk and Elise followed as they exited the hall to the passage where the windows were tinted in blue. "Not many people often visit the Church, only some. Although this land consist of both mythical beings and humans, only humans visit here, and the village around the church are small with barely two hundred people, out of the two hundred people, I'd say fifty are humans and only half more would come to the Church in the morning mass."

"Which why you remember most people who come here," said Elise, she noted Father Redrick's feature which was gentle, there was an air around the man that Elise couldn't figure out but she could feel that the man could make people around him comfortable with his presence.

"There is not much young girl who came here, you are by far the most memorable miss who I've seen to visit the Church weekly," said Redrick, offering her a kind smile which Elise can't help but to return with the same ambience. His eyes that was colored brown shined when it hit the light from the window. "I saw that there was something bothering you today."

Elise turned her head from the window to the man, and the priest continued, "I'm sorry, I don't want to sound rude, but I saw you crying before on your prayer."

It must be the time when she prayed for Carmen and Vella, thought Elise, she nodded softly to the man, "I lost two of my friend, I prayed so they would be safe in Heaven without any problem to burden them anymore, and so they would rest peacefully."

"I'm sorry to hear your loss," Redrick said, being sympathetic with his words. "But you come to the right Church to pray for your friend's souls," said the man stopping on his heels which Elise followed, "Do you might know what this Church is built for?"

Elise looked around, and her eyes stopped at the window which was built differently than the rest. The window was made up with many tinted-colored glass in different color to form a figure of an angel, like a painting made of glass. The glass art was beautiful that Elise can't help but gaze at it as she replied, "I heard the Church was built to commemorate the death of a person."

"Yes, that story is correct," said the priest who turned his body to stare at the glass with her, "There were stories passed by people from the nearby village and the Church of how a lucky person become a witness to an Angel's blessing."

The story had Elise's interest piqued, "Is this Angel the one you are talking of?" Taking a better note from the glass art, Elise saw the Angel's eyes were in golden color. She couldn't put her finger whether the Angel was female or male, with the feature and long golden hair, Elise couldn't tell what danger the Angel was. At one sight they looked like a female with the long hair but the Angel's figure didn't look similar to a woman's. There was once when she of how there was no gender for Angels and perhaps the glass followed the saying.

The priest nodded his head, "The Angel always hold a lantern on their hand, and they often come to our world from Heaven with a lantern, they are the Angel of healing, Raphael."

Elise hummed, noting that the priest knew about Angel, she asked, "Do you might now more about Angel called Gabriel?"

"Of course, Angel Gabriel is the Angel of good news, they often come to the world to sing good news. There are also Uriel, and other angels," whispered the priest and Elise noted the name, wondering if the Gabriel she and the priest knew was the same as the one who had come to her village and the one Ian know, "You might be more familiar with another Angel named Lucifer."

Elise heard the name before, recalling it was Beelzebub and Ian who spoke about the name when they were in the dining table. "I heard about Lucifer before, that he is the Angel who was thrown from Heaven to stay in Hell because he was punished."

The priest look at her and nodded, "There are many stories about that, however, I also heard that story wasn't true," whispered Redrick as if wanting to make their talk private even though the passage they were walking at had no people other than them. "There are some stories about Lucifer that people passed from mouth to another, some that I think is more correct than the one you've heard and the outcome night surprise you."