1 Chapter 1

~Celestial Realm ~

~Golden Castle~

"Your Grace, the Archangels and the Lords are awaiting your presence." A white-draped attendant bowed, his long dark-red hair a stark contrast to his outfit.

Reqiel just burrowed deeper into the fluffy white, cloudlike sheets. If he had to go to another boring meeting he was going to cease to exist so instead of acting like the responsible High-Born Angel that he wasn't and getting up to prepare for the meeting he was already incredibly late to, he threw a pillow over his head and promptly fell asleep once more.

Sarell, his personal attendant, was probably sick of him and most likely wanted to stab him in his sleep.

"Your Grace?" Sarell repeated, still in his bowed position. "You must awaken or you shall be late."

Reqiel played dead again, keeping his breathing steady in hopes that his personal attendant would give up and relay the message that he would not be able to attend due to some vague reason or the other.

Sarell knelt upright and glared at the young angel. "I won't lie on your behalf again Reqiel." He said sternly and Reqiel knew that he had been found out.

"What do you mean?" He asked groggily, rubbing his eyes sleepily in an attempt to keep up his ruse.

"I have woken you up every day of your life." Sarell replied to him, standing up and placing a hand on the gold belt around his waist. "Do you think I wouldn't know when you're pretending?"

"I don't want to go to the meeting," Reqiel finally groaned, sprawling face up on his wide, luxuriously draped bed.

"It's an honor as a High-Born Angel to be at the Council's meetings, even so, you're a Prince…"

"Adopted Prince." Reqiel interrupted blankly.

"All the very same thi…"

"No." He cut in forlornly. "It means I'm just a figurehead."

"Would you stop interrupting me for goodness sake!" Sarell exploded.

"Sorry."

"I am sorry." Sarell corrected reflexively.

"I don't think it matters how it's said as long as you mean it," Reqiel said with a pout.

"If you do mean it, you would get up this instant and let me prepare you for the Council meeting," Sarell concluded.

"Do you ever imagine what Earth is like?" Reqiel started to say in an airy voice, waving a hand dramatically. "The cool breeze on your face, the rocks under your feet."

Sarell frowned. "You have never been to Earth." He pointed out, tugging on a thick lock of his red hair, a habit he fell into when he started to get exasperated - it was a wonder that his hair hadn't begun to fall out yet. "How did we even begin talking about Earth? Get up, Prince Reqiel or I'll drag you out of bed." Sarell threatened seriously.

Reqiel winced at this and got out of bed, not doubting that the older Angel would keep to his words.

"What do they need me for there anyway?" He grumbled, it was boring enough living in a ridiculously huge castle all by himself with nothing but attendants that refused to talk for company. The only person who spoke to him was Sarell, his personal attendant, and Teva, the head cook whose sole purpose in life was to get him to the size of a house.

"I'm the youngest, not to mention that they only talk about the same thing, every single day."

Sarell just smoothly ignored his petty complaints as he guided him toward the bathrooms.

"Can I at least clean myself up today?" Reqiel bargained as Sarell practically pushed him into the bathroom.

"No." Sarell said shortly with no room for argument but Reqiel wasn't listening.

"But…"

"No." The red-headed Angel interrupted again, his pale green eyes narrowing.

"But Mivan always touches me weirdly." He whined childishly.

"There's always soap in your hair when you bathe yourself." Sarell countered.

"Are you even listening to me?" Reqiel complained.

"...I can't allow you to go out looking like a disaster, I'd lose my job or my life and you would be the laughingstock of the entire kingdom…" Sarell continued on, tuning the young Angel out.

Reqiel just directed an exasperated look at his personal attendant. "No one even sees me except the other boring High-Borns and they all think I'm five."

Sarell just continued mumbling to himself over the prince's head. "Which is why I hired the best cleaning attendants in the entire Kingdom, it takes a lot to get your hair clean you know."

"Why don't I just cut it?" Reqiel offered seriously, using a hand to lift up the long and heavy, curly locks of gold. "They make my neck ache."

Sarell gasped in horror. "Never speak of that again." He warned, looking slightly green.

Reqiel just rolled his eyes at his attendant's overreaction as he was bustled into the bathrooms, a wide space covered in honey tiles whose decor was done in warm ochre undertones.

In Reqiel's opinion, the bathrooms were extravagant; he was the only one who used this anyway, not to mention that the other chambers also had bathrooms like this and were used by ghosts. At this point in his life, he would gladly live in a tiny room rather than in so much excess space filled with nothingness.

"We're pleased to serve you, Your Grace." The cleaning attendants awaiting him around the bath murmured softly and Reqiel shivered, he had a feeling they were lying.

Mivan in particular always had a bright smile on his chubby face and with that same happy expression, proceeded to scrub the breath out of him. It baffled him, he never walked anywhere, never did anything by himself, so just where did all the dirt that the cleaning attendant was hell-bent on scrubbing out at the expense of his skin come from?

He got in the bathtub anyway, throwing suspicious looks at the bright faces of the personal attendants who truly looked like they believed that cleaning him up was the highest honor.

"Can I go into the gardens today?" He asked hopefully, if he could spend some time alone in the gardens today, he would even put up with the torture of a cleaning routine and speedily go for the Council meeting… well, slightly speedier, not too much.

"No," Sarell started to say gently, he was standing pensively over the attendants that surrounded him like they were handling a fragile piece of glass, not a grown-up Angel. "Because the…"

But Reqiel wasn't listening anymore, peevishly, he crossed his arms in the warm, bubbly water and pouted. "I'm going to run away."