The accused sinner of being born God's son jumped to his feet. "Why do you make that sound like it's a bad thing, crazy witch?!"
Lips parting in a silent sound of surprise, Lucia stared at Luther's bristling face while his gold eyes burned with a fire of rage.
"Calm down! You're scaring little Lucia, sire," Lilith quickly snapped back.
Flaming gaze turning to his light, Luther slowly returned to his seat, sulking. "Sorry…" he mumbled into his hand, turning his head away to avoid the startled fear in her blue eyes.
Witnessing the incredibly child-like manner in which Luther was acting, Lucia could find nothing to say.
Was this truly the same man who had teased and terrified her in equal measures not more than a few hours before?
Seeing him at this moment Luther appeared more like her younger brother, Gregory, who was five years her junior.
Green eyes curling upwards in a knowing smirk, Lilith raised a hand to hide her mouth to stifle her urge to snicker. 'Ah...youth. Lucifer's acting the same as a young boy all over again!'
'Like father, like son, I suppose. That human saying is really quite true. I wonder...Elohim would be so happy to see how much Lucifer is changing now. I shall watch over him and the little miss in your stead, Mighty and Merciful Lord.'
Swearing this to herself, Lilith let out a slow breath and decided it was time to put aside her amusement. "Mistress, I still have more to say."
Calling Lucia's attention away from Luther's pouting, the young woman shifted on the soft cushions of the loveseat to relieve some of her nervous tension. "Ah, y, yes, of course!"
"Now, I spoke of God creating a child in a mortal way, but I did not explain how that can be. You see, Mistress, it takes a very special soul to mix and mingle with God in order to create a child of the flesh. Master's father, Elohim, had what the mortals like to call a 'soulmate'."
Lips unconsciously moving to the shape of that term, Lucia felt her heart rate suddenly kick up a notch, her stomach filling with butterflies. 'A soulmate? How romantic! But...but how…?'
Recognizing the undisguised curiosity in the girl's pale blue eyes, Lilith smiled bitterly. "There is a very particular soul that is prophesied among the circles of God and always looked to with both anticipation and apprehension. You see, unlike with mortal tellings of soulmates, the feelings only go in one direction. Only God feels the overwhelming, crushing, consuming, liberating, and confining weight of emotions toward his soulmate."
Green like a summer meadow dug deep into Lucia's eyes as if Lilith could look through her to something else. Shivering in reaction to the fear gripping her heart, Lucia ran her tongue over her dry lips to try and gain back her voice. "So...the soulmate of God never loves him?"
"Only She has the freedom to decide how she views God." Shaking her head, Lilith's beautiful expression shifted into something both bitter and envious.
"All others of his Creations, whether mortal or immortal, have pre-determined paths in life. We love, hate, envy, and ignore God in accordance with the path granted to our souls upon Creation. For mortals, those feelings may shift and change, turning from belief to disbelief, hate to love, ignorance to knowledge in their lifetimes, but never doubt that all was planned before their birth. Fate was written long ago and nothing in any of the sea of worlds can ever change Fate."
The blood, bit by bit as each second passed, began to drain from Lucia's face.
Lilith's soft-spoken words, as if she was uttering simple facts, made Lucia's head spin, her ears ringing in disbelief.
'No...but if...if that is all really true—!'
"A, are you saying...that I am 'She'?"
Tilting her head slightly to the side, long black locks trailing over her shoulder to cover up her chest, Lilith's expression slowly transformed into one of glacial seriousness. "Yes," she spoke the single word simply.
Eyes widening, Lucia stared into the other woman's frozen green eyes, her heart flying up to her throat in fear. Unable to think about anything else, not even Luther and Phalaliah still in the room, Lucia could only hang on for dear life with each word Lilith spoke next.
"Only She, who is now You, has the freedom to decide your Fate in this world. Even God must adhere to the Fate granted to him, which is why he is God. Only You are Free in this world."
Gasping, Lucia pressed a hand tightly against her chest, trying to keep her heart from pushing out of her dress. The pounding sound of her heartbeat echoed inside her ears, while her lungs struggled to remember how to pull in air, causing her to make an unintentional wheezing noise with each attempt.
Still, no matter the obvious fear and panic on the young woman's face, Lilith's cold, nearly hate-filled expression never once changed.
Sitting in his place, Luther curled his hands into fists, fighting down the urge to tear the vile witch apart.
No matter his thoughts on the matter.
No matter the churning wave of emotions cutting into his heart.
Each time She was reborn, this was a process that had to be done.
She...his one and only love, His Everything, could not remain ignorant, for her own sake.
After all, She was a rare existence, even among the multitude of worlds expanding the cosmos. And...no matter how much Luther hated to admit it, She was also not something exclusive to him alone.
Freedom, after all, meant that She could make her own choices.
He had, merely for a short span of time, pretended and manipulated her in order to ensure she returned back to his world.
Lifting a trembling hand, Luther covered his face, not daring to peer into Lucia's mind. If he...if he saw utter rejection at this moment, he had no idea how he'd be able to manage anymore.
But even as he thought such things, fear coiled inside his belly because he knew, no matter what, that was a Fate to await him in the future.
'Like Father, Like Son, eh?'