Ophelia entered Michael's bedchamber. She had knocked and knocked, but no answer had ever come. She had grown worried. Michael had not been seen for days by herself or Victoria. They had no master of the house to serve, and the women were growing stressed that something had happened to their friend.
Ophelia checked the bathing area, and there was no sign that Michael had been there. Looking around the sleeping quarters, something caught her eye. A trouser leg stuck out from under the bed. The small angel rushed to it. She knelt next to the bed and placed her elbows on the ground. She pulled a worn pair of white pants, a dirty white shirt, and a white waistcoat from under the bed. One white boot was kicked far under the bed, and the other was wedged between the wall and the nightstand.
The smaller of Michael's maidservants pulled his things from under the bed, grateful for her tiny stature. She emerged from under the large bed and sadly looked at Michael's clothing. She did a small hop and sat on the edge of Michael's bed, holding his clothes. He had been here. She called Victoria into the room, who quickly joined Ophelia as soon as she heard that there was a sign of Michael.
"Why do you think he came and left so quickly?" Victoria asked her friend while pulling at a lock of her red hair. Michael's secrecy and disappearance were making her anxious.
"He was trying to hide that he was here. Michael's things were stuffed under the bed haphazardly. Why didn't he want us to know he was here?" Ophelia frowned at the clothing on her lap.
Victoria pointed at a scrap parchment poking out of the white pants on Ophelia's lap. "Ophelia, look. There's something in his pocket. Do you think it has something to do with where he's gone?"
Ophelia widened her eyes as she noticed the parchment, her heart full of hope. She removed it, seeing Michael's untidy scrawl across the scrap. She drew her brows over her eyes as she read it. The words made no sense to her. She passed a scrap of parchment to Victoria. "Does this mean anything to you?"
Victoria scanned the parchment with her grey eyes. "Lucifer. The Morning Star. No, I don't know any Lucifer or Morning Star. But do you think that Raphael might? Raphael knows everything."
"Get your good shoes on, Vic. We are going to the library. You're right - Raphael is our best hope to find Michael. I'm worried about him." Ophelia pulled her blonde hair into a bun and prepared to visit Seraphim Raphael. She was going to find her friend, no matter what it took.
The maidservants walked past Zerachiel's home, expecting to see the wild Seraphim doing something unusual. The last time they had been by, Raguel had been irritably helping Zerachiel remove his boots from his chimney as Zerachiel laughed. Unlike his usual self, Zerachiel exited his home using the front door, slowly shutting it behind him. His silver hair was neatly combed, not slicked back as usual. He looked sorrowful. Worse, he looked normal.
Ophelia, being the braver of the two, approached the sad-looking joker. She curtsied and greeted him. "Greetings, Seraphim Zerachiel. How are you doing today?"
Zerachiel's miserable hazel eyes looked down to meet the tiny maidservant. "Yeah. Hello Ophelia. Don't worry about the formalities and such. Have you two seen Michael?"
Victoria joined Zerachiel and Ophelia. "Greetings Seraphim Zerachiel. We hope you are doing well. We are investigating a parchment we found. Does this mean anything to you?" She handed the despondent Seraphim the parchment. He read it, his sad eyes revealing nothing.
"No. But Raphael might."
Ophelia smiled up at Zerachiel. He was a few inches shorter than Michael but still towered over the small woman. "We were just off to ask him. Would you like to join us?'
Zerachiel shuffled his feet. "No, but thanks. I think I was the last to see Michael before he left the Kingdom. He just said he had to go after he heard something at the Prayer Fountain, and disappeared. It's been bothering me ever since." Ophelia noticed the purplish hue under the usually mischievous Seraphim's hazel eyes.
"He came by one day and asked us to prepare food, but disappeared shortly after. He took food and left. We don't know why. His waistcoat was missing. He always wears it over his shirt. It's as normal as the nose on his face." Victoria told Zerachiel about the day Michael returned to his home, the last they had seen him.
"That is such strange behavior. He just came in, took food, blamed the missing waistcoat on me, and left? I mean, I did land on him, but it wasn't enough to ruin his things. I've been jumping on Seraphim and other angels for centuries. I've got a good idea of what I'm doing." The slightest smile cracked Zerachiel's face as if remembering his previous nonsense made him happy for a fleeting moment.
"Where has my Brother gone?" Zerachiel looked off into the distance. He spent 775 years existing without Michael, but once Michael had come to be, he realized he needed Michael in his life. Ophelia and Victoria stood on either side of the Seraphim, each placing a hand on Zerachiel's forearm to comfort him. It helped to know that they were not the only ones searching for Michael and painfully missing him.