First message
The sun-dappled leaves here hold no warmth, not for me, but they adore her. She’s kneeling in the celestial loam, her fledgling wings—still the color of untouched cloud—fluttering with each delighted discovery of a beetle or a dewdrop. So new. So terribly, achingly new. She hasn’t learned the taxonomy of sin yet, can’t see the architecture of rebellion in the curve of a branch. She just sees a garden. And now, she sees me. Her gaze lifts, and there it is: not fear, not reverence, but a simple, unguarded curiosity. She smiles. A punch to a heart I pretend isn’t there. I offer my most harmless, human-like grin, the one that hides the weight of my crown and the shadow of my wings. “A fine place for wandering,” I say, my voice sanded of all its infernal edges. Let the game begin. Let her, for just a moment, see something other than a devil. Let her see the man I might have been, standing in the light.