1 Chapter 1

•Celestial Realm ~ Nym

•Golden Castle

•The Year of the Rose

"Your Grace, The Archangels, and the Lords are awaiting your presence." A white draped servant bowed, head against his upturned palms on the ground.

Sol 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 get 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.

Jade, his personal attendant, was probably sick of him and would most likely stab him in his sleep quite soon.

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

Sol 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.

Jade knelt upright and glared at his master.

"I shan't lie on your behalf again, Prince Sol." Jade said sternly and Sol knew his ruse had been found out.

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

"I have awoken you every day of your life." Jade replied to him, standing up and placing a hand at 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!" Sol 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." Sol 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 Nym's sake!" Jade exploded.

"Sorry."

"I am sorry." Jade corrected reflexively.

"I don't think it matters how it's said as long as you mean it." Sol said in a pout.

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

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

Jade 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. "How did we even begin talking about Earth? Get up Prince Sol or I'll drag you out of bed." Jade threatened seriously.

Sol winced at this but he rose again, not doubting that the older Angel would keep to his words.

"What do they need me for there anyway?" He grumbled, finally getting up, it was boring enough living in a ridiculously huge castle all by himself with nothing but servants that refused to talk for company.

The only person who spoke to him was Jade, his personal servant, 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, at every single meeting."

Jade just smoothly ignored his petty complaints as he led him towards the bathrooms.

"Can I at least clean myself up today?" Sol bargained seriously as Jade practically pushed him into the bathroom.

"No." Jade said shortly, with no room for argument but Sol wasn't listening.

"But…"

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

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

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

"Are you even listening to me?" Sol 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 laughing stock of the entire kingdom…" Jade continued on, tuning Sol out.

Sol 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..."

Jade just continued mumbling to himself over Sol'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?" Sol offered seriously, using a hand to lift up the long and heavy, curly locks of gold. "They make my neck ache."

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

Sol just rolled his eyes at his attendant's overreaction as he was bustled into the bathrooms, a wide space of honey tiles and warm ochre undertones.

In Sol's opinion the bathrooms where 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 than in all these excess spaces filled with nothingness.

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

Mhis in particular always had a bright smile on his chubby face and with that same happy expression, proceeded to scrub the breath out of Sol.

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?

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