The Guardian Angel (The Guardians of Nine Heavens #1)

Chapter 6: The Search

Lily rushed into her school building where lessons were still being led (though her class was long finished) and hastily entered the library, dashing at the writing-table of an old bookkeeper. This latter looked up at her astonishedly, not able to understand why she had rushed in with such impatience. 

"Yes?"

"I'm Lily Black," Lily quickly handed her the golden ID. "I study here. I need to look into the Department of Angelic Books".

The old woman put on her glasses and glanced at the ID photo, and when she got assured the image matched with the girl standing before her, she gave a slight nod. Lily brightened and ran towards the Department of Angelic Books. 

"Just keep quiet in there!" the old woman cried from behind, feeling uneasy that this impatient girl might break the silence of her library.

Lily hastily ran up to a computer there on a table, jumped on a sofa, and began typing words on the keyboard:

"Angel with black wings".

These were the first words she entered in the search bar. The web dropped out images of black-winged demons. Their wings were bat-like. Lily got disappointed - she typed 'angel' and instead it showed demons?

"Screw you..." she frowned at the computer, and began typing anew: "Black angels".

Right as she was angrily looking through demon images on the web, she heard a tender voice from behind:

"What are you doing?"

She started and looked back, to see her white-haired classmate before her.

"Oh..." she regained her calmness and turned back to the screen, "Hello, Evy".

"Hello," Evy beamed and sat beside her on the sofa. "Why are you looking through demon pictures?" she giggled, though felt a little concerned - why would anyone apart from crazy demonologists be interested in demons?

"Ugh, I'm not interested in their pictures at all. I was just searching for an angel with black wings".

"Huh?" Evy widened eyes in wonder. "Why would you be looking for that?"

"Well..." Lily shrugged, not wanting to share her secret thoughts just yet. She wanted to be completely sure she was right in her opinions before she disclosed them to anyone. "I just wondered if such a thing existed, that's all..." she forced herself to giggle amusedly as if she was just having fun. 

"Hmm, that's truly interesting, you know! Maybe, we could ask someone who truly knows?"

"Huh? Who exactly?"

Evy proudly grinned, stood up, and shouted:

"Loriel, I invoke you!"

She swung her right hand from the top front of her forehead to the bottom of her belly, and then from the right side to the left as if a sign of a cross. The minute she drew this sign in the air, a bright golden light emerged, and soon turned into a beautiful, pure-white-winged young girl who had shimmering blue eyes, long red hair tied up in a ponytail, and sleeveless white top and white skirt. She was barefoot like all other angels.

"Wow..." Lily was impressed - such a great female angel! Red was a rare hair colour amongst angels - most of the angels were either blond or faded-white-haired... brown was a rather common colour too, but not red.

"You called upon me, Evy?"

"Yes, Loriel. My friend and I wanted to know if there existed angels with black wings".

Loriel raised both of her eyebrows in a stupor:

"Why would you be interested in such a thing in all of a sudden?"

"Well, Lily was here looking for black-winged angels on the internet, and I got interested too... What gave you the idea of a black-winged angel, anyway?" Evy glanced at Lily with curiosity.

Lily started - what would she say now?

"Um, I actually think I got to see one today..." she murmured, disclosing only small part of the truth. Surely, this amount of the truth would be harmless to disclose.

"Huh? Where? How? Maybe it was a demon and you misjudged?" Evy covered her mouth with hands, a little frightened.

"I don't know, but I clearly saw feathered wings. They were bird-like, even though they were torn..." Lily blankly gazed at the floor as she remembered the black monstrosity appeared before her back in the Den of Former Hosts. "The whole silhouette, although barely visible, was pitch-black, along with its wings. Only those wings were to be clearly seen. They resembled ones of a raven's. I have never heard of a demon that has bird wings, so I assumed it would rather be an angel".

"Wow..." Evy hastily turned to Loriel: "What do you think? You're a celestial girl. What could that thing Lily saw, be?"

"Hmm... I am one of the female warrior angels, and I think I've seen such a thing once before, but I'm sure it was not an angel. There is no angel with black wings, that's for sure," she puckered, and bent towards the computer Lily was sitting at. She grabbed the mouse and began scrolling through the images, suddenly stopping at a certain one. She magnified its size and pointed on it: "Is that what you saw?"

Lily got a little disappointed hearing there was no angel with black wings, but she didn't want to lose her hope just yet. She eagerly glanced at the photo Loriel showed them, and widened eyes at the monstrous picture of a clawed, red-eyed, hooded, black-cloaked, black-raven-winged deathly creature with a black scythe in its hand.

"It did have terrible claws, and it appeared as a black silhouette, but as I said, its body image was distorted in a black smoke-like matter so it couldn't be clearly seen and it didn't look like a skeleton like this picture, and it didn't hold a scythe either. It did have red eyes though... The wings were torn like these, yes, but even blacker than these ones".

"Hmm, then I think what you saw would've been a grim reaper like the creature on this picture," Loriel frowned. "It is a bad omen, Lily. Don't be too happy you saw it. When a grim reaper appears, it most commonly means someone's death".

"But..." Lily now got completely confused - it would never be a grim reaper if this latter wanted someone's death! That blackness didn't kill anyone, but rather even healed her, and protected her from harm.

"Oh no, so if this grim reaper appeared near Lily, it means Lily's in danger?" Evy got worried.

"Not necessarily. Lily has no guardian angel, it's true, but it doesn't mean all grim reapers will dash at her at once. Grim reapers operate according to the orders of the Lord of the Underworld. They only take souls of those whose time has come. Lily's time hasn't come yet, so she's fine".

"Whew..." Evy sighed with relief. 

"But be careful, Lily - grim reapers don't like anyone spotting them. If you saw one, it means your aura is not neutral anymore but is getting darker. Try to go to church and purify yourself a little. I think it will help".

"Okay..." Lily murmured. Now she was completely sure that blackness was not a grim reaper. If those reapers didn't like anyone seeing them, how come that black silhouette emerged right before her? What's more, it didn't take anyone's life, but only protected her from harm and even healed her. It acted just like an angel but was black. I must think more about it at home. Maybe I can find a clue... As it seems by now, no one can help me in the search. I need to do this alone.

This decision was final.