The war did not begin with a speech.
A loyal angel ordered the rebels to kneel. One refused. The loyal angel drove a spear of white light straight through his chest, there in the middle of the prayer court, and golden blood hit the marble in a wide arc.
The choir broke mid-note.
Alice had never once, in her whole existence, seen Heaven look like this.
Her first mistake came within seconds.
A loyal angel charged Lucifer's flank from her right, and Alice reacted before she'd decided to react at all. She threw Longing at him — showed him the one thing he wanted most, Father's approval, rest, forgiveness, an end to duty that never ended.
He hesitated. One breath, no longer.
A rebel's blade took him in that breath.
Alice hadn't swung it. She understood, even then, that she had caused it anyway.
The battle spread through the court like fire through dry grass.
