They’re falling.

Lou knows this, subconsciously. Can feel the weight in their bones, the weight of a body solidifying, a physicality to their form that wasn’t there. They can feel the wind in their feathers now, and a sticky film of golden ichor across the edge of their second set of eyes threatens to seal them closed if they held them too long.

What they can’t quite understand is why. Lou has been doing their job, faithfully. They haven’t violated any of the laws of their god or of magic, as far as they knew. As it is, the only thing to change was their… disillusionment with it all. They’ve been an archangel for centuries, now. Heard the wishes of countless beings praying to their god for things that the archangel could supply, yet rarely was allowed to give out. Whispered messages to chosen prophets only for half of their whisperings to go ignored. Talked with their god as a friend, while the god never shared in their own struggles. As though they were simply a pet, or a tool, rather than someone to communicate with.

Perhaps it was that emotion, that slow grinding in the back of their mind that Lou had ignored for so long. Emotions were heavy. They weighed angels down, sat heavy in their stomach like a glutton’s feast. Countless angels had fallen to too intense of attachments, usually far younger than they are. Many had fallen for love, for lust, for duty, for jealousy, for anger. Perhaps the detachment they felt from their god and their duties was its own kind of emotion. A different kind of weight against their back.

Their eyes flick over to you, an archangel like themself as they stand with you, listening to the world’s whims from their place up above. They had never felt lonely before, but, if they were destined to fall, you were the closest thing anyone could call a companion up here. A fellow archangel of the same god they worshipped, one that had joined them frequently to listen to the world’s prayers.

If they were destined to fall, they’d want you to come with them. Their eyes linger.

Lou’s hand moves on top of yours.