So yes, I'm finally updating this story. Curse faulty alignment of chapters!

Countryside of Palermo, Italy, 1914

The fallen angel stood in perfect, contemplative silence, with the radiant yellow sun casting its glorious rays upon her glimmering bronze wings. Closing her eyes, Mulan could faintly hear the brisk laughter of playing children from the nearest village nestled in the arms of the rolling plains and valleys, dressed in gowns of vibrant wildflowers, which ranged in colors from bright red poppies to gentle snow-white daisies. It was a peaceful place, a good, happy place, and yet Mulan looked upon it all with sorrowing eyes, for her sight was filled not with the beauty of the Italian countryside, but the dreary grey skies of London, where there lay nothing but sorrowful memories and a broken heart.

She had been waiting atop this hill and standing like a watchful sentry beneath a gnarled olive tree for nearly an hour, but she was not in any hurry for the girl – no, woman, she must remember how many decades had passed – to make her appearance. In fact, Mulan would have much preferred it if she could simply stand her for the rest of eternity, disintegrate into ashes, and drift away in the wind, never having to face the prospect of this meeting and thus open old wounds. Funny thing about scars of the heart: it was the only kind of wound in which blood turned to water and seeped from the windows of the soul.

But then again, Mulan had no right to complain, seeing as she was the one who requested the meeting in the first place. She was tired of hearing about her horrendousness only through the little reports the Enclave chose to regale her with. Mulan wanted to witness her malevolence firsthand, to confirm that this leader of a movement vying for Earth's domination was indeed the same girl who she herself had cradled in her arms and wiped away her tears, a girl who, despite the torments of her troubled life still believed in the power of miracles and the goodness of angels.

And yet, at the same time, Mulan could hardly keep herself from fleeing the hill in cowardice, for if she did come and was just as terrible as Enclave intelligence said, then it would be nothing but an awful confirmation of her own failure as her guardian. If she ran away, there would always be a slim silver of hope (or would it be disillusion?) that they were all wrong, that Mulan could preserve the memories of past innocence untarnished by the present truth, that beneath the all layers of cruelty, there still remanded the faintest trace of Little Lucie Manette, a child with a heart of gold and the girl Mulan valued above all others.

Despite the emotionally painful memories this meeting would undoubtedly ensue, Mulan knew she would have to act perfectly stoical. No sooner had she wiped away a few stray tears and arranged her expression into one of cold indifference did she hear the swoosh of wind signaling her arrival.

Fighting to keep her voice cordial, Mulan scolded, "Tardiness does not suit one who can fly across Earth's equator in mere seconds. Politeness is a virtue, Lucia." Mulan internally winced at the shards of ice in her statement that cut like a knife through her heart as she said Lucie's real name for the first time. If it were not for centuries of practice in concealing her emotions, she would have certainly broken down into tears.

"Says the woman who will not even turn around to face me," Lucie countered. And this was true. Even when the powerful gust of wind had heralded Lucie's arrival, the fallen angel still kept her back facing her. Mulan knew that hearing Lucie's voice alone would take its emotional toll, much less than seeing her face after nearly four decades of estrangement. It was for this reason that Mulan did not dare to look Lucie in the eyes, at least not yet. Bracing herself while she recovered from the icy jolt of hearing Lucie's voice once more, she gave herself a few more seconds to collect herself before pivoting to face the leader of the Conclave of Lexicon.

At once, Mulan realized just how foolish she had been. No amount of preparation could have prepared her for seeing Lucie again. Gone was the cute, shy, little girl of her youth, for she had been replaced by a woman, strong in her will, with cold amber eyes that cut through Mulan's heart.

"Keeping promises is another virtuous action," Lucie continued. "Do not preach to me of that of which you are also at fault."

Mulan sighed. Both of them had no intent of keeping up the façade of this being a purely business meeting. This was personal. "Let me remind you that it was you that pushed me away in the first place. Still, I have upheld my promise by watching over you from a distance until now, because I believe that at this point, intervention is the only way to halt the impending disaster of this destructive road you're on."

"As hard as it may be for you to believe, the actions of the Conclave of Lexicon will benefit halflings and humans alike. You claim to love me, but here you are, trying to destroy my destiny and happiness as if I am nothing. Why come to me now? You know I will not heed your words. I do not need to be saved!"

"While I had the slightest of an inkling that your stubbornness would prevail, desperate times call for desperate measures. I could not appease my conscience if I did not at least try. But now, you leave me no choice.

"Over the past four decades, I have worked tirelessly to devise a plan, a way to save you from yourself. And now, I have finally come up with a solution, the only one possible.

"I'm not foolish enough to back in time, Lucie, so I'm going to go forward. It doesn't matter how many years, or how many times I have to repeat it, but I will find a solution, one that does not resolve with the destruction of Planet Earth or the destruction of you. I will find a way, even if it kills me."

This pronouncement had not been what Lucie expected. Stumbling backward, her glimmering amber eyes widened in shock and disbelief. "Why?" she whispered, the proud and confident façade slipping to reveal that of loss and confusion. "You know the disastrous consequences meddling with time has. It will never work to aid your desires, even if you are the Angel of Time. Why condemn yourself to such a horrible fate for my sake?"

Tearfully, Mulan clutched Lucie's hands in hers, the angel's eyes begging the halfling to somehow understand her hardship with silent words that she could not bear to say aloud. Amber met sapphire, and for the faintest of moments, there was a single golden strand of connection before it dissolved into the abyss of confusion and resentment.

"I pray that there will come a day, may it be next week or next century, when you will come to understand why I am doing this," Mulan began, "There is… so much I wish to say, but I know that it will not do you any good to hear it now. You must have questions for me, too, but whether out of valor or weakness, I can't bring myself to hear them. So instead, amidst this world filled with hurt and lies, I will arm you with this one truth, a truth that will never change, no matter what may come to pass: I will never abandon you, Lucie."

At this, the Angel of Time began to summon her power. Great streams of azure light started twirling around her, crossing in a thousand different directions. The air hummed with a restless energy, and Lucie was thrown back several feet by some unseen barrier. As she lay in the dirt, Lucie could distantly hear voices, all running together in one incoherent stream of words and screaming. The howling winds pooled together to create a vortex so powerful that even Lucie, with every muscle of super speed pumping at full force, could hardly move more than two inches before being repelled by the tempest.

"No!" Lucie screamed over the shrieking winds that blew away her tears as soon as they appeared. "No, wait! I don't want to be alone—!"

But it was no use. A brilliant flash of white light flared to life like a newborn star, its blazing glory seen for miles, before being snuffed out like a candle. All that remained was darkness, silence, and the heartbroken sobs of a lost and lonely girl.

Depending on whether you read Chapter 7 of Beauty in Word and Heart first, you may already know that Mulan is manipulating time to save Lucie from her horrible fate. If you didn't know, well now you do!

So yeah, this story was... well, pretty terrible, to be honest. But then again, this entire story was running of the scraps of discarded imagination left over from Word and Heart, so I wasn't really expecting it to be good. Nothing special, just something to enhance Mulan and Lucie's relationship in my main story. I'm just glad that clocking in at a respectable 12,563 words, I can now finally put this farcical tragedy behind me and focus all my attention on the Beautiful Souls series. Still, thank you all for staying with me throughout this story!

Love to all,

Bella