Chapter 1. The Draw

Shinshi had not changed throughout the years. It's soil remained as fertile as its first years. Cotton fields spread throughout the valleys, and sorghum crops stained the flower fields' whiteness with their red foliage. The cities and their architecture continued as intact as the first times. Gothic and baronial style towers and small turrets adorned the rooftops, with stone walls that rose from the floor to their high ceilings. Time seemed to have stopped inside the Great Shinshi, if not for the fact enemies now lived together. The duality was no longer a cause of wars but a matter of silent aloofness. Gabriel, Sariel, Dumoh, and all the past's great generals were now legends that formed part of Shinshi's history. Yet, the Two Third remained as its form of government. Three angels and three demons shared the governance of Shinshi and ruled from The Capital. The rest of the Shinshi territory was delineated into thirty quadrants, each named by the first Envoy who led them during times of war, or by their number, for easiness.

At first, The Pact of Alliance had voted for unity between species, for peace and integrity. Yet things that are born dissimilar seemed to be bound to remain separated, which was the case of demons and angels. They had the chance to share spaces, ideas, and history, but they refused. Since the first century and the end of the war, demons and angels' neighbourhoods grew divided inside Shinshi. Only a few quadrants existed were species cohabitated, but those were the most violent and dangerous of the thirty. Two Envoys from the Capital, one a demon and the other an angel, ruled each Quadrant and informed about their activities to The Capital. They were given the task to take care and maintain the equality. Under the law, both species were identical. They had the same rights and obligations even when they never identified with each other. When the number of confrontations between species arose, or when a New Year of the eleventh millennium arrived, The Two Third looked for ways to draw forth the interaction between white and black-winged beings. However, the citizens of Shinshi lived comfortably with the separation of species, and very few claimed for its vanishing.

Inside this tense civilization, the angel quadrant 12th was located. Its buildings were painted with pearl and bright colors to attract the sun's light, and the towers of the houses had golden ornaments engraved. The pictures on their walls portrayed angels that had fought during the time of war. It was one of the most peaceful cities inside Shinshi. A town where angels felt comfortable to stretch their light brown or grey wings without the fear of encountering a dark-winged. Only a few demons lived on the city's outskirts, at the border between the quadrant 12th and 13th. In this relatively calm Quadrant, Lee Seunghyun was born during one cold winter night of December. He was a winter-born, for he had been born during the sacred season when every corner of the city was covered by white snow. So he was received by his loving parents, both communication officers, with smiles and gratitude. And he was not only blessed as a winter-born but by the whiteness of his soft feathers. Although white was a lauded color by angels, none had been blessed with a pair of pure white wings since Gabriel's times. None but Lee Seunghyun, with his immaculate white wings. His grandfather, a famous historian, had cried in rejoice when he saw the purity of his grandson wings' and had exclaimed to the skies: "A revealer!".

Seungri grew inside this confined Quadrant, developing ideas about both species without ever encountering the other. His education shaped his judgments about the black-winged creatures until the day he lost a bet to his best friend, Hara, and was forced to visit the town outskirts in secret. That was the day Seungri saw a demon for the first time. He sneaked in through the stones walls and reached that place where light did not touch anymore and where a cloud of grayish dust covered the opaque streets. And then he met the black pupils surrounded by a dark crystalline of a demon's eyes. He saw their wings that were nothing like his frail ones but sharpened with dark and red feathers. He saw the way their scaly tails twisted between their legs and the rough horns that pointed out from their heads. And Seungri, confronted with all those differences, felt only fascination rather than disgust. He stood there. His sparkling eyes absorbing it all until a male demon within its forties growled at him and forced him to return to his own brilliant territory. He never shared his fascination with the black-winged ones with anyone. Such curiosity was not even supposed to exist. In his quest and thirst for information, Seungri enrolled to become a historian. He learned about the war, about the pact, about the characters in history, but never about the darkest legends or about the things that intrigued him the most: the differences and its origins. Seungri turned 21 the eighth December of the eleventh millennium, when a new mandate from The Capital spread over the Shinshi and reached Quadrant twelve, breaking the city's habitual serenity.

"Did you hear the announcement?" Hara murmured. She had arrived that evening at Seungri's house, with her light pink wings tucked away behind her back and scared eyes seeking comfort. The pair of friends had decided to take a walk through the city's pale streets. The sound of the little angels that played carefreely around the park echoed in the distance.

"I did,"

"I'm scared, Seungri. I cannot understand the purpose behind the mandate, it is illogic and cruel," she whined. One of her feminine hands covered his mouth to stifle her crying.

It was indeed something no one expected. The Two Third's ways to persuade the species to unite had always been subtle and never imposing. This time, though, things had been different. They had mandated that every young adult, demon, or angel, over the age of 21, had to move out of their birth quadrant and visit another for three years. The destinations were to be decided by a draw held by the Envoys of each Quadrant.

"Aren't you scared?" she asked, her bright honey eyes looked at his friend with concern.

"I do fear Hara. But my grandfather used to believe in the Medley. The Two Third surely know what they are doing," he argued, placing one of his hands over his friend in an attempt to comfort her.

"The Medley? Those are blasphemies, Seungri," she gasped. She shook her head and averted her eyes towards the other angels in the street. "We are supposed to be separated. We should not be forced to meet each other," she spat out, her words echoing the same words that had been repeated by their teachers throughout all their childhood.

"I fear more for us to be separated," Seungri confessed, while he circled his friend with his wing. "I hope we are sent to the same place, that way we can help and support each other," he said, a sad smile on his lips.

Hara was his only friend. She was the one who knew about his prohibited fascination and curiosity for the black-winged creatures. Yet she never made him feel inadequate for it. Hara returned his smile and nodded shyly with her head and let her head fall onto his friend's shoulder.

"I hope for the same," she murmured.

The first day of the ninth year of the eleventh millennium came quickly when the winter was about to leave, and the new spring was soon to arrive. The morning of the draw, Seungri's mother stood at the entrance of their house, her light brown wings stretched behind her in farewell.

"I refuse to watch them take away my son from me," she declared in tears and backed inside the house. That was the last image Seungri had of his mother: her feathers slumped in grief, walking away from him.

The Envoy's building at the city's main square was nothing but intimidating. It had the highest towers in the city. On its rooftop, silver statues portraying those who had established the first Two Third during the early century looked down to the citizens with grey, judgmental eyes. In contrast with the city, their walls were not painted with pearly tones. Instead, they had a dark brown color that felt more demon than angel-like, and its façade was strongly gothic, with twists and turns similar to the horns and the tails of a demon. It was an unpleasant sight between the whiteness of the city. A combination of young angels and young demons formed a line outside the building. All of them resembled aligned domino pieces, white and black creatures intermingled. They lined in wait to be called and be informed about their destination. Some stood alone, others accompanied by their saddened families.

Hara released Seungri's hand when she was pushed towards the female l