The Guardian Angel (The Guardians of Nine Heavens, Book 1)

The whole city was pure white, with golden-roofed white houses. Whiteness and brightness, yet it all looked so dull…

Lily contemplated cozy little houses and giant white mansions through a window of a white limousine she was in – the car which belonged to her father and was used specifically for the young girls – her and her elder sister. Now she was being driven by the family’s private driver to her school, a casual institute where boring studies were led – sciences about the world and such uninteresting things...

Suddenly she widened eyes with excitement – the limousine passed a big white palace with golden roofs and a golden angel statue on its top. This palace had golden letters, saying: ‘Angel Host Academy’. This was her dream place to study – the institute where strong Angel Hosts trained themselves and their guardian angels, frequented classes of angelic teachings, and competed in great Guardian Angel Tournaments to define who would be the strongest Angel Host of the year. That place was truly paradise. She dreamed to study there since her early childhood, but her dreams were shattered even back then – after, at only her two years, she tripped on the floor and hit a metal bed, receiving a big wound on her forehead which doctors had a hard time to heal, everyone, including her parents, got assured that she had no guardian angel to protect her from accidental harm. As the parents didn’t want to dishearten their little daughter, they kept it a secret from her, but at her five years, when she was about to enter school and she asked to be included in a preparatory class of future Angel Hosts, she was told the truth by her parents – she didn’t have any light aura around her, thus, no guardian angel. However, the greater shock was when she found out from priests that if there was no light aura around a person, a guardian angel was not present and could never be awakened because they simply didn’t exist within the person – the person was unguarded, not chosen by angels… and that was her case.

All of her hopes were broken in her deep childhood. Since then, she lived with apathy towards everything – she got used to having accidents all the time, out of which she came harmed, but not dead, so she didn’t really care – even if she died, nothing special would happen, as she was nothing special herself. In Golden City, where she lived, everyone had a guardian angel, and those whose guardians had left them (it was referred to as ‘Guardian’s Death’) were considered dangerous, as malice persecuted them and they had no light aura, no guardian angel, to defend them from it, so accidents would follow them everywhere. Because of such conditions, people without guardian angels (ones who had lost them), were fired from work, and in the worst case, even abandoned by their families. Most of them lived as beggars in the streets or formed criminal organizations Lily’s father as the city mayor fought against. However, in Lily’s case, it was slightly different – she was born without a guardian angel in the first place. She had never had one. Such a case had never occurred in history before, so everyone feared her even more than they feared the ones who had lost their guardians and were accordingly called ‘Former Hosts’. In Lily’s case, it was an entirely different matter – she was not a host *at all*. But as she was the younger daughter of the city mayor, Robert Black, she was not discarded from the society, even though she was greatly feared by everyone, and people didn’t really enjoy her presence. They tried to hide their true feelings as they knew they were speaking to the city mayor’s daughter.

One thing was certain – the city mayor’s heiress was Lily’s elder sister, Linda Black, who, unlike her little sister, possessed not only an ordinary guardian angel but the strongest one of all – Archangel Michael, the leader of all angels and archangels. Linda had graduated from Angel Host Academy, won the Yearly Championship, earned the title of ‘The Strongest Yearly Angel Host’ and was even considered one of the strongest Angel Hosts of all time. Parents were proud of her and she often attended Golden City Government Councils with her father in order to learn more about the leadership and become a dignified city mayor after her father (in Golden City mayors themselves chose their successors and the government approved of the choice. Robert Black too chose his own daughter as a successor, and as she held the strongest guardian and was a well-trained hostess, the government approved of this choice).

The gap between the sisters was immense – one was the strongest Angel Hostess, the second – a person with no guardian angel. One was the heiress of the city mayor, the second had no clear future. One was the person loved by all, and the second – discarded by everyone. Lily’s eyes couldn’t miss such a gap. She was sad about it. She felt that they loved her sister more and cherished her more than they loved and cherished her. She tried to hide her feelings, but deep at heart, she was full of sadness and sorrow.

The limousine stopped and roused Lily from her thoughts. She looked out the window again – they were already at the school.

“Bye Mr. Sanders!”

She bade goodbye to her driver, walked out of the car, and went to the school building. As she walked out, Mr. Sanders, the driver, sighed in relief and drove off. Apparently, he was glad no accident had happened while that girl was sitting in his car.

Lily walked up to the school door, once sighed with annoyance and boredom (and a little sadness she tried to hide), opened it, and walked in.