"They are all powerful enough to be named individuals rather than a collective rank as I am." For Nike to have an identity at all is a sin already. She should be just as her countless sisters are fulfilling her duty. Guilt wars with disgust inside of her. What she knows she should be....isn't the life she wants.

"One of them is..." Nike swallows. She's afraid to speak his name, as if it might summon him or draw one of his infinite eyes to this world. "He is very powerful. He claims nothing but peace to the Nexus but he cannot be trusted to honor this. Lucifer is....he does not understand mortals. He does not understand life on this scale. He does not understand a lack of power. I...should not have tried to reason with him. But I did. And he did not understand." Nike shakes her head.

"I tried to give him the respect his power demands but he insisted he did not want it. He actually asked me why I was afraid. As if he couldn't fathom why a mote of dust would fear being Seen by the sun itself. We are to....take his word that he wouldn't harm the people of the Nexus." Nike clutches at her own arms as tightly as she can.

"So I either play along with his whims or I risk everything in the Nexus by upsetting him."