Lessons (invite)

[Lucifer]

He almost chuckled at the question. It was cute, childlike. She truly was young.

"Nine."

[Ashe]

"Nine?" Ashe's eyes bugged as she turned her head from the cube to her father so quickly it almost made her dizzy.

"Do you see them all at once? What's it like?" More questions followed in an endless stream for about a minute before she stopped and realize that she hadn't actually given him time to respond.

[Lucifer]

"I imagine it is much like how it is for you to see in three at once. Normal."

He'd say with a small smile as he patiently tried to answer the inevitable stream of questions that only a small child that still had a spirit of inquisitiveness could unleash."

[Ashe]

Ashe sits in silence, a bit of a sheepish look on her face at some of his answers as she tried to absorb everything that was said.

"What does that look like to you?" She pointed to the cube of flame, indicating the area where she'd been looking through it for this lesson.

[Lucifer]

"Hope."

[Ashe]

She stopped at the single word, looking into the cube herself again.

"Why hope?"

[Lucifer]

"Why green?"

[Ashe]

"Because you want it to be?" He'd said it was the same color of her eyes, and it was her favorite color for the same reason, but that's what it boiled down to.

[Lucifer]

Lucifer simply gave her a Cheshire smile.

[Ashe]

Her eyes widened as she drew in a breath, then looked at the cube once more. Remembering what he said about confusing, she forced herself not to squint too hard and try again.

She wanted to see what was in there, and if it was hope for her, too.

[Lucifer]

There seemed to be SOMETHING in there. Though it just kept teasing her at the edge of her vision. Trying to entice her to strain her eyes.

[Ashe]

It was really, really tempting to strain them again, and Ashe found herself leaning forward in anticipation regardless. Stopping as she realized what she was doing, she'd try again, trying to find something that would make sense to her in the unfocused haze: a shape, a color, anything.

[Lucifer]

It was as if it defied understanding. It just moved in ways that made her brain want to slip past it. Ignore it. Focus on something else.

[Ashe]

She let out a sound of frustration and determination. It was like trying to watch something distorted by the heat of the flames. Too easy to focus on something else.

But she wanted to see it. She wanted to see hope, see if it was for her, too, or something else.

She keeps trying!

[Lucifer]

She finds herself slowly anticipating how it might move, even if she can't quite see it, or make it out. There was a sense of expectation, like a part of her was trying to connect dots it was not made to connect.