Lucifer's War

Walking side-by-side, Lucifer and Delvaz began to roam the dark halls of Armathain Fortress by the king’s invitation. It was for an inspection of sorts, or so Lucifer had told him. He did want to get more familiar with every facet of his fortress, but his ulterior motive was to get better acquainted with his steward. He’d kept Delvaz tremendously busy since his coronation, three days prior, so he’d not had an opportunity for any meaningful one-on-one conversations.

In that time, Delvaz was encouraged to divulge all the fortress’ mysteries, primarily under the scrutiny of General Peína. Secret passages, the vault, and perhaps most importantly, the many wards placed about for the protection from outside forces were revealed. There were many, but most were within Satan’s personal tower to thwart intruders from assassination attempts.

In taking the fortress, Lucifer and his co-conspirators bypassed the vast majority of those protective enchantments, thanks entirely to Delvaz. Under duress, he brought them in through the secret passage from the honeycomb of caves built beneath the plateau adjacent to the dungeons.

Thanks to his efforts and those of Peína’s vordi either purposely tripping or dispelling the wards with their magic where they were able, the fortress was now safe to wander.

After the long inspection, they entered Delvaz’s personal space within the fortress, where he’d long ago set up quarters more suitable for someone of his demur size. Now away from prying ears, Lucifer offered compliments for each and every room instead of mostly nodding along with the details Delvaz had relayed to him during the inspection.

At last, they settled in Delvaz’ personal office. Lucifer was impressed with the office that looked more like a library. Over to one bookshelf, Lucifer pointed a finger and touched the bindings of the many lined tomes as he examined them.

The well-educated imp had books on virtually every subject he could fathom. Histories of the kingdoms, languages, mining, warfare, you name it. Even spellcraft, but one book in particular caught his eye. The binding had a symbol which he believed was indicative of representing angels. Pulling it from the shelf, he read the cover which confirmed his suspicion. He read, “Heaven’s Angels.”

Behind his desk, Delvaz dared as Lucifer opened the cover of the book he knew well, “Homesick, are we?”

The book, more of a ledger of sorts, depicted names, descriptions, and even illustrations of angels from his prior sect within Heaven. It listed all angels Hell was aware of, including those that had been killed in battles or captured and turned into erinyes.

Impressed with the detail, Lucifer took his time answering Delvaz after perusing several pages, ending on his own entry. Looking upon his own description, he stated, “This is far from complete. It’ll need to be updated. I can certainly help you with that.”

Although Lucifer didn’t come across with any threatening tone or show of emotion in any way, Delvaz gulped and felt a very real chill of fear run down his spine.

Not trying to incite any form of threat, Lucifer closed the tome then announced, “Apologies. I’m getting distracted. Plenty of time to deal with my brothers and sisters later.” He replaced the tome on the shelf, took a seat in the guest chair in front of Delvaz’s desk and motioned for him to take his.

Taking his seat, Delvaz motioned towards a small decanter of uva he had on the desk.

“Oh, please.” Lucifer accepted his offer of drink.

So much was going through Delvaz’s mind as he filled the small, but adequately sized goblets for the likes of him. For one, Satan had never visited him in his chambers. Not once in the hundreds of years he’d been in his service. The ceiling was tall enough, since all of the ceilings in the whole fortress where tremendously tall, but the twelve-foot plus archdemon would not have been able to utilize any of his furniture. It occurred to him that Satan just didn’t care enough to see how he actually lived.

That first thought reminded him that he’d have to be a lot more careful about leaving things about that might incriminate him. His new king would apparently have no compunction about dropping in on his office.

Lastly, he still could not put a finger on what Lucifer and his collaborators hoped to accomplish. He didn’t believe they could succeed in keeping the kingdom. So, king or not, he couldn’t imagine Lucifer was going to be around for very long.

That last thought in mind, with goblets full, he asked, “So, my King. What is it I can…”

Lucifer interrupted, “Please, Delvaz. Let’s get a couple things clear from the start.”

Delvaz nodded approval and took a sip of his drink, ready to be hit with whatever this was. Since he’d revealed virtually all there was to know about the fortress, being put to death wasn’t beyond the scope his mind suggested.

Lucifer started, “First and foremost, the pleasantry or regulatory use of titles, however you want to parse it, should be…used when in mixed company, let’s say. But here and now, it’s just you and I talking. So, let us dispense with the formality, yes, that’s the word I was looking for. Anyway, just call me Lucifer.”

Delvaz was taken back and gulped the rest of his uva from his goblet down. After refilling it, he tentatively accepted, “Okay, Lucifer it is.”

“Thank you.”

In the candlelight of the windowless office, another silence ensued. Lucifer drank, confident in his position. Delvaz, on the other hand, was entirely baffled on how to feel or what to say. He just knew Lucifer wanted something; else why continue to be attached to his hip when there was likely an entire city right outside the fortress that was ready to explode after rumors of an assignation attempt on Satan had been reported.

Deciding he had to say something, he asked, “Lucifer, what exactly do you want?”

“What do you want?” He shot right back.

Confounded, Delvaz threw his arms up. “What do you mean?”

Having fun toying with the little imp, Lucifer complimented, “I can see why Satan favored you as steward. I’d be willing to bet right now; your sole concern is for what’s going on throughout the kingdom. Am I right?”

Delvaz screwed up his face into a frown but after a few seconds, he acknowledged his correctness with an affirming nod.

“Ha.”

Growing mad, Delvaz came forward and punched back, “This is no laughing matter! What are you going to do?”

Lucifer waved both hands up in submission then leaned forward, putting both elbows on the desk. He pacified a little first, “Relax just bit, my friend. There are multiple things going on. And yes there is some turmoil brewing. But right now, things are still well in hand.”

“How is that possible?” Delvaz shouted then changed his tone to a whisper as he too leaned forward, “Satan is dead.”

“Yes, I know, I killed him.” Lucifer whispered back then he changed his tone back to normal. “I said relax. Generals War and Peína have everything under control for the moment. General Loimós continues to secure the north. And messengers have been sent to recall all of my erinyes.”

Focused on that last point, Delvaz questioned, “What? Why would you want the erinyes here?”

“This is where they belong.” Lucifer tilted his head as though the answer should be obvious. “They were brothers and sisters, after all. And now that I’ve become what I am, I am ready to call them brothers and sisters once more.”

“But they were created and sired by Satan.”

“Who was in turn slain by me. They will bend the knee and be more free for it.”

The imp assumed, “They may kill you.”

“You mean they may try. But I’m confident they will enter the fold. Besides that, we do indeed need to get ready for what’s to come next.”

“And what’s that?”

“We are having a meeting shortly. My generals and me. In the meantime, I found today to be the perfect opportunity to pick your brain and see exactly what kind of demon you are.” Lucifer stood and moved to leave.

At his back, Delvaz asked, “And?”

“And,” Lucifer started, not turning back around as he exited, “be in my war room within the hour. My generals and I will be expecting you.”

Delvaz sat in disbelief. After an early start and the arduous task of showing off almost the entirety of the main part of the fortress to his king, sunset was damn near upon them already. Apparently this day was far from finished. With his short legs, it’ll take him a while to get all of the way back to the tower where the war room was located. He hurried to catch back up to his king.