Page 49 of The Morning Star
“As I said, I have no interest in ruling the human world. And my thirst for revenge has lessened with the possession of Aaru, which remains surprisingly vacant of angels.” He shot me a perceptive, narrowed glance.
“So you do not plan to join Samael?”
“No, I would rather live here and in Aaru. Although, there are a few things that might cause me to change my mind.”
“Get to the point, Remiel,” I snapped, anxious and desperate to just have this all out in the open.
“I want the young Angel of Order I created with Bencul. I left the child with Tasma, and he said you now have it. I was quite angry with the Ancient, but I understand that he has accepted you as his Iblis, and could not disobey an order from you.”
He couldn’t? That was news to me.
“He would have been dead had I not taken him,” I told the Ancient. “Tasma was to kill him.”
“But he did not do that. The angel is alive and he is mine. I would be most grateful to have him returned to me. I would ensure that no other Ancients followed Samael in this insane campaign of his. I would ensure they all declared you as the Iblis, and backed you on anything you wished to do—including taking action against this usurper.”
Usurper. What a fucking weird word.
“All Ancients? Because some of them might give you a big old fuck-you. Doriel for one.”
Remiel wrinkled his snout. “Doriel is different. The others would do as I say.”
He had that much power in Hel. I was so fucked, but there was only one choice here. Unless I could somehow find a weak spot in this Ancient’s tough hide.
“Why did you give the order for Tasma to kill the baby angel?” I asked the one thing that bothered me the most about Remiel. Abandoning Bencul? Yeah, well he’d been a total asshole of an angel, so that wasn’t unexpected. But to order the execution of a newly born innocent?
Remiel tilted his head and regarded me in surprise at the question. “Why, as a safeguard, of course. If I were killed in Aaru, I would have assumed that Bencul would have died with me. An infant Angel of Order in Hel without any powerful parental protection would have been enslaved and mercilessly tortured. I could never condemn my offspring to that. Better that he would die outright and by a swift and sympathetic hand.”
My breath left me as I tried to remember my conversation with Tasma about the infant angel. Was Remiel lying? I’d always assumed he’d wanted Lux dead as some sort of horrible mean-hearted punishment to Bencul, or because he regretted creating an Angel of Order.
“You’d wanted to kill the angel the moment you realized he was an Angel of Order,” I told Remiel. “You told Tasma to kill it the moment you took Aaru, to safeguard the infant as leverage against any betrayal by Bencul. You weren’t trying to keep the infant safe for your return, or if you failed, then deliver a mercy killing. You just wanted him dead. And now, suddenly you want me to hand him over to you? It’s not happening. Not now. Not ever.”
Remiel stiffened. “Tasma was mistaken. He must have misunderstood.”
“Liar.” Yeah, that’s right. I’d just called probably the most powerful Ancient in Hel a liar.
“I’ll admit I was horribly disappointed at creating an Angel of Order. I’d hoped Bencul would forget about the angel and we could try again after we regained Aaru. Demons often kill newly formed young if they are not what is desired. That is not uncommon.”
I suddenly thought of Ahriman killing the one offspring we’d created together because I’d not given him the devouring trait he wanted, and felt sick. It was a common practice. And it was absolutely unacceptable.
“Then why not just kill him outright? That’s what demons do. Why stick him with Tasma with orders to kill him later?”
Suddenly the Ancient before me seemed smaller, older, and weaker. “Bencul. He was thrilled to see the angel was like him. He adored our creation. I couldn’t kill it right in front of him. He never would have forgiven me for that. I thought with the excitement of taking Aaru, of regaining his rightful place there, he’d forget about the angel. I could claim it was killed in our absence, and we could try again.”
There was a truth to his words. But beyond that, I saw a horrible sorrow there at the loss of Bencul. He’d loved that angel. I knew he’d loved that angel. And when he’d tossed Bencul aside, I’d been just as shocked as Bencul had been.
This Ancient before me had once been an Angel of Chaos. He’d been in charge of punishments, of rehabilitation. To do that, he must have been closer to Order than the usual Angel of Chaos. And beyond that, there was something in there that I’d seen before. I’d seen it in Doriel’s eyes when she talked about Samael, in Dar’s face when he thought of Asta, in Ahia when her hand brushed Raphael’s. I’d seen it in myself.
The capacity for a unselfish love.
“You cannot have the angel back,” I told him. “Never. He’s mine now, and I will never return him to you.”
“Then I’ll join Samael along with the rest of Hel, and you’ll be defeated. And killed. And then I will have the child anyway. Save yourself and your beloved’s life and give him to me. I will have him in the end regardless.”
I took a breath and went all-in, like a true Iblis. “If you don’t support me and Samael wins, what do you think will happen? You’ll rule over a barren world. How long do you think Lux—your Angel of Order offspring—will live if Samael gets his way? That horrible empty feeling you have now is nothing compared to what your life will be in Samael’s future. Aaru is no longer your home. There will no longer be any foe to fight, no one to hate or blame for what happened to you—and no one to love. Lux will die at some demon’s hand no matter what Samael promises, and all that will be left for you is an empty Hel, and an equally empty world that used to be a joyous playground. All that will be left is a hollow sort of hate, and the growing rot of your spirit-being.”
Remiel looked shaken at the prospect, so I twisted the knife further.
“Bencul loved you. When you abandoned him here, surrounded by nothing but his enemies, he was devastated. His only reason for living, the only goal he had, was to find your child and somehow manage to keep him safe in an unsafe world. He died searching for the only piece of you he had left. He died trying to find and hold the one remaining piece of your love.”
