Page 3 of Discord
I thought this would settle Gabriel at least a little, even if none of us knew what they were doing with the souls they were taking. When I looked over I saw he had this pained expression on his face, like what Bram said had just made things worse.
“What about Lucifer? Did they teach you anything about him? He’s this big bad guy who runs Hell, according to people here.”
Ah, yes. Ripley told me one of Gabriel’s ancestors was an infamous angel. Gabriel had a hard lot in life when it came to his ancestors.
“He lives in Hell, but he’s not running things,” Bram said. “Lucifer and Samael were best friends. They had an enormous problem with what was being done to Lilith, and so defected from the other angels. Samael became her lover, but it was Lucifer who was totally villainized. He stayed on Earth for a few generations of his children and grandchildren, but eventually, Lucifer, Samael, and Lilith went to reside in Hell permanently. Lilith created Hell, but she doesn’t run it. We have elections for that.”
That Lilith was quite crafty. Most of us ran off to the aether when we got tired of Earth. Only a few of us had planets or realms to play in. Maybe I needed to make myself a realm. That was definitely something to consider, but my witch wouldn’t leave her library, even if I could build her an even bigger one.
“What business do you have with the souls?” Felix said. “I’m the only person in the room who has died, except for Reyson. I was in the aether for a while before I came back as a familiar. There’s not a lot to do with one. I couldn’t even talk to the other souls. It was agonizingly dull, really.”
That was my big question. I knew I liked that cat. Sure, Felix could be uppity at times, but I liked to spend time with him. Plus, he was new to certain things in this century just like I was, so we could bond over new experiences… which were mostly food-based!
“I’d like to know that too,” Gabriel growled.
I grabbed Ripley and pulled her down into my lap. She was still pacing and furious. I could soothe her with my magic, but only if she asked me to. She had every right to her fury, and I’d help her take her vengeance. We’d have to do it one at a time, though. There were too many people I wanted to hurt right now.
“Lilith isn’t a primordial god, and even if she was, none of you created the universe alone. You worked together. Lilith created Hell by herself, channeling her creations for a boost of power. If she weren’t a goddess, it would have killed her. She was exhausted by it though, and had to recuperate in a cave while being protected by her creations after Hell was completed.”
I understood that way more than anyone in the room. We created the universe for fun, and there were several of us contributing. It took a lot of energy. It would have been worse for Lilith because she was in a vessel instead of the aether. In the aether, you just were. You didn’t need things like food or sleep. On Earth, gods required a great deal of both.
The last timeI was on Earth, you could say anything, and there was little anyone could do to prove it was a lie. I could, of course. Sometimes, people preferred the lie and claimed I was the one fibbing. One thing I liked about this century was that they could verify almost anything instantly.
“I can fact check that,” I said. “It’s exhausting.”
Felix just rolled his eyes at me.
“You’ve beendyingto say that since Balthazar pitched a fit that his Facebook post got fact-checked, haven’t you?”
Yeah, I had. It was fascinating, and the vampire got so upset about it. I enjoyed watching sports on the television with the cat too. I could have kept my mouth shut, but I decided to give the Hellhound an assist. Maybe it would help Gabriel be more accepting.
“Can I continue?” Bram demanded.
“Please, go ahead,” Gabriel said. “They’ll do this for hours.”
Ripley snuggled into my chest. I tightened my arms around her and let out a contented sigh. I’d never say no to holding my witch.
“Sorry, Bram. This is all new to us, and we are hearing things that make us angry. Lilith is responsible for my creation too. Same with Gabriel and Felix. She didn’t deserve that kind of treatment. We’ll try to refrain from further comments.”
My witchreallydidn’t like it if you talked during movies or television shows and so I tried not to, even if I saw something unfamiliar and had questions. Though she’d never berate me if I did, and would always answer my questions, but I’d seen her assault Felix and Balthazar with a pillow for doing the same. I wouldn’t mind wrestling with her naked, but I didn’t particularly want her angry with me. I was going to marry this witch, eventually.
“Okay, so the souls,” Bram said. “Hell needed more help when it was being created. Our sun was dying, crops were failing, and our leaders knew a famine was coming. By that point, Hell was an entirely populated planet. We’d already drawn attention from a god once. Our leaders reasoned that if we all went back to Earth to live, the angels would come back, or more gods would take notice of us and try to slaughter us.”
Maybe. Maybe not. Most of our creations were just enough to populate the earth and prosper and no one ever had a problem with that. An entire realm of them though? That had never happened before. It would have drawn attention for sure, but if Lilith explained they were hers, and why there were so many of them, I was almost certain everyone would have sided with her instead of the god that’d forced her hand.
Some of the younger gods were arrogant bullies. They soon found themselves out of fashion with their followers, and their creations hunted to extinction. I was shocked that hadn’t happened to this god who thought he was powerful enough to bully Lilith.
“Our leaders assembled teams of demons. They traveled everywhere, trying to find a solution. Some were trying to find trade for the crop problems, but one particular demon saw the bigger picture. She was a successful businesswoman, and immensely powerful at magic. She was pretty cutthroat, and a lot of demons were afraid of her. There are rumors among the Hellhounds that she took hers for a lover. That’s looked down upon in Hell.
“She noticed that the souls on Earth were similar to ours; they both had the same energy as our sun. She wasn’t a killer, and she thought slaughtering people to save Hell was just as bad as what the angels wanted to do to us. She turned it into a business transaction.”
“We grant favors in exchange for souls to power our sun. We don’t just do it on Earth. In Hell, when someone is about to die, there are demons whose sole job is to come collect their souls. I have to say, we are way less whiny about it than you bitches are here.”
“Because you started the rumor you were torturing souls over bigger dicks and smaller asses,” Gabriel grunted.
Gabriel had a point. People were always going to fight when it came time to die, no matter who’d created them. That was a given, but perhaps they wouldn’t be kidnapping demons and upsetting my witch in her library if they knew they wouldn’t be tortured.
Scratch that. We’d still be in this situation. Our creations were selfish creatures who feared death. Honestly, if I were mortal, I probably would too.
