Page 8 of The Malevolent Seven

Fat chance of that. Despite the more exuberant visions you might have seen, generally painted by delusional artists in the throes of religious ecstasy, dwellers of the Infernal demesne can’t actually walk through a portal into your village to start eating you and your neighbours. Something about the Mortal realm makes most Infernals horribly sick– I’m talking full-on, fall-to-the-ground-coughing-up-internal-organs sort of sick.

The effects are different on beings from other realms. Auroral angelics, for example, can transition to the Mortal plane without too much suffering, but it’s a one-way trip for them, so they never do. The more powerful entities, like the Lords Devilish or the Lords Celestine, can’t cross over at all, which is why both use intermediaries to perform their dirty work on our plane of existence.

The rituals for conversing with extra-dimensional beings therefore require both an inner circle to open a passage between the two realms and an outer circle to erect a barrier that protects the summoned entity from the unpleasant effects of our ‘disgusting shithole of an existence’, as they generally refer to our human plane.

All of this is well-documented in any number of occult texts, butmyparticular innovation was the devising of a set of interlocking symbols forming a middle circle that acts as a very limited bridge between the barrier and the portal. See, a couple of years back I found a peculiar azure-coloured sand that turned out to be the only mundane matter that can pass through the bridge.

What good is sending sand through an Infernal portal, you may ask?

I flicked a single grain in the air. It passed effortlessly through both the outer and middle circles– and Tenebris flinched when the tiny particle produced an eruption of angry pink sparks across his pale, leathery flesh.

‘Son of a bitch!’ he yelped. ‘What’s with the aggression, Cade?’

‘That was my expression of gratitude for this “sweet gig” you tricked me into signing up for,old buddy.’

Tenebris shot me a hurt look. ‘Hey, how was I to know Lucien would turn out to be such a homicidal prick?’

In purely spiritual terms, Ascendant Lucien was a servant of the Aurorals, so his crusade was blessed by them. Unfortunately, the Lords Celestine tend to be far more concerned with outward displays of devotion and sacrifice than, you know, actual ethics. The Lords Devilish for whom Tenebris works, on the other hand, find religious hypocrisy tremendously entertaining and will, on occasion, lend material support to someone like Lucien so he can go off and slaughter as many innocent human beings as possible before the Lords Celestine finally figure out they bet on the wrong horse.

Which was how I wound up as co-captain of a squad of wonderists charged with massacring a citadel full of people in the morning, even though they’d already surrendered and were, most likely, devotees of the Aurorals themselves.

‘Cade, old pal,’ Tenebris said, holding up his hands in mock surrender, ‘if you want to walk away from the job, no problem. You can even keep the spells I gave you.’ He gave me a disturbingly exaggerated wink. ‘Those other wonderists still buying you being just a friendly neighbourhood chancer?’

I heard Galass gasp behind me. I guess she’d hoped I reallywasa Fortunal mage. I would have turned to glare at her, but I was rather keen that Tenebris not be introduced to a pair of sublimes.

‘What was that?’ he asked.

I flicked another couple of grains of sand through the circles and set his new coat to smouldering. ‘I farted. Can we get down to business?’

You hear the word ‘demon’ thrown around a lot when speaking of the Infernals, but it’s more an umbrella term for a whole host of beings with whom certainaccommodationscan sometimes be made. What most people think of as a demon is more correctly referred to as ademoniac. They’re your run-of-the-mill thugs, mostly used as warriors and assassins by the Lords Devilish who wage perpetual war over the Infernal territories in preparation for the Great Crusade. That’s when a single Lord Devilish will take command of the united Infernal hordes to engage the equally bloodthirsty Auroral armies in a final battle for supremacy– assuming the two sides ever find a battlefield where they can both exist. Which, trust me, isn’t going to happen any time soon.

Anyway, back to Tenebris. He’s what we call adiabolic, which is sort of like an Infernal diplomat. Actually, he’s more like a carnival barker crossed with a conman. His job is to convince suckers like me to get embroiled in the schemes of various Lords Devilish who probably don’t realise that he’s working for more than one of them at the same time.

‘You really are an uptight arsehole sometimes,’ he complained, wiping the smouldering embers from his coat. ‘Besides, what do I keep telling you? You’re a tough sell to my people, Cade. The Lords Devilish don’t hand out spells to charity cases.’ He rubbed the claws of his thumb and forefinger together. ‘You’ve got to show me some love, brother.’

I hoisted up the small bronze casket at my feet and opened the lid to reveal the trove of silver coins inside. Tenebris peered through the barrier at them and involuntarily licked his lips.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: why would the rulers of an Infernal realm care about bits of metal currency from ours when the coins can’t pass across the dimensional veil anyway? The answer is complicated, but the short version is this: that which humans value, worship or even despise containsecclesiasm– it’s a sort of spiritual juice that becomes attached to physical objects. While you can’t hand a demon a pile of cash, youcandestroy those objects in the space between the outer and inner summoning circles, which releases the ecclesiasm and allows it to pass through to the Infernal demesne. There, it transmutes into livingecclesiasters, which look like tiny glittering butterflies.

And the Lords Devilishlovethe taste of ecclesiasters.

Tenebris gave me a look that tried and failed to hide his desire for what he was feeling coming off those coins. ‘I’m not saying I’m buying, but you’ve got me curious. Where do these come from?’

‘These coins recently belonged to an order of nuns devoted to the Celestine of Chaste Adoration.’

‘Chaste Adoration? You mean the . . .’

‘The kindwithoutany fucking involved.’

The diabolic’s interest was piqued. ‘You actually stole from thehuggers?’

‘Tenebris, this money was meant to be used to pay for the construction of a Redemptive’s Tower.’

‘And now?’

‘No sacred retreat for wayward souls. The nuns lost the site to a guy who’s going to build a brothel.’

The diabolic grinned. He’s got way too many teeth to do that without making you feel a little queasy. ‘Oh, I like that.’

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