by Daniel Caet
As soon as Sadith and Liliath finished making the necessary spells to protect the car from indiscreet supernatural looks and everyone was on board, Eustace started the engine and they left Sofia behind. The trip to Liege by car would take about fifteen hours, so Becca reluctantly agreed to stop for a night in France. Sadith preferred not to stop at her home in Paris in case it was guarded and instead suggested a villa she owned around Bordeaux. Seven hours later Eustace parked the car at the entrance of what turned out to be a flirtatious country house in the middle of an immensity of vineyards that stretched as far as the eye could see. In an attempt to draw attention as little as possible Sadith had not asked any of her employees to stay that night, so they had to make their own beds and cook their own dinner, which was a pleasant novelty for most of them. Actually for everyone but Charice who did what she could to escape discreetly arguing how horrible such a long car trip had been. Fortunately, her mood changed as soon as Sadith opened some bottles of Bordeaux that Becca found the most delicious wine she had ever tasted. Tiredness had affected everyone, not just Charice, so Liliath and Eustace soon retired to rest.
Becca could not fall asleep due to the anxiety of what should happen the next day and went out to the backyard of the house with the last glass of wine hoping that the country air would help her relax. A few minutes later it was Sadith who joined her.
“Impossible to sleep, right?”
“I guess deep down I'm a little nervous.”
“It is normal. You would surprise me if you weren’t,” said the woman sitting beside her on the wooden bench occupied by Becca. “May I ask you what makes you nervous? Knowing Helel or meeting your father?” Becca stared at the woman surprised that she could read inside her so easily.
“Both,” she said after a few seconds of silence. “Meeting the absent father causes me anger, misunderstanding and many questions, knowing that father is Lucifer causes me anxiety and many more questions. In my head they are two different figures, both equally unknown. When I have him in front of me, the two figures will merge into one and I still don't know how I will react to it. Do you think I'm going crazy?” she asked with a half smile.
“I think you're the most sane of us all, Becca. After everything you've been through in such a short time, being able to analyse this gibberish of life that has come upon you with that clarity is a true miracle,” the woman replied, returning the smile. “I have something for you,” she continued, handing her a small package wrapped in a piece of garnet fabric reminiscent of silk. Becca opened it and found a silver pendant formed by some kind of crystal covered by two carved wings reminiscent of those of an angel. As soon as the pendant touched Becca's hand, the crystal began to glow bright red.
“It is beautiful. What is it?”
“It is a tradition. I have given this pendant to almost all of Helel's children. The first one who received it was the daughter of my little Ankh. The crystal reacts to the power of the one who carries it and acquires the color of its vital element, in your case the fire. At the same time it allows me to know where the person who is carrying it is at all times and if she is well. Call me paranoid, but after losing Ankh I thought something like that was necessary.”
“It is very beautiful. Thank you Aunt!” Becca slipped the pendant over her neck and then hugged Sadith.
“And now you better go to sleep or whatever. I can hear my son from here circling in bed,” the woman said, winking and leaving in silence.
The next day they set off again at dawn in anticipation of the long road ahead. It was half past four in the afternoon when they finally entered Liege and Becca urged Eustace to head directly to the cathedral. Eustace parked the car a few streets away and everyone headed for their destination on foot. The signs that indicated the direction to the cathedral of Saint Paul were unmissable and in just five minutes they were in front of the steps of the temple. A small group of people were leaving the place at that time and when Becca tried to access a man spoke kindly to her in French. Becca tried to make use of what Sadith had taught her in order to understand what the man wanted to say, but Eustace came forward responding to the man in exquisite French and after a couple of sentences the man seemed to accept whatever he was saying .
“They are about to close. I told him that we would be inside just ten minutes and he has agreed, although he doesn't seem very happy,” Eustace explained as they walked through the door.
The temple was formed by a single large nave that was completely filled with fragile-looking wooden chairs. The vaulted ceilings conferred the majestic air of all the cathedrals that Becca had hoped to find. On the right side of the nave, signs indicated the path to what Becca understood to be the cloister and treasure of the cathedral. As if her feet were carried away by an invisible force, Becca headed down the center of the cathedral in the direction of the altar, raffling off the few people left in the temple after the last mass. Liliath called her, asking her to wait for her, but Becca told her to wait for her at the entrance and Sadith approached Liliath to convince her to let Becca do it her way. On her way to the main altar, something caught her attention on the left side. A large structure of dark carved wood stood in the central part of the nave. The foot of the structure was decorated with white stone statues that showed a pious attitude. Becca pushed through the chairs to reach the structure. As if she knew what to look for, she went round the structure to find the stairs that led to its upper part. As soon as she circled that pulpit, her eyes met two stairs made of the same wood that curved and ascended leading to the top and that, in their ascent, formed a niche occupied by a single figure. Le génie du mal, as Sofia had shown her, looked at her with its almost absent and melancholic face, a magnificent representation of who has lost everything.
“Or almost everything,” a warm, calm voice spoke from the top of the stairs. “You should never have come, Rebecca!”.
Lies
The figure came down a couple of steps down the stairs, slowly as if he knew he had all the time in the world, making Becca remember how he himself described his first encounter with Narmesh. She could not take her eyes off that tall man, perfectly built and with dark hair like the night who looked at her intensely with his green eyes as he descended the stairs, smiling slightly and holding out his hand inviting her to ascend the pulpit with him. Becca noticed how her legs responded and her hand took the one he offered as if she had no will and, in an instant, she found herself at the top of the pulpit with him.
“Welcome, Rebecca!” he said almost in a whisper gently removing hair from Becca's face.
“Get away from her, Helel!” shouted Liliath's voice echoing throughout the cathedral.
“Liliath. You're still as beautiful and as impetuous as ever. You have nothing to fear. Do you really think I would hurt our daughter?” Helel answered from the pulpit, directing his gaze to the group that accompanied Becca. “Sadith, glad to see you again. It seems that you have thought that I am worthy of bringing all the cavalry.”
“Surely you will understand that we take all necessary measures to ensure Rebecca's safety. By the way, you should tell your acolytes to go back to where they came from or hell will wake up tomorrow with a few undesirable ones less,” said Sadith, causing Helel's laugh that echoed throughout the temple.
“I should have guessed they wouldn't go unnoticed. Okay, if that is going to make you more relaxed then so be it. Leave us!” he shouted and suddenly all the people who were in the temple looked towards the pulpit and transformed themselves into different creatures that Becca understood must be demons. Some of those beings would have been enough to generate nightmares in most humans, and yet, Becca did not feel threatened in the least. In an instant they all made a slight inclination towards Helel and with a vibration disappeared. “Better like this? Anyway, let me tell you that if you were so interested in protecting her, you should have started by not letting her come here. What the hell were you thinking?” he shouted visibly angry.
“Us? It was you with your l
ittle games who attracted her to this place. Are you going to deny that this is what you've been waiting for since her birth? Get away from her or I swear I'll kill you.”
“Liliath, there was a time when love made me think there was hope for us, but it is obvious that your hatred is too intense and it has blinded you. The only thing I've tried all this time is to keep her away from me and this whole family. I thought that if she knew the truth of this group of unfortunates in which we have become, fear would keep her away from all of us. Something that would never have been necessary if you hadn't allowed that shitty lawyer to insist on delivering the damn fortune. Do you think it was a coincidence that my manuscripts began arriving at the same time as the inheritance? I wanted her to discover the collection of lies that this family accumulates, to feel that she could trust no one and she should flee back to the anonymity from which she should never have left. She will never be safe while she is with me or with you! This is a war, not a child's play, damn it! You have no idea what you have done. You have become the target of the damn angels.”
“Enough!” Becca's voice boomed, shutting everyone up. “Stop talking as if I was not here. I have not come here to understand what your reasons are for sending me the manuscripts or listening to how you and my mother engage in discussions about your unresolved problems. I have come here exclusively to try to understand who or what I am and how I can protect myself from the motherfuckers who have been trying to get me out of the way since I had the misfortune of you all coming into my life. I am aware that it is unlikely that you are going to help me in an altruistic way, but we both know that there is something you want from me, something that only I can give you, and that is what I come to offer you. Your help for the sword.”
Helel's eyes stared at her, seriously, the seriousness of who must bite his tongue to not say what he really thinks and that did not go unnoticed to Becca who held his gaze waiting for that dam to break and the truth to spill as the water of a river when released.
“I guess I can't blame you for having that concept of me,” he said at last. “If the fame that my former brothers have managed to attribute to me was not enough, I deduce that what they have been able to tell you about me will have helped to germinate that concept. Unfortunately, we don't have time to convince you otherwise,” Helel replied with a sad and almost defeated face. “Anyway, if that is what you want, I will help you, but it will have to be according to my terms and, of course, not here.”
Becca pondered his words for a second unsure of wanting to get into the wolf's mouth, but finally agreed and in an instant, and without Liliath or the others having time to react, Helel hugged Becca and the two disappeared from the pulpit.
Becca suddenly found herself in a place that was not totally unknown to her. She knew that she had never been there, but at the same time, looking around, the great walls of the cavern that seemed to rise to infinity and the great staircase that ascended to a stone throne were familiar. She had read about them, she had seen them in her mind with every page of Hele’s story she had devoured. Becca was in the very center of hell.
“So is!” Helel's voice resonated from the throne. “Come closer, please don't fear anything. After all, this is your father's house.” Becca approached the steps and began to climb them while still looking around.
“I'd rather you don't read my mind anymore, I'm used to hearing my own words.”
“It's a fair recrimination and a bad habit on my part, excuse me,” Helel replied softly. “It is evident that these last months have changed you. The Rebecca who lived in New York would never have had the confidence to recriminate anything to anyone, much less the lord of hell.”
“It's a somewhat pretentious statement from someone who has been absent throughout my entire life.”
“I haven't been as far as you think. Despite Liliath's efforts to hide you from me, I've been watching you for a long time, Rebecca, trying to take care of you as far as possible without raising suspicion. A task not quite easy, if you allow me to say.”
The man's words caught her by surprise. Becca wasn't sure how much she could trust what that creature told her, but if he wanted to get her attention, he had succeeded.
“Do me the favour of not trying to appear as a loving father now. Do not Christians also call you the lord of lies?”
“Yes,” he replied, smiling. “That is one of the many niceties that have been attributed to me. How is Barbol?” Helel snapped suddenly and Becca had to make an effort not to fall out of surprise. Barbol was the name she had given to a cactus that the boyfriend that Charice hated so much had given her. She had given it the name of a character from the lord of the rings and put it in the laboratory. When she was alone she talked to it as if the blessed cactus was going to answer her and that gave her an air of familiarity to the many hours she spent alone in the laboratory. Becca was aware that this was not very normal, so she had never told anyone that she had named it or what the name was. It was impossible for Helel to know anything about Barbol unless he had read her mind again.
“Good try, but it must have been easy for you to find that information in my mind where, by the way, I just asked you not to enter.”
“You are wrong again, but I suppose it is easier for you to think so rather than accepting that, your father, the one who has been presented to you like a monster, has never left you really abandoned and that the only reason I have not been more present In your life it is to guarantee your safety. Why is it so hard for you to believe that the people around you actually care about you?”
Becca wanted to shout at him that the reason was that she had never felt that care, that all she had felt was loneliness. That all of them had worried about taking her away from them with the alibi of her safety, but in reality they did it for themselves, so that they could comfort each night thinking that they had done the right thing. But none of them had considered in the slightest what a little girl would feel when she was completely abandoned or what psychological problems would it bring her when she grew up. For all of them she had simply been a lump that had to be set aside because it was the right thing to do.
“You don't know anything, Rebecca!” Helel said, and Becca knew that he was still reading her mind, but this time she was almost glad that he had saved her from having to verbalise all that. “Hasn't Liliath explained the story of your birth?”
“No, and to be honest I am not particularly interested.”
“And yet, you will never be able to understand who you are without understanding where you come from. Would you allow me to explain it to you?”
“I suppose there is no way you can help me without going through this.”
“You suppose well.”
“In that case, let's finish as soon as possible.”
“Very well, but I think that instead of telling you, it will be much better for you to see it with your own eyes.” Helel rose from the throne he was in and in a swift motion he touched Becca's forehead with his fingers. Immediately her head began to spin and she felt like she lost control of her body and it seemed as if she was falling from a very high place. Becca began to shout in a reflex way, but the fall ended in an instant and she found herself in a different and cold place. It was the street of some town with old and low houses, of just one or two floors and with cobbled floors that were damp by the recent rain that permeated the smell of the streets with a scent of wet earth. It was night and Helel was at his side looking at her with a bad boy's smile.
“Sorry for the trip, it was the only way.”
“Where am I?”
“Actually, we are both still in the throne room, your conscience has invaded mine so that I can show you your story as I lived it.”
“I think I'm going to try to avoid understanding that,” said Becca, unimpressed. “And then, what am I supposed to see?”
“Actually, for you to understand everything I had to go back a long time before your birth. We are in the village of Ostravice, in the former Czechoslovakia. It is the aut
umn of 1942 and I recommend that you pay attention to what is about to happen in that square,” said Helel, pointing to a small cobbled square like the rest of the streets that was dimly lit by a pair of gas lamps.
Becca's eyes looked at the place Helel indicated, but nothing happened for a moment. When she was about to ask what she was supposed to see, lights filled the square and behind them a grey truck entered the enclosure and stood on one side. Immediately, two figures got out of the front and headed towards the back to lower the door that also served as the descent ramp of the vehicle. Suddenly, a group composed mostly of women and children began to get off the truck while the two men urged them to enter one of the houses in the square. Becca realised immediately that one of the figures that had gotten off the truck was familiar. Her dark military-looking clothes disguised her outline and the cap she was wearing hid her red hair like fire, but that didn't stop Becca from recognising Liliath.
“Are we completely sure that we are not in danger here? I still think it would have been better to continue our way,” she said to one of the men.
“Martha, we are still in the Moravian protectorate, this is for all intents and purposes occupied zone. Here at least we have friends who will ensure that we can rest in safety. If we continue the trip we can face up with a German patrol. We must wait until they tell us that the road to the south is clear.”
“Very well, however you want, Klaus, but we'd better hide the truck as fast as possible. I don't like this much silence, to be honest.”
At that moment, as if Liliath's words had been premonitory, the sound of the shots echoed throughout the square and Becca could see the truck driver's head exploding in a thousand pieces. Liliath and the other man managed to hide behind the truck, where fortunately there were no occupants left, just at the moment when a dozen men dressed in German uniforms entered the square armed to the teeth and surrounded the vehicle. Becca was waiting for Liliath to use her power in some way to get rid of those soldiers, but, to her surprise, nothing happened. She could see Liliath hiding behind the truck holding some kind of gun, visibly worried but doing nothing. One of the men addressed them in German and this time, as in a reflex act, the words made sense to Becca without the need to make an effort to understand them.
