The Demon Behind Me

by Christopher Nelson

  “It does not imply we would be content!” Beelzebub shook his head violently. “Your House may be full of warriors, but ours is not! Our losses are mounting! We have no desire to meet House Lucifer’s fate. A peaceful surrender and slow exodus to our holdings in Hell will save innumerable lives.”

  “Your House is as fat and greedy as you are,” Amon snapped back. “You’d rather serve the humans for their table scraps? I can’t see your House agreeing quietly to the terms given. Perhaps one of them should challenge you for leadership, as you’re clearly incapable.”

  “You say too much, Amon,” rumbled a quiet voice. The High Prince of House Belphagor, the host of this Council meeting, rose to her feet. “Your insults breach the decorum of this Council. You have both said quite enough. We invite House Asmodeus to speak.”

  Opheran stood as Amon and Beelzebub sat down, the former grumbling and the latter glaring. “My Princes, once again, we find ourselves at an impasse,” he said. “Houses Amon and Leviathan stand against the terms of surrender, while Houses Mammon, Beelzebub, and Belphagor seem receptive. Although it pains us to divide our Host once again, House Asmodeus refuses the terms.”

  “And so an alliance of centuries ends,” Beelzebub snarled, bouncing back to his feet almost as soon as he sat. “Your obstinacy dooms us, Asmodeus. I had thought your love of humanity would encourage you to accept the terms, as poisonous as they are.”

  I was slightly surprised as well. Opheran hadn’t discussed his thoughts with me before this meeting. Surrendering would mean total capitulation, but it would mean the death toll would stop mounting. “Our love of humanity, as you call it, is why we cannot accept these terms,” Opheran stated. “The Conclave does not represent humanity, as much as Nathan Kane would like us to believe. Our surrender would give him the implicit authority to bind all of humanity under his rule. If you’ll forgive me the comparison, we would make him the High Prince of Humanity, and his cold-bloodedness makes him supremely unfit for such a role.”

  “And so we continue to fight?” Belphagor asked. She gestured at me. “Simply because you do not like Nathan Kane? Would you agree to the terms if it were the Marquis in his place?”

  Opheran looked down at me and laughed. “I believe he would be a far superior leader, but right now, it’s a low bar to set. He would not be foolish enough to demand such terms of surrender.”

  “I’m not sure if I should be insulted or not,” I mumbled.

  “This is not compelling,” Belphagor said. “Why should we care? It makes no difference to us if their leader is strong or foolish. Let them suffer under his thumb. Let them die. We must live. Recall our sequestered discussion, Asmodeus.”

  “I do recall it, all too well. You’re willing to accept a term of slavery?” Opheran asked. He hadn’t told me what the Princes discussed behind closed doors. I had asked. His poker face had been impossible to crack. “You would accept submission as life? My Princes, while I am no Lucifer, I cannot believe you lack pride to this extent!”

  “Hear, hear!” barked Amon.

  Mammon stood. “It is not a matter of pride alone. It is a matter of pragmatism and survival,” he said. “We can swallow our pride for a time. A century is nothing to our people. A century would allow us time to become self-sufficient in Hell and recover our losses. We could then re-open a dialogue with the humans on more advantageous terms.”

  “In a century?” Opheran repeated. “Are you daft, Mammon? The humans advanced from steel and electricity to flight and nuclear bombs in a century. A century from now, their advances will be incomprehensible while we consider mere survival here to be an accomplishment! This doesn’t even consider their magic. Their magic is now public knowledge. All humans will be able to use it in conjunction with their technology and ingenuity. It won’t take a century for them to advance to the point of no return. It might not even take half as long. Stop underestimating them!”

  “What do we care if they advance?” Mammon said. “They desire separation from us, so we shall give it to them. Why does it matter, Asmodeus?”

  “What if this is another trick?” Opheran asked. “What if they simply execute all of us after we register with them? What if they renege on their promise to allow our people to return home? Do you trust the Conclave after what they did? The High Prince of Belphagor died at their hands, under a diplomatic flag. House Asmodeus has always been closest to the humans. You’ve all sneered at us about it in the past. We know them best, and we do not trust them! If we do not, why do you trust them to hold to their word?”

  “If they will not hold to their word, then we will fight.”

  “Then we will die,” Opheran replied. “My Princes, peace on their terms gives the humans the chance to advance far beyond anything we can cope with, assuming they even hold to the terms given. This is the time to fight, while we still can. If we coordinate all of our Houses, we can turn the tides of this damned war and press for equitable terms!”

  “The motion to accept the terms of surrender fails with four against,” Belphagor said. “This debate will clearly not be decided today. Thank you, High Prince of Asmodeus.”

  Opheran sat down and snarled something vile under his breath. “I agree with your stance, for what it’s worth,” I said.

  “Thanks.”

  Belphagor was still speaking. “Under these circumstances, I would invite the Chairman of the Malefic Consortium to speak his mind, as within the month, he may be called upon to break this tie.”

  Opheran erupted from his seat. “That was not the agreement!”

  “It was your own compromise,” Belphagor replied. “If House Lucifer does not provide a representative to this Council, they will be considered to abstain, and the Consortium shall break the tie as they always have in those cases. Since this seems likely, I find it would be useful to hear their view on the matter. Since House Asmodeus seems to oppose, I would ask if anyone would second our motion.”

  “House Leviathan seconds.” I stared as Leviathan unfolded from his chair. “With all respect to House Asmodeus, hearing the Consortium’s viewpoint is not unreasonable under these conditions.”

  “House Asmodeus withdraws its objection.” Opheran slid back into his seat. “We all know what they’ll say, but let’s hear it.”

  The Chairman had been floating in midair above the eighth table. After Opheran sat, he winged his way forward. “My Princes, there is a human saying, better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven,” he said in his raspy voice. “My people have always served and never ruled, therefore, why would we care who we serve? The Consortium will accept the terms of surrender. Being able to deal openly with the humans is only a benefit for my people, and it will save yours.”

  “House Asmodeus moves to adjourn,” Opheran snapped. “It’s clear this decision has been made and there is no hope to unite our Host except under the whip of our soon to be masters.”

  “House Amon seconds this move to adjourn.” Their Prince stood and nodded to Opheran. “If we agree to surrender to the humans, let it be known, the only members of House Amon who submit will be those who can no longer fight, and there will be damned few of those.”

  “Is there any opposition to adjournment?” Belphagor asked. When no one spoke up, she knocked on her table. “Then I declare this High Council of the Infernal Host adjourned.”

  Opheran immediately grabbed my shoulder and dragged me toward House Amon’s table. “We’ve had our disagreements over the years,” he said to their High Prince, “but in this, we stand together.”

  “Forgive me if I am reluctant to speak in front of your half human advisor.” Their High Prince folded his arms over his chest. “I respect your actions of the past, Marquis, even as it cost House Amon more than a few skilled demons. However, your ties to humanity are strong and I do not have complete trust in your loyalty.”

  “The Marquis is more loyal to his House than most full blooded demons. I find it amusing you question his loyalty, after you
nearly followed House Lucifer into a civil war.” The High Prince of Leviathan swept over to us, ignoring Amon’s splutters. “Marquis Isaiah Bright, my intelligence services have discovered a lead regarding the whereabouts of our Baroness Kyla. Perhaps between yourself, your unique resources, and our own support, we can free her.”

  I bowed deeply. Leviathan was full of surprises these days. “If my Prince allows it, I would be happy to gather a force to recover her.”

  “Your Prince allows it,” Opheran said. “Again, we must stand together. We shall recover your Baroness, Leviathan.”

  “Dare I ask your price, Asmodeus?”

  “Dare I set a price?” Opheran crossed his arms. “Dare I set a price on the survival of our people? A joint offensive between our Houses will show the others we can only succeed when we work together. No, Leviathan, I dare not set a price.”

  Leviathan looked to me before looking back to Opheran. “Your Marquis spoke to me of friendship. His friendship with the angel led him to risk his life. His friendship with the mage led him to dispense with all decorum in front of the members of the High Council. His friendship with our Baroness led to his immediate volunteering to rescue her just now. I ask you, Asmodeus, what price can you put on friendship?”

  “The value of a friendship cannot be expressed in words,” Opheran replied. “Only in action.”

  “Then consider this our action.” Leviathan drew himself up and extended his hand to Opheran. “House Leviathan pledges friendship to House Asmodeus.”

  “House Asmodeus pledges friendship in turn,” Opheran said, shaking Leviathan’s hand. “Let us hope this leads to a stronger bond between our Houses in the future.”

  “Assuming we survive,” the Prince of House Amon muttered quietly. I had almost forgotten we were clustered around their table.

  Leviathan’s glance flicked back to me. “Some friendships do grow to become more. Am I right, Marquis?”

  I cleared my throat. “It’s always a possibility.”

  “So. We shall prepare an expedition to recover our prisoners from the hands of the humans.” Opheran gestured to me. “I believe our Marquis has already volunteered to command the joint forces.”

  “I can think of none better to lead.”

  “A joint expedition?” The High Prince of Amon leaned in. “Ah, so Leviathan does have enough courage to take the fight to the human filth.”

  “Don’t call them filth,” I said. Amon’s eyebrows lifted so quickly I thought they would fly away. “A blanket judgement is what they’re using to justify everything they do to us. Don’t blame their entire people for the acts of a single man and his followers.”

  “I was not,” Amon replied, his tone including both amusement and warning. “I referred merely to the Conclave, though I can understand why you might think otherwise.”

  I bowed my head. “I apologize for the misunderstanding.”

  “You are a most interesting halfblood, Marquis.” Amon’s eyebrows returned to normal. “Courage, loyalty, respect. From which part of your heritage do they come, I wonder?”

  “Both sides, High Prince,” I said. “Or so I’d like to think.”

  My answer seemed to please him. “House Amon does not pledge friendship or trust or any such empty words to your Houses,” he said to the other Princes present. “But we do stand with you today. Let us provide a detachment of our warriors to this expedition. Serving under the command of the Marquis will go a long way toward proving he can be trusted.”

  “We would be happy to include warriors of House Amon,” Leviathan replied. “An odd occurrence, our three Houses working together.”

  “Odd, yes, but here’s the problem,” Opheran said. “By my count, we have twenty-eight days left to restore House Lucifer, or the Consortium steps in and we surrender.”

  “And Kane will screw us even harder in a month,” I pointed out. “He said they wouldn’t be as generous after this. I don’t know if he’d even accept our surrender in a month, depending on how well the war is going for them.”

  “He’ll accept it,” Opheran said. “There’s no reason to kill willing slaves.” He glanced toward Beelzebub’s table and spat on the floor, an act completely out of line with the Prince I knew. “Our people are all involved in the war, we have no resources to spare, the imps will not lift a finger for us, but our only chance to survive this war is to restore Lucifer.”

  “I agree with your assessment,” said Amon. “Our intelligence forces are not the equal of either of your Houses, but some of our wounded may be able to read through our intelligence reports while they recover. We shall share anything we find in our records.”

  “We will reassign Kyla to the search, assuming she’s in any shape to do so. Assuming she is still alive.” Leviathan shook his head. “Even with all three of our Houses devoting all of our intelligence assets to the search, we’d need luck. As it stands, we would need a miracle.”

  Opheran suddenly grinned. “We’re overlooking something important. The Conclave has studied us as well as humans can, for decades at least. We know they take prisoners.”

  “And?”

  “They must have intelligence data too. We can steal it.”

  “How?” Amon asked. “It’s not like we can just walk out with filing cabinets. The Conclave is not foolish enough to leave such important data in plain sight.”

  “But they may not consider it as important to protect as we would,” Leviathan said. His expression looked thoughtful. “Prisoner manifests. Interrogation reports. Such data may not be available to their entire organization, but we know they have a hierarchy, and we know they use the internet. Electronic records don’t require file cabinets.”

  Amon shook his head. “This is not my area of expertise.”

  “Nor mine,” Opheran said. “But please continue.”

  Leviathan’s High Prince tapped his lips and smiled. “When we realized the humans were doing so much with their technology, our Intelligence service was determined to equal if not exceed their ability. We have already compromised parts of the Conclave network facing the public internet. We only occasionally find gems of interest there, but one thing is certain. They have a more secure network behind the scenes. Perhaps it resides in the darknet, perhaps it hides in plain sight, perhaps it is not physically connected to the internet. This secure network may hold what we are looking for.”

  Opheran looked at me. “Darknet?”

  “Don’t ask me.”

  Leviathan seemed to be thinking aloud. “Any secure facility must also have a link to their secure network, by definition. Any facility holding prisoners must be secure, also by definition. Therefore, they must have access to the secure network wherever prisoners are held.”

  “And?” Opheran asked.

  “We have tools,” Leviathan replied. “And if their external network is an example, their information security is merely competent, not skilled.”

  “They don’t expect demons and angels to also be hackers,” I said.

  “Correct. We can take advantage of this blind spot.”

  “So this is no longer a simple rescue mission,” Amon said. “It is also a raid. This is much more to my House’s liking.”

  “Excellent,” Leviathan said. “Marquis, we shall send our data to your intelligence liaison. An intelligence team will report to your home tomorrow. They will work to compromise the Conclave’s security as well as rescue the prisoners.”

  “Amon will send a combat team,” Amon added.

  “I am honored by your trust,” I replied, bowing deeply again.

  “Be sure it isn’t misplaced.” His eyes flickered red as I straightened up. “You will be held accountable. Any deaths or injuries will lie at your feet, halfblood. If you give me the slightest reason, I shall declare a vendetta against you, your family, and all you hold dear, personally.”

  I’d had a vendetta against me before, but not from a Prince, and there was no way the Consortium would
help me this time. “I will be very, very careful,” I said through a suddenly dry mouth.

  Amon nodded and turned away. Leviathan had already vanished, leaving just Opheran and myself. He grunted and led the way outside, where the red sun of Hell loomed overhead. For once, the sky was empty of clouds. “Harax would laugh himself silly,” he said as we walked past a row of wilting plants. “Working with those two Houses, giving so much responsibility to you, he would have enjoyed it. He thought of this as the greatest game.”

  “You’re playing it well enough,” I said.

  Opheran paused and touched the leaf of one of the plants. “These are from Earth,” he said. “Things from Earth suffer here. Only the strongest survive. Our people are strong, but are we strong enough?”

  “If we worked together with the humans, we could engineer some plants to live here,” I said.

  “If,” Opheran said. “If we surrender, those who move here will die in droves, Isaiah. Camp Asmodeus can barely support itself, let alone a flood of refugees. So many of us were born on Earth, with only a handful of elder demons born here, and their numbers fall with every passing year. The only home we know is Earth.”

  “But we can make a new home here,” I said. “That’s the point of all of this, right? Leave Earth and go home?”

  Opheran turned to face me. His face was drawn and tired. “But what if this is a mistake, Isaiah? Why should we come back here? Who actually thinks of this place as home?”

  I found myself at a loss for words. As a halfblood, I had a strong tie to humans and Earth, but I had never considered the ties of other demons. Anyone born here was either a veteran of the First War, or was young when we were exiled. We were a long-lived people, but five hundred years was approaching old age for us. “Were you born here?” I asked.

  “I was young when we were exiled,” he said. “I don’t remember much, but I do remember winter. I smell it coming. Last winter, we brought food and comfort from Earth. If that’s not possible this time, our people will starve and freeze to death. Some of our Houses are led by ignorant, cowardly fuckers. Don’t they know what will happen?”