Beyond the Shadows (To Absolve the Fallen Book 0)

by Aaron Babbitt

  Byron said, “Please hold,” into the microphone and turned his chair to face Raul. “I’m sorry, Regent. It was rude of me to try to keep two important conversations going at the same time. If I’d known you were coming, I would have planned better, but you have my attention now. I’ve muted him.”

  “I’m putting you on a temporary suspension,” Raul repeated blandly. “I’ll need for you to come with me.”

  “I really can’t right now, Raul. I wish that I could be more cooperative, but I’ve got to get Jeremiah on board today, or I risk getting set back by months.”

  Raul stepped closer. “I forbid you to make any more contact with the demon. If you go to talk to him again, I will destroy your computer. I would prefer not to damage your equipment and possibly hurt you in the process.”

  The Chancellor held up a hand, and Raul stopped moving forward. He was frozen in place. “No closer, please.”

  “And I thought you were an empath.”

  “I’ll let you go, Raul, but we have to agree to be civilized. Okay?”

  The Regent conceded with a nod, not because he was concerned about the position he was in, but because he really wanted to know what Byron’s reason was. Byron had always been a good man—not just nice, either. He’d ever been Raul’s moral sounding board.

  Byron released his telekinetic hold on Raul, who rolled his shoulders and found a chair to sit in while he heard the Chancellor out.

  “This better be good,” he warned.

  “Did I ever tell you that I have a daughter?”

  This gave the Regent a reason for pause. “What?”

  “Yeah, I do. She isn’t adopted; she isn’t a step-daughter. She’s my own flesh and blood.”

  “That isn’t possible,” Raul argued. “No one with a gift, not from the Society or the prophets, can have offspring. We are all infertile.”

  “I wasn’t born this way,” Byron explained. “I was given my gift. But, before that, I was healthy, and I had a family. My daughter’s name is Mary. I met her mother in the United States and moved there to be with her. We lived in the Midwest for a few years, and in that time, I became the father of a beautiful baby girl. I can’t tell you how much I miss her.

  “Then, he found me. He called himself a prophet.” Byron laughed. “He also called himself a doctor, Dr. Joseph Palmer, in fact. Dr. Palmer told me that my family had produced three prophets in the last century, and he believed he could activate a latent gene. The concept of genetics was new to me, and he sounded legitimate. Obviously, I was skeptical on many levels, but he proved himself in every way that I asked, so I agreed.

  “I was part of a twenty-person trial. And I’ll admit, the experiments went well at first, particularly for me. After a month, I had developed what he deemed ‘prophetic awareness,’ which allowed me to sense the presence of other prophets and, in theory, demons. In a little more than two weeks later, I’d acquired my first power.”

  “First power?” Raul prompted.

  “Yes. I won’t bore you with details, but the power I received from Dr. Palmer was the ability to mimic gifts in others. The Elder Prophet Council learned that someone was effectively making prophets and shut down the entire operation. They shipped us all off to prophet sanctuaries around the world to be studied and confined indefinitely. Abigail Martin took me back to my homeland, Britain. But I wasn’t able to communicate with any of my friends or family, so I may as well have been on the moon. The empath you think I am is merely what I learned from watching Abigail Martin. I can do a variety of things, but none of them as good as the original.”

  “Thank you for sharing that with me, but I still want to know why you’re talking with a demon. And what is that book?” Raul asked, pointing to the journal on Byron’s tray. “Jeremiah called it the Register of--”

  “Azacles,” Byron provided, then motioned to the screen where a muted Jeremiah looked to now be talking to the other living demons. “Like he said, it’s an artifact that enthralls recently fallen angels.”

  “But what do you want it for?”

  The Chancellor sighed. “Didn’t the Assembly just have an argument about whether or not we could make a better world for humanity if we get resistance from mortals, prophets, and demons? I can give us a dispensable fighting force. This is all premature, of course. I wanted to present to you something a little more organized, but it looks like I’ve run out of time.”

  “Jeremiah isn’t a new demon. Why was he there, and who was the boy whom you ordered to die?”

  “First of all, I’m positive the boy did not die, and he’ll be fine.”

  Raul shook his head. “Excuses nothing.”

  “Fair enough. I just wanted to point that out...to the person who watched me do it.”

  The Regent gritted his teeth audibly. “I’m sure there will be more than enough blame to go around before this is all over. Please, continue.”

  “And I had hoped Jeremiah was going to turn my ever-growing army into a functional group. He’s done exactly that for over a thousand years, and I thought we’d be a good fit.”

  “So, let me make sure I’m following along,” Raul began. “You have an old book that controls demons; you’ve chosen a notoriously ruthless demon to control your army, and you want to use this force of malice and brutality to make the world do what we say. Is that pretty much the plan here?”

  Byron nodded slowly. “I’d like to think there’s a certain beauty in the complexity of my strategy and a best-of-all-possible-scenarios feel to it. But I suppose we can simplify it to that.”

  “How can this possibly be something you endorse?”

  “Give me another answer,” the Chancellor challenged. “Tell me how the Society I’ve sworn to protect survives the twenty-first century without continuing to move in the direction I’m leading it.”

  “My lack of an immediate answer doesn’t justify going so far overboard that I’m not even sure I know you anymore.”

  Byron held up his hands to show he wasn’t going to argue, and offered, “When I’m done, I’ll let you arrest me—if you really think I’m guilty of a serious crime. But at least give me a chance to give the Society of Minds some teeth.”

  “No,” Raul answered with finality. “I’m not going to let you go through with this. If I am greatly mistaken, and the General Assembly agrees with you, then I suppose I’ll be as supportive as I can be. I, however, think this is completely reckless.”

  The Chancellor chuckled. “Yeah, I think we both know how the Assembly is going to react to this.”

  “Nevertheless…”

  Byron looked back at the screen to see Jeremiah smoking a cigarette, alone in the office. “Do you know where he is right now?”

  “I don’t want to play games.”

  “I set up shop in San Francisco.”

  Raul stood. “You did what?”

  “Surely, you didn’t think it was a coincidence that Lonny was attacked by demons, and now you’ve found me playing with demons.”

  “You attacked him?” Raul started clenching and unclenching his fists subconsciously.

  “I sent those demons on a suicide mission, yes. You don’t remember? I was the one who arranged for Lonny to be housed in San Francisco. I said I wanted his aura masked by the large number of prophets there, but the truth is: sometimes it’s a good idea to keep all of your eggs in one basket. Those demons were hired on, not compelled by the Register. They knew too much and weren’t completely under my control.”

  The only thought that kept Raul from destroying all of Byron’s equipment was the hope that something would be effective evidence. “So, you used me to dispose of your garbage by endangering Lonny?”

  “And I set something very important into motion, something that would have seen its way to fruition had it not been for this bad timing. My point is that there are hundreds of demons on their way to San Francisco from all over the world. They will either get there under my leadership and control, or they will not be controlled. At the moment
, much of that depends on you. I should also point out that, one way or the other, there are already demons in San Francisco, and there are more nearby. Lonny is vulnerable all by himself. If you would rather stay here, I recommend letting me keep control of my demons.”

  “Don’t make the mistake of thinking that outwitting me is equitable to outwitting Jeremiah,” Raul warned. “Wherever we go from here, please do not make a deal with him.”

  “I have to try, old friend.”

  The Regent grunted. “I don’t think ‘friend’ is a very appropriate term anymore.”

  ***

  “I see now that I should never try to manipulate you again, Jeremiah,” Adversary admitted. “You are obviously more than even I took you for.”

  Jeremiah pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his jacket pocket and sat on the edge of the table. “And you are less than I took you for. I have to admit, though, that you had me guessing and second guessing all the way until the end.”

  He lit a cigarette, inhaled deeply, then exhaled with a sigh before continuing, “When I saw the ragtag band you had waiting for me and that they were not already transformed by the time I arrived, I became suspicious. Then, you really brought your authenticity into question by hiding behind a voice changer and a computer screen, even after dragging me here. But the possibility that you could have been a demon who had known about my search for the Register of Azacles and stumbled upon knowledge of my existence nagged at me. I guess the thing that sealed it for me was your ignorance of demonic fealty.

  “Please hold.”

  Jeremiah’s calm demeanor broke a little. “Hold? I most certainly will not hold. What I will do is take every piece of hardware you have in here and pay a lot of money to have it analyzed by some of the most thorough agencies in the world. I will find you, and, if I’ve cooled down by then, I will bring you to the justice of the Elder Prophets. If I have not cooled down, I will burn you where you stand when we meet.”

  There was only silence in the room for a few tense seconds.

  “He really did just put me on hold, didn’t he?” Jeremiah asked no one in particular.

  “Sounds that way,” Muriel answered.

  He turned to face Voltumna, who, like Muriel, had dropped out of his demonic form after Adversary’s other demons had been swiftly dealt with. Now, he and Muriel just watched Jeremiah very closely to make sure they didn’t offend him.

  “So, what’s your story?” Jeremiah demanded of Voltumna.

  “I am at your service, General.”

  Jeremiah laughed. “How word travels.”

  “If you can break Adversary’s control over her, you can do it for me,” Voltumna pointed out. “I will serve you. We have worked together before.”

  “Yes,” Jeremiah agreed, “I remember. We were elemental gods for a time as angels. In Italy, as I recall.”

  Voltumna nodded.

  Jeremiah shrugged his shoulders and closed his eyes. When he opened them, they had gone from their typical steely gray to black. His voice was hollow and ominous. “You belong to me, now. You will serve me, and only me, until such a time as I release you. Is that clear?”

  He nodded again.

  After a blink, Jeremiah’s eyes went back to gray. “Good,” he said with his normal, chipper voice. “As you were, then.”

  Voltumna stood up straight and looked as though his head was being cleared. “Thank you, General.”

  “Don’t thank me yet. You don’t know what working for me will entail.”

  Muriel sighed. “I think I have some idea. You’re going against the flow, aren’t you? Are you trying to become an angel or something?”

  “Yep,” Jeremiah affirmed. “That’s the goal.”

  Voltumna looked skeptical. “Does it work that way?”

  “I have a deal with Raphael. But you know how the Big Guy is. He loves a good redemption story. It certainly can’t hurt to try to be good for a little while. And I promise that I will only call upon you in emergencies. I try to keep a pretty low profile, so I’ll expect the two of you to do the same.”

  They nodded.

  Then, Jeremiah turned to stare into the camcorder. “If our host doesn’t come back soon, I’ll get bored and dismantle his toys. But, for now, the kid isn’t in jeopardy, and I’m still curious. Take Dylan to the car, and make sure he stays safe and comfortable. In ten minutes, God of Earth, here, can come back and help me haul Adversary’s stuff to the car.

  Voltumna bent down, scooped the boy up, and he and Muriel did as they were told. Jeremiah smoked his cigarette and waited.

  ***

  Byron went back to his computer; Raul was still a little stunned by this new side of Chancellor Hixson.

  Leaning toward the microphone, Byron asked, “Jeremiah?”

  Jeremiah turned to face the camera and smiled broadly. “You did come back! I hoped you would.”

  “Thank you for your patience. So, you killed all of the demons present except for Voltumna—for some reason—and Muriel, whose enchantment you broke and replaced with your own control. Did I miss anything?”

  The demon sneered. “Seems like a victory to me. Is that your concession speech?”

  Byron laughed. “Hardly. As you’re well aware, we’ve only seen the earliest stages of what the Register is capable of.”

  “And that’s why I will find you and take it.”

  “You’re welcome to it,” the Chancellor offered. “After you’ve done what I want you to do, I will be happy to give it to you as a part of your payment. Then, you can do whatever you want to with it. But I can promise, for whatever good it will do, that you’ll never find me. Sadly, if we can’t reach an accord today, I can’t promise that the position will be available later.”

  “I’ll have to decline,” Jeremiah replied. “I don’t have the energy to serve two masters; I’m just not as young as I used to be. On that note, I might be tempted to save myself the time searching for you, if you can put that book in my hands.”

  After a pause, Byron shook his head and, for the first time, looked defeated. “I’m sorry we couldn’t make something work today.”

  “Well, we traumatized a child, and I acquired a couple of demon cohorts. I guess it wasn’t all bad. I’ll be looking for you, Adversary.”

  Byron terminated Jeremiah’s video feed and turned to Raul with a little sadness in his eyes. “I suppose I was overly optimistic about that one. Maybe next time.”

  “Byron, you can’t drag the Society through this. This scheme of yours doesn’t represent the will of the Assembly or the Regents.”

  “It can’t be stopped now,” the Chancellor responded stoically, looking down at the book on his tray. “I guess you don’t understand the desperation it takes to do something like this. I look at the way things are in the world and it burns me inside. If there’s something that we can do about it, we should. After all, we’re just losing demons.”

  The door to the Chancellor’s office opened suddenly, and the Oracles strode in.

  “I should have guessed you two were behind this,” Byron admitted, motioning at Raul.

  “You are wrong, Chancellor,” Nadia said without even acknowledging his greeting. “We would not merely be losing demons. We would lose our humanity by allying with demons, even if they were our puppets.”

  “You cannot control evil without becoming evil,” Mirza added.

  “Are you trying to read my mind, Mirza?” Byron asked. “Being around the two of you for so long, I’ve picked up a few powerful tricks along the way. Not only can I feel you poking around in my thoughts, I have developed a moderate mental defense.”

  Mirza shook his head. “I wasn’t trying to read your thoughts, Chancellor. That comes as naturally to us as any of our other senses. Whatever protections you may think you have against us have not been noticed. Your thoughts were known to us when we met you, and we knew of this conversation before you were born.”

  “Ah, so there are two more observers who have come to judge me after the fact
,” Byron scoffed. “I don’t think you know half as much as you claim to know. You shroud yourselves in mystery and half-truths, and everyone on the Assembly thinks--”

  “I implanted a suggestion,” Mirza finished.

  “Sleep, Chancellor,” Nadia commanded.

  Byron’s head was gently falling forward before she even got his title out.

  “So the two of you knew this whole time?”

  “Yes,” Nadia confirmed.

  “Why did you let it get this far before telling someone?”

  “We still weren’t sure that he was wrong,” Nadia admitted.

  “He’s insane.”

  “Didn’t you correct Minister Johnson’s earlier assessment of the Chancellor’s sanity?” Mirza asked. “He isn’t insane, and we must not reduce him or his ideas to insanity. For good or ill, he knew exactly what he was doing. And the idea was not completely without merit. It just wasn’t right for the Society of Minds.”

  “Nothing good can come from a demonic army.”

  Mirza didn’t look convinced. “Some might say that nothing good can come from termites or maggots, but we know that isn’t true. Like termites and maggots, demons have a place. And we don’t feel that it’s unethical to use one demon to fight another demon, strictly speaking. But, as we’ve seen, demons aren’t the only ones being hurt.”

  “Surely you knew this would be the result. You told Byron that you’d seen this conversation. Again, why did you let it go this far?”

  “We see many futures,” Nadia explained. “Most of them never happen. Some of them have notably different probabilities of coming to pass than others do. Until he sent demons to attack Lonny, we were inclined to side with him. But, in attacking your protégé, the Chancellor made the probability of corruption much more likely. And, with every step he took after, he compounded his folly further. This meeting that you had with the Chancellor was pivotal. Until he brazenly confessed to sending the demons to attack Lonny, there was still a possibility that you could have coaxed him into a more ethical plan.”

  Mirza nodded in agreement. “His drive was important, but we underestimated how powerful the tenacity of fanaticism can be. It also bears noting that the Chancellor was dying as a side effect of the use of his abilities. When the prophet doctor experimented on Chancellor Hixson, he omitted the fact that he’d had five previous failures. And it is debatable that the Chancellor was a success. He’d taken on powers from everyone on the General Assembly, and they were devouring him. He was aware of this, and was rushing to find a solution for the continued prosperity of the Society of Minds before he was completely consumed. He was not, however, aware that his mind was being consumed as well.”