***
Gaea gave no indication of who the visitor might be, so Lucifer dressed in his elven-made red-pinstripe suit just in case it was someone important. The guest had been waiting for at least an hour, and Lucifer wanted to get to the northern visitor lobby as quickly as he could. He grabbed an orange from a fruit stand in the center of town and stopped to ask a fish-head for directions. He had grown very fond of them and had learned their language months ago.
“Where’s Grawth?” he asked one of his poker buddies.
The fish-headed guard smiled and pointed to a nearby bathroom.
“Cards tonight, Sal?”
“Sounds good,” the guard gurgled.
“Maybe without all that cheating you did last time?”
“You demons and your rules!” Salbrum yelled after him.
Lucifer pushed his wings through the holes in his suit and punched into the ground as softly as he could to avoid a scolding from Gaea. He launched onto the stucco and concrete buildings along the northern side of the main market and jumped from house to house. The rooftops would save him five to ten minutes.
He touched down in front of the domed guest building. Before he pulled the door open, he heard Sariel’s laughter.
“That’s not how I remember it,” Sariel said. “And besides, it was you who ended up running butt-naked through the center of downtown Arnessa.”
“Well, that’s why we don’t go out drinking anymore,” Elandril said from a nearby chair.
He wore a nice suit and reclined leisurely, much like he did in the state room in Arnessa when he and Ganymede had fought Lucifer and Sariel. He had his blue-toned skin back since the coronation and held a glass of wine instead of a raging orb of chaos.
“We don’t go drinking anymore,” Sariel said as he gulped the rest of his glass, “because you’re not around.”
“I’ve been busy. Universe to rule. That kind of thing.”
Sariel twisted his face in disgust and mimed a retching motion.
“Oh really?” Lucifer asked. “And which poor universe did they give you power over this weekend?”
Elandril put down his drink, leapt from the chair and embraced Lucifer. He looked behind him and then raised his eyebrows. “Where’s my sister?”
“She’s looking over table settings for the reception. You’ll just have to make do with me and Sariel for a while.”
“You guys are OK, but you’re not much to look at.”
“Hey,” Sariel said. “I’m not the one that looks like an emaciated blueberry over here,”
Lucifer nodded in agreement. “Speaking of which, how did you get re-skinned so quickly? I thought that took thousands of years.”
“Took advantage of a vortex where time runs incredibly fast. Only ended up taking a few weeks of elven time.”
“They let you get out of town for a few weeks?” Sariel asked. “I figured you would be stuck to the throne like Dad was.”
“The great thing about being a globus is that you can be in many places at once.”
Lucifer nodded again. “So, what brings a singulus like you to a place like this?”
“Well, I’d love to see my sister. It’s been over a million years, after all.”
“We’ve been meaning to take a trip back,” Lucifer said. “We’re just waiting for my uncle to resurrect.”
“Batarel still hasn’t come around?” Elandril asked, looking at Sariel. “That’s unfortunate, all things considered.”
“What are you talking about?” Sariel asked.
“Well, as part of the restitution demanded of Chaos after their failed assassination, dozens of my singuli were allowed to stay in Alurabum to keep an eye on things.”
“And they’ve attacked you there?” Lucifer asked.
“No, not me.”
“What’s going on?”
“There’s no way to put this delicately,” Elandril said, “so I’m just going to say it. There’s been a purge of the Kadingir clan.”
“A what?”
“A hunt,” Elandril said. “A massacre. A whole series of them. Eranos has gone mad, and it’s hard to talk to him. He doesn’t listen to his counselors, and he mumbles to himself constantly.”
Lucifer leaned against a wall, and Sariel got up from his couch.
“How many?” Sariel asked.
“I can’t know for sure,” Elandril said.
“Our clan compounds?”
“Destroyed.”
“Bastard,” Sariel said. “I can’t wait to remove that demon’s head.”
“He’s unhinged,” Elandril said, “but more importantly, he’s dangerous. He seems to have been trained in some very advanced magic. That’s why I was hoping to talk to Batarel.”
“What kind of advanced magic are we talking about here?” Sariel asked. “What did you see?”
“I’ve only heard rumors from survivors. I went to your familial clan home, where we spent much of our youth together. The site was gone.”
Lucifer’s stomach clenched, and he fought down vomit. “There were a thousand Kadingirs there.”
Elandril nodded. “There’s a huge crater there now. Locals claim that Eranos came there alone. Walked right into the door and then boom! Nothing left. Eranos stumbles out of the crater without a scratch on him, laughing like an idiot.”
“How big is this crater?” Lucifer asked.
“Several miles wide. Killed a lot of innocent people. The demons in the outlying suburbs weren’t even Kadingirs.”
“Arc explosions rarely go a hundred feet without the pattern burst turning back in on itself,” Sariel said. “Even with dozens of wizards channeling it and focusing on individual quadrants. We’re talking impossible here.”
“I know,” Elandril said. “We’ve been running some tests back in Arnessa. My best and brightest scientists believe that this would require establishing a major conduit with a primal.”
“Conduit?” Lucifer asked.
Sariel put his hands in his pockets and paced beside his brother. “Most pattern magic is based around maintaining a zip-line or conduit back to the primal to access raw energy. These transports are inherently volatile and hard to maintain. Elandril is saying that Eranos appears to be accessing a million times more energy than it takes for us to rocket through space faster than the speed of light. It’s unheard of.”
“And he’s using this power to kill all of his opposition,” Elandril said. “He even offed the Garrotes, your father’s supporters.”
“What did they do to him?”
“It wasn’t so much what they did to him,” Elandril said. “He claimed that they weren’t supporting him firmly enough, so they were of no use to him.”
“That’s barbaric!” Lucifer said.
Sariel put his arm around his brother. “I’ll see what I can do.”
A thunderclap crackled around the room from so close that Lucifer felt his skin jarring against the rest of his flesh. He stumbled against the wall and saw that Sariel was no longer with them.
“Where did he go?”
“Can’t see him anywhere in Alurabum, yet.” Elandril said.
“Well, that’s comforting.”
A door opened behind him and the soft pitter-patter of a set of sandals and high heels approached them.
“What the hell was that?” Anne asked.
Lucifer’s mouth went ajar when he caught sight of her. Anne was wearing a tight, red-and-black conservative dress and black pumps. She winked at him as she passed him, and he completely forgot the conversation that had been ongoing. Gaea waved and giggled as she bounced and clopped after her.
“Annie?” Elandril asked, bending his knees and opening his arms. “Oh my gods!”
“El-el!” She screamed as she kicked off her pumps and ran to him.
Elandril picked her up and twirled her around before setting her back down. “A million years …”
“Are you trying to say I look old?” she pouted.
“No, of course not,” he
said. “You’re my little sister. What would that say about me?”
He pushed her away to arm’s distance and scanned her. She smiled back at him.
Gaea pushed past Lucifer and gushed as she clapped her hands at the reunion. “You two are so adorable!” She lifted Elandril in a big bear hug before setting him back down. “It’s so wonderful to finally meet you!”
“El-el,” Anne laughed. “This is Gaea.”