Category: Magics

The manipulation of the metaphysical with the aim of altering the physical world in one respect or another.

Astaroth’s Wager, Part XIV

Back to Astaroth’s Wager, Part XIII.

It was the morning of May 31, 1937, and Adelaide was wickedly exhausted. A great amount of her exhaustion had come from the complete lack of sleep she’d had since Hank was born, but it wasn’t Hank’s fault at all. He didn’t cry or fuss as much as other infants, even though his feeding schedule included a late night meal at half past one and a first breakfast at five.

Thomas’ sister Florence had had a really difficult night. Adelaide wished that she could chalk it up to an anomalous event, but she’d lost count of how many times Florence had perpetrated some wild disruption on account of her madness. Adelaide was tired of locking up the knives, scissors, pens and matches to keep away from her. If the mere suggestion of them didn’t make her scream, the sight of them initiated battles in which Florence would try to seize them. In the previous five months since she had been released from the hospital, Florence had used the knives and scissors to carve into the floors, the pens to write on the walls and the matches to heat the knives to sear her already scarred flesh and set small fires in the house. Adelaide had pled with Thomas to put Florence into a hospital, but he absolutely refused every single time the suggestion was made.

Hank had fallen asleep on Adelaide’s chest after his second breakfast. She wished he could tell her if he’d had a tough time sleeping in the same house as Florence, too.

Thomas looked like he felt like the rope used to tie down a tent in a hurricane when he shuffled into the kitchen. He laid his coat on the one of the chairs at the kitchen table and whispered. “Have you made any coffee?”

“You might need to heat it up again. I boiled it about an hour ago,” Adelaide responded in a whisper as well.

Thomas turned on the gas on the stove, but the pilot failed the light the burner. He turned off the gas and fetched his gold cigarette lighter from his coat, returning to the stove to repeat his actions and igniting the gas with his lighter. He slumped into a chair at the kitchen table. “Thank God tomorrow’s the first. They said they’d be delivering the new stove tomorrow, since this one’s never really worked.”

“I told you what happened—”

“Addie, there’s no way—”

“—and you didn’t believe me, just like you didn’t believe me—”

“—that Flo broke the stove like you said she did.”

“—about the window or the clothesline when I was still pregnant, and I don’t know how you can expect me to raise your son in a house where your sister is keeping us up all night screaming about the cats outside. And if it’s not the cats, it’s the birds. And if it’s not the birds, then it’s triangles. When will it end?” Adelaide argued. Her whisper had an impassioned hiss to it, and Hank adjusted on her chest.

“She’s my sister. I can’t just throw her out. You know she can’t take care of herself.”

“She needs a doctor. She needs to be in a hospital.”

“You know what they do in those hospitals,” Thomas said.

“Tom—I don’t want her around the baby anymore. He doesn’t get enough sleep—none of us do—and I know you heard her last night. Don’t deny it.”

“I did.”

“So tell me what she said, so I can hear it from you. Because if you heard it too, then maybe you’ll start to believe me when I say that I don’t want her anywhere near our son,” Adelaide insisted.

Thomas sighed and rubbed his face. “She said that the cat told her that babies were evil, and the only thing that stops evil is fire.”

“Well?”

“Fine. I’ll call the doctor today and have him come by as soon as possible,” he conceded.

“Thank you. What do I do with her in the meantime?” she asked.

“She’s sleeping now, right?”

“She’s the only one in the house who actually gets any sleep,” Adelaide countered.

“Let her sleep. Hopefully the doctor will give her something to sleep so that when I get home tonight you and I can have a nice evening where we’re not trying to restrain my sister and we don’t fight and we can figure out what we’re going to do celebrate our anniversary and Hank’s month-old birthday next week,” Thomas said.

“I’d love that,” Adelaide replied.

“And I love you, Adelaide. And I love you, son.” Thomas kissed his own index and middle finger and pressed the translated kiss to Hank’s forehead.

Dominus tecum.

On to Astaroth’s Wager, Part XV.

February 8, 2011, 06:58
Astaroth’s Wager, Part XIII

Back to Astaroth’s Wager, Part XII.

It was just past two in the morning on December 25, 1936, when Caius returned to his master. Astaroth was sitting before a roaring fire in the drawing room of a mansion in Beverly Hills. Caius inhabited the body of a rat and leapt onto her shoulder. “I have returned, madam.”

A contemporary postcard of Constance Bennett’s home, one of the Meeses’ neighbors. The architectural style employed at the Meese home was very similar.

“Caius! I’ll bet you’ve succeeded!” Astaroth squealed. “And on Christmas! That’s a fine touch. The primate investigators will probably think it’s an accident. Here—let me call Svipul here. She’s been possessing the body of a primate. You can take over for her for the meantime.”

“You look different, madam. Have you been possessing the body of a primate as well?”

“Never in an angelic age, no. I’ve become so accustomed to looking like this horrible little man that I completely forgot that I’m among friends,” Astaroth said. Over the previous five months, she had been pretending that she was Mr. Philip T. Meese—an older gentleman of average height with gray hair combed in such a fashion so as to cover his baldness, blue eyes, a bulbous nose, three chins and a considerable paunch. She marched over to the nearest mirror and without any visible transformation, blonde bombshell Astaroth was the reflection that the mirror reported back to her. “That’s better. I’m wondering when women will have any sort of power and independence again in this world. I hope it’s soon. I hate having to look like bald, fat men to be taken seriously by primates. The late Mr. Meese was the least repulsive motion picture studio executive for me to destroy so that I could steal his identity and station.”

Svipul had had to adjust, too. As soon as she saw Caius as the rat, she departed the body of the gray-haired, garishly-dressed Mrs. Ada Meese, and her body crumpled to the floor like a marionette with its strings cut. Svipul immediately took her usual form—a far more severe-looking but less attractive blonde than Astaroth—and said, “Oh fantastic—Caius, take over for me. I’m sick of that woman. Humans are just so bruisable. I can’t stand it anymore. I don’t know how you are able to cope with them.”

The rat ran out of the room and towards the kitchen when Caius departed its body, and within a fraction of a moment, Mrs. Meese was upright. “She smells better than most humans. Thank you, madam.”

“Tell me—are all the Warrens dead, except Florence?” Astaroth said.

“It is so, madam.”

“And how did it go?”

“I started with the children, as was your suggestion, madam, and I inhabited the body of a stray cat. I taught the elder child how to write my name using various dead languages, and I taught him some very small spells to hurt his younger sister and parents. As his punishments got worse, his anger grew, and when he discovered that Santa Claus only left him a lump of coal for Christmas, I convinced him to start a fire to destroy his family. I made sure he was trapped in the bedroom and possessed Florence only long enough to escape with very serious burns. She’s in the hospital now. The police should be by to inform Thomas Carver of what happened to his sister later today. I heard the officers in Kansas City discuss contacting the local police here in Los Angeles to make the notification. Their expectation is that her brother will take Florence in and look after her,” Caius explained.

“And her mental state?”

“Florence knows her son started the fire. She’d been trying to stop him from burning down the house all week long. Given the strain from such a personal tragedy, his magically-enforced systematic torture of them all and their many financial woes, she’s quite mad, madam,” Caius stated.

“Impressive,” Svipul remarked.

“Thank you, Chancellor Svipul.”

“If I’m perfectly honest, I have to admit that I’m envious of all the fun you had. Now that the hook is baited, we wait. And I’ll have you know that there’s a new title in this for you, too, Caius. There’s no reason for you to remain a mere Devil any longer,” Astaroth said.

“Might I inquire after your mark, madam?” he asked.

Astaroth explained, “Oh, the newlywed Carvers are ever so deeply boring: so in love, can’t believe their luck, expecting a child in May, blahblahBLAHBLAH. But not for long! Merry Christmas, Thomas Carver. I hope he truly enjoys it, as it’ll be his last.”

Dominus tecum.

On to Astaroth’s Wager, Part XIV.

February 1, 2011, 07:04
Astaroth’s Wager, Part X

Back to Astaroth’s Wager, Part IX.

“What will you have me do now, madam?” Caius asked.

“Well—Stolas should be calming down right about now and on his way to come kill me,” Astaroth said. “I know you’re partial to the body of that Prussian primate, but it’s time to let it go. Leave it, and leave here. You don’t want to be around when at least one angel shows up. I’ll call for you when I’m finished here.”

“As you wish, madam,” Caius replied. He sat down in a chair in their suite. The body that he had possessed went limp, falling into the deep unconsciousness characteristic of a coma. The essence of his Neku self had departed.

“Did you have to destroy my Kazuko as well when you destroyed all the other Nekus?” Svipul asked Astaroth. “It’ll take me at least two centuries to develop that kind of loyalty in another Neku.”

“I can’t argue with that. Nekus don’t really grasp their utter dependence upon their Apokomistai masters for at least half a millennium,” Astaroth said. “But you do realize, my dear Svipul, that you have a better chance at getting an audience with God than you do in extracting even the slightest apology from me.”

“So—what is your plan now?”

“I give Stolas not long at all before he’s here to try to take back my ellamadus,” Astaroth said. She migrated to the middle of the suite where there was an open space on the carpet.

“And then?”

“There’s the rub, isn’t it?” Astaroth said.

“You’re not even going to provide a hint as to what to expect?” Svipul asked, joining her in the open space.

“You can expect fun. Draw your sword. If you would be so kind as to provide me with support, I’ll see to it that you’re rewarded for your bravery.” Astaroth held the Ashera Didilak in her open palm. She muttered a few phrases, and the ellamadus glowed brightly again.

“Is that the Ashera Didilak?” Svipul asked.

The ellamadus went dull in her hand. “Break my concentration again and you’ll find out just how much damage the Ashera Didilak really can do. Now—be ready. We don’t know how ready for battle the half-primate will be,” Astaroth ordered.

Svipul drew her sword.

Astaroth pronounced a few more phrases in the ancient, forgotten language, and for a few moments, her voice changed, so that the timbre of her voice more closely resembled a percussion instrument than a vocalized sound. The Ashera Didilak’s lavender light grew as unbearably bright as the sun for a fraction of a moment, until its light collapsed in on itself. The ellamadus phased out of sight for a similarly tiny amount of time and reappeared in Astaroth’s palm as it had before she had channelled its magics.

Rose Nielsen materialized out of thin air, and she fell on her knees onto the floor. She looked as if she had been awakened from a nap. Nonetheless, it appeared that she had sensed that she was being unexpectedly ripped from the comfort of where she had been, and with the one hand she had, she had gripped what was closest to her to anchor her. Much to her horror and Astaroth’s delight, it was a similarly sleepy and disoriented Adelaide Grayson.

Rose and Adelaide quickly tried to scramble to their feet, but Svipul held her blade at Rose’s throat. Svipul said with a voice filled with unnatural menace, “Keep to the floor and quiet. Both of you.”

Adelaide’s shock took the better of her. Her entire complexion turned grey, and she fainted again.

“Look, Svipul! Sitri isn’t the pathetic warrior we thought he was. I’ll go out on a limb here and guess that you’re unarmed, Miss Nielsen. I’d be willing to bet that you’ve forgotten your blade, too,” Astaroth said with an unnervingly giddy expression. “That primate might be able to lend you a hand in a very literal sense, but unless you brought your own weapon to disarm her, she’s useless to you now in every other meaningful way.” She directed her attention to Svipul and said, “What do you think? One pun too many?”

“Why do you want Adelaide?” Rose demanded.

“This has nothing to do with her, and everything to do with a miscarriage of a wager. I might even let the primate go when this is all over,” Astaroth said.

“My father and Kivati will be here soon,” Rose threatened.

“I’m counting on that,” Astaroth retorted. She held up the Ashera Didlak again and resumed eliciting its magics. The lavender light flowed out of it in long threads that circled Rose until they formed a faint chamber around her. Rose tried to protest, but the chamber only echoed her own sounds back to her. She looked panicked, and she started pounding on the walls of the chamber.

“Take the female primate with you and leave,” Astaroth said.

“I’ll meet you at my flat in Antwerp,” Svipul replied. She lifted Adelaide off the floor, and the two of them vanished.

Astaroth was alone in the suite with Rose inside her mystical chamber for no longer than a few long moments when Stolas appeared.

“Astaroth! I want it back!” he cried.

“I told you I just wanted to borrow it. You’ll have it back before you know it,” Astaroth said.

Rose was furiously kicking at the walls of the cocoon in a demonstration of futility when the entire character of the room shifted: Itzamná and Kivati had arrived.

Human eyes would never have caught everything that happened during the few seconds in which it all transpired: Astaroth tossed the Ashera Didilak in the air, drew her blade and vanished; Stolas caught the ellamadus; Kivati struck Stolas down and killed him; Itzamná struggled to break into the chamber to save his daughter; Astaroth rematerialized behind Itzamná, struck him with her blade and killed him. There was a jarring blast of light that burst in the room from Itzamná’s death, like supernova in the supremely miniature, and while Kivati was stunned by the explosion of Itzamná’s Graces, Astaroth seized the Ashera Didilak. She issued one final command to the Ashera Didilak, and the walls of chamber around Rose rapidly drew in to crush her and kill her. Kivati struck out at Astaroth to engage her in battle, but Astaroth’s merely lobbed the Ashera Didilak back at her and vanished.

The hotel suite went still. Kivati was alone in the silence with Caius’ dying human host and a clump of black material that resembled obsidian where Stolas had met his end. There was a shift in the atmosphere of the room from the detectable metaphysical markers that an angel and a Nephil had perished there.

Kivati reported back to Heaven that Astaroth had been involved in Itzamná’s death, and she requested permission to pursue, detain and destroy her. The response she received infuriated her: no further action was to be taken, for Itzamná had disobeyed when he left his post once again to save his daughter from an Apokomistis with a reputation like Astaroth’s. Rose hadn’t had much of a chance in the hands of any Apokomistis with an ellamadus. Had they not responded, Itzamná’s lifeforce would have remained in tact, and he wouldn’t have died. Without an ellamadus, Astaroth was no more dangerous than the average Apokomistis, and pursuing her wasn’t of the any immediate importance. Kivati was ordered to return to her post immediately and without complaint.

Kivati eyed the Ashera Didilak carefully in her palm. Her fingers closed around it, and she smashed it, obliterating one of the most powerful magical objects in ever in existence.

* * *

Adelaide was still unconscious on the floor of Svipul’s flat when Astaroth joined them. Svipul said, “I have an idea on how to tie up this Thomas Carver loose end. You can use the Ashera Didilak to—”

Astaroth interrupted, “I gave the Ashera Didilak to Kivati before I left the scene, and I’m sure that by now she’s turned it into a useless pile of metallic powder.”

“Why?”

“Stolas is no more. I will lay claim to all his territories and possessions at the soonest, after we’ve taken care of Thomas Carver.”

“But the ellamadus—your power would be unquestionable with it.”

Astaroth grinned. “My power is unquestionable without it. The only purpose it could serve in the future would be to deliver my own downfall, just as it did for Stolas. The only reason one ever needs a ladder after one has ascended to a rooftop is if one has the intention of coming down. I have no intention of ever relinquishing my title of Queen, and I no longer require the ladder that allowed me to reach this height. That, Svipul, is power.”

Dominus tecum.

On to Astaroth’s Wager, Part XI.

January 11, 2011, 07:14
Astaroth’s Wager, Part IX

Back to Astaroth’s Wager, Part VIII.

An ellamadus is to white magics what a grimoire is to black magics. Unlike traditional grimoires that feature spells neatly written out in books or scrolls like the Lemegeton or the Picatrix, ellamadi are more like the grimoire known as the Orrery, in that they are objects that are meant to harness a specific type of energy and release it if one can unlock how to use it. They demand that its user possess a fluency in the manipulation of metaphysics that is magic, and without that basic knowledge, they’re just pretty objects. On account of their potency and immeasurable value to demons, any angel who came across one was on orders to confiscate and destroy it, and demons went out of their way to keep them out of the angels’ sight.

This particular ellamadus was known as the Ashera Didilak, which roughly translates to the children’s lament. When only its lower magics are unlocked, it endows its owner with the sort of metaphysical brawn that allowed Stolas to defeat Dantalion and become a King. Its higher functions include summoning magics, which are far more complicated than you might think, for although summoning a demon is relatively easy, summoning an angel, human or hybrid creation isn’t, and they can reunite all the members of a family, including angels. It’s a highly useful tool for parents, which is why it can be a bane to the offspring of its possessor.

Astaroth gingerly handled the Ashera Didilak. She uttered a few words in a long-lost language that made the orb emit a pale lavender glow in her palm. It lit up her face, emphasizing the lines of menace that flanked her smile. She said, “Stolas is an even bigger idiot that I could ever ever have imagined. It was common knowledge that he had an ellamadus, which was just what I needed, but this changes everything. Come to think of it, it might have been wise of him never to advertise that he had the Ashera Didilak. I’d’ve come after it centuries ago.”

“What shall I do now, madam?” Caius asked.

Her eyes were still fixed upon the Ashera Didilak. She ordered, “Pay the proprietors so we can leave. I’m tired of Athens already. Regardless, we ought to leave before Stolas is finished with that boy and senses that something’s wrong. What’s worse is that the hotel maids haven’t cleaned this suite properly. It smells like all the parts of primates that I despise.”

“Where are we going next, madam?” Caius wondered.

“Oh, if only I cared that all the others are going to be upset for calling them back to me so soon. I honestly didn’t think I’d succeed this quickly. Anyway—find Svipul. We’ll meet her wherever she is, and wherever that is, book a suite for all of us that meets my standards. And make sure that it doesn’t reek of mammalian excretion, or this will be the last private errand you make with me.”

Astaroth wasn’t paying attention to Caius’ nod of compliance, for she was entranced by the Ashera Didilak. “And Caius…”

“Yes, madam?”

“Mention none of this to Svipul. Let her believe that she’s ‘helping’.”

An old postcard of the Hotel Lenox.

Svipul and her Neku Kazuko had been tracking down information about Rose Nielsen in Boston when Astaroth, Caius and the rest of her demon entourage took up at the Hotel Lenox. While Kazuko had gone off on her own to follow a lead, Svipul joined Astaroth and the others in the pretense of dining in the hotel’s restaurant. She looked rather pleased and declared, “Kazuko reports that—”

Astaroth glared at her, and Svipul went silent. It was clear that a silent exchange had begun between the two Apokomistai. Astaroth said, “Svipul, we must be more careful than to announce our future plans in public. Given the circumstances, I’d imagine that you’d be more panicked.”

Svipul had switched gears, and she followed Astaroth’s lead. “What were you able to find out about Itzamná?”

“It’s useless. I can’t defeat him. I’ll just have to negotiate with him,” Astaroth explained.

“And how do you intend to do that?” Svipul asked.

“The good news is that I have something that an angel wants. I’ll just have to arrange an exchange with him, like we’d discussed before, and maybe he’ll leave me alone. I was really hoping to get through 1936 without a battle,” Astaroth said.

“Where were you thinking?”

“Don’t play stupid. We’ve already booked the suite for the week, and I don’t want to make it too easy for him. Boston’s nice and public. Even kind of quaint. He won’t be at risk to spill the beans about what he is if we take the fight to him,” Astaroth replied.

Astaroth, Svipul and the others kept up the appearances of dining until the earlier hours crept over Boston. A few of the Nekus left to practice ill deeds upon a few of the humans who’d had the misfortune of lodging at the Lenox, and Astaroth and Svipul had retired to the suite. As the dawn was breaking, Caius reported to his mistress’ side. “It’s accomplished, madam.”

“Explain,” Astaroth demanded.

“Stolas believes that you stole his ellamadus so that you might use it to buy your pardon from Itzamná, madam,” Caius said.

Astaroth clapped her hands. “Excellent! Thank you, Caius.”

“It’s my pleasure, madam,” Caius answered.

“Oh, and Caius? Round up all the others. I need to see them now,” Astaroth said.

Caius did as she ordered, and all her Nekus returned to her suite. It didn’t matter to her who had betrayed her confidence to Stolas or questioned her strength against a Watcher, but after a few fiery moments, the only Neku left in existence within the entire city of Boston was Caius.

Dominus tecum.

On to Astaroth’s Wager, Part X.

January 4, 2011, 07:14
Astaroth’s Wager, Part VIII

Back to Astaroth’s Wager, Part VII.

Demons, like angels, have their own system of classification that is remotely similar to the angels’ Orders. Apokomistai and Nekus alike are divided into what demons call Estates. Whereas our Orders are were permanent and were assigned to us by God based upon the gifts we received from our Graces, the Estates are, for the most part, a hierarchy based upon a demon’s abilities in terms of their strength and intelligence, with strength typically tipping the balance whenever there is a dispute. Unlike the Orders, a demon’s Estate can change over time, so that a demon can acquire more power and/or territory over time, and many demon wars have occurred as a result of attempts to ascend to a different Estate. There are thirteen Estates, and they are, from the highest rank to the lowest, Kings and Queens, Princes and Princesses, Presidents, Chancellors, Dukes and Duchesses, Margraves and Margravines, Counts and Countesses, Viscounts and Viscountesses, Barons and Baronesses, Knights and Dames, Generals, Devils and Demons. To date, no Neku has ever been able to claim an Estate higher than General, although there have been a few exceptions in which a handful have received the Estate of Knight or Dame as an honorary distinction that isn’t recognized by anyone except their master. All the other ranks are reserved exclusively for the Apokomistai.

A contemporary postcard of the Temple of Athena Nike.

Princess Astaroth, as she was styled at the time, went to Athens to seek out the Apokomistis Stolas, who was then the King of Greece and Anatolia. Stolas’ power wasn’t necessarily in the territory he held but in the objects that were within his control. He had obtained his Estate when he rescued all the grimoires, both ellamadi and a shocking number of other magical objects from the destructive fires that consumed the Library of Alexandria. The result was that Stolas was able to wield a profound amount of magical power and he gladly took the credit for having burned the Library to the ground in 48 BC, even though the true source of the blaze that swallowed all that ancient human knowledge came from a drunken dare gone horribly wrong by a few of Julius Caesar’s soldiers. After he left Egypt, the Viscount Stolas went to Athens and made a play for King Dantalion’s territories. Dantalion’s magical knowledge wasn’t enough to compete with Stolas’ dumb luck, and Stolas encased him within a mystical pocket in which he is still trapped at this very moment. King Stolas remained in Athens, minding his treasures and his reputation with a legion of Nekus in his command to help him look after the wares that propelled him upward from his relative obscurity as a Viscount. However, given the method of his claim to King, he often looked after his affairs with a more than adequate measure of paranoia. He consequently steered clear of almost all of the other Apokomistai and had an alarmingly high rate of turnover with his Nekus, usually killing them within a year of their birth. Most Nekus live to be a few hundred years old at the very least.

Astaroth arrived alone and unannounced on the steps of his opulent palace in the late evening hours of that same day, June 4, 1936. The twenty-nine infant Nekus who were serving as the outdoor sentinels provided some resistance to her confident march into the palace, and they invited a dozen more from inside the palace to join in the struggle until they all understood what she was based upon her strength. They immediately backed off in fear and sent word to their King that a Princess had arrived. She strode unaccompanied into a drawing room in which Stolas was feasting upon a young boy that his Nekus had kidnapped for their master’s enjoyment.

“I need it,” Astaroth announced.

“No. But it’s nice to see you again, Asta,” Stolas answered, and he wiped the boy’s blood off his hands with an embroidered handkerchief. “You know I don’t like being interrupted, and I know you wouldn’t come in here asking for such a valuable object. Not really. You have something else in mind, don’t you?”

“I don’t. I want it. You’ll have it back in a year. Exactly a year from today, if you like. I’ll give you whatever you want as collateral,” Astaroth said.

Stolas issued an amused chuckle. “It’s not for loaning. It’s not for anything except admiring with genuine awe. It’s mine, and it’s not going anywhere.”

“Fine. King Sitri wants it,” Astaroth said.

“Sitri wouldn’t send you on an errand to claim such a thing. He’d come to claim it personally. So let’s not dwell on that non-negotiable,” Stolas said. “Would you like a boy before I throw you out? My Nekus brought me a fresh batch just today. They’re from Crete. You can actually taste the Mediterranean in their flesh. Come on—try one.”

“I’ve never acquired a taste for primate flesh,” Astaroth replied.

“You’re missing out if you only dine on their souls,” Stolas said. He turned to a Neku and said, “Bring her a boy and a proper soul-drinking vessel.”

“I suppose I could stay for a moment. I might be able to convince you to part with it—” Astaroth said.

“Not a chance. But I’m not having all my Nekus forcefully eject you from the premises until you’ve tried one.”

Astaroth remained in the palace for an hour, carefully extracting the soul of the boy that Stolas’ Nekus had brought to her and savoring it slowly. She thanked Stolas for his hospitality, made a final plea for it, left without further complaint and went to meet Caius in the hotel suite that he had secured for her barely a couple of hours prior.

“Was my initial diversion large enough?” Astaroth inquired.

“It was perfect, madam,” Caius answered.

“You were able to get in?”

“Yes, madam.”

“And were you able to lift it without any of those incompetent Nekus ever suspecting anything?” Astaroth asked with growing enthusiasm.

“Yes, madam.”

“And you’ve got it now?!” Astaroth demanded excitedly.

“Indeed, madam,” Caius said. He handed her a small, silvery mechanism that looked like a combination of a pocket watch and a tiny globe. It was the same object that Stolas had refused to loan her. It was the most powerful thing he had, for it was a store of the most potent magics available. It was an ellamadus.

Happy New Year to all of you who mark time using the Gregorian Calendar! Dominus vobiscum.

On to Astaroth’s Wager, Part IX.

December 28, 2010, 07:14
Astaroth’s Wager, Part V

Back to Astaroth’s Wager, Part IV.

All the while Astaroth, Sitri and Svipul were on their way to Market Street, Rose Nielsen was interrogating Adelaide Grayson about her betrothed. Adelaide, her mother and grandfather were beyond baffled at what had taken place. They were all struggling to accept that Rose was adamant that Thomas hadn’t been Thomas, and that the false Thomas had attacked her. Mrs. Grayson had already called for the doctor to come round and have a look at the gash in her arm, despite Rose’s insistence that she would see her own doctor at the soonest. The bleeding had stopped, but the cursed magics in Sitri’s blade were turning Rose’s wound black and causing pieces of flesh to crumble off her arm like charcoal.

Rose had called out to her father, and Itzamná answered. He appeared at the boarding house, posing as a doctor. He brought with him another Watcher by the name of Kivati, who had adopted the semblance of a police officer. Kivati gathered as much information as she could on Thomas, Adelaide and her family while Itzamná worked on Rose’s wound. Unfortunately, neither he nor Kivati had the gifts to repair the damage that had been done by the cursed blade. Rose understood the situation very well. She told her father, “There’s no time to argue about this. Either you do it, or I’ll do it myself and make a mess of it. I’ll be able to heal up afterward.”

Itzamná hesitated for a few moments, but in the end, he applied a quick stroke to her elbow with his steel. Nephilim heal quickly from physical wounds, and by the end of the evening, a human would have assumed that she’d lost her forearm at least a month before.

Now—please do understand that back in those days, we angels all had very specific roles to fill. Watchers had some of the most thankless roles of all the Orders, and they were made to answer to Dominions, the Order responsible for the management of processes within Heaven and the Universe. Every Watcher found it torturous to watch and not intervene, and every last one of them disobeyed and was reprimanded for his or her actions on more than one occasion. I don’t blame them. It’s torturous being here now as an Archangel and not being able to do much of anything. Most of the time, many Dominions were directly supervising Watchers who hadn’t followed their directives and disobeyed.

Itzamná had been on a particularly short leash at the time, considering that he had been tasked with extra duties as punishment for partnering with a human and fathering a Nephil. It pained him to have to depart from his wounded daughter after less than an hour with her in order to carry out his duties as a Watcher. He promised his daughter that he would return as soon as he was able and help her hunt down the demon who attacked her, and he left her in Kivati’s care.

Kivati, however, hadn’t recently been censured by Heaven at that time. She presented what she had learned of the attack to the Dominion who was her supervisor, and she was given permission to follow Rose, determine the reason for the attack and dispatch the demon who had perpetrated it. Kivati made sure that Rose and everyone else at the boarding house were in no imminent danger and went out to find Thomas Carver.

An old postcard of the Phelan Building. It’s still an impressive architectural feat today.

Kivati didn’t have much reason to hope for Thomas’ safety. Over the millennia of observing humans, she had learned that, under normal circumstances, an Apokomistis who masqueraded as a human had already executed some evil upon that human and was merely tying up loose ends. Adelaide had supplied the address of Thomas’ employer: he was one the elevator operators for the Phelan Building on Market Street, one of the lovely architectural gems from the reconstructive years following the Great Earthquake of 1906. Maintaining her cover as a police officer, she adeptly materialized within the lobby of the Phelan Building so as not to attract any attention from the many humans in the area.

She’d arrived just in time. Thomas was being chased out of the elevator and through the lobby by an Apokomistis, and she gave pursuit.

Dominus tecum.

On to Astaroth’s Wager, Part VI.

December 7, 2010, 07:01
Orders, Part VI and Conclusion

Back to Orders, Part V.

Jiang Xuande didn’t have much time to prepare for the attack that Astaroth had in mind for him, but he did have fair warning that she was coming. She had made an unsuccessful attempt to recall Makeri to her service, and Makeri writhed from the excruciating efforts, issuing a profound number of curses upon the magician’s head.

The magician hadn’t had much time to play with the Orrery and perfect the magics in it, but he got the gist of how to summon his own army. Makeri’s human host went gray with the amount of blood that was necessary to summon forty-nine Nekus, and Jiang Xuande ordered them all to possess the forty-nine generals in command of Duke Xiao’s royal guard. The generals were then ordered to defend Jiang Xuande against the attack from Astaroth’s army.

Astaroth had had a different plan in mind at first, but when she understood what Jiang Xuande was up to, she had to shift things around. She took the shape of Duke Xiao (and left the real Duke incapacitated within his bedroom to flirt with insanity at the sight of his double running about) and commanded his forces to destroy the mutinous attack launched by Jiang Xuande and his own royal guard. She also summoned more than eight thousand Nekus to possess the army, and they were all of them ordered to annihilate everything in sight.

The armies assembled on the battlefield. Each side waited impatiently for the order to attack. In the anticipation, the concentration of dark metaphysical energies within the state of Qin brought that part of the Earth into serious distress. Sunlight bent and scattered, spring turned to bitter winter and life itself began to wither under the oppressive evil.

Michael had made a sweep of the area. He was loathe to destroy the vast number of humans assembled there, but he had to do something to destroy the demons. He determined that both sides were armed with human weapons (it requires an entirely different type of weapon to do harm to an angel), and understanding the risk, he ordered Jophiel, Sidriel, Sabrathon and Kochabiel to the battlefield to dispatch as many demons as possible while he worked on a solution to fix the accumulating metaphysical damage with a few other angels in Heaven. The four angels set out inside the hordes of demons, approaching each Neku with great stealth to destroy them inside their hosts. All of them did their best to leave the humans alive without causing them serious harm.

Astaroth didn’t care to tarry, and she ordered her army to advance against Jiang Xuande’s forces. They charged across the field with a murderous speed, and when she was sure that Jiang Xuande was preoccupied with being outnumbered more than 160 to 1, she went after him to recover the Orrery.

It was in use, just as she had suspected. Jiang Xuande had it engaged to locate Azrael, for he was certain that the Angel of Death was present on the battlefield.

It didn’t take Astaroth much effort to recover the Orrery. Ninalla had been a proud Neku, and she’d neglected to tell Jiang Xuande about the stark differences between Nekus and Apokomistai. Had Astaroth not been so adamant to recover her property, she probably would have made Jiang Xuande’s death a far more painful event, but she ended his life quickly. She had begun the process of claiming the dead magician’s soul for her own before it returned to Earth’s well of souls, but Azrael materialized in the nick of time and took his soul instead.

Astaroth wasn’t about to surrender such a corrupt soul to Azrael. Unlike the thousands of Nekus on the battlefield, Astaroth did have a weapon that could harm an angel. She drew her sword, ready to steal back the soul that she felt was rightfully hers. She struck out at him, but Michael had appeared to intervene. She fell off balance and quickly sheathed her weapon. She knew that she was no match for an Archangel, and so she seized the Orrery and disappeared in tact.

The four angels on the battlefield had destroyed over a thousand Nekus—Jophiel and Sidriel had taken out more than four hundred each. Michael surveyed the situation. He knew that if he left Jophiel and Sidriel in the battle long enough, the rest of the Nekus would either leave the battle or fall, but there were still over six thousand demons in the area. The concentration of six thousand demons in one location was rapidly contaminating the metaphysical fabric of the Earth.

Infantrymen from the Terracotta Army. They were inspired by the soldiers petrified by the heavenly rain.

Michael called the four warriors on the battlefield to him, and with the help of a few angels from the Order of Virtues—Virtues are celestial architects and engineers—they brought a great storm to the sky over the battlefield. It rained a heavy, thick liquid upon the Nekus below, and it slowly transformed the human hosts of the Nekus into clay over the course of half of an hour. The hosts with the Nekus sank into the mud of the battlefield. After the hour had passed, the storm diminished, and every surviving Neku had been trapped inside a dying host, anchored to the Earth.

Azrael collected the essences of the Nekus and spirited them away to a dark corner of the Universe. The balance of the Earth had returned.

Most of the clay soldiers sunk deep into the ground and were forgotten, but a few of them had perished on rock. Over the years, the people of Qin had spun tales about how these soldiers had come to be. A century later, the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang had heard tales of how these clay soldiers had once been spirit warriors, until a great dragon had turned them into clay. He felt that spirit warriors would be exactly what he needed after he had passed on, and he built an army of them—an army of more than eight thousand—in terracotta to guard his tomb, vigilant until the end of the Earth.

This concludes our tale. A happy and safe Halloween to you! Dominus vobiscum.

October 26, 2010, 07:21
Orders, Part V

Back to Orders, Part IV.

The effort to summon Makeri almost bled Jiang Xuande to death. Makeri reported rather reluctantly to the magician and gave him an insouciant and bored greeting.

Makeri hadn’t anticipated that Jiang Xuande had built a trap for him, and Jiang Xuande bound Makeri’s metaphysical essence to the peasant girl, making it impossible for him to escape without fusing his soul to hers. Makeri realized that he was obligated to do Jiang Xuande’s bidding or forfeit his existence as he knew it, and so he had little choice but to help the magician carry out his mad plans until he was released from the cage of the peasant girl’s body.

Jiang Xuande needed the Neku to execute his plan. The first thing he made Makeri do was to provide detailed information about Astaroth’s palace in Persepolis. Jiang Xuande was delighted to learn from Makeri that the palace was, relatively speaking, unoccupied, for Astaroth and her entourage had gone to Egypt on an errand.

One of the more sinister magics that Jiang Xuande had learned from Ninalla was how to separate his own consciousness from his body and, in essence, become something like a Neku himself. It was through this dematerialization that he was able to travel thousands of miles at a great speed (a speed that’s hardly impressive to those of you in the 21st century, but nonetheless impressive for an actual mortal without the aid of a machine) to Astaroth’s palace. Given what he’d learned from both Ninalla and Makeri, he knew exactly what he needed and exactly where to find it, for Jiang Xuande’s intention was to sneak into Astaroth’s palace and steal from her library the most discreet of grimoires. This grimoire was particularly powerful (and is now lost, having been “misplaced” in ab urbe condita 560, or 193 BC), and it was unique, for it was a remarkable source of demonic magical secrets tucked inside a miniature orrery.

An orrery. The Orrery, now lost, was about the size of a grapefruit.

You might ask yourself how an orrery could function as a grimoire, for an orrery is merely a machine meant to represent the movements of the planets in this solar system. In this case, each planet had different meanings assigned to it, and dependent upon the geometric relationships that were created, it was able to harness specific demonic energies that could then be used. As Jiang Xuande was an astronomer, alchemist and magician, Ninalla had told him all about this particular grimoire, known simply as the Orrery, for she felt that he had the specific expertise necessary to make it work if he were ever able to lay his hands upon it.

But knowing what he needed and where it was located was less than half the battle, for Jiang Xuande had to get the Orrery out of the palace, and he couldn’t do it without a physical form. He possessed the body of a young beggar boy (which was a horrible state of existence for both, particularly the boy, if you can imagine such a crime against nature). He then summoned another Neku named Piktaungitok who was associated with neither Astaroth nor Sitri, for he needed her to gather the magics necessary to transport the Orrery back to the state of Qin in China.

Jiang Xuande had envisioned many different scenarios involving the success and the failure of his plan before he had put it in motion, but he found himself pleasantly shocked at how easy it had been for him to thieve from Persia and return to China as the most powerful magician in the world.

And so now we’re at the part where we angels got involved…The angels Sabrathon and Kochabiel had been keeping an eye on Jiang Xuande over the fourteen years that he had been a practicing magician, for they had found his alliance with a demon to be particularly dangerous. His return to the state of Qin with one of Astaroth’s grimoires was particularly worrisome—especially the Orrery—and that was when Sabrathon and Kochabiel contacted the Archangel Michael and explained to him what they had observed.

Michael understood that the situation could feasibly spin out of control—and quickly— so he sent his two best lieutenants, Jophiel and Sidriel, to stand guard with Sabrathon and Kochabiel. Jophiel and Sidriel were ordered to crush anything that could disrupt the balance of the Earth if it arose and bring in further help if necessary.

(A note: I know that when I began my tale, I mentioned that a squadron of the Heavenly Host was sent into battle. I should probably clarify that Jophiel and Sidriel are a squadron by themselves, for the two of them are were some of the most powerful weapons in Heaven. Jophiel is was a Seraph. The Seraphim are were the Order who served as God’s personal guard, and Jophiel is was their general. Sidriel is was a Cherub and always will be a Cherub, in one respect or another. The Cherubim are were the warriors within the Orders, and Sidriel is was one of the Commanders of the Heavenly Host, after Jophiel, Camael and Michael.)

Michael assured Sabrathon and Kochabiel that he would gladly lend his personal assistance and a battalion of the Heavenly Host if the situation escalated into all-out war. Michael also saw Azrael to inform him that a powerful human magician had it out for him. Azrael was rather amused by the notion of a human trying to cause his demise. He pledged to Michael that he would be on hand to make sure that the balance of souls would be preserved on Earth should a battle come to pass, and he went on his way.

And of course, just as one would expect in a situation like this, everything did spin out of control with magnificent speed. Jiang Xuande’s luck seemed to run out on two days after he had returned home. Piktaungitok, the Neku whom he had summoned to help him get the grimoire back to China, had inflicted enough damage on her host for her to die and release her. Jiang Xuande had seen to bind her to the body of her host, but not to the soul. He was about to regret that misstep, for even though her alliegiance was to the Apokomistis Tohil, she ran straight to Astaroth to tell her that the Orrery was in the hands of a mortal.

I will conclude this tale next Tuesday. Dominus tecum.

On to Orders, Part VI.

October 19, 2010, 07:14
Orders, Part IV

Back to Orders, Part III.

Ninalla’s energy had been diminished by the act of childbirth. Possessing the dead Zhou threatened to sap what little energy she had left, and she was painfully aware that she to find a new host at the soonest to replenish her own lifeforce inside a new body. The only body at hand was that of the midwife, and she leapt into the mortal’s body without any hesitation. Her first impulse was to tear the midwife’s body apart from the inside out with her phenomenal rage, but she set her mind on revenge instead. She knew that Azrael had stolen away the life of her human host and, more importantly, her child, and she was going to do everything in her power to destroy him.

Her anger gave her an unanticipated strength, and, soiled as her host’s clothes were from the childbirth, she marched from her home and into Duke Xiao’s palace to find Jiang Xuande, tossing aside every guard along the way who tried to stop her as if they were paper dolls. When she found Jiang Xuande, he was in the Duke’s company. The guards attempted to subdue her, but Ninalla repelled all their attempts and incapacitated everyone in the room except for Duke Xiao and Jiang Xuande. The Duke took his own sword, and he issued an uncertain threat to the demon. Ninalla ignored him, and in a low and cold voice that didn’t belong to the midwife, she said, “Zhao is dead. Our child is dead. I must see Astaroth this instant to seek my vengeance for Azrael’s injustice.”

Ninalla purposefully crushed the midwife’s spine and exited the body, and the mortal woman’s broken body fell stupidly at Duke’s feet.

Now—the Apokomistis Astaroth has a grisly sense of fun. When Ninalla returned to her mistress with her sad tale, Astaroth temporarily feigned interest and promised scores of demons in assistance, only to revoke it moments later while rebuking Ninalla for her lack of service and loyalty over the previous fourteen years. Ninalla was awestruck, but she soon recovered her fury. She raged at her mistress, reviling Astaroth’s callous treatment after more than seventeen centuries of loyal and obedient service.

Unfortunately for Ninalla, her anger had obscured her wiser impulses and made her forget that Astaroth is an extremely impatient demon. It only took a few moments, and after they’d passed, Ninalla was no more.

Back at the court of Duke Xiao, Jiang Xuande publicly mourned his wife and child while secretly waiting for Ninalla’s return. He commandeered a peasant girl for Ninalla to inhabit and made every attempt to summon her, but none of his spells worked very well without Ninalla’s demon blood.

After more than a week, Jiang Xuande had begun to despair for partner’s return. He slashed into the peasant girl’s arm and summoned the Neku Benelaba to him. He ordered Benelaba to help him summon Ninalla to him, but the Neku had other obligations. The Neku was bound in service to Sitri, an Apokomistis who had been working closely with Astaroth at that time on a rather nasty little project (for another time, perhaps). Benelaba informed the magician that Ninalla had been killed by Astaroth thirteen days earlier for her defiance. Jiang Xuande continued to appeal to the Neku for help, but Benelaba refused, citing his allegiance to his master.

However, Benelaba knew that Jiang Xuande’s soul belonged to Astaroth, and he knew that his master’s business partner would want to keep tabs on her investment. Benelaba referred him a Neku in Astaroth’s service who went by the name Makeri, offered an insincere apology, and promptly disappeared.

Nebuchadnezzar II’s Ishtar Gate was inspired by Astaroth’s palace in Persepolis. Astaroth’s palace was destroyed in Alexander the Great’s capture of the city in 330 BC.

Jiang Xuande considered his next move very carefully, for like his dead partner, he wanted revenge for the death of his child. Over the many years he had spent with Ninalla, she had shared with him countless secrets that mortals are forbidden to know about the world of demons, and she shared with him everything she knew about the angels, as well. He knew that if he had to take on the Angel of Death, he would need an army of demons at his disposal. In fact, he knew exactly what he needed.

All the best to you until next Tuesday. Dominus tecum.

On to Orders, Part V.

October 12, 2010, 07:08