The Pits
It took Kaiyu some considerable time to make her way from the outskirts of the Catacombs to the halls proper. She had came to the tunnels through one of the fringe entrances, a passage half-collapsed in neglect and stinking of brackish water, sewage and mold. There were many reasons why demons avoided those parts of the catacombs, beyond the simple fact they had long fallen into disuse and disrepair. It was eye-stingingly unpleasant to make one's way through those remote locations, overrun by the detritus and muck of the city, especially if one had the superior senses of the immortals. Kaiyu could almost taste the dirt and the rat droppings dissolving in the water, the green fluorescent mold on the walls, and the half-rotted corpses of rats, and cats, and mushrooms alike. It was horrible. It was perfect.
She found a dry niche in one of the side corridors, high up and likely to have been designed with the idea of holding glow-orbs. It would do. She wrapped the sword and crumpled letter in a length of canvas that some car owner would miss in the morning, and stuck them into the hole. The canvas was grey and dusty, spotted with wear and the whims of the weather and countless pigeons. Taking a few steps back, even Kaiyu's eyes slid over the spot where her secrets were stashed. But it was the distasteful nature of those remote locations that made them an ideal hiding spot above and beyond her skills in camouflage. No one who had no great reason would ever venture here. She counted the paces to the mouth of the side corridor, looked around for any trails she might have left, and, satisfied, walked away.
She walked slowly, her broken toe and severed tendon shooting tendrils of pain up her leg with each movement. Still, the pain was a relief, in a peculiar fashion. Demons were not spared the itching associated with flesh knitting itself back together. Instead, they got all the itching of weeks in the space of hours.
As she made her way to the more respectable parts of the catacombs, Kaiyu thought on her encounter with Valac, on the contents of the angel's letter and on the dangerous contest of power to which she had become a hostage. Her feet carried her, limping, towards the Pits, almost before she had fully decided that she needed Zaebos's experience and advice to begin to disentangle the mystery of this situation. She did not trust the old demon, of course, but she trusted him more than any other creature in Hell. She trusted him not to get overly involved in this game of power that looked nothing if not deadly. He had not lived as long as he had by being stupid. And stupidity could get them both killed.
Kaiyu snapped out of her reverie as the two Wardens posted at the entrance of the Pits moved to block her path. She looked up, meeting their stoic and dull gazes. Her claws pushed out of her tensed fingertips and a growl built up in the back of her throat. She had had quite enough of demons thwarting her tonight, and these two grunts didn't have the rank, or the right, to stop her. They could, however, just provoke her into doing something she would later regret. Oh sure, brute force was on their side, but even wounded she was much faster and more agile. She would not kill them-of course not-but a lesson in respect and rank.... Kaiyu shook her head, trying to push away the thought.
"Oh, step away, you hulking fools, step away! Let her pass. Don't you see she is about in the mood to rip out your throats? Step away, I said!" The voice was wheezy and impatient.
The two guards remained in place for a few more seconds, then reluctantly stepped aside. Kaiyu gave them a long, cold stare, feeling peculiarly disappointed at the easy resolution, then stepped past them and into the Pits.
Few demons ever came into the Pits willingly, Zaebos probably being the only exception. Decades ago there had been regular inspections, but the old demon had been running the place for so long no one bothered anymore. The name itself was a bit of a misnomer. There were no pits in the Pits, no bubbling cauldrons of tar and demons with tridents nudging their fellows towards redemption: In fact, it was a rather orderly and clean prison. The floors were swept clean, the doors looked to be in good repair and incredibly massive, as they had to be, since the occupants of those cells were not mere mortals.
Kaiyu’s sharp hearing picked up shallow, quick breathing from behind one door, clink of chains from another, and some wet, sucking sound from behind a third.
"Seven Hells, girl, you smell like you waded through the sewers. And look like you fought the world's biggest rat. What in the name of the Betrayer happened to you?"
"It was the world's biggest Raven, in fact..." Kaiyu's voice was matter-of-fact, her eyes focusing back on the old demon. His crocodile head snapped its jaws in surprise, and the human one tilted and studied her. He turned then, and wobbled quickly down the corridor "Come. I have a bucket of clean water in my office. Was for the floors, but you need it more."
Kaiyu followed him, still limping, nose wrinkling at the mere idea of water. It was true she smelled seven kinds of foul, the stink of the sewers clinging to her flesh like a shroud, but taking a bath tonight? She hissed involuntarily.
The heavy door of black wood at the end of the corridor was slightly ajar and Zaebos pushed it open with one impatient move and stepped in. The open doorway revealed a messy office with piles of teetering paper shoved against walls and under desks to open up enough space for one brimming bucket of water in the centre of the room. A mop was lying next to it, as if carelessly dropped, and some water had spilled out of the bucket and formed a clear puddle on the floor. Zaebos clearly had been heading to mop the floors when Kaiyu's arrival interrupted him. He picked up the mop and started sweeping at the puddle with furious efficiency.
"The niche back there. You can take the bucket and clean yourself up. Seriously, girl...you reek."
Kaiyu moved in and picked up the bucket. As she lifted it her wounded side and shattered toe gave a sharp painful protest, and she staggered a bit, sloshing water over the floor and her feet. Her hackles rose and she hissed. Zaebos rested on his mop a moment, studying her, and chuckled.
"The cat is strong tonight. Someone has really pissed you off, eh, kitten? Well, go settle your temper and wash...and then you can tell me all about it."
Kaiyu shot him a murderous look, then steadied the bucket in her hand and moved towards the side niche that Zaebos had indicated. There was not much of a division between the room and what seemed to be the shower, just a bump in the floor to contain the water and a drain in the middle. The small room itself had absolutely nothing to distinguish it, apart from a stand with a bar of rough soap on it. Demons kept to the basic precepts of hygiene, but no more so than necessary.
It took Kaiyu fifteen minutes to stop hissing at every touch of water. When she could finally tolerate the offensive liquid, she washed herself up quickly, scrubbing vigorously with the bar of soap and finally sloshing the rest of the bucket over her head. That caused a snarl to escape her lips, and she shook herself, sending water-droplets flying towards the walls, and even some outside to the main office, to the accompaniment of angry muttering and vigorous mopping from Zaebos. Kaiyu sighed and left the bucket on the floor, noting how bending no longer caused her as much pain as it did a mere hour ago. The crack in her ribs seemed close to mended, which meant it was almost dawn.
As she walked out of the bath niche, Zaebos looked up at her a bit sourly. "You could have saved this last downpour, couldn't you? Oh, never mind."
He rested the mop against one of the few spaces along the wall not barred by stacks of paper, then sat in the only chair available in the room, and gave her a long, hard stare. "So. You had a little skirmish with Valac, am I understanding that correctly?"
Kaiyu crouched carefully down, trying to not jar her hurting foot, one hand resting on the floor for balance. She shivered, not out of cold, but due to the unpleasant sensation of her soaked fur touching her skin, her damp hair dripping down her back, and droplets running down all over her body. The cat was strong tonight. It always was, when she felt in danger. She remained silent, watching the old demon, weighing her options. Zaebos returned her steady gaze, red eyes meeting yellow ones, unflinching and unperturbed. Finally he sighed and threw up his hands, claws dulled with age and mopping.
"Look, kitten, you came here to talk to me, right? Now, I do not think it is for my magnificent wit and the comfort of the Pits. We both know you are here for advice. And if I am guessing correctly, and it ain't a hard guess, your coming to me as well as the skirmish with the bird has something to do with your task. And if it is so, your game has gotten much more complicated, or else birdie has gotten awfully out of his depths, and is about to get a new permanent address in one of my vacant cells. So which is it? Am I to clean up another cell, and prepare chains?" He paused for a second, then tilted his head "Or is she playing too?"
Kaiyu narrowed her eyes, studying the older demon carefully. "What makes you think it is her?"
Zaebos smirked "It is, isn't it? Oh, Valac has ever been her creature; she picked him while he was a fledgling. He had this penchant for recklessness and cruelty that is so like her. I dare say that without her protection he would not have made it to the Dedication, and even if he had, would have landed himself in the hands of old Zaebos soon enough. But she has her sway, and she has her pets. He is a foremost one."
Kaiyu nodded. That explained a lot of things, not the least of it the squashed rumours, and his overconfidence. And, of course, she held other sway on her minions as well, Kaiyu was sure of it. As if reading her mind, Zaebos continued.
"She has them totally under control, those she has chosen, have no doubt. Oh, I dare say no one can seduce the mind like a succubus, and she is the first of them for a reason. It is not only her protection they crave, but her approval too. Mayhap more." he smiled "After all...she managed to seduce the first of the Children into betrayal and the fall from Heaven."
Kaiyu frowned. "She wants me too..."
Zaebos raised an eyebrow, studying Kaiyu's features for a while, then said. "And have you come to ask me whether you should go to her side in this bid for influence? Or is there somewhat more to your visit?"
Whatever the reasoning of Lucifer's fall, he had fallen, and when he had found himself at the bottom, he had created an army that could serve him there. Discipline and obedience to the authority of their superiors was trained into every single demon, painfully and strictly, but it was something else entirely where nature was concerned. They carried the aspects of their animal ancestors, primal nature than no training could break. Kaiyu's veins had the blood of wild cat mixed in them. For good or evil, cats were solitary animals, not given to cooperation or subordination.
And both nature and surroundings made sure of another lack in demonic nature. The lack of trust. They were a backstabbing lot of survivors, all of them, for it took cunning and ruthlessness to climb the ranks of demonic power, or even just to survive. And Zaebos had survived for far too long. He was not a fool, and he was not beyond using others as means to an end, Kaiyu was sure. She did not trust him, with every second of eighty years of hellish intrigue and backstabbing, she did not trust him. Yet, she knew when it was time for nature and training to bend. Kaiyu started talking.
Zaebos listened in silence, mercifully not interrupting with questions or comments. The expression of his human face was calm and unreadable, but his crocodile head ground its jaws at times, and a low hiss escaped its teeth. Kaiyu omitted some details, like the content of the second letter, leaving Zaebos to believe the angel had merely led her to a bunch of his bloody feathers, just as she had done with Valac. She also did not mention the Kefara blade or the precise nature of her task, and Zaebos did not ask. Meeting the eyes of the old demon, however, she had the distinct impression he did not need to ask.
Finally, as she finished her retelling and silence fell between them, Zaebos shifted in his chair, and his crocodile head snapped its jaws and growled.
"So, to summarise, you are in the centre of a veritable shitstorm, and with no good way out?"
Kaiyu's lips twitched in the ghost of a smirk. Zaebos did not mince words. People, on several occasions. But never words. She nodded.
"Do you care who gets their claws on your feathery friend?"
She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. "Why would I?"
Zaebos shrugged, a feat that looked very peculiar with two necks, and two heads bobbing with the motion.
"I don't know." He gave her a shrewd look
"No," Kaiyu said
"Very well then. Only thing to consider when choosing a side is your own continued wellbeing and survival." He paused, tapping a gnarled, clawed finger on his lips, then sighed. "And I cannot give you a simple answer. If you would ask me who would win this contest of strength and influence, I would say she would. She is older, more influential, and frankly, smarter. But... she is also wholly without scruples. If to get what she wants she has to throw away Valac or you in the bargain, I wouldn't give a rat's flea for your survival chances. And if she thinks covering her trail is needful, she will gut you herself. You would not be the first."
Kaiyu blinked, genuine shock briefly written on her features. "The prohibition..."
Zaebos flashed her a mirthless grin. "The prohibition, yes. Well, nothing was ever proven, you know. And no one ever investigated, actually. Demons die. You know very well that few hunters live beyond three-hundred. Who, you think, would notice one more missing?"
Kaiyu sat very still, very silent, for a while. Zaebos watched her, and a look of genuine compassion, so unfitting on his harsh features, graced them nevertheless. "I am sorry, girl. I know you believed the laws to be absolute. We all did, once. But then you realise they are only as absolute as you are without influence. Such as Eve, or Caim...they will not be touched, no matter what. Unless they kill an angel."
Kaiyu focused her gaze on him, slow and thoughtful. "And if they do?"
Zaebos's eyebrows rose. "War."
Read next chapter at Chapter X: The Teacher