Chapter 14: Divine Madness
Lucifer paced back and forth within the halls of Hel. One L. He disliked that Gwendolyn and Evangeline were coming to be noticed by more Celestials. And yet here he stood, pacing between the throne of Hel, herself, and the small assembly of deities. He stopped cold as the door to the Goddess's throne room opened and the room brightened as a rather relaxed looking hipster, man-bun and all, walked into the room.
"Jesus Christ, who the fuck called you in on this?" Lucifer said in a dead pan tone.
The man seemed to materialize a small vape pen that smelled faintly of cannabis out of thin air. He took a drag and then a grin appeared under his well manicured goatee. "Aw, bro! C'mon don't do me like that!" He walked over to Lucifer and clapped him on the back with a hand still scarred from nails. "Luci, you met a *girl*! A really, really nice girl!" His eyes were wide and excited like a small child that just saw a unicorn. "I got your back, bro!" He dropped a pair of dollar-store sunglasses down from his head and onto the bridge of his well sculpted brown nose.
Lucifer narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Jesus. "Are you wearing.... glitter on your cheeks?"
Jesus grinned. "Naw, man. Just a little highlighter. A makeup store girl needed someone to give a make over to and I said 'why not'? She'd been praying to do well on her first day at work. See, I'm in the little things too."
Lucifer just blinked at him. Jesus smiled and his curled mustache twitched. "But seriously, I wasn't going to let my big bro get bullied and not back him up."
"Thank you?" Lucifer was so bewildered by this sudden show of support from... well, he has never really considered Jesus to be a literal brother. True, they had the same Father... but Jesus had been mortal once. And while it seemed like ago that he had loathed humanity and saw only its flaws, that enmity had colored how Lucifer saw the kid.
"She is making you human, Morningstar." Odin narrowed one cold blue eye upon him and sat back in a chair at a long table, around which various Celestial persons sat. "The Norns say this will not end well."
"Who says that Lucifer being more humane is a bad thing?" Mused Brigid, Gwendolyn's Patron Goddess. She was dressed in a sharp business suit coat and pencil skirt of emerald green that matched her eyes. Her red waves of hair were drawn back into a severe French twist. She regarded Lucifer thoughtfully. He had always liked her. She adapted to the world around her better than almost any old deity save Thor and Odin, who seemed to appear in each era in ways that fascinated him; Gods to days of week (Th But they had one thing in common... they all had so many faces, as belief shifted and evolved over the centuries. Many Gods, himself included, owed this longevity to media. Oral tradition to books to comic books to movies... Human entertainment was the new faith as media evolved. And every movie house, living room and cellular phone were the new chapels of worship. Brigid had evolved from Celtic goddess, to Catholic saint, to currently acting as CEO for an elite line of high end business suits called "Office Armor". Her staff was largely Dwarven, though some elves did work on her lingerie line, also.
And for each generation, a new incarnation, a new face. A new personality. A new... you. Gwendolyn adored Lucifer's most recent media incarnations. And he had to admit, it was a very nearly human face she gave him. She didn't always see him for what he was. That first day.... that first day he had meant fo break her. Perhaps to kill her. Perhaps worse. And he had thought it a game. An amusement. And then.... then she touched him. She turned those guileless blue-green eyes on him and suddenly she had been all that he could see. But did she truly see *him*?
"Have you not *seen* the world, Brigid?" Hades demanded. "It worsens daily! There is no one being punished! Roger Ailes is *still* in fucking processing! That man should be marinating in lava or something."
"There is a noticeable shift in just how many deals your demons are doing while Daddy's back is turned, Luci," Bast growled softly from where she lounged on a rug on the floor, looking bored out of her mind. "But to be, ehem... the Devil's Advocate," she gave a smile that was more flash of teeth and fangs than a friendly gesture. "Luci has been slipping on the job since the late sixties."
"Let me be very clear," Herne cut in from the far end of the table and he stood, and looked around at them all, individually. On Odin in his biker-chic riding leathers, simple black eyepatch and a simple red bandana tied around his head, hiding the silver ponytail at the nape of his neck where if seemed to blend with the silver whiskers of a full, healthy plaited beard
adorned with silver knot-work beaded rings. On Brigid, who was sitting and silently observing them all closely. On Khali, her eyes burning like coals behind her khol darkened lashes as she regarded Herne. To Bast who was inspecting her nails and didn't bother meeting his gaze. To Jesus who actually seemed to focus in and loose that annoyingly cheerful grin. To Hades who seemed almost spoiling for a fight, Lucifer thought, more bored than bothered by it. Finally his golden-brown eyes met Lucifer's. "The Morningstar and I made an agreement. And ultimately, the girl is mine. Brigid is the only one with any right to speak to me of what becomes of the woman."
"And what of you keeping her so secret?" Bast purred quietly. "The woman is not only a twin-souled creature but also an energetic leech and channel."
"That is what concerns me most of all," Kali's eyes flashed red. She was a slender Indian woman, her body wrapped in an elegant blue and silver sari. A tiny gold chain ran from one ear lobe to a petite stud on one side of her nose across cheekbones that would have made Angelina Jolie envious. "This woman is dangerous."
"This woman is a *gift*," Herne said softly, his amber eyes full of rage. "And she is Mine." He looked momentarily chagrined and added in an almost apologetic voice: "And Brigid's." He looked at each of them in turn. "And my Lady says she sees value in Gwendolyn's relationship with Lucifer. Lucifer and I had an understanding; and where she is considered, my rule is law."
"You would allow this bond they share to eclipse yours?" Hades demanded of Herne, who laughed aloud with genuine mirth.
"How might that happen?" Herne asked with obvious amusement and faux worry, "She might love him more than I?" He shook just antlered head in almost-pity. "If you think that is possible, you haven't met the woman or loved her. She loves passionately; she doesn't know any other way. She loves hard, and yet can leave you feeling like she is an enigma no matter how often she shows her genuine vulnerability. She would dash her soul on the rocks of fate for the chance to be loved completely." Herne looked directly at Odin, his eyes flashing a deep honey gold in the firelight. "Elder creatures such as ourselves will never fathom the depth of love that binds this woman to me. From the moment her light entered the Universe, her energy and spirit called to me. Even on my weakest nights, when I wonder: 'Did it finally happen? Did my name become so lost in time that I am fading into nothingness?' The passionate and fervent belief by this one, mortal, outwardly insignificant little witch... this one, precious, often ridiculously naive but maddeningly jaded creature... she revives me. Her belief alone could raise armies of fallen Gods."
"And so, too," Odin countered, "could her atheism bring armies of Gods crashing into their eternal graves, inch by inch."
"Then *perhaps*," Lucifer cut in coldly, his form shifting as his emotions washed over him; a black rage, blinding with the heat of the violence raging in his veins, flowing through his body as his wings darkened to from pearl white to feathers so black and inky, they appeared to almost ooze tar, as if dipped into the wells of pure evil that existed in his own domain. His eyes burned with Hellfire as he stepped towards the meeting table and leaned on it with both hands, the smell of smoldering wood evident as his fingers spread over the polished oak surface. "It would be wise not to make her so angry with you that she decides to forswear your existence altogether."
