Starchild

The House of Hell

What is Hell?

Is it a kingdom, an empire? Is it a nation or what humans call countries? A whole different realm? The demons, the rules? Is Hell simply a group of beings that was left to die by higher ones and had to come together to survive? - then, is Hell just a history of abuse?

In front of me, the shadows rise. They stand still for a while awaiting orders.

—What am I supposed to do now? —

Shadows cannot speak, of course. They don't have mouths to create sounds and I doubt they were taught writing ever in their lives (if you can even consider them alive, that is). However, it feels like my mind is hearing information coming from them, and only one sentence is needed to resume their unnecessarily lengthy explanation,

Each ruler creates and acts on their own rules.

Not very useful, if you ask me. Not at all. But I nod, and point at the cells on the ceiling, —Let everyone out, please. Keep making sure nobody leaves, but don't use violence, just let them know we need to talk. —

Then, I turn to the demons, who are looking at me confused. —Are minutes a thing here? —some hesitate, but shake their heads. —Alright. I will meet with each house's leader in the middle of Hell. I just need a moment to think. —but they don't move. They keep observing me, expecting any other action, so I give them a simple order, —Uh, you can leave now. —

They're quick to exit the castle.

I walk over to the throne, standing on it, and leaving the sword on its holder. Reaching down for the crown, I finally inspect it from close; it's deep black, made of something like a metal, with small blood red jewels encrusted. I do like it, it looks good. When I try to place it somewhere, something sharp presses against my finger, making it bleed. The bottom of the crown features a knife-like edge. Dramatic. Carefully, I end up balancing it on top of the sword.

Now with the throne empty, I have no other choice but to sit on it. It is very uncomfortable. Too rigid, without any kind of cushioning. The seat is just long enough for it to be impossible to have my torso pressed into the back without having my legs floating, so I pull them up, crossing them under my body.

Looking up, I watch as the formerly imprisoned souls rush out of the room.

Finally, the shadows stand in front of me again, and seem to ask me something. What will be my next decree?

—I don't know. I'm still trying to think it through. —

It's just politics, it shouldn't be that hard.

First of all, I think we can all agree I don't make the best decisions. I don't think any demon is great at it, but I'm definitely in the bottom of the chain. Problem is, Victoire called Hell a monarchy - which lays all decision making on a single person and their judgement. It is accurate. Asgard is a monarchy too, except the king, currently Father, has a team of advisors with different knowledge that help him make decisions. If a decision is bad, they talk him out of it. I probably need something like that if I stay as queen.

Secondly, Strange told me about a thing called democracy. Americans choose their own leaders by voting, and the majority wins. It might be too formal for Hell, but even a casual conversation between houses could lead to selecting a ruler most demons are okay with. Maybe it will stop conflict, or maybe it will create more. I can only hope for the best.

Lastly, and probably the only thing I'm sure of, travelling has to change. I want to be able to leave this place, but I'm not doing it alone, so there has to be a way to make sure everyone doesn't leave, and other beings are not hurt.