Lucifer: The story behind the angel

Chapter 12

I try to distract myself from the black haired girl sitting in front of me. It's not like she was terrible- well, maybe she was, but she was also scary. She had on a skin tight purple dress that came to her thighs and a golden crescent moon glinting out from it's hiding spot underneath her black leather cowl. Her acid green eyes watched me carefully from across the table. Her name was Hecate, and she was here with Hades, trying to discuss his new proposition with me, along with Seth- the Egyptian god of the desert- and Tiamat, the she-dragon that birthed the Babylonian gods. It was becoming less like a business proposition and more like a name-calling session. I was trying to avoid angering any of them, so I played a referee while they argued. "Why don't you run back to the sand you ugly lizard-headed beast?" Hades quipped at Seth. He reared his nostrils angrily. "Actually, I have the head of the regal crocodile, with one hundred and eighty four teeth connected to it, and I am not afraid to use it, you rock-headed bastard." Hecate took the two curved daggers out of her belt and held them up. "Go ahead and try, fish breath." Hades pointed back to me. "Now as I was saying, the souls you collect are so powerful, as all souls are, if only you could find a way to trap them." I raised both my eyebrows. I looked around the room. The gods watched me expectantly. I was alerted by Lilith's running feet and the sound of a door closing. She slowed down and dramatically held her breath before announcing the new visitor. It's Loki." I looked around her to the young man with ripped wet clothes on and a loping, sideways grin and eyebrows that pointed upwards harshly. "Sorry I'm late, I was busy breaking out of daddy's lake prison." I nodded understandably. Fathers had a funny way of making prisons. Odin certainly had no remorse when it came to punishing his son. He saunters over, smiling sneakily at Lilith, and raising his hands at his sides."But hey, the party's here." I smiled at his well-meaning goofiness. It wasn't the first encounter I've had with the trickster of gods. I glare at the others, with special attention to Seth. "Hopefully now we can get this meeting on it's feet." Both Hades and Seth look down shamefully. Lilith sat down next to me, watching Hecate. Nearly as soon as Loki sat down, he was fiddling with the cloth on the table, bored. Tiamat was sitting directly behind him, patiently flicking her tongue in and out. Unexpectedly, Loki turned around violently, his faced shapeshifted into a wolf's. It caused her to jump up, and with her height,she hit her head on the ceiling of the cavern, and loosening several crystals, which immediately fell. She lowered her head close to his, growling at him. He shrugged and patted her jowl."Whoops." We all had scooted away from the table, avoiding the avalanche of brightly hued crystals, which were now laying sporadically across the table, floor, and Tiamat's broad shoulders. She blinks a few times while she shakes them off. I pick up a green one on my left. "Loki you're a genius." He was busy pouring some red wine into Seth's mouth. "What?" "I am?" I looked back towards Hades. "Remember how you were thinking of a way to trap the souls?" He nods, and Hecate ponders over the crystal. I join her. "Well, I think this is it." They tilt their heads at me simultaneously. "Well, what i'm saying is, is that a crystal is multi-faceted, if we could place a soul or souls in it, it wouldn't be able to escape." "But it could see the outside world." Hades and Seth turn to each other and meet eye to eye. "Sounds like a plan." We all breath a sigh of relief when Seth nods. With the exception of Loki, everyone seemed to be at peace with it. I watch him as he holds the crystal in the light, at every available angle. "What is the matter?" He turns to me, and looks through it, as if it were an eye glass. "I was just wondering, how is it you plan on getting the souls in, exactly." I look down. I hadn't thought of that. Hecate surprises all of us when she sheaths her daggers and speaks up. "He'll use his Emperyeas." She gestures to me, and then to my wings. I breathe out my nose, half in exhaustion, and half in amazement that she even knew about that. An Emperyeas is the power that all the archangels were created with, it runs through our wings, gives us our power, the power to do anything really. But on earth it is limited, I can only use so much of it until I have to wait for it to recharge. She waits for me to say I'll do it. Loki butts in with logic for the first time that day. "But doesn't it run out if you aren't careful?" Hades stares at him, and then to me. "Forgive me, I don't know much about the angels, but I do know a thing or two about investing, and collateral." "If souls make you powerful, then once you have so many, use them to charge your Emperyeas.""Get more souls." "Get it, got it, good." I cross my arms, pondering the new idea. "Sounds good." I say after a moment, and Loki finally sets the crystal gently back down on the table, and grips the silver pocket watch, which was going mad, ticking faster and faster. "I've got to get going." "They're calling me back." I nod. He was referring to his Father, Odin. The Valkyries must have noticed he was gone at some point. The astral chains forming on him finally turned material, and he was dragged under ground by a unknown force. Seth watched the whole thing from behind me. "I guess there are fates much worse than death." " Yes, there are." I reply offhandedly, remembering my family, and worse yet, the one I had lost.