Accidental Demon Summoning

Berir Enter Stage Left

"How much has Asmodeus told you?" Berir asked. She sat on Daisy's bed. Daisy cowered against the wall, hiding in her duvet. "About love and time, and your parents?"

"That demonic time doesn't move the same way as human time, and that demonic love is, like, really powerful. He hasn't talked about my parents. I don't want to talk about my mum." Daisy said. If she kept talking, she might even survive. Berir sighed.

"He really hasn't told you anything. I'm so sorry." Berir said. "I saw you three, last night. He does genuinely care about you, I can see that."

Ah. Fuck.

"Time in Hell doesn't the same way as Earth time. Satan, Mephistopheles, and Asmodeus were all born at the same time, but Satan was an adult and the ruler of Hell when Mephistopheles and Asmodeus were still children, and she was still the same age when Mephistopheles reached her age. Those siblings are incredibly rare, because their timelines are so similar.

"Your time is a line, you move along it for a while and then drop off it, but the timeline continues. Ours...think of it like those puzzles where you have to match the questions by drawing lines between the two columns of words. You see? It all starts in the same place - our creation, and ends in the same place - our death, but some lines are longer or shorter, or cross over with each other. This puzzle has millions of lines running at once, all in different directions. Some people will experience time faster, some slower, everyone moving forwards or backwards at different rates and at different earth times.

"You add Earth times in and, wow. That's a whole mess. We dance around your timeline, we loop back and forwards so we're everywhere simultaneously but we're still all so messed up and our timelines are so thin and twisted up, you see? No? You don't have to understand.

"The only thing that can slow our timelines down enough that we can stop and breathe is demonic love. When a demon falls in love, any kind of love - romantic, familial, et cetera - the timelines are slightly changed. They can move along at the same time. That's why Asmodeus and Mephistopheles were so rare, they were twins. Their timelines were in sync because they loved each other from their creation. Satan fell into line with that when she fell in love with Mephistopheles, and they were all moved to an earth timeline when Asmodeus fell for Al.

"That's why Satan and Mephistopheles were forced to seperate. With Satan on an earthly timeline, she wasn't able to interact with her kingdom as well, and various demons became mutionous. Asmodeus's love of Al was particularly dangerous, because he's an incubus. Their love is so rare and powerful, we're forced to never be with the same person for long, and it's a whole competition thing. We can never get close to people. Asmodeus falling for Al was so potent they dragged Satan out of her timeline.

"We forced both couples to seperate because of the dangerous potency of their love, but we couldn't put magical limitations on Satan. We had to call in God, but the love between Satan and Mephistopheles was so powerful that it broke through Their restrictions. Asmodeus and Al found a loophole.

"We managed to remove Mephistopheles love for Satan and Asmodeus from the equation, but there's still a risk. If Satan feels a sisterly Love for Asmodeus, then Satan could be pulled out of Hell's timelines and into an earthly one. She could die if they remain in love, and that would be disastrous for Hell. She's the most powerful entity in existence, especially if she and Asmodeus feel love towards each other. If she's pushed into the equation, then earths timeline will become dependant on her.

"Because Asmodeus has to be terminated, Earth's timeline will crumble without her unless Asmodeus and Al fall out of love. Their love is the only thing powerful enough to stop me, and they're so selfish that they would."

Daisy thudded her head against the wall. Berir really did think that she was the hero, trying to save the universe. And Daisy couldn't see any way out of it. "What does this have to do with my parents?" She said.

"Ah, those two caused us a lot of problems. I can tell you everything about your parents." She paused. "About your father and mother."

"What do they have to do with Al and Asmodeus?" Daisy asked. Berir looked almost pained for a moment.

"When Asmodeus came to earth to visit Al for the first time, Al was married to a woman, as a woman. Asmodeus could give Al everything he wanted, a male body and an escape from the wife he didn't truly love, for she would never truly accept him for him.

"He could have left her for Asmodeus the moment he fell, but he chose not to. He lived his double life, in love with a man but married to a woman. He came out to her, and told her that he was going on testosterone supplements and that his insurance covered his top surgery. She was disgusted, she took no part or interest in his transition. Even I, a demon, know that her actions were wrong.

In reality, Asmodeus was making him more masculine every time they met, at a far more accelerated rate than any hormone replacement could. He has no scar on his chest, and no doctor ever went near his genitalia. But Asmodeus, for all his power, couldn't change much of his insides fast enough.

He was still fertile, and became accidentally pregnant with a half incubus child - a cambion. He told his wife that he wanted to have a child to save their failed marriage and she agreed. Al introduced his demon lover to her as a sperm donor, and me as his wife.

He gave birth, an easy delivery aided by Asmodeus' magic. His wife fell in love with the infant and demanded joint custody. He obliged. The child had three parents, and they all loved her. Four, if you count myself. I was... very involved with that child, I would care for it at both households and watch out for it as it grew up." Berir paused. "Daisy, that child was you. You are the biological child of Al and Asmodeus. You're a wild card, you're susceptible to both timelines. You're half human, half demon, and they kept that hidden from you.

"Your true wish, your hearts desire rather than intercourse, was to find your father. He knew the moment he decided to take you with him. If he'd told you, he would have vanished. He had to keep it a secret that he had his entire family back, or he would have lost it all. But that's not your wish any more, is it? It's to keep everyone that you love safe. Al and Asmodeus. So he can't go back to hell, he has to die. "

Daisy's stomach dropped. "What the fuck? You're lying. How do I know you're telling the truth?"

Berir took a deep breath. She lifted her hands and wrapped them around the horns jutting out of her jaw. She jerked her head to the side.

The horn came off in her hand. Golden blood spurted from the stump where it had been. The demon woman roared with pain. Her eyes flashed the colour of her blood, skin peeling back to show glossy feathers and white bones. She held the horn out in a shaking hand. "I swear it." Half her entire body was stained with the blood leaking from her face. "On my blood and my body."

Daisy took her horn. The blood was hot, painfully so. She stood up, shedding the blanket. She turned the horn on its owner, pointing the razor sharp point at Berir's chest. "You don't get to touch my family."

Berir spun. The entire wall behind her exploded into the hall. She glanced back at Daisy, her black lips curled back. Her eyes were burning, gold trickling down her face in thick rivers. "You have no idea what I can do, Daisy."