Chapter 18 #2
No one pointed out Neyu’s presence until she stood next to Saer, still in her human form and dressed in a flowing but simple gown befitting the first lady of the Hells.
She touched her pale hand to his elbow. A dark robe lined with silver thread draped over the bend in her other arm.
The demon’s head jerked down, but he hid his teeth and growled questionably to his female counterpart.
She smiled in turn, and though her lower face remained veiled, it reached her eyes for the audience to see.
The crowd didn’t make a sound.
A sighing growl left Saer as his coal-colored flesh faded to alabaster, wings melting into his back. By the end of it, Saer’s naked body stood before all of them, and Neyu wrapped the robe about his shoulders. The demon-turned-human shrugged into it with ease, unharmed and healthy.
Securing the robe around his waist, Saer beckoned to the opposite side of the stage. Kalia, dressed just as lovely as Neyu, stepped onto the charred platform to join them. Saer took a turn looking at each demoness, then faced forward.
“Where is your god?”
Thunderous silence met his inquiry.
“Where is this Grandfather that Ahraan spoke of? Where?” Saer lifted his arms and gestured.
“Did your god save you when Ahraan showed his true colors? Did the Grandfather come to your rescue when your loved ones were at the mercy of a great golden beast? Where was your god when its wicked teeth intended to rip your flesh from your bones?”
No voice rose to answer.
Arms falling to his side, Saer’s voice lowered.
“The Grandfather isn’t here, because that god doesn’t exist.” He touched his chest. “Yet, I do.” He motioned to the two demonesses at his sides.
“We do.” The declaration stretched through the townsfolk.
“You’ve seen what we three can do. Because we embrace the godliness within ourselves.
Because we aren’t blinded. It’s also what each and every one of you are capable of! ”
Saer paused once more for good measure, assessing the silence, pleased with it. With his words, he weaved tendrils of pride through and around the villagers. Tugging with delicate intent, he forced them to feel his given sin with increasing intensity. “Do you wish to join us?”
Another short pause settled over the crowd before quiet assents spread throughout. Saer increased his pull on their pride, twisting as he brought it forth.
“Do you wish to join us?” Saer shouted over them all, raising his arms high, this time wrenching on the sin of his making.
The audience shouted back this time in full agreement and Saer smiled for the first time.
They were his.
He lowered his arms and nodded once, a slow incline of his head.
“You’ve seen what we can do. You’ve come together as one, uniting with us, ready to join rather than oppose us.
Listen closely, for I’m prepared to reveal this difficult secret not because you’ve all gathered today, but because of the statement this gathering makes. If any still harbor doubts, speak now.”
He allowed ten full breaths to pass.
As predicted, not a word rose against him.
Saer inhaled, long and slow. “This next truth isn’t an easy one to bear, and your minds will reject it.
But know it is the truth. Know it’s how we three”—he gestured again to either side of him—“came into being. Know this is how you become gods among men.” Still tethered, he pulled on the innate pride within each and every one of them, noting how the crowd stood taller.
“The first step is mortal death.”
Quiet whimpers escaped a handful of throats, and Saer leapt atop the sliver of doubt, his shout smothering would-be protestors. “Did you not witness Neyu’s death and rebirth last night?”
Silence fell once more. The villagers glanced at Neyu with newfound awe. One by one, heads began to nod.
Saer’s voice quieted with reverence. “Then you know I speak the truth.”
With an encompassing gesture, he motioned them closer and the crowd obediently drew nearer to the remains of the stage.
With one hand, he motioned Neyu to attend one side of the group, and Kalia the other.
Once they’d moved, his voice rose again.
“I need you all to make a promise to me, lest we become separated in the afterlife. Together, you must promise to follow me, Neyu, and Kalia when your time has come to separate from your mortal body. Do you all understand?”
Some hesitant nods all around, but most were strong and sure. Pride rode them all like a strong wind in a ship’s sail.
“I need to hear your voices! Trust us to guide you to greatness! Will you join us?”
The unified holler of assent from the crowd came punctuated with several fists in the air.
“Do you swear to follow us in death and beyond?”
The cheer rose again.
“Do you promise your afterlife to us so that we might show you the way?”
A final roar, louder even than before, swept through the villagers.
Saer waited for the noise to taper, smiling at the end.
His voice lowered to a pleasing hum. “Your dedication speaks volumes, your courage boundless.”
Head jerking to the left, Saer lifted that arm. “Neyuukhan!” Then the same motion towards the right. “Kaliaspher!”
The demonesses lifted their hands, having formed a perfect triangle around the villagers.
Saer tilted his head back, nostrils flaring with a sharp inhale.
Flames erupted from the three demons’ outstretched arms, arcing, connecting the First, Second, and Seventh with white-hot, blazing cords. The heat choked those in the crowd who stood closest. Those who could, screamed.
And burned.
They burned as the demons filled the space with conflagration which was, mercifully, the hottest fire imaginable. They died, all of them, within seconds.
Brittle silence fell.
Once over, only withered, black remains occupied the triangle between the Daemoenica.
Residual crackling and the smell of burnt flesh, hair, and clothing wafted through the atmosphere.
Kalia’s eyes widened, and Neyu averted her gaze with a set jaw, gestures that stirred the first inklings of unease in Saer’s stomach.
None had taken part of a collection so large, and he’d been prepared to compartmentalize it as all the others—as he’d done for each harvest since Ruki. He was a weapon. They all were.
So, why did Neyu’s expression of distaste and Kalia’s shock spark disquiet in his otherwise collected mind?
Their hush settled while life transitioned to afterlife, from flesh to spirit alone.
A shimmering collection of individual souls floated from the bodies, dazed and trembling—invisible to mortal eyes but apparent to the Daemoenica.
None made a sound as Saer motioned half of them to Neyu’s resigned form, the other half to a stunned Kalia.
Saer would stay behind as he always had.
He wouldn’t risk Lucifer seeing him and Neyu together.
Not when they’d just found one another again.
Not one soul questioned where they were sent as quiet acceptance shone on each glimmering former-villager’s face. Like children waking from a long dream.
Neyu and Kalia shed their human skins, shifting to their full Daemoenic forms. Only then did a handful of the spirits show panic and cry out. Apprehension resurged, churning in Saer’s stomach.
Why was this time different? Because Neyu was here? Because he knew the task she had ahead of her when she returned?
Bound, the souls couldn’t stray from the guardians they’d dedicated their souls to. Lust and Sloth gather their charges near.
They had been created for this. This was the purpose they served. His maker would be pleased and Neyu would return to him; that’s what mattered.
A blinding inferno engulfed each grouping, and Neyu caught Saer’s gaze with a meaningful look just before they all disappeared—souls and Daemoenica alike.
Saer stared at the charred circles left behind, anxiety stirring in his guts. He blinked, made a soft noise in the back of his throat, then walked back to his hut.