2. Lucifer
Ah, the Devil’s Tritone. The Church banned a lot of things, but it never banned that.
No one ever thought it summoned demons, but it did do one carefully guarded secret.
It damaged the bars of my cage and let me briefly leave Hell.
The Devil’s Tritone in the right hands would free me from my prison, and I never had to rule that shithole again.
I dealt in deals, and there was always a loophole.
I gave people exactly what they asked for, but I loved my loopholes.
My particular Hell with the loophole I was saddled with was that the Devil’s Tritone only messed with my cage if it was played live.
And while I knew there was someone who could use it to shatter the cage, I didn’t know how.
There were plenty of talented composers who could use it in a pleasing way, but the ones who could use it to free me were rare. And most of them only wanted to use it to set a mood. I always felt it when one of them used it, but I had to be careful with them.
There was that whole smear campaign that happened when I got cast to Hell and locked in a cage. No one cared about my side of the story. Everyone turned me into the ultimate boogeyman and blamed me for all their problems.
It was not my fault or my minions' fault someone did anything vile. We turned deals down if they grossed us out. If someone wanted knowledge or talent, we gave that. If someone wanted a set amount of money or food for one night, we’d subtly guide them towards making a deal for something that would keep the money and food flowing.
An extra two inches of cock was popular for idiots.
But we weren’t doing deals that would allow people to murder or rape with no consequences.
But people didn’t want to hear that. Tell someone you needed them to experiment with freeing the devil and they got all weird. They called me the Prince of Lies, but I never lied. I just omitted the truth sometimes.
I’d been aware of Harlowe Lopez for a while. She was gifted with the Devil’s Tritone and liked experimenting with it. I’d been subtly manipulating her where I needed her for a while now. She needed a proper instrument because she had the talent to be famous, and I made that happen.
I was out of my cage long enough to pretend to be human.
Even a second-hand Joseph Curtain violin was more than her mom could afford, but she needed a violin made by a luthier, so I met with the son of the previous owner who had passed, seriously undervalued it for the exact amount her mom had saved, and then I made sure she saw the ad so she could buy it.
Things were on track to maneuver her to Blackvale when Maria got Lithium poisoning.
Her mother had done everything she was supposed to.
She’d been diagnosed since Harlowe was a child and had been so careful because she didn’t want to leave her child in the foster system.
Maria never missed therapy, and she took her pills like she was supposed to.
I could have exploited that, but I didn’t want to. I could heal her mother of the Lithium poisoning and make a deal with her to get her to do what I wanted. But I didn’t like that loophole. I couldn’t cure her mother of the bipolar disorder, so it just didn’t seem fair.
So, during one of the times I was able to escape my cage, I did cure her of the Lithium poisoning, but I didn’t stop to make a deal with Harlowe. But things changed. She’d gotten more powerful since the last time I visited her. I could see a way to help her and have her help me in return.
She’d also gotten stunning. Her hair was raven, and her eyes were so brown they were nearly onyx. She’d taken to rimming them in thick black eyeliner and filling those luscious lips with black lipstick.
And she looked the devil right in the eye and didn’t look away until that idiot angel kicked the garbage can over.
Yes, I’d only make a deal with Harlowe Lopez if I absolutely needed to.