21. Lucifer
Harlowe, Harlowe. Let me out to play a little.
Just a little taste of freedom. Everyone talked about how the Devil invented the loophole, but I didn’t.
It was a cosmic thing. You could blame my father, one of the other gods, or just karma, but things would always balance out and if you were going to curse someone instead of killing them, it could be undone.
I could see everything from my cage. I could watch who I wanted, but I couldn’t leave unless the bars were weakened.
There was a primal force that could do that.
Humans might not have a civilization, but they all made art, even when their species was still new.
They painted on caves, made music by beating on things, and they moved their bodies in primitive dance.
It was beautiful, and it had always fascinated me.
These primitive beings had nothing, and they still found time to create beauty.
I didn’t rebel because I was jealous my father loved them more.
I didn’t want to be worshipped either. That was the story that was given out while I was locked in a cage and couldn’t defend myself.
I made an offhanded comment about how the creations were outshining their creator with their free will.
My father could just think things into existence, but they were figuring out how to make pigments from nature and instruments from hide and bone.
It wasn’t an insult. It was a compliment to his creations.
He didn’t take it that way. The rebellion didn’t start until I was punished for that and some of the other angels took my side. We were doomed to lose because we were vastly outnumbered.
We were all cast into Hell and I got the cage treatment because his overreaction was my fault. It took a very long time, but I eventually figured it out. My loophole was the reason I fell—the beautiful creations of mortals that I loved so much.
I’d been playing chess with them for so long.
I moved them around and gave them opportunities.
I had to make deals with everyone for the longest time so the people I actually wanted got desperate enough to summon one of my demons.
That was pretty rare now aside from teenagers who thought they were being edgy, so Blackvale Academy was exactly what I needed.
That left the Immortal Nightmare boys. They liked to complain about how they’d been manipulated and fucked over.
They liked to forget that before they ever met each other, they called me.
No one sought them out and made them do anything.
They asked for all of this and I still had use for them, so they were benefitting off one of my loopholes.
Together, they were the closest I’d come to freedom, but there was something missing. I just had a feeling that missing piece was a beautiful goth girl who could play the violin like a woman possessed, but couldn’t dance to save her life.
Of course, they were suspicious because they’d given themselves the narrative they’d been fucked over.
They already had the talent. There was no magical boost involved in that.
They were just put in the room with the right people.
Magic could do a lot, but one of the loopholes was that it couldn’t make someone do anything they didn’t want to do and it couldn’t wash away any shitty learned behaviors.
They didn’t know each other when they made their deals, but I couldn’t have been happier when they found their way to each other. I didn’t just go overboard exploiting every loophole I had for them because they could help me break out of my prison.
Their deals didn’t go smoothly at all and I felt bad about it.
Azriel and Orion had the talent, but what actually happened to them would have been soul crushing to anyone.
People were monsters. In sweet Misha’s case, he was put in a room with monsters and then he was the monster to defend himself.
I didn’t know that until the monster came out.
Azriel and Orion kept the monster at bay.
So, yeah, they thought I was fucking them over again, but I was pushing them towards Harlowe for a reason and everyone would win.
I finally fulfilled my contract with them, but no one ever read those contracts. Once I was free, they fulfilled their end of the bargain and they were also free.
I didn’t give a shit about their souls. I wanted my freedom.