So Many Paths

Chapter 6: In Hell as it is in Heaven

Caption: Hell, the Pool of Fire, Lucien's Lair. Thursday 1 May 1980. 11:02pm GST.

<Gadrel, a Fallen Power, walks thru a flame-filled doorway into the cavernous, smokey chamber. He looks around, spots Lucien, and walks towards him. Lucien is sitting on an obsidian throne with inlaid fire opals and Human skulls. In one hand he holds a goblet carved from red volcanic rock. The other hand is casually stroking the jet black hair of a Human girl. She is perhaps sixteen years old, scantily clad, and sports a black rose tattoo over her left breast.>

Gadrel: I hope I'm not disturbing you.

Lucien: Not at all. Abbadon was supposed to be here for an update on the war, but Samyaza stepped up his offensive since that sudden burst of activity in the Midlands two weeks ago, so I told him to stay put.

Gadrel: Funny you should mention that.

Lucien: How so?

Gadrel: Well, usually when there's a higher-than-average volume of Souls passing thru the Midlands, it indicates some natural disaster common to a large block of adjacent Earths.

Lucien, smiling slightly: And since you're stating the obvious, that must not be the case this time.

Gadrel: Exactly. Something went wrong with the Shining Band's Soul router. They had to send search parties out into the Midlands to rescue a bunch of Souls and escort them to Davide'el for processing.

Lucien, increasingly smug: In and of itself, an interesting bit of trivia. But to bring it up before tomorrow's staff meeting, there must be more.

Gadrel: Oh, yes. You're going to love this part. They lost some Souls. Teenagers, just children really. They got bounced back to Earth. Not their own Earths. They got scattered randomly.

Lucien: Gadrel?

Gadrel: Yes, boss.

Lucien: I was just wondering...

Gadrel: Yes?

Lucien: How much fun it's going to be for you the day you come in here with news that I haven't already received.

Gadrel, clearly disappointed: You ... you knew?

Lucien: Yes. The Ancient of Days has already formed one of his damn Task Forces. They're calling the children "Lost Souls." They're all around fourteen years old. <Whistfully.> Think of what we'll be able to do. Untraceable Souls who can travel the Net. The havoc we'll wreck, ... will be glorious.

Gadrel: Not only do you know about this, it seems you know more than I do. Would you mind sharing how?

Lucien: Gadrel, <He stands up and helps the girl to her feet.> this young lady calls herself Rose and she's been ever so helpful. If my spies in the Shining Band picked up information as quickly as she did, I'd be ruling the place by now.

Rose: Nice to meet you, Gadrel. I'm glad to be of service. Better to laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints and all that.

Gadrel: Yes, and you're here because...

Rose, pulling her top further open to reveal the rest of her tattoo - three red teardrops: One for each of those Dagger Gang bitches I killed.

Gadrel: No remorse, even in Hell. <He looks at Lucien.> I like her.

Lucien: I like her too, so hands off.

Gadrel: OK, boss.

Lucien: She's done good for us. Not only did she manage to gather a tremendous amount of information on the Lost Souls during her short time in Davide'el, but she gave me the identity of two of them.

Gadrel: Hot damn! I figured that was going to be the hardest part.

Lucien: Well there's perhaps a hundred more whose names we don't know. But Rose has a sister lost out there and I intend to find her and the other one before the Ancient of Days does.

Caption: Hell, the Pool of Fire, Hellfire Hall. Friday 2 May 1980. 8:06am GST.

Sammael: So Heaven lost some Souls. What makes you think we'll have better luck finding them than the Shining Band?

Lucien: The Ancient of Days is only using a small Task Force, as usual. We can't match their other resources but we have them beat for manpower.

Belial: Who are you pulling for this?

Gaspar: All other ...

Balthazar: ... projects ...

Melchior: ... are on hold.

Belial, looking directly at Lucien, ignoring the Triumverate: All projects?

Lucien: Yes, Bel. You can pull your teams out of the Labyrinth. I still believe that deciphering the Labyrinth is the key to defeating Samyaza, but my spies tell me that he's having no more luck than we are at solving its riddles.

Asmodaeus: So what's the plan, boss?

Lucien: Hellfire Hall will be the Lost Souls Command Center. Iblis and Gadrel will coordinate the project from here. Belial, pull your whole Labyrinth project team. Your new task is to interrogate EVERY fallen Soul who arrived here in the past fifteen years. We're going to have to account for every child from thirteen to fifteen years old.

Belial, sarcastically: Oh, yes, because this will be SO MUCH easier then solving the Labyrinth.

Asmodaeus: You just like to complain.

Lucien: If you need more help, just say so. I know this is a monumental project but these children have too much potential to not go after them with everything we've got. And that brings me to Sammael.

Sammael: It's time, isn't it?

Lucien: Yes. This information DOES NOT leave this room. <He looks around to make sure that everyone knows how serious he is.>

Lucien, continuing: There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Earths that aren't on the Net. <He looks around the table again, this time watching as the shock registers on their faces.>

Lucien, continuing: Most of them are unpopulated worlds, worlds that experienced catastrophes so extreme that when the Wanderer helped the Shining Band stablize the Net, that these dead and nearly dead worlds were allowed to drift free. They should have been absorbed back into the Creation Matrix, but they weren't. Sammael and I have never been able to figure out why. <He nods to Sammael.>

Sammael: The world that we call Earth-Tau IS inhabited. The inhabitants are the descendents of four of the Elioud girls born in the Garden after Gadrel's seduction of Eve. When the Ancient of Days sent us into the garden to expel Eve and her followers, I found the infants and hid them. When I discovered Earth-Tau, I took them there and eventually took them as my consorts. All of my children by them were girls. And here's where it gets interesting. A few of my daughters, upon reaching puberty become spontaneous pregnant. They gave birth to daughters and had hardly weaned them when they were pregnant again.

Rose: Wait. You're saying they just keep getting pregnant...

Sammael: A self-sustaining society of women, a small percentage of whom very effectively maintain the population.

Lucien: We can discuss this in more detail later. What's important right now, is that these women and girls are Elioud. They have no Souls. Heaven can't track them. When they die, they're just gone. Which makes them the perfect agents for us on Earth. But we've been saving them, because once we start using them, it's only a matter of time before the Shining Band learns of them. And once that happens, Earth-Tau's days are numbered.

Back to Index -- Chapter 7: A Day in the Life - Earth