Shadows of Our Fathers

Shadows of Our Fathers

The Primal Patterns: Book 3

Rex Jameson

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2017 by Rex Jameson

All rights reserved.

First Edition (2017)

ISBN (Electronic): 978-0-9839351-9-3

ISBN (Paperback): 978-0-9989386-0-8

This book is a work of fiction. Incidents, names, characters, and places are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual locales, events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Cover illustration by Damonza (https://damonza.com)

Edited by Homunculus Editing Service (Derek Prior)

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Table of Contents

Title

Dedication

Back Cover

Foreword

Dramatis Personae

Chapter 1. Promises to the Dead

Chapter 2. Calm before the Storm

Chapter 3. Mommy Dearest

Chapter 4. A Lack of Foresight

Chapter 5. School Trouble

Chapter 6. Memory Lane

Chapter 7. Return of the Light

Chapter 8. Coffee and Bastards

Chapter 9. The Prophecy

Chapter 10. A Trip to the Forge

Chapter 11. Judgment of Sothom

Chapter 12. Stirring the Pot

Chapter 13. Sariel’s Gauntlet

Chapter 14. The Last Samu

Chapter 15. The Mad God’s Good Graces

Chapter 16. Return of the King

Chapter 17. Kids in the Hall

Chapter 18. Game of Throne

Chapter 19. History Repeating

Chapter 20. Omniscience is Wasted on the Young

Chapter 21. A Pep Talk with Grandpa

Chapter 22. Of Martyrs and Great Houses

Chapter 23. The Great Sorrow

Chapter 24. Sins of the Father

Chapter 25. New Beginnings

Acknowledgements

About Rex Jameson

Other Works by the Author

To my readers. Thanks for waiting so patiently.

Back Cover

Imagine a war between angels and demons that extends across our universe. Now, think bigger. Imagine that the fight between Lucifer and Jehovah extends across not only our universe but also two more ancient universes filled with demons and the remnants of the proud elven race.

Angels and demons fall as the Great War between Order and Chaos comes to a close. For those who thought Jehovah’s days of smiting stopped in the Old Testament, it’s time to give the devil his due.

In the face of democratic and social reforms, the Chaos Universe struggles with its past while pursuing the future that King Lucifer promises. While the demons thrive, the creator of the Elven universe looks to his own past for the salvation of his favorite immortals. Jehovah’s wife Gaea and son Isaac seek asylum in Chaos as Lucifer and Jehovah have their final, apocalyptic battle.

Shadows of Our Fathers is the last book of the Lucifer’s Fall trilogy, and book three in the Primal Patterns series.

Foreword

A Recap of the Series

(WARNING: SPOILERS FROM LAST BOOKS)

In Lucifer’s Odyssey, a group of demons has been duped into imprisonment on Earth as part of an ongoing holy war, of sorts, with Jehovah, the creator of a primal pattern that projects universes. The demon universe of Chaos is mostly governed by a Council of Wizards in regards to the usage of pattern magic while the armies are governed by the monarchy under the Kadingir clan, a demon family with ties to the primal pattern that projects the Chaos Universe. The group of imprisoned demons includes Lucifer, his uncle Batarel, brother Sariel, and a bodyguard Azazel. However, the group originally comprised roughly 25,000 demons that had been sent by Lucifer’s father Ostat to quell an intellectual rebellion led by Jehovah and his wife Gaea. The rest of Lucifer’s legion was destroyed and incorporated into Jehovah’s primal pattern and universe through magic that Lucifer does not understand but that Batarel does.

Batarel is part of the Council of Wizards and was attached to Lucifer’s legion to guard against pattern magic attacks from Jehovah’s forces and report back to the Council. Sariel is Batarel’s apprentice, though restricted in many forms of magic by the Council due to his connection to the monarchy and the requirements of a strict separation of church and state that went into effect for ancient reasons that no one acknowledges anymore (billions of years old).

Just before an apocalyptic event would potentially free the four remaining demons from Earth, the reincarnated form of Lucifer’s brother Michael arrives to warn them that Chaos is in danger and the event that would free them from Earth will also destroy Alurabum, their home planet and capital. Michael and Jehovah fight, and Azazel is mortally wounded. Lucifer and Sariel escape from Earth to try to warn their father, but Batarel arrives sooner and warns the Council of Wizards, who use the opportunity of the anarchy and impending doom to manipulate Lucifer’s father Ostat into taking the blame for a harvesting of demon souls that would save the demon people.

When Lucifer and Sariel arrive in Alurabum, they are imprisoned and forced to watch the execution of their parents. The incident enrages Lucifer and he maims the new King, a ringleader from the Council of Wizards, before escaping. Sariel kills a man named Kimah Agalal, an important figure in the rival Agalal clan. The brothers discover that this is not the only time they have been manipulated by the Council, and return to a universe called the Elven Realm to find refuge. The Elven Realm had been previously attacked and nearly annihilated by Lucifer’s armies, but an old friend named Elandril welcomes them back after interactions with the elven people and renewed hope in a lasting demon and elven alliance, should Lucifer defeat the Council. Elandril has been elected to lead the Elven people after the death of his father in the Great War. To prevent another assassination of the Elven King, many of the important elves like Elandril have become distributed beings.

While in Arnessa, the capital of the Elven Realm, Lucifer meets a female elven assassin named Anne who turns out to be the sister of Elandril. Anne and her sister Persephone are a state secret that was originally hidden by Batarel during the slaughter and pillage of Arnessa by the demon legions. Lucifer also meets Archimedes, the creator of the Elven Primal and the Chaos Primal, and through ignorance, Lucifer accidentally destroys several important solar systems including the one containing the elven planet of Uldram, killing millions. The Council attacks Elandril at a public event for harboring Lucifer, revealing that he has completed his forgewright training and is an ethereal creature, a type of being that is closer to the soul being projected from the primal pattern than what typically inhabits a focus universe (the main projected universe for which there are myriads of shadow universes). Batarel is mortally wounded while defending Lucifer, and is only saved by an offer of help from Jehovah.

Anne and Lucifer fall in love, and Anne becomes pregnant with a child of the Elven and Chaos universes. Lucifer travels to Order to meet with Jehovah and Gaea to discuss a formal relationship to avenge his father’s death and to check on Batarel. Gaea is supportive of all life, even non-Order life, and nurtures a possible friendship. Jehovah takes Lucifer on a tour of his experimental laboratories, where Batarel is being put into a new monstrous body, and attacks Lucifer after it is clear that Lucifer is not joining Jehovah’s side but instead wants to be autonomous and seeks only justice/vengeance. Lucifer escapes Jehovah’s ambush and destroys the clones Jehovah had prepared to kill the demon prince. Lucifer and Anne pretend like the attack didn’t happen to try to cultivate a relationship with Gaea, who they believe will influence Jehovah.

Jehovah and Gaea eventually do support Lucifer in taking on the demon legions using a new technology, a type of immortal killing gun developed by Jehovah, at Bulger’s Pass—a vortex between the Order and Chaos universes. Lucifer’s old legions rebel against their new masters and join his side. During the encounter, a demon wizard named Rabishu, who leads the Council of Wizards, kills Lucifer’s fiancé Anne in a way that was orchestrated by Jehovah. Batarel arrives in his new body and is so powerful that the entire battle essentially evaporates. He takes Anne’s body back to Order to try to save Lucifer’s and Anne’s offspring by inserting her and the baby into the Hall of Souls (a core part of the Order Primal Pattern).

Lucifer comes back to Chaos with his legions but allows himself to be captured by the mad King Eranos, the one he had previously maimed, who in turn maims Lucifer by blinding him with hot daggers. Lucifer is thrown into a cell in the dungeons, and is granted a type of sight by the Chaos Primal that allows Lucifer to see into the fundamental nature of the Chaos Primal and its projections. Lucifer breaks from his imprisonment and kills Eranos to regain the crown for the Agalal family, but only after realizing Eranos has murdered nearly all of the Kadingir clan but Lucifer and Sariel.

In the second book The Goblin Rebellion, an elf named Routan is morally and ethically shattered by the death of his children at Uldram, the catastrophe that Lucifer accidentally caused, starting a period called The Great Sorrow in elven prophecies. Routan is the head of a powerful corporation that has equipped the realm with weapons and defensive systems that are vital to protecting the Elven Realm from attack. He begins working with Jehovah to develop a targeted virus that is meant to disable the current Elven power structure, including Elandril, and allow a rebellion that will make him King so he can punish Lucifer.

Batarel and Sariel try to rebuild the wizarding core of Chaos, and Lucifer begins to democratize much of the government. An assassin named Kishargal from the Agalal clan tries to murder Sariel in the Chaos Library, but he stops her. After realizing the assassin is the daughter of Kimah Agalal, the man Sariel murdered after the execution of his parents, Sariel releases her and offers a truce between the clans. Lucifer’s son Christian is trapped in the Hall of Souls and frequently visited by Gaea who is pregnant with her son Isaac.

Jehovah does not give Routan a sleeping payload for the virus, and instead gives him a poison. Routan also disables all of the Elven Realm’s defenses to enable the uprising to happen. Once the virus is released, it spreads around the Elven Realm, melting targets from the inside out, down to the primal itself, including the eradication of their souls. Lucifer holds his friend Elandril as the King dies, as the elven prophecy had apparently predicted. Jehovah launches a concerted attack with his new armies of men, dragons, and specialized troops that absorb pattern magic on the Elven Realm to take advantage of the death of the King. He also prepares a type of pattern magic gun that impacts the Elven Primal and syphons souls and massive amounts of energy into the Order Primal and universes.

Lucifer and Sariel grieve for Elandril briefly before returning with an army that includes their new Agalal allies, with Kisha at the head. They destroy many of the remaining angels, and Sariel kills Routan. The powerful demon wizard Batarel dies at the hands of Jehovah in the battle at Arnessa. Meanwhile, Sariel and Gaea sneak into the Order Primal and use a pattern magic explosion to disable the gun that is syphoning elven souls and energy and also release Christian, Lucifer’s son. In addition to Christian, the Kadingir clan gains new members Arammu and Kanu, the bastard sons of Ostat and a servant named Gishtil, and a surprise reveal that Lucifer’s mother Olivia was not executed with their father and had been hiding out in shadows and in a pattern projection in the palace. The person executed with their father was in fact a shadow of their mother, a kind of ghost image from one of the adjacent universes projected by the Chaos Primal.

Jehovah returns to find that the explosive device in the Order Primal has destroyed the Hall of Souls, in addition to the gun, which has caused massive damage to the primal itself. Gaea flees with her son aboard an elven transportation vessel, created by the elf Routan, called the ARK and uses it to flee with various races that Jehovah has begun smiting throughout the universe for their roles in helping the demons destroy his pattern.

Dramatis Personae

Ahatu Agalal – Demon. Head of the House of Suen in the clan Agalal. Director of Education.

Anne – Elf. Sister to identical twin Persephone. Sister to Elandril. Daughter to King Veldin. Lover and fiancé to Lucifer before her death.

Arammu – Demon. Youngest son to Gishtil. Bastard son of Ostat.

Archimedes – Alien from Apsu. The Great Architect. Creator of Chaos, the Elven Realm, and nine other patterns that Chaos eventually destroyed.

Avery – Elf. Principal Scientist at Advanced Research in Kinetics.

Batarel Kadingir – Demon. Lead Strategist of the High Council of Wizards. Brother to Ostat. Adopted Father of Anne. Uncle to Lucifer and Sariel.

Christian Kadingir – Demon/Elf. Son of Lucifer and Anne. Prince of Chaos. Prince of the Elven Realm.

Enki Garrote – Demon. Brother to Enlil. Assistant Head of Garrote clan.

Enlil Garrote – Demon. Brother to Enki. Head of Garrote clan. Father to Olivia, Gibil, and Gula.

Enzikar Agalal – Demon. Head of House of Ensi of Agalal clan. Uncle to Kisha. Husband to Irnini.

Eranos Agalal – Demon. Former King of Chaos. Ordered execution of Ostat and Olivia Kadingir and most of the Kadingir clan.

Gaea Kadingir – Goddess of Order. Wife to Jehovah. Also known as Mother Nature.

Gabriel Kadingir – Archangel of Order.

Ganymede – Elf. Certamen Champion. Head of Elven Army.

Gishtil – Demon. Chief servant of Olivia Kadingir before being removed from the royal palace. Mother to Arammu and Kanu, both bastard sons of Ostat.

Hadu Agalal – Demon. Head of the House of Parsu in the clan Agalal. Senior Professor at Chaos University. Member of Board of Regents of Chaos University.

Hevel (Able) – Immortal human. Brother to Kayin.

Horace – Elf. Student of Archimedes.

Iksuda Agalal – Demon. Father to Jehovah.

Jehovah Kadingir – God of Order. Husband to Gaea. Creator of Order Primal. Son of Iksuda (father) and Mulki (mother).

Kanu – Demon. Oldest son to Gishtil. Bastard son of Ostat.

Kayin (Cain) – Immortal human. Brother to Hevel. Top wizard in the orderite army. Punished by Jehovah for ruining his plans.

Kimah Agalal – Demon. Former Head of House of Ensi in Agalal clan. Father to Kishargal. Killed by Sariel after royal parents’ execution.

Kishargal (Kisha) Agalal – Demon. Daughter of Kimah and Mina Agalal. Current Head of Agalal clan and Grand Commander of the Chaos Armies.

Lucifer Kadingir – Demon. King of Chaos. Son to Olivia and Ostat. Brother to Sariel and Michael.

Megil – Grandmaster Forgewright. With his apprentice Sigil, forged the twin blades Ohtar and Maethor.

Michael Kadingir – Archangel of Order. Son to Ostat and Olivia. Leader of orderite army.

Mina Agalal – Wife of Kimah Agalal. Mother to Kishargal Agalal.

Mudu Garrote – Demon. Assistant to Sariel.

Mulki Kadingir – Mother to Jehovah.

Noah – Immortal human. Personal assistant to Gaea. Husband to Naamah.

Olivia Kadingir/Garrote – Demon. Wife to Ostat Kadingir. Daughter of Enlil Garrote.

Ostat Kadingir – Demon. Former King of Chaos. Husband to Olivia Garrote. Father to Lucifer, Sariel, and Michael.

Raphael Agalal – Archangel of Order.

Rorschaz – Certamen Champion.

Rosaline – Largest globus (hive mind) in the Elven Realm. Owner/operator of largest chain of brothels in the Elven Realm.

Routan Shevarash – Former Elven forgewright. Founder and former head of Advanced Research in Kinetics Corporation. Lost general election for elven king to Elandril. Father to Natasha, Allison, Frederick, Thomas, Jane, and several other children lost at Uldram and in the Great War.

Sal – Friend of Lucifer’s from Order. Gammorite Ambassador to New Earth. Fish-head.

Samuel – Principal Scientist at Advanced Research in Kinetics.

Shadow of Ostat – Ghost of King Ostat currently living in the Chaos universe and outside of his shadow of the Chaos Primal.

Sigil – apprentice to Grandmaster Forgewright Megil. Architect of the king warrior blades Ohtar and Maethor.

Spencer – Elf. Head of Security at Advanced Research in Kinetics.

Tebu Agalal – Demon. Also known as Sharghaz the Smither. Head of the House of Gudanna. Husband to Sharghaz. Field Marshal and Chief of the General Staff.

Tiamat Agalal – Demon. Great mother of the House of Dalkhu in the clan Agalal. Oldest demon in Chaos.

Uriel Agalal – Archangel of Order.

Usmi Agalal – Demon. Head of the House of Dalkhu in the clan Agalal.

Veldin – Elf. Former King of Elven Realm. Father to Elandril, Anne, and Persephone. Murdered by Eranos during The Great War between the Elven Realm and Chaos.

Vichondrius – Demon. Chancellor of Chaos University.

Chapter 1

Promises to the Dead

Kishargal Agalal sat on a barren and dusty moon, remembering better times spent with her mother Mina. Maybe not better times, really, but moments when Mina had at least still been alive.

She and her mother had sat on this same moon before the local solar system had been destroyed by a supernova, the collapse of a nearby supermassive star into a black hole that sent tremendous waves of gamma radiation barreling through every solar system within hundreds of light years, obliterating everything. They had sat here, behind a protective shield of pattern magic, before Kisha had even understood what that was—back when magic was something so bizarre and limitless that she thought she would never fully understand it.

Now, she knew precisely how her mother had punctured the primal pattern with a channel that filled the local area with excited primary particles that buzzed her skin with electricity and kept the dangerous gamma rays out. But when she was a kid, these kinds of mysteries were so mythical and bizarre that her ignorance was nothing but a source of inspiration. Anything was possible. Everything was possible. The universe had no limits, and neither did she, and her mother was nothing short of a goddess back then.

Watching a supernova from behind such a barrier was a kind of vacation for an immortal. It was an event—maybe not like most mortal family events, but hers was not a normal family. The collapsing star had been watched by everyone in Alurabum from a thousand light years away. Its demise had been predicted down to the minute, the very second. People planned for it like earthlings might plan for an eclipse, even though a supernova was a devastating event for anything nearby. Those without magical means, which was pretty much everyone outside of the Council of Wizards back then, had to stay two hundred light years out to be safe. She and her mother had watched from this moon, just twenty light years away.

In its prime, this system had its own star and four planets, one of which was actively developing. Plate tectonics. First-stage, single-cell life. Gone. To a kid, this meant nothing. Now, she understood the potential that had been lost. But even with this realization, the memory was still warm and fond because her mother’s hand had been warm. Her smile had been real. Her mother’s happiness had been earnest and radiating.

This moon had been orbiting a different, larger planet—a failed star, really. That host planet had been vaporized. Everything within the system had been vaporized. This moon only remained because of the magical protections her mother had maintained throughout the gamma ray bursts, the interstellar wind, and the debris cloud that washed away the world and every cell of life that had existed in the system.

As a child, she had thought of black holes as ultimate consumers; that nothing could escape them. She knew differently now. They had an event horizon for which this was true, but a supernova was a violent outward push of material that always escaped the collapsing black hole. Sure, the black hole traveled around after the event. It might reacquire the jettisoned material when it was capable of feeding on it, but for a brief moment in time, the universe rebelled against its very nature. The inescapable became escapable.

She got to see it first-hand, close enough to feel the radiation against her skin, despite the resistive powers of her mother’s magical barrier. Or maybe she had just imagined the sensation on her hair and face. The light had been so bright, so vivid and blue at first. Then black from the shock to her eyes. She remembered still seeing her mother’s silhouette burned into her retinas by the powerful blast. Her mother’s smile as she pulled her into her chest.

It’s all right, Mina had said.

Mother, I can’t see!

Do you have to? Haven’t you seen enough?

Am I blind? Kisha had asked, panicked. Should I not have looked?

Your eyes will readjust child. Be calm.

She remembered her breathing getting easier. Her mother’s voice soothing.

You have witnessed your first supernova, her mother said, and you’ve survived.

Kisha squealed triumphantly, raising a fist into the air within the protective bubble.

Mina chuckled, and her silhouette became a little clearer. Her mother tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder and pulled it back into a knot. Kisha remembered looking at her mother’s slightly more developed features and curves and then back at her own, a small ridiculous flash of jealousy crossing her mind.

Mina laughed again.

One day, you’ll see those too.

Mom! Kisha complained, covering up her developing breasts.

And you’ll find a nice young demon…

The thought trailed off, and her mother turned to look at the location of the old star.

He’ll light up your world, she said. You’ll look at him like a star in its prime. He’ll be so bright and warm and lovely that you can’t look away, no matter what happens around you. And you’ll remember him like he was at that moment, the moment you recognized him for what he truly was.

Did you look at father like that? Kisha asked shyly.

I still look at your father like that.

But… Kisha had said, as her current vision came back clearly now. All around her was devastation. The four planets were gone. The sun had disintegrated, devoured not by its own actions, but by those of a collapsing star some twenty light years away. A casualty. Collateral damage. He hurts you.

It wasn’t always like it is now, her mother’s voice echoed in her mind.

That’s no excuse, Mom.

Your father’s like this sun, Mina said absently. Once bright. A beacon to others. He spread his warmth over all around him.

Whatever he once was— Kisha started to object.

You don’t know what you’re talking about, child, her mother said.

Mother, he hates you.

He doesn’t hate me, my love. He doesn’t even hate you.

He has a really strange way of showing it, Kisha said.

She wrapped her arms around her mother and nestled her head into Mina’s shoulder.

Perhaps he wanted a son? Kisha asked, fidgeting against her mother’s side. A boy who might lead the clan one day?

No, Mina said. That’s not it all. Your father was my great love, and I was his. When you meet the right person, you’ll just know. For immortals, it’s more than just an attraction. It sinks deep into your very essence, down to the primal. Immortal soulmates don’t just mingle in the focus universe. They dance and mate in the primal, down to the very core of all that is. And when soulmates have children?

She grabbed Kisha by the chin and forced her to look up. It’s like a branch of your soul took root and changed the universe in a fundamental, beautiful way.

Then why doesn’t he…

Mina sighed deeply, squeezing Kisha. Life is complicated, and it teaches us hard lessons.

Are you saying that what happened to you and dad was a hard lesson?

Mina nodded and gazed into the darkness where the star had been.

When you see something you want, she said after a moment of contemplation, you should go after it immediately. Don’t linger. Don’t wait. A soulmate makes you vulnerable. If you find that person, hold onto them for dear life. Don’t let anyone keep you apart. Don’t let anyone put a black mark on your soul.

I won’t, Mom, Kisha said, uncertain of what her mother might mean.

Hopefully, you won’t make the same mistakes that he and I made. When the time comes… When you find your own star…

I’ll take him far away from a supernova, Kisha said seriously.

Mina laughed.

Well, Mina said, then you’re smarter than your father and me.

Mina kissed Kisha on the cheek and pressed her to her torso. Kisha remembered the smell of smoke and fire from the remains of the solar system all around them. She remembered closing her eyes and breathing in the fabric of her mother’s dress. Fresh detergent mixed with soot. Sweet perfume mixed with sweat and soap. A burnt taste in her mouth from the gamma radiation baking her skin, or maybe it was dust from the charred section of moon and dust. She smooshed her mother’s chest and breast against her face and swayed on her knees. She remembered her mother’s blonde hair tickling her chin. There was a comfort in childhood with her mother, when they had been alone like then on that asteroid. No moment with her father had ever been like that—save one time.

After Sariel had killed her father Kimah, she had felt a certain kind of joy—a release, really. A freedom. Her father had always looked at her like a black sheep, despite the fact that Kisha was an only child. For a full year after her father’s death in the main square, she had felt safe, unencumbered and more alive. Her mother Mina, on the other hand, had withered like a rose left on a slab of rock in the sun.

Mina had taken her own life. Not physically. There were no zinanbar slashes across her wrists. She had not flung herself into a star. She had simply collapsed in her room, one year after Kimah’s death. She had killed herself with neglect and sadness. An unwillingness to continue. Perhaps what her mother had said about her father being a soulmate was true. Perhaps their love, despite its obvious dysfunction, was necessary and integral to Mina’s soul in the primal. All Kisha knew for sure was that before her mother’s great melancholy, Mina had loved Kisha, and she had always made time to be with her daughter. After her mother’s passing, Kisha was left alone to fend off and channel the political games of her family.

Kisha felt a small pull against her mind, breaking her from her daydream. A channel. Someone was trying to politely contact her. She kept her eyes closed for a moment longer and breathed deeply from the pocket of air she now maintained from the primal around the fragmented, forgotten old moon.

Yes? she replied in monotone, letting whoever was on the other end know that they were interrupting her.

I’m sorry to bother you, a familiar voice apologized.

She kept her eyes closed and felt a warm feeling surge throughout her body. She smiled as the sensation moved downward, through her torso and into her thighs. She pressed her mother’s Samu dress, a type of transparent garment meant for her clan’s betrothals, between her legs. When she opened her eyes, the channel was taking up her periphery. She grinned wider as Sariel looked back at her.

I… um… he said, looking at her and obviously trying not to let his eyes linger on her hands between her thighs.

Is there something I can do for you? she asked, any trace of annoyance gone now.

She had a sudden urge to put the dress on, to give him a taste of what he was in for. She smiled wider, showing off her white teeth, inviting him to say something—anything.

I really wish I was calling you under different circumstances, he said.

So this is official business? she asked, followed by an exaggerated sigh.

I’m afraid it is. Something has come up at the capital.

He shook his head, and his cute brown wavy hair danced along his jawline. She squinted slightly at him, at him being distracted by something else.

What are you up to? she asked.

I’m not doing anything, he said. Not this time. I swear!

She smiled as she removed the thin dress from her lap and hid it behind her back. Shall I meet you at the library?

I’m outside the palace. Can you come through the channel right now?

She squeezed the fabric behind her back. I have to drop something off at my clan house first. Then I have to meet with my elders at the parade for Christian. As the head of the clan, I have to make a presence.

Of course, he said. Right. Christian’s return. Big event. Nothing could be bigger than that! How long do you think you’ll be?

She raised her eyebrows. He’s your royal nephew. I would think you’d understand how important this is.

I know. I know.

Do you know how much work it has taken me to get all of the Agalals to be present for this? Despite our past clan feud?

I’m sorry, he said. Like I said, official business. Not my doing. I need you here. For something else.

Something bigger than the Kadingir Crown Prince returning from his imprisonment in Order? There’s official business bigger than that?

Sariel stammered on the other end. His response teetered between an affirmative, an I guess not, and unattractive mumbling.

You’re making me nervous, she said.

Please, he relented, apparently noticing the curl in her lip. Enjoy the parade with your clan, but I have to call on you soon. You won’t be able to stay for long.

How long?

He looked behind himself at a hallway in the Palace. Thirty minutes?

She nodded through the channel and then closed it. She pulled the dress to her chest and watched as it shimmered between opacity and translucence. She squeezed it tightly, closed her eyes, and made a promise into the ether that was more like a prayer.

I’ll make you proud, Mother, she said. Everything you and Father did wrong, I’ll do right. Where your relationship failed, where Father failed, Sariel and I will not. He’ll be my sun. Our souls too will mingle in the primal. And I will bear his children—your grandchildren.

She looked up at the stars all around her.

And they’ll be loved. So loved!

She thought of her father’s callous, unflinching stare.

Above all, she promised. I swear to you that they’ll be loved.

***

Far away, another creature sat in the aftermath of a supernova, this one many billions of light years away from Kisha in Order. He twirled and floated there in a fresh debris field. Hydrogen atoms collided together with basic iron elements. A ring of destruction spread in a spherical doomsday, obliterating planets and moons and life that he had himself created and nurtured over billions of years in this universe. Incubators of biology and thoughts and plans. All gone now. For a hundred light years in any direction.

The madness of his pattern infected him now, drove him further into the chaos that resided deep within the Order primal pattern. The Hall of Souls had been shattered, and his mind along with it. In his omniscient vision, he saw mostly clouds and haze with momentary glimpses of his wife’s treachery—of her helping Sariel destroy his greatest creation. She had his son Isaac, and they had fled together from Earth. And his next show of strength and rage. And the catastrophe after that as well.

Jehovah vowed to find her. To bring her to heel. To free her mind from Lucifer’s influence. To take back his son. To kill the King of Chaos and put his foot to Sariel’s throat, retribution for that inept wizard’s role in the destruction of the Hall of Souls. For being an annoyance. A thorn in his side. A silver-tongued devil who had tricked his wife into her treachery.

Sariel would pay. Lucifer would pay. Chaos would pay.

Chapter 2

Calm before the Storm

For an immortal, hatred can be as timeless as the universe. Very few demon rivalries can be traced back to a single event. Clans hate each other for reasons no person can even recall. As time passes, any semblance of explanation ebbs away and all that is left is raw emotion, passed down from generation to generation. Some demon clans might commission a story, an official history that is almost always fabricated, to focus the clan anger on outrages from the past. But most rivalries are simply clouds of hate, understood from above or afar but unrecognizable from the lies and truths intermingled within.

Kishargal Agalal found herself immersed in such a translucent hate bubble, trying to remember the exact reason she despised her cousin Usmi, the head of the Agalal Dalkhu house, but all she could see were the details of the present. His perfect teeth, blond hair, and clean jaw line. His smug expression. The way he was never happy or satisfied, no matter how well their clan was doing. The fact that Tiamat, the timeless matriarch of the Agalal clan, had taken him in as her protégé and that he had gloated about it ever since. The animosity and rumors he had supposedly leveled at her, always revealed years later by a second hand or third hand confidant. The fact that his plots were always through an intermediary, rather than direct attacks.

Of course, none of these reasons were the source, the true underlying cause of her hatred for him. They just served as convenient reminders that she had despised him over the past few hundred thousand years.

All around Kisha were the scions of her family, each under a set of twelve-foot colorful umbrella canopies in the popular café Ezinu along the main strip of Alurabum. The rest of the demon population threw confetti from the rooftops, celebrating the triumphant return of the black-winged Crown Prince Christian Kadingir to the capital. She was not allowed to join their revelry. She knew better than most that the celebration in the capital was part of a game, a competition amongst those in the family. If she wanted to stay head of the clan, even if some considered her nothing more than a figurehead, then she must watch for the signs of moves being played around and against her. If she missed an important plot, her position or even her life might be forfeit. She had to keep her eyes on Usmi and Tiamat.

Usmi silently sipped his tea directly across from her, frowning at the spectacle and the crowd. If she smiled, she caught him grimacing at her. She could not tell if the disappointment was real, or