A Weapon’s Serenade

Nemesis turned to look at the ocean outside the window. “Nothing major, just an unforeseen consequence of how the portals are set up. The Discordia’s jump engine was interfering with the magical portal stabilizer. Umbria insisted on having both stabilizers active before we declare the portal as stable. As the position of a portal’s most stable position can vary if it is connected to from another frame, we had opted to anchor this side first and keep the Hell side mobile and attached to the Discordia.”

“But that didn’t work.” Focalor raised an eyebrow.

“Almost. The portal connected, the non-magical stabilizer worked as expected but the magical inscriptions were tethering themselves to the jump engines instead of the portal frame and thus didn’t activate.”

“Why didn’t that happen here?”

“Because the Discordia’s engines are more powerful to accommodate the increased size of the chariot.”

“Right. So you found a stable position, deactivated the portal, moved the Discordia and then reactivated everything?”

“Exactly. Everything is working as expected now.”

“Very good. Anything that precludes us from heading down to the observation dome then?”

“No, everything is ready.”

“Alright, ready girls?”

Everyone nodded and Focalor promptly teleported everyone.

In the dome, Umbria was waiting. While there was no visible light emitted from anything, it was still bright enough for everyone to see. This magical effect extended even across the ocean, turning the ocean floor several hundred metres beneath the dome into a very pretty and unique horizon.

Umbria was a very dynamic demon, her form gently flowing with her gentle sways as she was humming to herself while ticking off a checklist.

“Oh, hello.”

The group had just teleported in, Umbria noticed and looked up from her papers and let them vanish. Instead of turning around from looking out the window, she dissolved into a mass of shadows and reformed herself facing the group.

“Welcome to my little glass bubble. I’m Umbria.”

“I’m Melody, hi. This is Anne. Kuria will likely come back shortly, she is talking with the high inquisitor.”

“Ah, your Shadow friend, right?”

“Yes.”

“I look forward to meeting her. A young Shadow is always fun.”

“That she is. If I may ask a question…”

“Always.” Umbria smiled.

“How did you do that thing when you, well, not really turned around?”

“Just like Kuria, I am also a Shadow. I just enjoy a bit more of the malleability we have. We are like water, we can pour ourselves into the buckets that are other people but we don’t have to be bucket-shaped ourselves. I can flow as I please.”

“And it’s quite the sight to behold. In a very good way.”

“Thank you. Besides apparently putting on a nice show for you, I will have to disappoint you when it comes to the sirens. They will be here soon but we have picked this spot because it is out of the way of the usual human and siren travel routes.”

“That will at least give Serena and Kuria time to get here.”

“Of course.”

Serena at least didn’t let the others wait for very long. She and Famine teleported in after a few more minutes.

“Hey…”

Famine simply nodded politely at everyone.

Anne looked slightly worried at the slightly withdrawn Serena. “Hey. You alright there?”

“I guess I will be.”

“I take it the appointment with Malice didn’t go great?”

“Oh no, it went great… just that some revelations were a bit… bad.”

“Oh dear… we are here if you want to talk about it.”

Serena nodded and forced a smile. “I always knew that I had pretty much lost at the genetic lottery but actually getting a list of everything that is mildly broken is a bit much. Besides my heart and my near sightedness, I apparently got an allergy against seaweed, a malformed bone in my right foot, a too small sinus cavity, multiple problems with the tendons in my hands and, of course, minor scoliosis. Nothing here is impactful enough to warrant human intervention but it’s a damn long list that continues on beyond the stuff I just told you about. Getting it all catalogued is what took so long, I’m sorry.”

“But Malice can help with it all, right?”

“She told me she would try to find some proper solutions to fix multiple issues at once, treating everything separately would take years. At the very least, she will fix my heart as the first thing. As the left side of my heart is underdeveloped, she will make it grow a little bit every time we meet and then adjust my medication accordingly. Doing it all at once would be harmful. Might even kill me.”

Ara sighed playfully. “Do you want to keep her too?”

“What do you mean?” Serena sounded quite confused.

“Right, you don’t know me. Thankfully. Hello, I’m the embodiment of endings, the arbiter of death, the avatar of finality. People call me Ara. I can decide that someone doesn’t get to die. Looks like you also will go on the list of ‘ask the demons first’.”

“I… uhm… okay. Hello. Nice to meet you in a not-dying way? I guess I would get to meet you when I die, right?”

“You would. It’s nice to meet you like this and it’s nice to hear about the demons working on making your life better. Even if you decide against never dying, I recommend making this life as great as you can.”

“Hm… so the demons don’t die?”

Ara shot Melody and Anne a glance. Melody grimaced. “Oh dear, that never came up with you… Yea, demons are perfectly immortal. They will live forever, nothing can truly kill them. Getting decapitated or something like that is just a minor inconvenience and will have them wake up at home in a fresh body again.”

“Huh. I guess the death penalty for vandalism makes more sense that way. Neat. Honestly, I’m not sure if that would be for me. I would need to know a life without everything being broken to decide that.”

Ara nodded. “That’s why you go on the list. If you haven’t made that decision when and if something kills you, you will still get that choice.”

“That is… good to know. What a day…”

Umbria smiled reassuringly as she let herself flow around Serena and reform with a hand on the human’s shoulder. “It’s just going to get better.”

“How did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“The flowy bit.”

Umbria chuckled. “I’m a Shadow, I’m a bit more… flexible when it comes to being a physical thing. Anyway, soon the sirens will arrive and we will get to witness their first journey to Hell. And your first journey too if I am informed correctly.”

“I will get to go to Hell?”

“Yes, why wouldn’t you? It is much safer over there if something happens and you will be able to converse with the sirens undisturbed. Speaking of conversing, please take a deep breath and hold it for a second.”

“Okay?” Serena did as asked and suddenly started coughing and gasping for air for a few moments. “Ugh, what…”

“Apologies, the translation enchantment is always a bit rough on humans or so I have heard.”

Melody nodded reassuringly. “Yea, the first time sucks. It does get better the more often you get it applied and it will last a few weeks, so that’s something.”

“Translation enchantment? Does that mean I will get to talk to the sirens directly?”

“That’s the plan.”

“Woah. Thank you so much, that will definitely be worth the slight discomfort.”

“I am certain of it.” Umbria flowed over to a set of doors opposite the massive half-dome window. “Something you all need to know, the left door leads to the observation dome in Hell, the right door leads to the other half of this dome. Back there is mostly control panels for the portal and some storage, I would ask you all to stay out of there unless absolutely necessary. In case of emergency, like structural failure, you will be automatically teleported to the chariot if you are in here or to the shores of Tehom if you are in Hell. For our new human, Tehom is a small island with a single settlement and a shipyard. Just follow the shoreline in either direction and you will reach someone to help you within two to three kilometres at most. It is also likely that someone will come to find you as Nemesis will be alerted of anything happening down here and in the Hell-side dome. She will send for help and to check in on everyone who could possibly be in here. If you want leave this place manually, pressing on this panel here will teleport you to the lounge on the Nemesis. She can teleport you wherever you want to go.”

“So, I have a way to leave whenever I want or need. How I get here in the first place outside of asking Famine?”

“I wish I had better answer for you, but you will have to ask any of the demons or your human friends here for a ride. They can teleport here on their own and will be able to take you with them. This entire operation is working on very short notice already, setting up a proper access from the outside was slightly out of our scope. Everything here was taken from storage and repurposed, an outside access would be something new and we just didn’t have the time. I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. I was just wondering. Asking someone magical for help is absolutely okay.”

“Then I am relieved. Depending on how these first few weeks go, this might become a more permanent installation. We will get you access from somewhere on this world then, likely from the library.”

“I honestly don’t know if to hope for that or if it would be better to hope for the sirens agreeing to resettle…” Serena frowned.

Umbria looked at her with a pained but understanding expression. “I don’t know either. I wish I did. No matter what they decide, we will assist them. If they want to stay here, we will make this world better for them. If they want to join us in Hell, we will welcome them with open arms. I can at least promise that I will be there for them.”

Famine nodded in agreement and finally spoke. “As will I. The inquisitorium has stood by long enough. We need to act.”