A Weapon’s Serenade

Baal shook his head in mild frustration. “You know how that ended. As a compromise, the demons allowed us some influence over certain human populations. El saw an option to cement his influence by working with both sides in watching and nudging humans in a region now known as Mesopotamia. Among the many working with him directly, there were Asherah, Astarte and me. There were minor disputes, mostly between members of our side. Mot and I clashed over how to handle a local conflict but nothing that would have impacted our work. After millennia of working together, Astarte came to me. She had suspicions about El’s motives and actions. I lied, telling her that I knew nothing. In secret, El was using me to sway the angelic ruling council more and more and sometimes even creating incidents to make the others of our little group in the border world disagree with each other. Of course someone as clever as Astarte saw through me and soon enough, she left to guide her favourites on her own.”

Nemesis nodded along. “That then caused Asherah and the other demons to leave too.”

“All but Asherah joined Astarte in her plan to guide groups away from us. Asherah tried to convince El to just be honest with everyone. He obviously refused and demanded she leave. Before she did, one of yours blew up Atlantis and we found ourselves at war again. It was a group of Elders who pushed for us to retaliate. According to them, we had a responsibility to protect the humans from the vengeful demons. We needed to put a stop to these insane actions. Once again, we lost. Once again, El wormed his way up the ladder. He had a seat on the council by the end of the war. During that war, another angel approached me. Cassiel had worked with others on studying the Chalkydri, a big serpent-like creature native to the heavens, and they had found a way to replicate their fire.”

“Holy fire.”

“Precisely. Cassiel begged me to tell the demons about it, to not allow our side to weaponize it. I was torn, so I sought counsel from El. He convinced me to not tell your side and he would make sure we didn’t abuse the fire. Mere days later, Kerubiel used the fire to defeat Thrasir and slaughter the humans she was protecting. Human scholars trying to flee the Asuran empire in its final days, trying to secure any knowledge they could. El, in his beautifully manipulative ways, was outraged at the use of such a weapon, publicly demanding it be forbidden. I suppose only I knew that he had given the knowledge about the fire to Kerubiel. If others did, they just played along. Maybe out of fear, maybe out of pure self-interest. Kerubiel was imprisoned, at least until El would seize power entirely. He would, of course, pardon him.”

Baal sighed. “The influence on the humans faded. Both sides slowly withdrew. You were licking your wounds and reconsidered your role in a world that caused war twice. We had stumbled our way into political crisis after losing again. Old leadership was called into question, new groups formed to push for change. The courts formed, lead by those who would call themselves archangels. The elders tried to cling to the old ways, tried to push for change through political means and finding new leaders through tests of merit. The courts sought a different path, a path of military power and a united heaven under a single ruler. No archangel would do, they were fighting among themselves already. The answer came in the form of God. El’s work paid off. He had been working on a better version of our immortality, we could still die in heaven after all. He wanted to tie our souls to a single place. And he succeeded, even demonstrated his own superiority. And one cut of the blade, one return to the hall where they had all met, El had truly become God. The courts united under him, stormed Celestis, forced out the Elders and God took his place as supreme leader of a united heaven.”

He turned to face Nemesis. “And I went along. Not even begging for scraps, but El hadn’t forgotten my services, oh no, as a reward he employed me again. I was to write propaganda, stories and simple phrases to hand to the humans of the very region he had guided in the past. And I obeyed once more. I eventually found Yeshua, a young man who just had a divine meeting with someone he had no name to call. I knew her. Astarte. She had tried to do her work, try to guide the people of this region by counteracting our propaganda, even working with it to simply make the humans be good to each other. She had found this lonely little man and nudged him with a plan and words to spread a lifestyle of kindness.”

Baal once again sighed. “I told El. And so, we took that man and made him Christ. We made him ours. As he turned on his demonic master, we were there to strike Astarte down, kick her all the way back to Hell. El returned home triumphant and ordered the execution of every demon sympathizer we could find. Remove any remnant of the Elders, sabotage their rebuilding efforts, destroy all pointing to our past losses and make sure that no dissent ever slipped across anyone’s lips. And Sariel, his mightiest, complied. You didn’t budge at his loud declaration of war, told our emissary that a war needs to sides and this time you would sit out. And then El struck your beloved humans again. You didn’t come to defend them. This time, the inquisitors went straight to Celestis and carved their way through the city. Our defenders fell like leaves. Until finally, Athena and her inquisitors stood there, facing God and his archangels in his own throne room, once the council chamber of our proud people. No words, no movement, just silence, waiting for the enemy to act first. And then Sariel did and killed God. And I fell from grace. My master was dead, my support of his actions was meaningless without him. No one trusted me but they all wanted to use me for my words. And here I am. The life of Baal the wordsmith reduced to Baal the bootlicker.”

He scoffed. “My actual magical tendencies have nothing do with words. I am a Virtue, a craftsman. The thing I do best is make furniture. I picked up poetry on the side, to pass the time while working. Improvising verses while I sanded away at another table. I look at you now and I see a person made by the hands of someone like the angel I used to be. Someone crafted you and they rightfully are very proud. And I see all the potential I once had. All the wasted time. I should have kept to furniture.”

Nemesis stepped closer to Baal. “When this is all done, why don’t you return to it? The heavens are restructuring, this is the best time to change your place in angelic society.”

“Because I must pay for my part in the deaths of countless angels and humans. Enlil was the one who wanted to help you with the sirens, he called for anyone to help him and I volunteered. He was sceptical, understandably so, but I wanted to save at least one group, one family… one person. All I want in my life right now is to be able to face my end able to say that there is someone out there who lives because of me. That my life did not just bring destruction.”

“And I think you succeeded. All the female siren schools are migrating to Hell, they will survive, they will thrive. And you were part of that.”

“No, that was your work. You, Focalor, Umbria, the human girls, Melody, Kuria, you all made this happen. I did nothing.”

Nemesis hesitated before putting her hand on Baal’s shoulder, which caught him off guard and nearly made him flinch. “Then I have something you can do. I wanted to ask Focalor about this when she is back from her well-deserved nap, but I want this to be your thing. The absence of the female sirens will lead to their end in this world, the males can’t reproduce without them.”

“You would trust me to find a way to fix that?”

“Or to find someone who can, yes.”

“That is… more than I expected, thank you.”

“It was a siren elder who brought this to my attention. It was the reason I came here to meet you, to talk to you about it and to see if you knew an option to help the male sirens. This trust did not grow from my new understanding of your past, nor did that understanding influence my decision in a negative way. It made me more certain that it is right to let you handle this.”

“You are remarkable. I don’t know if I had reasoned myself to the same outcome if I were in your situation.”

Nemesis shook her head. “It is normal demonic reasoning.”

“Your people are remarkable. I will get to it shortly, I have something I want to bring to your attention as well. I was counting days between supply shipments to our human ‘friends’ outside. Usually, they receive them at noon every seventh day. That moment would have been four days ago and this time there was no ship.”

“Hold on, let me go through my sensor memory.” Her eyes darted around for a few moments. “You are correct, there was no supply ship and I have not been tracking approaching ships since the last supply vessel. I will let Focalor know, it is likely best to confirm with captain Harriman that this isn’t normal behaviour.”

“I doubt it is but you’re right, it’s best to confirm. But I must also ask myself if there is a reason behind the supply issues. I have a bad feeling about this.”

“I fear captain Pierce might exploit this opportunity.”

“Good point, that would be a major problem.”

Nemesis nodded. “Focalor and I will deal with this, you get a solution for the siren procreation. That is more important.”

Baal returned the nod. “Understood but do not hesitate to call on me if you need my skills.”

“I won’t.”