X.

"You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks."

Winston Churchill

Back in Cocytus the Devil sighed and his anger rose at his task before him. He would never finish if he indulged in every whim he felt. Giving in into his desires was nice, but time on Earth was indeed precious and not ubiquitously as here. He needed to concentrate on the holes and their tiny draft in order to close them. Hell needed to acknowledge him as its King and not as its servant. It needed to obey him by closing the holes in Cocytus, and not him travelling to each and every God forsaken tear it just dared to create by itself. Furthermore, he needed to focus on Dromos and not using him for an excuse to travel to Earth just yet. He had sworn to punish him and secure the Detective's life, and others by proxy - those goals were not yet accomplished.

Looking down at Garm first, who was waiting for further instructions, Lucifer Morningstar assumed his position as Lord of Hell, as he should have days ago. Standing tall, staring into the darkness around him and causing the ice to crack, melt and even out by merely waving his right. Perhaps he wasn't omniscient, but certainly omnipotent in his realm.

The landscape flattened out to resemble a white bedsheet. Evenly spread, free of creases and without wrinkles. Immaculate. No hiding spaces or escape routes for demons or any other hellish beings left. Inhaling the cold air deeply he tried to put all his revolting emotions into his breath and when he exhaled vast steam escaped his nostrils. The tiny drops froze as soon as they touched the ground and disappeared within. They were as insignificant as he needed his sentiments to be. Somewhat relieved, he took flight over the icy plain, his dark and leathery phalanges disguising his presence in the poor copy of a clouded sky on Earth, the loyal hellhound pursuing him below.

The Devil passed by the tavern to see if the toad had obeyed and left with his belongings. He learned from the owners that he had been over fifty twilights away, but the toad had left on the very day. Valuable waste of time, just for some spiked cocoa!

He decided to get back to Dis. The King could not stay away for too long. He recognized that. Perhaps there were news, favorable news.

"Have you heard anything from travelers from the South?"

"There haven't been any. We rarely have outsiders here." Milcom wrung a towel in his hands before he threw it over his shoulder and looked at Gorse, smiling. The demon almost seemed human in that gesture.

Lucifer realized that they were too far off from anything in Hell and nearer to a life he longed for. They were of no use to him. He needed to concentrate on the task at hand. He sat down next to the fireplace to warm up and come up with a plan. After finishing a hot and hearty meal consisting of a nice rack and some potatoes he bid the publican farewell.

The hellhound had taken up a scent and pulled him South. The Devil let the black beast run free, giving Garm the liberty to follow the trail at his own pace.

xxxxx

Collecting more and more ash, the hellish wings itched the further South he flew. The temperature was improving constantly and when twilight came nearer, the wall and roofs of Dis were discernable at the horizon.

"Home, sweet home!" Lucifer muttered with a sarcastic undertone before his gaze left the monotonous landscape of basaltic columns in front and focused on Garm below. The black spot below was keeping up, almost effortlessly, in fact he was still leading the way through the maze of cells. Did Dromos actually look for refuge here or in the city? That would mean the demon still had supporters and the means to vanish among the Lilim and he had probably been sent on a goose chase. Maybe the toad was even involved. Lucifer's eyes flashed in anger. He whistled and the large animal came to a stop. Waiting, palpitating, shaking the ash flakes from his dense fur as if they were water droplets, Garm watched his master descending, ready to resume the hunt. He spiked the ears when Lucifer reached the ground.

"Now what? Do we get Dromos right away and wipe him from existence or do we play a game of hide and seek and get more nasty demons out of my way?"

He ran his sienna colored claws through the now charcoal-looking fur. Almost resembling black coffee and some maple syrup. Not the flavor the Detective fancied, but a good color and flavor match, nonetheless. His mind began to wander again. Lucifer sighed. It was probably better to show up unexpected at his place and get a feeling for the situation before punishing his adversaries. There were fifty days ahead of him. Who knew if Soneillon and his brothers were handling things as they should?

Or? Was it?

Perhaps he should go undercover again.

He had been away, and power games could have worked against him. Not every Lilim was defeated and driven into submission. His followers could turn against him. Demons were deceitful and only trustworthy as far as he could throw them. Often enough not even that far.

The steles surrounding most of Dis hummed and stirred as if they were alive when the Lord of Hell walked by, touching, gently scratching, sometimes stroking the black stones. Hell always recognized its master and reacted by opening a straight path to wherever he wanted to go.

Hell was so much smarter than its creatures.

Lilim usually defied him. It was something innate, probably. Rejecting divine beings as superior, just like their mother. The King of Hell usually never felt more than disdain towards them, Mazikeen being the exception. And even Mazie had betrayed him.

The Devil glanced at his hound.

"What are you looking at?"

The black beast whined when it felt a pair of piercing red eyes and foul mood directed straight at it and put his tail between its hinds. Lucifer refocused. He wasn't angry with the hound but with himself and the whole situation. Shaking the soot off his wings and then hiding them, he continued strolling almost casually to the large North Gate, crossing two or three fiery rivulets.

Demons in general still stuck to an archaic architectural outline by hiding their dwellings behind large stone walls, very much alike humans from the Paleolithic to medieval ages, and that was mostly due to their treacherous and bellic disposition.

There was a busy coming and going of the city's inhabitants. Insignificant and uncountable like little ants they hurried in and out with goods on carts or on their backs, the guards almost not present but playing cards in a corner.

Outrageous!

How could they protect the place without checking what entered or left?!

He inhaled deeply and counted to fifty.

This time the almost unbearable negligence suited him, and he concentrated on that positive thought. The hood pulled down to cover his face, Lucifer Morningstar passed through the massive iron gate like a phantom, Garm at his heels, almost invisible in the shadows of the ostentatious granite buildings with their almost delicately carved towers and spires of the affluent merchants and torturers. No tower on Earth could match the craftmanship of Hellish artisans, whether they were Moresque, Hoysala, French flamboyance or Shang dynasty.

Dis outlines resembled faintly the hierarchical setup of the Chinese city of Luoyang. That city was laid out with wide avenues and smaller secondary streets crossing each other at right angles to create a chessboard of precise rectangles. The entire area of DIs was surrounded by a slightly sloping wall which could be up to ten Lilim high. Eight towered gates gave access to the city and were supposedly easy to control.

The location of individual buildings was usually decided based on the surrounding geography. Many important buildings and foremost his own sanctuaries were aligned on an axis with the main entrance facing what could be considered South, looking towards the ever-circling eye in the supposed sky. If a building was composed of different parts joined by intervening courtyards, these were all aligned on the same axis one behind another. Less important structures were built on the sides of the main edifices. All of them were of different types of volcanic stone to handle the higher temperatures coming from the fiery rivers in the vicinity which shed their reddish light on the walls of the lower stories. Most of the homes were quite ancient and similar to the archaic architecture of Elam and Susa. They even displayed dogs, well, hellhounds, in both realms. It wasn't always clear which had benefitted from the other.

Privileges weren't bad, it encouraged others to strive for more and he willingly gave them as a part of his deals.

One major privilege was the movement from outer to inner city, it involved crossing a number of intervening courtyards, and at each new perimeter posts would have met and vetted the visitor - the right of access becoming ever-more limited. Thus, not for nothing would his towers eventually acquire a sense of being forbidden to simple demons. Power and prestige were marked by the ability to move ever inward into the devilish of devilish that was his presence. The huge and impressive main spire, then, dominated the capital city and became a symbol of the Devil's power.

The Devil admired the beauty of it all, even if or especially because he himself had laid down the setup, some cornerstones and landmarks. He had been particularly proud of his pairi-daeza, his garden, crafted after the first garden where he had found so many pleasures, and where he had liked to walk and ponder or take a bath in the ornamental pool in its center. The high ranked Lilim had followed the principle and tried to outshine their competition, though the hot surrounding did nothing to help grow the feeble plants from cooler regions and growing them was the epitome of luxury.

Since his return from Earth he had avoided the place like the plague. He had felt betrayed and he didn't want to return to the nest of vipers. After having taken down most of the supporters of Dromos, Lucifer Morningstar felt the need to make an appearance to show who owned the place, just not yet. He looked around, but no demon paid him any attention, so he wandered unrecognized farther into the capital.

One large tower, standing out among the others, was made of beautiful black and white carbonatite with polished green peridotite windows. Carved reptilians made of turquoise hyaloclastite were looking down on the passerby, seemingly descending the many pinnacles and the four turrets adorning the round walls. The building was a manifestation of wealth, power and proximity to the Lord of Hell. Mazikeen of the Lilim's lair.

The Devil growled. Mazikeen had betrayed him on Earth. More than once. And he had pardoned her, over and over again. Here in Hell he would have destroyed her immediately. Needed to for the sake of his position.

Garm sensed the resentment of his master, this time directed towards the tower and looked at him questioningly before he sniffed and absorbed the scent of the owner. The hound recognized the Lilim who had left with his master. She had always been at his side. Where was she and why was his master wary of her?

Lucifer sensed Garm's confusion and looked at him sternly before he spoke:

"Don't you worry your tiny brain with matters that do not concern you."

I must apologize for that very short update. I haven't been able to write in the last weeks and tomorrow I will undergo surgery. So at least I wanted to let you know I haven't forgotten the story and it will continue. In the meantime, please enjoy the amuse bouche. Edit: I wanted to thank for the wellwishes, so I added the entreé in here.