"That is the purpose for which you are called hither. Called, I say. Though I have not called you all to me, strangers from distant lands. You have come and are here met, in this very nick of time, by chance as it may seem. Yet it is not so. Believe rather that it is ordered that we, who sit here, and none others, must now find counsel for the peril of the world.
Now, therefore, things shall be openly spoken that have been hidden from all but a few until this day."
Pentagram City, December 31, 1922
Fifteen figures sat in the main hall of the Happy Hotel.
They were quite the diverse spectacle to behold; Sinners and hellborn, Princesses and scoundrels, leaders and losers...
The King of Hell, the Grim Reaper and their thirteen Rough Riders...
Prince Stolas had called them. Having fought and risked his soul by their side in the Battle of Pentagram City the previous night, he knew that he could trust each and every one of them with his life.
Except Nifty: he didn't even want to know what her deal was...
They all listened while Stolas in his clear voice spoke of the Authority and the three hallowed Numenorean weapons, and their forging in the Golden Age of the world long ago. A part of his tale was known to some there, but the full tale to none, for not even Lucifer, who had witnessed so many of the events of those days, who had led the Rebel armies in the War in Heaven, had heard the full account of the latter part. And many eyes were turned to Stolas in fear and wonder as he told of the craftsmen of Atlantis and their eagerness for knowledge, by cause of which even the Authority feared them.
But since that history is elsewhere recounted, even as Stolas himself set it down in his books of lore, it is not here recalled.
Of Numenor he spoke, its glory and its fall, and of the scattering of the lilim that survived the final days of the Old World. Then Samyaza the Tall and his mighty sons, who became warriors of old, men of renown. And the new race of humans that the Authority had created to replenish the Earth, that were made to serve him and to worship him as God; what happened to the first couple of that second race was known to all, but especially to Lucifer...
"And now," Stolas said, "that part of the tale that I shall tell is drawn to its close. For after Samyaza hid the first of the Three Weapons, they had all passed out of all knowledge. The second weapon, the Sword of Empires, was found and then lost many times across history. Only in these latter days of the world, in the wake of the Great War, had two of the weapons been found. As we speak, they are both in the realm of Mongolia, at the court of the Great Khan..."
Angel Dust jolted. "The Mongols have a Great Khan again?!"
"You didn't know that?" said Vaggie.
Angel shrugged, "Eh, not big on politics."
"Indeed..." Stolas said, "...there is a new Great Khan. Before his rise to power, his full name was Roman Nikolai Maksimilian Fyodorovich von Ungern-Sternberg."
"Who in the fucking hell has a name like that?!" Husk exclaimed, "That sounds made up!"
"Sounds badass too, though!" Cherri Bomb pointed out.
"Wait," said Vaggie, "wasn't he loyal to the Authority? And to Tzar Nicholas? The same Nicholas who wants our heads?"
"You were an Exorcist too, weren't you?" said Blitz, who wasn't exactly the most... delicate imp in Hell.
"That's beside the point!"
"Sir, that was inappropriate!" Moxxie scolded his boss.
"You are... all making valid points..." Stolas said diplomatically, "...Yes, Baron Ungern was loyal to the Tzar and to the Authority, he was a General in the White Army. But much has changed since he became the Great Khan; especially after the Tzar's... well, demise two years ago..."
"That was me, by the way." said Loona.
"Indeed..." Stolas continued, "...the new Tzar, Mikhail I, has no sympathy for the Baron; he sees him as a living relic of barbaric times, a man who has no place in an Empire that was already in desperate need of reforms long before the Great War began. And he isn't wrong, of course... Besides, the Mongols by and large have no allegiance to Russia; they don't like the Emperor in Saint Petersburg any more that they liked the one in Beijing..."
"You are saying there's a chance the Baron may side with us?" Charlie asked.
"Yes, but..." he paused, "...this is where the prophecy comes in..."
...
A tome magically appeared in Stolas' talons, and he began to read aloud the words of the prophecy:
"Et vidi quod aperuisset Agnus unum de septem sigillis, et audivi unum de quatuor animalibus, dicens tamquam vocem tonitrui: Veni, et vide.
Et vidi: et ecce equus albus, et qui sedebat super illum, habebat arcum, et data est ei corona, et exivit vincens ut vinceret.
Et cum aperuisset sigillum secundum, audivi secundum animal, dicens: Veni, et vide.
Et exivit alius equus rufus: et qui sedebat super illum, datum est ei ut sumeret pacem de terra, et ut invicem se intrerficiant, et datus est ei gladius magnus.
Et cum aperuisset sigillum tertium, audivi tertium animal, dicens: Veni, et vide. Et ecce equus niger: et qui sedebat super illum, habebat stateram in manu sua.
Et audivi tamquam vocem in medio quatuor animalium decentium: Bilibris tritici denario et tres bilibres hordei denario, et vinum, et oleum ne laeseris.
Et cum aperuisset sigillum quartum, audivi vocem quarti animalis dicentis: Veni, et vide.
Et ecce equus pallidus: et qui sedebat super eum, nomen illi Mors, et infernus sequebatur eum, et data est illi potestas super quatuor partes terrae, interficere gladio, fame, et morte, et bestiis terrae."
"Arcum, gladius, stateram..." Octavia said, "...those are the Three Weapons! But the Fourth Rider... Why don't they have a weapon?"
"Only the Three that were crafted by the lilim are recorded in the prophecy. As for the weapon of the Fourth Rider..."
"I think you are looking for this." Theodore said, holding his Scythe.
...
"Let me get this straight," Vaggie said, "we have one of four magical artifacts of doom, but to find the other three we must fulfill a prophecy from the Bible, AND we must convince a warlord who thinks he's the heir of Genghis Khan to help us save the universe from a god!"
"That is our predicament, yes... and... there's more..."
Vaggie facepalmed and mumbled something in Spanish...
"We know that each of the Three Weapons is destined for someone, and that together they shall be the first three Riders of the Apocalypse. We know that the First Rider is of royal blood, for they are given a crown. The difficult part, of course, is finding out exactly who these Chosen Ones are..."
"Thisss all sounds like riddlesss if you asssk me..." Sir Pentious said, "If only we could sssolve this myssstery with the power of ssscience..."
"As a matter of fact, one science holds the answers... But it's one of the sciences that had been lost on Earth, I'm afraid."
Sir Pentious was now intrigued. "And what ssscience would that be?"
"Let me show you."
...
The room was suddenly dark. With an elegant flicker of Stolas' talons, an orb of magic started floating higher and higher in the air until it seemed to disperse into myriads and myriads of smaller lights, all carefully ordered in a grid that formed a magical dome.
It was a Star-Dome, or an 'Elrond' in ancient Star-tongue. A mystical map of the starry sky...
Stolas started to explain, "I'm a guardian, a keeper of these ancient rites... You see, for millennia the Ars Goetia have preserved the knowledge of the prophecies hidden in the stars. The careful study and interpretation of those prophecies has been my mission... and my burden all my life. Like every keeper of this knowledge before me, I never dreamed I would live to see the fullfilment of the most terrible prophecies, those regarding the End of this Aeon, the End of the Kali Yuga...
...and yet, here we are."
"Why are the prophecies even there?" asked Loona, who was taken by the spectacle of the magical lights reflected in Octavia's bright eyes...
"They are not in the stars per se... The orbits of the stars around the center of the Galaxy slowly reshape the magical hyperspace paths created many Aeons ago by the Great Old Ones to travel between star systems... And so, when the stars are right, ancient powers are reawakened in the mortal realm..."
"It's like a web of destinies..." said Octavia, still unaware of being the object of Loona's adoration, "...the fate of each world is magically linked to the others across the Galaxy..."
"And one star in particular," Stolas continued, "holds the key to the mystery."
He pointed towards a bright blue star at the top of the Star-Dome.
"Deneb..." Lucifer whispered...
"In the prophecies" Stolas explained, "it is the star Deneb, the Tail of the Swan, that heralds the coming of the Savior; in fact, Cygnus, the constellation of the Swan, is also known as the Northern Cross..."
"Swan!" Octavia whispered, "A name befitting the Savior..."
"And also in the prophecy, the First Rider is shown with the appearance of the god Apollo: with the bow and the victor's crown or laurel wreath, emblems of Apollo. And as you can see, this one region of the sky shows a concentration of Apollonian symbols; Cygnus, Lyra, Delphinus and... Sagitta, the Arrow!"
Lyra. Another name that belonged to a Savior.
"The coming of the Savior?" said Charlie, "You mean the First Rider is..."
"The Savior, yes... The most powerful of the Four Riders of the Apocalypse!"
"And a change in the orbit of Deneb..." Octavia deduced, "...will show us when it's about to happen!"
"The orbital change has already happened, but only in the last year... It began on the same day..." he turned to Theodore, "...you arrived in Hell."
Teddy froze. Instantly, he recalled what Aleister Crowley had told him that same day, only moments before Verosika opened the portal...
'...the New Aeon is fast approaching...'
...
"It took months for me to decipher the meaning of the orbital change after I detected it, but once I had, at last I had the indentities of the First and Second Chosen Ones; an information that, if we are lucky, the Authority has not gained yet... I discovered that, on that fateful day, three of the Four Riders had met for the first time..."
Theodore had figured out where this was going... "You said the First Chosen One is of royal blood, and I came here to speak with..."
One would think that Charlie in that moment would look shocked, surprised, bewildered, afraid... She didn't.
She looked angry. Betrayed.
"DAD! How could you hide this from me! And Mom!? Did she knew it too!? Did you WANT me to start a WAR!?"
"Charlie, you did no such thing..." Vaggie looked desperate, knowing that, as always, her love would not be stopped, she would not be persuaded...
"I want to hear it from him..."
"Charlie, I..." he was crying, "...I know you have no reason to believe me, but... I swear I never knew it would be you! Nor did Mom... We didn't make you a Chosen One, or a Savior...
...We love you no matter what..."
Charlie hugged him. "I love you too, Dad..."
...
After a while, Angel Dust voiced the question that was on the minds of most of the others. "So, if we have another Chosen One among us, who are they?"
"Isn't it obvious?" said Husk, with his signature look of the wise bartender who has seen it all, "Someone who is a leader and a warrior; who would do anything for Charlie..."
"You must be joking, Husk..."
"Am I though, Owl Prince?"
"You are... quite correct..." Stolas answered.
"I can't believe I'm hearing this..." Vaggie looked furious.
"Vaggie..." Charlie started.
"No buts Charlie! They are not making any sense! If someone is supposed to travel to the living world to retrieve a fucking sword, that's NOT ME! I can NEVER go back to Earth, Charlie! That would be resurrection! It's impossible!"
"You don't just walk out of Hell..." Husk said, his voice sounding especially epic.
Prince Stolas now looked more worried, more conflicted that he had been since the start of the Council...
"There is... one way it can be done..."
Octavia gasped. "The Paths of Mandos! But it's been centuries since Caronte let anyone through... and even if he did..."
"What?" Loona asked, concern in her voice.
"...No one has ever come back..."
The room fell deathly silent.
...
Until Death himself spoke. "Stolas is right; it is possible to reach Earth that way, if Mandos allows it."
"Something he has never allowed before. Great." Vaggie deadpanned.
"Vaggie..." Charlie started, "...what other options do we have? We can wait for the Authority to bring the war here in Hell and then fight on his terms, or we can take the fight where we know we have a chance to win!"
"Are you seriously considering this, Charlie?" asked Vaggie, "A war on Earth? Armageddon?"
"The Authority knows the prophecies, he knows we can win on Earth! If we don't do something, he'll just conquer the planet and destroy anyone who stands in his way!"
"If he's planning to do that, what could possibly stop him!?"
"The prospect of a war that would lay waste to the whole planet..." Lucifer answered, "He doesn't want to rule over the ashes of the Earth any more than we do. Once we are in possession of the Bow of Destruction and the Sword of Empires, he will have to rethink his strategy...
...Also, we know that the Authority will not act hastily; he will not move the bulk of his forces to Earth before securing his positions elsewhere, lest the Great Old Ones notice the movements of his troops and decide to launch an assault on Heaven... Still, time is of the essence."
For a moment, everyone in the room felt like Lucifer was, once again, the mighty commander of the Rebel armies he had once been...
Vaggie looked almost defeated. She sighed, "We have to do this, then..."
"Together!" Charlie said. And they smiled.
...
"Ah was thinking," said Millie after a while, "if you two go on this whole Epic Quest thing, who will look after the Hotel while you are gone?"
Everybody else had to admit they hadn't thought of that.
"I will!" Octavia said.
"'Via?" Charlie didn't see that coming.
"Charlie... I wasn't here to help you in the last year. This is the least I can do to make up for it."
"You really don't have to do this..." said Vaggie.
"That's very noble of you, Princess..." said Husk, "...but to run this Hotel you'll need a second-in-command by your side. Someone you trust completely..."
"I'll do it," Loona said confidently, "how hard can it be?"
Normally Blitz would have said something about Loona being needed at I.M.P., but he was just so proud of his daughter taking charge like that...
"Well," said Blitz, "I suppose the three of us can come and help you in the weekends. What do you say, M&M?"
"Ah say you are darn right, Blitz!"
"I suppose doing something that doesn't involve murder for a change would be nice, Sir."
...
Suddenly, it looked like a pink blur had jumped in Charlie's chest.
It was Nifty. And she was crying. Like a fountain.
"DON'T GOOOOOOOOO-OH-OH-OH! sniff- I cannot make this place clean enough, it would still feel empty without you, DON'T GOOOOOOOO!"
"Shhh, shhh, Nifty, Nifty, it's alright..." Angel Dust said, slowly and gently taking the crying Nifty in his arms...
...like he was her older brother who had known her since forever.
"Mommy Charlie and Vaggie are not leaving us here all alone, Nifty. Look!" he said, walking toward Octavia and Loona, "They've brought new friends to look after us!"
Nifty jumped in Octavia's arms, her crying now weaker and weaker...
"I... sniff- I like your feathers..." she said.
"Thank you, Nifty!"
"And you..." Nifty said, turning to Loona, "...you look like a Bad Girl..."
"It's a compliment!" Angel Dust whispered to Loona.
"Sure thing it is!" said Loona, "I am a Bad Girl, Nifty!"
...
Charlie and Vaggie watched the whole scene unfold. Octavia and Loona would get to know this place better, but one could tell they already felt like it was... home.
"Vaggie..." Charlie said, barely containing her tears of joy, "...they are like us..."
"Really?" Vaggie replied, looking unconvinced.
"Sure! a kind Princess and her strong, brave, faithful guardian..."
Vaggie blushed. "Well-I... I can see it... when you put it like that..."
"Vaggie..." Charlie hold her hands, "...we don't know what the future holds, and we can't do everything on our own... but we'll do what we can and we'll trust that our friends will take care of the rest."