Bryce

“Do you have a way to contact Orrid directly?” I asked. From what I could tell, implants were rare in the lower planes, and while they weren’t exactly stuck in the stone ages, they seemed to prefer magic over technology.

“Not since he ascended,” Lilith answered as she closed the heavily enchanted door to Persephone’s ‘room.’ “He likes to visit whenever he happens to be in Hel to catch up, but contacting a god directly isn’t a simple matter. Even after you’ve had his child.”

“Which means you’re going to Hades to slap him around a bit?” Thea asked with a wide smile. “You can hitch a ride with us. We were planning on going there next, anyway.” I blinked at Thea, mildly surprised she remembered that part of the plan, until she continued. “We’re going to stay at Chorus’s temple. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind putting you up for the night. If you know what I mean.”

Lilith seemed confused by that until she noticed Thea smiling and bouncing her eyebrows far too many times. Which just seemed to cause the arch-demon to frown. “Chorus was a part of my household when he was a child. I have no intention of making any advances on him, and I doubt he’d welcome them even if I did.”

“Wait, seriously?” Thea looked shocked, but I didn’t have nearly enough information on the topic to be surprised. The family dynamics of the hells were starting to fascinate me.

“Yes, seriously.” Lilith crossed her arms while she continued to frown. “It’s likely why he asked me to look after his only daughter. Chorus’s temples are hardly a place to raise a child, and he certainly didn’t trust Kai to do it.”

“How about that? Is there anybody you didn’t raise?” Thea’s question earned her a scowl, and I tried my best not to laugh. Lilith had sworn not to harm Thea, but that didn’t include me, and I wasn’t about to test my luck by laughing at her expense.

“You.” Lilith glared. “Otherwise, you likely would’ve had some semblance of manners.”

“Yeah, dad was a bit distant with the whole trying to save everybody thing.” Thea shrugged. “Now he’s dead, and it’s too late for me to learn anything like ‘manners’. Should we head out now, or are you going to meet us there in the morning?”

Lilith’s expression softened as she shifted her stance. “Thea, it’s okay to grieve for your father in your own way, but please remember that for all of his flaws, he was still a great man.”

Thea froze, apparently having been caught off guard by the sudden tenderness in Lilith’s voice. “I, uh, yeah, I know, it’s just that…” Thea shook her head, suppressing whatever it was that she had started to say before continuing down a different path. “Did you want to come with us or not?”

“If you’re planning on leaving now, then I’ll meet you at Chorus’s temple tomorrow evening. As much as I’d prefer to just rush into Orrid’s bed chambers and shout his ear off tonight, I have arrangements that need to be made before I can leave. Besides, I doubt Persephone’s life is in immediate danger if whoever abducted her was willing to go through this much effort to do it.”

“That’s probably for the best,” I was the one to respond. “It’ll give us time to confront Vurdex tomorrow morning.” That earned me a look of amusement from Lilith and surprise from Thea. Which just proved that she had been completely ignoring me while I explained the plan.

“If you’re planning on dealing with Vurdex on your own, then be careful,” Lilith warned. “He’s ancient, even for a lich, which means he’s powerful. But he can be reasoned with, so long as he doesn’t feel like he’s being disrespected.”

I paused for a moment to consider her words. If the woman who just casually talked about personally knowing two gods called somebody ‘ancient and powerful’, then it was worth considering. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you, Lilith, both for your advice and for mediating with Rose.”

Lilith smirked as she stuck out her hand to shake, and I tried not to grimace as my own felt like it was being crushed in her grip. “Thea, I like this one. Try to hold on to her for a bit, won’t you?”

“As if she’d be able to let me go,” Thea said, while looking back towards the door. “Speaking of going, we should leave.”

I gave Thea a suspicious look, but she ignored it while ushering me out the door. “Thea, what’s going on? Why are we in a rush all of a sudden?”

“Oh, no reason.” Thea was pulling me along while fast walking through the hallway. “It just seemed like things were going on too long, and I didn’t want to get caught up in a long goodbye, you know?”

We turned the corner and Thea nearly bowled over Esme. “Gods below, Thea, why in the hells are you running through the halls?”

“Oh, it was just you.” She let out a sigh of relief and I suddenly realized what had happened.

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“You heard somebody coming, and thought it was Rose?” I asked. “And I’m assuming that you didn’t want Lilith to hear about whatever prank you pulled on her.”

“Thea, what did you do?” Esme joined in the glaring.

“Okay, new rule. You two are not allowed to hang out.” Thea crossed her arms indignantly. “And I didn’t do anything that I hadn’t already passed off with Bryce.”

I furrowed my brows at that, as I tried to remember the exact wording of what Thea had told me she was going to do in Rose’s room. Unfortunately, Esme interrupted my train of thought before I could remember any loopholes in her phrasing.

“Thea, it’d be best if you didn’t upset Rose anymore than you already have,” she warned. “The way she was talking earlier sounded like she was worried about having you around the children. If it gets bad enough, then she might start advocating to have you temporarily removed from the household.”

“Again? She’s tried to have me kicked out before.”

“Just be careful. This time feels different.”

“Yeah, alright, I’ll be careful.” Thea waved off Esme’s warning. “Do you need time to get packed? We’re going to meet Lilith at your dad’s temple tomorrow night, and Bryce wants to get there early.”

“I won’t be going with you,” Esme said, which caused Thea to pause.

“What do you mean?” She asked. “Malvoch and Vurdex are still out there. We’ll need your help to deal with them.”

I didn’t think we actually needed Esme’s help for either of those things, especially if Lilith was going to be there to confront Malvoch. But I was still curious as to why she didn’t want to go, so I asked her. “Are you worried about fighting while you’re still recovering?”

“Yes, but that’s not why I’m staying behind. Lilith was intent on killing Raith, but spared her, so long as I took responsibility for keeping her silent.”

“And how are you planning on doing that?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Esme admitted. “I was honestly hoping that you would have an idea.”

That answer, or rather lack of an answer, had caught me entirely by surprise. Both because Esme was taking a major gamble in keeping Raith alive when she didn’t have a way to keep her silent, and because she had come to me for help. She told me many times in Rose’s garden that she didn’t like me and that she didn’t think my relationship with Thea was healthy. Or, more specifically, she didn’t think mortals and non-mortals should date.

I didn’t really care whether or not Esme approved of our relationship, but Thea cared about her, so I figured getting on her good side could only help. Plus, it was something of an interesting problem to solve.

“Well, you have two problems, but it's likely a solution for one of them will solve both,” I launched into an explanation. “The fact that Raith knows Lilith’s true name, and the fact that she can communicate it. Which you solve, and how you solve it, depends on what an acceptable amount of control you want to have over her and how cooperative you believe her to be.”

“What do you mean?”

“If you think she’s going to cooperate, then you can probably just have her swear a binding oath or sign a magic contract that she won’t use or tell anybody the name,” I explained. “But contracts and oaths both require a degree of good faith. Otherwise, either party can usually find a way around them given enough time.”

“And if she won’t cooperate?” Esme cringed, which seemed to imply that wasn’t an option.

“In that case, worry less about her ability to communicate the name, and focus on her knowing it.” I thought for a moment, digging deeply into my knowledge of magic for possible solutions. “There’s a spell that can modify somebody’s memory, but it’s extremely complicated and can typically be undone with mid-level restoration magic. Alternatively, a memory curse cast by a powerful enough witch can be nearly impossible to break, but ‘nearly impossible’ is very different from ‘actually impossible’ when talking about something this important.”

“Is there nothing you can think of?” Esme seemed like she was getting desperate, but I could only really shrug.

“There are three things, but none of them would be all that great.” I shook my head, but Esme urged me to continue. “The easiest by far is just to kill her with soul-destroying magic. You’ll need to make sure she can’t be resurrected, and she doesn’t get an afterlife, otherwise Lilith would still be vulnerable.”

“That’s exactly the situation I’m trying to avoid. What are the other two?”

“Lilith could change her name, or you could scour it from Raith’s soul.”

“Can she do that?” Thea asked. “Change her name, I mean. I didn’t think that was possible.”

“It’s possible, just not easy,” Esme mused. “It would require a major personality change, and Lilith is old enough that she’s not likely to do that, besides I doubt she’d do it just to save Raith’s life.”

“Which leaves soul scouring.” I shrugged. “At least as far as my ideas go, but It’s possible there’s something I haven’t thought of in the last two minutes.”

“How would that work?” Esme asked.

“Contact whoever created your soul stones, and have them make one for Raith. After that, you’ll need somebody you trust not to look for Lilith’s name and who is capable of precise soul manipulation to remove the knowledge directly.” My explanation earned me a couple of concerned looks, but I really couldn’t think of any other way to guarantee the knowledge would be gone forever.

“There really isn’t a good option here, is there?” Esme asked, and I shook my head solemnly. “Fine. I’ll think on it for a while before deciding. Oh, and one last thing, that syndicate issue you mentioned earlier? I’d be happy to help with whatever it is as soon as I’m healed enough for a fight.”

“Ha! I told you she’d help!” Thea rushed over to give Esme a hug, and the succubus smiled warmly. “And we can totally stay at your dad’s place tonight, right?”

“I’m sure that’s fine. Just please let him know where I am and why I stayed behind. Otherwise, he’s going to get worried that I was hurt worse than I actually am.”

“That shouldn’t be an issue, so long as we can get an audience with him,” I promised. “Do you know if that’s likely?”

“The head priestess knows Thea. She’ll arrange one for you.”

“Alright, thank you Esme, and good luck with your Raith problem. I hope it works out.” Esme nodded to me, and I carefully extracted Thea from her as we made our way out of the manor.