The man with Rose was no demon. He was also not touched by Night Fire as far as Serenity could tell. Instead, he seemed to be an ordinary man doing his job. He was shorter than Serenity, tanned, and had sandy blond hair that had grown out a bit longer than it looked like it should have. He was dressed in what had to be a work outfit, jeans and a polo shirt with a logo that looked like a grasshopper leaping over an entwined LF.
On second thought, that wasn’t a grasshopper. Serenity wasn’t familiar enough with the differences to be able to recognize it in the stylized logo, but that had to be a locust.
The Locust Farms inspector seemed surprised, but he smiled and held out a hand for Serenity to shake. “I’m Jim Rechet with Locust Farms; we breed a lot of the animals that are sold here. You seem familiar?”
Serenity smiled. It was clear that Jim hadn’t quite recognized him, but it was probably just a matter of time. Serenity hadn’t been in the news lately, after all, and he also didn’t have his wings at the moment; his human form was a lot more convenient most of the time. Earth’s technology was made for humans, after all. Even simple things like chairs weren’t really compatible with wings. Even in his human form, he sometimes had issues with doorways and his horns.
Serenity put out his hand and shook Jim’s. “I’m Serenity. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Serenity? Isn’t that the name of the guy with all the theories about Paths and magic? That’s you?” Jim seemed somewhere between puzzled and impressed. “I thought you had wings.”
Maybe puzzled was more accurate.
“I can have wings,” Serenity agreed. “They’re awkward at times so I usually walk around without them.” Serenity wasn’t certain how to broach the topic of meeting Apollyon when he was certain Jim had no idea who that was. At the same time, there had to be a connection. Jim seemed to think that the monsters or at least animals were bred. Maybe he could use that as an opening? “You said you work for Locust Farms?”
“Huh. For some reason I thought you’d be taller.” Jim didn’t seem to have noticed Serenity’s question. “I’m not sure why I thought that.”
Fame was useful sometimes but all too often it was just annoying. At least Jim didn’t seem to be one of the rabid fans that wanted to know everything about him or - worse yet - wanted to have his babies. That seemed to be an actual desire from many of the women who tried to contact him; Serenity could only be grateful that he had Janice to run interference.
Serenity decided to be a little blunt. “What can you tell me about Locust farms? How big is your breeding operation?”
This time, he seemed to have gotten Jim’s attention. “It’s big, but it has to be big. We provide sufficient exercise and entertainment space for happy and healthy animals.”
That sounded like a practiced statement. It also sounded like an opening. “Is it open to be visited? I’d like to see where …” Serenity dug for a phrase, but all he could come up with was a tired reference. It’d have to do. “...the magic happens.”
“Uh.” Jim didn’t quite seem to know how to answer that. “We have a small area that’s open to the public, of course, but the actual breeding areas are only open to employees and special tours for our partners.”
Rose gave Serenity an ostentatious wink. He was standing behind Jim, which meant that the man from Locust Farms couldn’t possibly see it. Serenity could guess what it meant even before Rose opened his mouth; he’d back up Serenity, but Serenity was going to owe him for it afterwards. At least Serenity knew what Rose was after; money was an affordable price. “Then it’s all settled! Serenity can go as my representative on the next tour. We can settle the details before you leave, but for now why don’t we get on with the inspection?”
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There was a demon in the building. More specifically, there was a demon in the building that wasn’t subordinate to Apollyon. The demon smelled of sunfire and death, of time and Wrath. It had to be an old demon, but Apollyon had no idea where on Earth it had hidden itself for Magic’s Long Night. It could easily have arrived on the magic-starved planet while Apollyon hid in his enclave; perhaps where it hid was unimportant compared to the fact that it was clearly no longer hiding.
It was a scent Apollyon had smelled before in passing now that he could move around the city that had grown up around his enclave. He’d tried to find its origin, but each time he smelled it, it simply dissipated like the source hadn’t spent long in whatever place he found the scent. He’d also smelled it touching a small handful of humans. He’d recently decided that maybe it would be worth trying to track them down and see if they led to his new enemy; it was unlikely but even unlikely things worked sometimes.
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It seemed that he’d run out of time; the demon had located him before he found it. The smell of Wrath told Apollyon that this was not going to be a peaceful encounter; Wrath demons always wanted to prove their power before they were willing to talk.
This time, it was clear that it wasn’t just a demon, as well. Apollyon could smell the way the other demons it passed near reacted and all too many of them took on elements of the strange demon’s signature. That that could happen without a fight when this was a Wrath demon was worrying; it meant the demon was strong enough that other demons chose to submit without a fight.
It was also somehow concealing its intimidating aura well enough that Apollyon couldn’t feel it; the only indication he had that there was another demon in the building was the scent. That meant it had to be a demon lord of some sort; only a lord would have that level of control.
It was probably the demon lord from A’Atla, the one that had allowed Cooper and his assistant Serenity to beat off Apollyon’s probes after they somehow destroyed Apollyon’s link to A’Atla. That seemed likely to be Cooper’s fault, rather than the demon’s, fortunately; Cooper was Lord of A’Atla and also seemed to be a pure Arcane specialist of some sort. If anyone could break someone else’s age-old enchantment, it was an Arcane specialist; they’d always been the best spellbreakers.
Whoever he was, he had to have learned magic the old way. The new shallow magic Apollyon had seen in the past few years wasn’t going to be able to dig its way into a Grand Enchantment, certainly not one of the power Apollyon had established. He had to wonder how Cooper even noticed it; Poseidon certainly never had.
Apollyon had enjoyed that bit of misdirection at the time, taking his usurper’s power away from him without ever letting him know where it went. Apollyon was fairly certain he’d never even realized it was supposed to be there.
If only Poseidon hadn’t stolen Apollyon’s strongest weapons from him. His current efforts would work but they were inelegant and rough. Neither time he’d tried to recover them had worked, unfortunately, and now that he knew there was a demon lord watching A’Atla it wasn’t worth the risk of trying again.
He hoped this was the same demon lord. If it was, taking care of it here would let him try to assault A’Atla again. He still couldn’t do it openly; the mortals had grown far too powerful and reached into the realm of the gods far enough that he needed to be cautious. Despite that, the old tricks of misdirection and division still worked. If anything, they were easier than ever before.
To reach that wonderful point, he had to deal with the demon lord invading his enclave. He couldn’t just let this pass, but he also couldn’t just rush out there and start a fight. That was stupid; he didn’t know enough about his opponent.
How had the demon lord snuck in? The only odd thing Apollyon could think of about today was that there was a tour for some of the patsies who were happily selling demons to their idiotic customers with no idea that Apollyon could break their ridiculous “taming” and “training” with a simple command. That had drawn some of the usual security away from the entrances; had the demon slipped in then, or was he actually concealed in the tour itself?
Wrath demons were generally very straightforward, so neither option seemed likely. Truthfully, Apollyon was shocked that he didn’t know exactly where a Wrath demon had gotten inside; he should have beaten his way through a door or even a wall, leaving a giant, obvious hole behind him. With the kind of power he had to have to turn so many demons, even lessers, so quickly, it would have worked. Apollyon would have had a very hard time stopping an assault like that without getting involved himself.
This Wrath demon seemed smarter than that, however. That was yet another indication that it was old.
Apollyon pulled up the security camera that showed the tour group; they were being continuously monitored to be certain they didn’t go anywhere they shouldn’t, but that hadn’t been a problem so far. Apollyon’s eyes were drawn to a young-looking man with silver horns; they weren’t normal for mortals but they were common on both dragons and demons.
Perhaps Apollyon needed to revise his estimation of the other demon lord. That was Serenity and he’d explained his physical oddities away as dragonblood. Apollyon now knew that was a clever trick; it had to be demon blood and he might well be a full demon lord.
Serenity appeared more human here, but Apollyon had seen pictures of him as he’d appeared three years earlier and every single one of his nonhuman features was a common feature for a demon lord. They didn’t fit a demon lord of Wrath particularly well, but once again that simply meant he was old; it was completely possible to guide your evolutions. Apollyon had and it was now clear Serenity had as well.
Serenity wasn’t as smart as he thought he was. Sneaking into your enemy’s stronghold was brave but when you were caught almost immediately, all you’d done was trap yourself. Now all he needed to do was figure out how to separate Serenity from the rest of the group.
It probably wouldn’t be all that hard. Serenity would probably do it for him. After all, if you were going to sneak in, why would you stay with the cattle that covered your entrance? Serenity had to want something from here and that meant he’d have to break away from the group to get it. All Apollyon had to do was wait for him to make that mistake and he’d have the other demon lord right where he wanted him.
Well, almost right where he wanted him. Apollyon did want to put some other safeguards in place; he hadn’t survived so long without being careful. Among other things, Cooper was probably nearby; Apollyon needed to prepare for that as well as whatever surprises Serenity had that would justify his confidence.