CHAPTER FOURTEEN: The Kingsmen
The first night passes. The second day falls and brings rise to a third. After a fortnight's worth at the encampment. Herald thinks the children have settled long enough to start doing chores. Ann argues that the girls, Noa and Litcht, aren’t ready for such laborious work. So, the sisters watched as their brother, Lucifer, peddled buckets from a well.
He scopes pails of water. His hands turn red from the wet and cold. He filled the stables and offered water to the camp men. Dropping full pails by a tent, he picks up the empty ones, refills, and goes back to where he came from. He repeated this action for several hours until Ann relieved him of the duty.
Those days led into months and before you knew it, they had been with the angels for two years. The campsite was still in use. The three moved into town, and parade decor was set throughout Ellenstein. Herald had convinced the innkeeper of the lodge that Lucifer and his sisters should be housed in apartment space, room 23 for a whopping $50 a month. The last room is down the rickety hallway. Every step creaks the floorboards till you make it past the unstable side, where you could be much more flat-footed.
One bedroom, one bath, and that was it. The room is divided into horizontal sections where each has their own space. When the door opened, it was more like a walkway. In the middle of the room was Lucifer's space. Stepping left or right across chalk lines you would either enter Noa's or Licht’s space. Their sections were neater than the boys', but that was because of how many books Lucifer had.
Several books were open. By the looks of it he was reading all the books at the same time hopping from one to another. The girls were sewing quietly. There was a knock at the door. All three jumped up. They were not yet used to the startling knocks of the door or even being indoors in that regard. The boy peered through the door and saw two unfamiliar faces. It wasn’t Herald or Ann. None of the soldiers from back at camp, nor the innkeeper or his employees.
Knocks were at the door, this time slightly louder than before. Lucifer asked, “Who is it?"
The two cleared their throats and replied together, “I’m an ROTC. Recruiting operations officer." They stopped.
Lucifer peered back through the door seeing that the two were shoving each other. One man whispered and could be heard through the door: “Do you want to talk?”
The other answered lowly, “No, you do it.”
After a moment of deliberation, someone spoke. “We’re recruiting to aid his majesty’s army.”
Lucifer watched from inside as the man was talking, looked at the other person he was with, and bumped his fist.
The other man whispered, trying not to interrupt. “This is why you do the talking. I would’ve never said that.”
“Bump my fist one more time." The man speaking whispered back to his friend, fist bumping again. This time they exploded their fists in an explosion of hands.
Lucifer said to them, “I can see you two." Lucifer opens the door without freight. Herald had shaved their demon horns down and his hair was the length to conceal the disfigurement further. He needn’t fear being recognized. The siblings were hiding in plain sight now. “What kind of recruitment?” Lucifer curiously asked, bringing the conversation back to why they were there in the first place.
He explained, “Recruitment to his majesty's war effort.”
“You two are from the Kingdom?” Lucifer stepped outside, shutting the door behind them. “Ellenstein. I didn't think the kingdom’s men would ever reach here.”
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The two put their arms up and said, “Here we are.” They chortled.
“How many of them are you?”
“Quite a few. We got into town today.”
A thought ran past Lucifer: The kingdom’s men must have passed the camp. And the camp was a part of the kingdom’s army in some way or another.
The man said, “His Majesty came all the way here himself. Be grateful.”
“Why?” That was Lucifer's first response.
“In promotion, for his people. The list goes on and on, really. In my opinion,” He leaned closer to Lucifer so only he would hear. “I think he wanted to, for fun.”
Lucifer thanked the two, “You two are heaven-sent."
“I get it.” One of the recruiters said, “So, what do you think? Kinda neat, you in?”
Lucifer shook his head. “That was a bad pitch. By the way, you need to work on all of it.”
“We’re recruits!” They said it in harmony.
“No offense, I can tell." Lucifer asked. "Do you guys always do that? Talk at the same time."
The partners looked at each other shrugging their shoulders and saying, “Pretty much.”
“Pretty much,” the other repeated a little later, like a parrot.
“Look, tell you what.” Lucifer said, “I’ll think about it.”
Tears brimmed in their eyes, and their faces lit up bombastically. They said, “You mean it?”
Lucifer replied, “Yeah, sure." They thanked Lucifer and left. “Wait, the floors!” Lucifer tried to warn them. They fell through the floorboards. There was a whole debate with the innkeeper. The two were forced to pay for the damage and sent to settle the dispute as their closest supervisor at the time. A fourteen-year-old boy, the same age as Lucifer.
Jehovah stepped into the lobby of the inn. “The twins! Deliliah, it's those two again!” Jehovah was surprised to see the recruits for a third time today. He was with a girl, the same age as him and Lucifer. Jehovah said: “What did they do this time? Wait, let me guess they push a little girl to the ground?”
Lucifer laughed, “They did that, for real?”
"Well, they thought the little girl was, "mean mugging me." A term for premediating robbery, scoping me out so to speak. So, I told these two to go door to door. The mistake is mine." A young Jehovah looked over, seeing Lucifer and his sister behind him. “Hey-o and who are you? Don't tell me those are girls they pushed over?"
"No." Lucifer said, "I actually wanted to tell you it's my fault." Jehovah raised his eyebrow and Lucifer went on. "I knew the hallway's floor couldn't hold the weight of two grown men. I didn't tell them. I couldn't, the fact that God was here today-"
Jehovah butted in: "How did you know my father is here?" Lucifer glances at the recruit and Jehovah takes note of this. "The twins told you, didn't they?" Lucifer could not lie. He did a singular gesture down and nodded, yes. "It was supposed to be a surprise. I didn't think my father wanted every person in Ellenstein to know of his arrival. Anyways, what's wrong with a person?" He pointed at the innkeeper who stood almost frozen, mouth ajar.
The innkeeper pointed back and said, "You're Jehovah Christ."
Jehovah: "Yeah." Jehovah turned around only to see his bodyguard, Deliliah, the girl the same age. "Are you looking at her, but talking to me?"
"Oh yeah, sorry Sire." The innkeeper bowed knees beside his employees. The recruiters followed and so did Deliliah. The sisters went on their knees and Lucifer stayed standing.
Lucifer saw his sisters on the ground while he stood upright and felt something he did not like but couldn't quite describe what was. Not like he was looking, only that this feeling was palpable. Lucifer stared directly back at Jehovah.
Jehovah said: "You don't have to do that, you know. They always do this kind of thing so abruptly." He motioned his hands up to raise. "You really don't have to do that but thank you for the kind gesture." He turned to talk to Delilah, but she was still so tuned in, bowing to her king. "Delilah, get up off the floor, everyone already standing. Please."