“So you're going to have him bang that girl like a drum and feed off her until he changes into an incubus right?” Samiel asked.

  He knew he was just asking from boredom, but he did want to know more of Penelope's plans. He was sitting with her, fully puppeteering the shade that had long since lost its mind in demonic lust over just being near the full might of the demon known as Penelope Inyx. It had almost attacked her, as brilliantly stupid as that idea was here in hell. It might have been funny to let it happen actually, but Samiel still needed to remain in contact with Penelope through this ordeal.

  “No. You know better than that. You should be able to feel it through the Shroud anyway. The old forests always have connections to the shadow and this girl has a dark side. She'll be far more interesting to keep around as a servant to help Ivan than just as a toy to be discarded.” Penelope answered curtly.

  She was sitting there as they had been in her little cottage out in the literally demented woods of Hell. It was a nice place Samiel had to admit. He would have liked a sterile large white walled glass windowed mansion of some kind to take it all in and to contrast with his own shadowy nature too, but it was nice.

  For someone who liked rustic things perhaps it was even great. It wouldn't be too far off from one of those little village homes in Ivan's world. Samiel's own world was more advanced now, and doomed twice as badly. That thought always brought a laugh to mind.

  “How's my mother doing?” Penelope asked all of a sudden.

  Samiel raised a brow in both the shade's body and his own. Christ-on-a-Pike this is why he bound minor shadow demons into his shades. It was just too distracting to keep one's attention on multiple bodies. He moved his real body, politely avoiding conversation with one of the 'unnameable' demons, everyone with a brain just called 'Mask Demons'. They were intelligent creatures that more than anything loved emotional creatures and stories. They fed off it, and often came into worlds as the most wild and strange of specters. Yet in hell they appeared as a cloaked thing bearing various masks that displayed unique faces based upon the mind that viewed them. At least that's what they appeared as for most humanoid demons. Samiel was really curious what the Poe saw them as.

  The Poe were well...curious. Usually they took on a physical resemblance to whatever soul bearing species they had been. Draped in cloaks and bearing their torches or lanterns all the time too. What was with demons and cloaks actually? Who didn't wear a cloak? Samiel just wore a suit under his shadows, but he found his thoughts wandering for answers. The Ek'thun had various tentacle masses that could be called cloaks. The succubus didn't wear much at all really so that was a given…

  Penelope poked him the mostly hollow shade in the forehead with one claw.

  “Ow.” Samiel complained.

  “You're terrible at this.” Penelope laughed.

  “You keep telling me that, but yet I see you only controlling two bodies right now.” Samiel shot back.

  “You don't even have to pass through any planetary magic barriers. You're just whining. Now tell me. How is she?” Penelope asked.

  “She's only just stopped screaming again--it's hard to believe she has anything left.” Samiel reported as he saw in his real body, playing official witness as the Devil Court agent in this matter. The Goddess's spirit was a writing mass of energy caged within magic beyond the mortal mind in its center. The thrones surrounding the dark oubliette of the Court of Hell made this place ideal for holding the remainder of a Goddess's potent energy.

  “It's about time. They're coming.” Penelope said with a little smile.

  Samiel looked up at her with the shade and coincidentally up toward one of the few entrances to the Court of Hell other than by the Thrones of those who kept them here. The ones kept by mandate and treaty older than time. Older than Gods, and perhaps older than Demons if the Poe themselves truly were not demons as some of demon-kind claimed.

  The great stone doors of the Court of Hell turned open. The halls and steep walls of thrones, a nonsense realm to any with respect to gravity suddenly gained a center as the Poe came forth from the deepest reaches of hell. Each bore a lantern on a stave or staff, all but one at least who was at their lead. That one bore a torch of blazing ghostly blue that spat and flared at any demon who came too close.

  “Oh dear.” Samiel said aloud at the table.

  Penelope laughed and stood pushing back her chair as she did. Then she began a chant, humming it as a tune as much as anything else, as she gathered up materials and various things from the shelves around her home.

  “You knew they were coming?” Samiel asked. “I thought we did things rather smoothly this time around.” He mused, hiding his anger.

  Penelope grinned at him.

  “Of course you did. I told them as part of a favor I will need for later.” Penelope said.

  Samiel contained his rage, but did wonder if she meant this as a prank, a simple, but brutal practical joke, or if she was giving him the key to something more. Did Penelope truly care where or how her mother ended up in the end? She was just another spirit to a Demon was she not?

  When next his shade looked up Penelope was gone and he let the spirit finally die. He couldn't afford to be distracted if the Poe were going to be around.

  The task assigned agents of Hell in their various forms stood or made themselves ready as the most deadly creatures known to demon kind walked into their center of power. Their leader stepped forth, the great creature bearing the torch that threatened all of demon kind who came near it. It was a great thing, some kind of monster in life perhaps that had been filled with regret. It's great hoofed feet struck the ground like anvils being dropped from a second floor. It's breath was the hot exhaust of a forge fire mixed with heavy ashen animal scent. Whatever it had once been it was now something more powerful than most living Gods. Which was curious as Samiel was sure it had come from his own universe. One of Zeus's old misshapen children perhaps?

  Beside it walking in a procession came what Samiel could only take for acolytes following a powerful high priest. There were various forms of elves, dark and light, high and low, and among them a human near the back which drew Samiel's interest. She was shielded by the party as its innermost member, and to his keen eyes seemed the least certain what little power she had. A new Poe perhaps?

  “Welcome ancient torch bearers. Welcome.” Penelope said, getting up from her throne and stepping down the thin walkways of the Succubus area. Her eyes were locked on the human girl hidden away in the back of the column of dangerous beings. Her white teeth gleamed in a smile radiant and friendly enough that it made her only more ominous considering she was the first to act of the beings currently sitting the Court of Hell.

  “We have come for the soul of the Goddess. There is a part of her that is rightfully ours to take and make into our own. Her pain and suffering does nothing but twist her nature and pervert the purpose of this place as your kind always has. Tell me now, Inyx, Fallen Daughter of Pan the Trickster, that you will commit to the word sent to us. That will release what is left of this fallen being into our custody so that we might take her to her proper place in Eternity.” The leader said, his voice a great and deep collection of sounds that shook the stones of every throne and walkway in the Court of Hell.

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  Penelope narrowed her eyes at the creature. Shadows writhed angrily about her, and the Court visibly darkened. Many of the lesser Poe closed rank behind the Elder. The Elder himself stood tall with his great torch held out before him. Samiel could only watch in amazement as Penelope stared the great ancient down.

  “My name...” Penelope began with a slow and deliberate cadence. “-Is Penelope. If you must include the name my father gave me then you include it after my right and proper name. If you cannot manage that much respect while I call to you peaceably I will take what I want by any means I see fit instead of solely by discourse.”

  The Elder's glowing eye beneath his hood blinked several times even as he held his torch high. No matter how it spit and sprayed about the shadows reaching out from Penelope always moved back in threatening and dangerous. The creature likely knew all too well what the succubus could convince to come out from those shadows. Especially in this place. Her draw was enough to tempt Samiel, in some small part of his mind, that he might spend eternity basking and serving in her shadow.

  No wonder the shade he had bound and sent to her door had gone mad if he was feeling it himself. He mentally wiped a bit of cold sweat from his brow and focused up. It was probably a good time to get serious.

  “Lady Penelope Inyx then.” The Elder Poe corrected himself with a small bow.

  Penelope's fanged smile literally brightened as the shadows consuming the room fell back. The Masked Demon that had been swallowed in them looked to Samiel for a moment with a collection of faces that all slowly turned to open mouthed representations of clear surprise and intoxicated bliss. Samiel raised an eyebrow at the creature and its various masks disappeared to present another expression, a smug and satisfied face this time. Samiel shook his head at the creature and let out a sigh.

  “You've brought her then?” Penelope asked, apparently sparing no time for niceties.

  “The creature by my side is not the soul your mortal summoner once knew Lady Penelope.” The great creature answered. “But I have brought her as your message asked. My masters would like to know how it was you knew these events would come to pass. The Courts of Hell had so far kept to their pact with the destruction of the Fates, but should you have one in your possession...” The creature trailed off as Penelope shook her head and put her hands on her hips.

  Her beaming smile and that cocky stance compared to the Poe's massive size and great torch was almost comical, but the being under that gray-blue cloak knew her power well enough. There was plenty of open space between them, but Penelope made her small height seem to tower over the giant leader of the Poe.

  “She was a guardian. I have seen it in my master's memory. Gentle and committed until the very end. Who else joins your number in the afterlife but that kind?” Penelope asked.

  The Poe nodded, seeming to talk a moment to judge what he may have sensed beyond her words, but seemed to have not been able to find anything of which to pry her further with.

  “And what is your intention with this one, the newest of the Pathfinders of Eternity?” The creature asked. Poe was so much faster to think and say than that whole bit, but these kinds lived on ceremony. Samiel grew bored of such things quickly.

  “I would have her enter a contract with my master and be summoned to his world of course.” Penelope said dryly.

  The great creature was stunned for a long few moments before he suddenly broke out in a great huffing guffaw. At one point he actually brayed like an animal before settling himself.

  “Nonsense. Your kind live on corruption. Of all demon kind we are not as you are. We are cleansing lights, guardians, not monsters to fight in mortal battles.” It said, slamming its staff down a time or two for emphasis. Great blue-gray flames and sparks washed out from the creature's massive torch. The watery haze around the Ek'Thun agent hissed and spat in reaction to it. Growls, hisses, and other warning sounds and emotions flared around the room in response, a potent magical haze rising with their anger.

  “Exactly.” Penelope said with a smile that suggested she was all too pleased with herself.

  The robed human in the ranks of the Poe was trying to hide from her gaze behind the others as best she could. Her lantern was a heavy iron thing on an even heavier iron pole. The flame inside was sparking and spraying as she did her best to obfuscate her face with the purifying flames.

  “It is in respect to that and the wishes of my summoner that I have asked you to come. The world of Ballenlight, my home, is not to be a demon world as others have made before. It is not to fall into madness and chaos, but to be something new and delightful for us all.” Penelope said, but the Poe Elder slammed his staff down again.

  “Your summoner is not yet powerful enough to claim that world on his own.” He interjected.

  “But it will be claimed by our kind! One way or another... Already the Fate who has arisen upon Ballenlight guides her flock to control and bind demons. Our corruption spreads and factions of Hell that will not entreat with you are in play. So I've come to offer a compromise for your aid against them.” Penelope replied.

  The Elder gazed at her for a few long moments.

  “There is a Fate upon Ballenlight?” It asked.

  “Yes Elder Pathfinder. And she has used her talents to summon all kinds of strange and mad demons to her call, promising them ascension in their new world. Already she sows chaos throughout the kingdoms of the many lands. Ballenlight's fall into a Demon World is all but certain now. You must simply choose if the souls there will have a chance given by your hand, or if they will be doomed upon a world of complete darkness where there is no escape.”

  The Elder continued to stare for long moments. Eventually he cast back a hand. The great and rough three fingered hand embraced the shoulder of the human with the iron lantern pole as she stepped forward. Her face was hidden in the blue-gray cloth of the Poe, and yet her brown hair spilled down from inside her cowl. Her pale hands had a tight grip on the pole of her office.

  “I am the Pathfinder born of the woman Tanya and her spiritual desire to save and protect everyone she could. I am not the woman your master once knew, and cannot become her. I am a spirit and servant of Eternity born with two purposes. To burn away demonic corruption, and to guide spirits to their final homes. There is no pact I can agree to that would go against my purpose.” The human Poe said. Samiel had to admit that for a 'new' Poe she was rather strong. It spoke to her patrons spirit's desire to truly mend and heal the world she had been born upon. The Elder patted her shoulder reassuringly, but human Poe did not look away from Penelope. She appeared to have gathered her courage after all.

  “You are a temptress, and yet a forbidden prize. None have laid a hand upon you without being struck down. Your father is representative of Chaos itself in its most beautiful and cruel natures. Your mother lies before you now, and yet you ignore her psychic screams as though you cannot hear them. You are a cruel creature Penelope Inyx and yet your word is known and trusted by my Masters. Yet they and I must know why you would call upon me, and not one of our kind with more experience.” The Poe more or less asked. Her tone was at least very polite in comparison to her demanding diction.

  “He will trust you.” Samiel cut in.

  The Poe very well might have jumped at the sudden sound of him speaking, but she turned her head to look at Samiel. It gave a decent view of her face. She was hallow cheeked and gaunt, but pretty in a way. Her eyes had been replaced by glowing ghostly embers, but that surely was the remnant spirit of Ivan's lost lover. Samiel knew the feel of her spirit by what little he had witnessed in Ivan's memories.

  “And of this world.” The Elder cut in yet again. “You have spoken as though you will share it with us. We have no need for soul bargains and mortal worship.”

  “But you can, like all of us, quickly gain levels and jobs while summoned there. Doing so in Hell is difficult and dangerous, but up there, even if your summoned vessel is destroyed you may simply be summoned again. Acting in a mortal vessel is limiting, but by far the best way for any demon to advance their Jobs and Skills. That is true in all worlds.” Penelope replied.

  “Your warlock...your summoner I mean.” Said another of the Poe. “You mean to have him produce Grimoires including our kind?” His stupid elf ears stuck up out of his ragged blue gray cloth hood. If only he had a pair of scissors...

  “That could certainly be arranged, yes.” Penelope said with a small acknowledging bow. The Poe actually broke rank a little to lean in and speak to one another. The Elder glared at them, but his gaze went unnoticed.

  Samiel smirked. Power truly was the most corrupting thing he could think of. It didn't have to be Demonic power to make even the most kind hearted and purpose driven spirits chase after it. Any offer of power was always tempting under the right situations.

  “Then!” The human Poe began excitedly stepping forward. “Then, my Lady Penelope Inyx, as a final requirement of my own would you allow me one wish?”

  Penelope eyed her, and then the demons around. They too were communicating, but instead of excited whispers much of it was angry mutters and complaints. Penelope wouldn't mind them though and likely as not already had plans to please what little hurts might come of this new development.

  “That depends.” The goat legged succubus said, putting one hand to her chin as if she didn't already have an idea of what the Poe would ask.

  “When he dies, whether that comes soon or late, I want him to be able to choose. It was my progenitor's final wish to see him well, and if I can I will be the one to walk by his side to the Gates of Eternity even if I must arrange it to be so.” The human Poe asserted.

  “Acolyte!” The Elder hissed. “This is exactly why you are not ready. You cling too much to what is no longer yours to hold!”

  “No Elder.” Penelope said softly, her words more effective for it.

  The Elder seemed startled under that great cloak and his torch staff wavered.

  “If that is what it takes to get her to agree I would have no other guide him away from my hands.” Penelope went on in a soft tone. “But do not think I will give him up, or let him die easily.”

  The Poe took hold of her staff and struck it affirmatively on the ground. Fire sprayed out from the lantern and Samiel grinned as he felt a pact seal between Penelope and the Poe.