And all the while, fires burned eternally and without a source.

Lucius reflected that his illegitimate children ought to become a bit more reflective. Even destructive impulses could be channeled through meditation. And nightmarish hellscapes could be overdone. Though their enthusiasm was to be appreciated. Yes, satyrs were not what civilized folk could call pleasant, but there was a lot of heart there.

Far more than can be said for those insufferable elves. Their most recent stunt in Antion was a testament to it. He'd had to channel many satyrs to that location to disrupt things enough to salvage events. Even so, they'd managed to gain ground, though at least their corruption was revealed.

Eventually, he found the best of them, where he usually did.

Melchious looked out over the pools of boiling blood, a satisfied expression on his face. He had taken his human form at the moment, but it was twisted to hurt the eyes of any mortal who looked upon it. He'd always preferred being human once he'd reascended after his reincarnation. Very beautiful and fair with an edge of danger.

Personally, Lucius had always thought this dreadfully tacky. Indeed, the bared and chiseled abs were overdone.

For his part, Lucius had spent ages as a cloaked figure with a void under his hood. It was both unsettling and convenient. And it lacked nausea that came with the form of a living corpse. But Melchious was young and liked appearing very fine.

Who was he trying to impress? He did have a tendency to work with beautiful female demonesses. But Melchious had never been one for romance. His passions were wholly confined to his work.

Even in mortal form, he'd been almost a religious zealot.

Lucius waited to be recognized, and Melchious knew he was there. Finally, Melchous turned to him. The young demon lord looked up at him, throwing his crimson cloak to one side. "Ah, Lucius. I was wondering when you would appear."

"You wonder in vain," said Lucius. "I appear when I wish, and none to date have been able to change that." He paused. "You seem to have set things in motion, haven't you, Melchious?"

Melchious smiled, turning to him, his golden hair glinting in the light like metal. "I have. That is what I do."

"Are you sure this one will play their part?" asked Lucius, more out of curiosity than a desire to know. Of course, Melchious wasn't sure, but he would pretend he was.

"They may, or they may not," said Melchious. "They'll do so in their own way, and I will adapt my plans accordingly." Interesting? Had he learned something from that fiasco with the Mirror of Laevian? Perhaps he was more than hopeless.

"And what of your errant anchor in the mortal world," said Lucius.

"On the surface, his actions are bad," said Melchious. "But with proper application, good can be made out of it. Unfortunately, the elves have been overstepping themselves of late. And House Gabriel has many enemies.

"What of you, Lucius? Still scheming and plotting the ruination of entire worlds?"

"Hardly," scoffed Lucius. "I merely intend to separate the chaff from the wheat."

"What a fine way to justify genocide," said Melchious with a smile.

Lucius laughed at the audacity. "You would presume to lecture me on morality?" It was a meaningless concept, but you had to believe in it to lecture on it.

"I am Melchious, Lord of Torment," said Melchious, throwing aside his cloak. It was a faux dramatic gesture that did not become him. "I laid low the elven realms of old and cast down entire civilizations. All who oppose me are destroyed, and those who hide from my sight do so in vain. Fire itself worships my name.

"I am cruelty incarnate.

"So I do not need to explain why I want to cause misery and suffering. It's my favorite hobby.

"At the very least, you pretend to be something more than a mad dog. So I may take you to task for what is, for all intents and purposes, meaningless carnage."

Lucius had always liked Melchious, even if he didn't agree with him on everything. He was one of the old-style demons. One for whom evil and death caused in themselves. As long as his actions led to mass destruction and misery, they were not a total loss. While not a demonic archon by birth, Melchious took after Diabolus of old more than his children. Amysta had always been a close second, trying to gain Diabolus' favor.

That had been a waste of time. But despite Lucius' efforts, she'd been the only one to stay loyal. Then Lucius realized he'd drifted into his own thoughts again. Melchious was waiting for an answer, tapping his foot. "You misjudge me, Melchious. I am not much more than a bored member of the gentry. Only my holdings are in the unending tides of the damned. As for my justification, I mildly dislike my enemies. And I would much rather live in a world where they don't exist.

"I don't expect to truly succeed. But when one is an immortal avatar of the Withering, it pays to have a hobby."

"A hobby?" laughed Melchious. "I'm a bloodthirsty God of Torturers, and even I find that chilling. I destroy because I enjoy destroying and love to inflict pain and have it imposed upon me. It gives me the thrills to make others suffer.

"But, you don't enjoy the destruction."

Lucius flowed past him, moving aside his cloak to reveal the void beneath. "We are two farmers, Melchious. You enjoy the act of farming itself, of exerting your will to sow the seeds of destruction. I hold no joy in that. But I do enjoy the sight of a field well plowed." Best to get to the point. "In any case, Relma Artorious is well on her way to becoming King. It is still being determined, but nothing ever is.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"What is your plan if that happens?"

"Do I need one?" asked Melchious, sounding defensive and uninterested. "That's the affair of the Dark Dreamer, my greater self. It's House Gabriel I'm worried about. Do you have any idea how many raishans he destroyed in Khasmir? My kennels are practically empty. I have to expend much of my power breeding new ones."

Ah yes. Khasmir had been a severe defeat for Melchious. The boy had been hoping to kill at least twice as many people as he had. Still, did he regard the Dark Dreamer as a separate entity? That could not be healthy. "My young friend, you really much learn to be less of an optimist. The Gods are least of equal strength to us and always try to thwart us. After all that has happened, I hope you'd learned to anticipate counter plans."

"I did," said Melchious. "I had the Axe of Fortenex in my hand. I would have won the war if William hadn't had the Goldenwood Harp. It should have remained lost forever where I stowed it.

"It would have if Arraxia hadn't...

"Nevermind. My student's actions were... unexpected."

"Of course, all that is true," said Lucius. "But you must learn to have fail-safes in place for these things. How are you going to deal with... I believe she is called Arraxia by the mortals? Or does she go by the name of Saphra now? I'm afraid I missed how she managed to be in two places simultaneously."

"Either will do," said Melchious. "Saphra is an avatar of her will incarnated into a mortal body as part of a pact with the De Chevlons made long ago. That was why I had her imbue her spirit into Baltoth's Retribution in the first place.

"She was able to put herself into the infant in place of a soul."

"What exactly was your plan?" asked Lucius.

"Put Saphra into a position of power and let her destroy herself," said Melchious. "Outliving subordinates is usually a matter of giving them rope to hang themselves.

"Being a demon has nothing to do with victory; we wouldn't enjoy success if we had it. Victory is staying in the game. Dozens of masterful young demon lords have risen to power under me. Many of them have gotten one or two things over on me.

"Then they make themselves the primary threat and are destroyed.

"Once that happens, I return and pretend I planned everything. And since that was my strategy, I did. Meanwhile, my erstwhile subordinate has done immense damage to my enemies. I claim that I foresaw they would do that. So I get all the credit and benefits while they get the place in history they wanted."

"So why do you hate House Gabriel?" asked Lucius.

"Because Vanion is going to get away with it," snapped Melchious. "He's not stupid enough to fall into the usual traps. And given William's rapport with Arraxia, I suspect I know what his next move will be.

"He'll want to secure Seathorius, and what better way to do it than make a deal with Arraxia."

"Are you sure of this?" asked Lucius.

"Yes," said Melchious. "I've seen it starting even now on the roads of Antion.

"Vanion will want to end the feud between Arraxia and William. It will be for both pragmatic and personal reasons. Likely he'll do it by giving her a formal invitation to Artarq. Then convince her to open up Savior's Run for trade with a speech about mutual benefits that feeds her ego.

"She'll be able to charge tolls, of course, and it will make her an asset to Antion.

"The nobles of Antion will be able to become rich in such trade, so they won't make a fuss. Only if they are among those bankrupted by it. King Andoa will speak about redemption and understanding like he usually does. Vanion will become richer and more acclaimed, and Arraxia will become a partner."

"Thus establishing a stable system," said Lucius.

"Yes," said Melchious. "And as long as Arraxia can believe she is in control, that system will continue. It could lead to my hold over the satyrs being weakened.

"I'm looking into countermeasures as we speak, however. I have trained many great demons; I'm certain some of them would jump at the chance to own Seathorius."

"What makes you so certain?" asked Lucius.

"It's what I would do," admitted Melchious. "So, the matter bears some consideration."

"Much as young Relma Artorious bears consideration," said Lucius, voice warning. "You underestimate her."

"There are two possibilities," said Melchious. "Either she'll remain as she is and become a puppet or fall within the week. If she develops enough to make her ideology work, her children will ruin everything in her place.

"In truth, I'm utterly indifferent to Relma as a person. The Dark Dreamer wishes her to gain her rightful inheritance, of course. But, for my part, I can't lose. If she succeeds, I'll have forced Arengeth's plans into the light too early. If she fails, then the only possible replacements are Calishans.

"That will discredit the prophecy and through it, Elranor."

"You do realize William might qualify as one of Anoa's bloodline, don't you?" asked Lucius.

"Why do you think I created him?" asked Melchious. "The idea was to create an alternative bloodline that could not be controlled. As long as William exists, he could fit the wording.

"I don't want Tuor to succeed in his plans. Baltoth will have us both butchered like cattle if he ever wins."

"I see," said Lucius, "so, your hope is that say, Tuor will kill Baltoth in some scheme. Then William will create Harlenor Reunited. Then you can arrange for his heritage to be well-known. That will discredit both the prophecy and Elranor, by extension.

"And it will remove Baltoth from the equation.

"What if Relma succeeds?"

"Then she'll have to come into direct conflict with the rest of the lords," said Melchious. "The kind of mass conquest she hopes for isn't possible peacefully. That's why Aren and Pandora play the long game. At the very least, it's far more likely to go bad than if their plans had been unhampered."

"What if you succeed in destroying House Gabriel?" asked Lucius. "Your alternative bloodline will die."

"...I don't know, I'm finally making this up as I go!" admitted Melchious.

Lucius was pleased that he could admit as much. "It is a good plan. However, you are too confident in the impossibility of certain events, young Melchious. But I have found that fate has a certain... affection for naive imbeciles.

"Provided they remain pure, they stumble through complex machinations and end up the victor. It's quite irritating, really."

"I trained the Goddess of Fate, Lucius," irritated Melchious. "Rioletta learned everything she knows from me. And I can tell you that her affections generally involve her draining blood.

"Why do you think I drew her attention to William? If she takes him out of the picture and keeps him prisoner, I can arrange his release after destroying his house. Then he can inadvertently set a chain of events that leads to Harlenor Reunited."

"Of course," said Lucius, impressed that Melchious had devised the plan so quickly. "But young Rioletta is a reincarnation of the original Goddess. And a god's domain exists independent of the deity.

"And the threads of fate are very kind to heroes."

Melchious looked him in the eye, and Lucius saw a hint of that unstoppable fury of old. He was suddenly reminded that he was looking at the embers of a greater inferno. One that once consumed the world. "Say that to Anoa. I dare you."

Melchious sounded genuinely angry, and there was a hint of his first self there. Lucius took his point and floated back about ten feet. Now he was remembering just why the Dark Dreamer terrified everyone. "Well, I grant there are a few similarities between Anoa the Bright and Relma. Though where they end up may be very different places.

"On a separate note, we've gotten back word from Tuor. He's pledged his support in the other plan," Melchious glared at him. Could Lucius lighten the mood? "Perhaps the two of them could compare doomed hometowns once I'm done?"

Melchious roared with laughter. Lucius soon joined him, and all the armies of this hell fled.