Lord Death’s domain, like any other god’s domain, was where all his subordinates resided. It was, sort of, his headquarters. It was a place where decisions that would not only affect planets, but the entire universe, were made. Since Lord Death had been absent from his domain for quite a while now, he had to properly delegate his duties so that his domain would be able to function in his absence. For this arduous task, Lord Death had chosen his second-in-command, Lucila.
Lucila was a red demon woman with bat-like wings and two ornate horns on her head. She was smart, strong, beautiful, and most importantly, trustworthy. Ever since Lord Death had left for Sfiraz on what Lucila called his midlife crisis quest, she had kept a clean house. Everything that needed to be done was getting done in an efficient and effective matter. Lucila needed to be efficient and effective if she wanted to make Lord Death proud upon his return. Lucila was hopeful the Lord Death would come back and continue his magnificent reign over his domain, but every decade or so, her hope grew a little weaker.
Lucila was hard at work in her office like every other day going through mountains of paperwork, making sure Lord Death’s domain was functioning in the manner that Lord Death intended. She was sitting in her office looking over some documents, when suddenly someone knocked on her door.
“Excuse me, Ms. Lucila?”
“Come in, Steve. What is it today? Are the servants complaining again about working overtime? Or is it maybe about the change in food in the cafeteria this time?” said Lucila sarcastically, still looking at the documents on her desk.
“Mmm, it’s the bathrooms, ma'am,” said Steve, looking at his feet as to avoid Lucila’s gaze.
“The bathrooms?! What is wrong with our bathrooms?” said Lucila, slamming down her fist on her desk so hard that papers went flying everywhere. She stood up.
“It’s… the toilet paper, ma'am,” said Steve hesitantly, thinking that this might not have been the best of ideas.
“THE TOILET PAPER!” Lucila yelled, her eyes actually on fire. Not a red fire, a blue more intense fire that looked as if it could burn anything that touched it to mere ash in an instant.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Steve jumped back from terror and remained looking at his feet, deciding whether he should just leave or if that would cause even more anger in Lucila. Subordinates of gods were not a part of the living realm, so they could not technically die unless manifested into the living realm like Grimaldi was, but that did not mean that Steve could not get hurt. Torture was not a stranger or illegal in Lord Death’s domain. While it was not customary practice, those who wasted the time of people higher in the chain of command or were caught being lazy or just not doing their job would get punished. Looking at Lucila’s face, torture was definitely in the mix here.
Lucila regained her composure and started walking toward the huge window in her office that overlooked the domain. “Come, Steve, stand here next to me.”
Steve slowly made his way toward Lucila and looked out the window following Lucila’s gaze.
Lord Death’s domain was a hauntingly beautiful place. Ethereal landscapes all around with otherworldly architecture across the domain. To one side you could see gnarled trees filled with red luminescent leaves. The trees were surrounded with white glowing bushes and blue, fluorescent flowers. There was no sun in Lord Death’s domain; instead the trees were adorned by a beautiful green moon that illuminated the whole domain giving it life. On the other side, there were buildings that would only live inside dreams with never-before-seen architecture. All the buildings were the color of bone white, that in combination with the green moon rays were hypnotizing.
“Do you see that, Steve?” asked Lucila, waving her hand from one side of the window to the other.
“I see a lot of things, ma’am, I can see almost everything from here,” answered Steve, intensely looking at the window so as not to miss what Lucila intended him to find.
“Exactly, Steve, everything… That is what I am in charge of here while his Lordship is away. Everything.”
Steve turned his gaze towards Lucila, waiting for her to finish making her point.
“Managing an entire domain is something only the mightiest of gods are suited to and capable of doing, yet your Lordship trusted me with this task. I seem to be keeping this domain under control, for now at least. It has not been an easy task you know, managing and coordinating millions and millions of subordinates across thousands and thousands of planets. It is quite a lot; it is almost a miracle that this place hasn’t fallen apart by now.”
Lucila turned her gaze from the window and into Steve’s eyes. Lucila calmingly started to say, “Do you think…” Lucila started to raise her voice, “I give a damn about what you wipe your ass with?!” she finished, yelling that last part into Steve’s face with anger so excruciating that it exuded an energy so intense that it was almost palpable in the air.
Steve stood silent, regretting not only knocking on her door, but his very existence.
Lucila sighed. “Change the toilet paper to whatever you want, Steve, just don’t bother me with trivial things like these anymore.”
“Yes... thank you, Ms. Lucila... I’m sorry for bothering you,” said Steve as he quickly made his way out of Lucila’s office.
“Oh Lord Death, I wish you were here. I don’t know how you do it, but I’m reaching my limits here,” said Lucila with her face down on her desk, surrounded by paperwork that stressed Lucila just by looking at it.
“Hi Lucila, it has been a long time. Thank you for keeping everyone in check while I was gone,” said a familiar voice that Lucila had not heard in a very… very long time.
“Lord Death!”
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