Kathrine Ann stared at the phone. None of the symbols made sense, but she had to try. The layout seemed similar to phones she had in the past, so she clicked on an unfamiliar icon only for a list of foreign letters to appear,

"Well?" He smirked, and she glared at him through narrowed eyes and then clicked the first thing on the list, which opened a screen of more unknown letters, but she recognized the layout. It looked like a text message or something similar,

"Okay, that's enough." He replied, snatching the phone, "Keep going, and I promise you'll regret it."

"You could have just told me I couldn't read it." She huffed.

"Where's the fun in that, Baby Girl?" He grinned as she looked down at the floor, trying to hide her rosy cheeks, but what did it matter? He could tell how she felt, which was a combination of embarrassment, frustration, and sadness. Why did he have to be so mean? All she wanted was a bit of normality,

"I've upset you again?" He asked as they walked.

"I'm fine." She quickly replied.

"You're lying." He teased.

"And you knew your actions would upset me, so don't act surprised." She hissed, "I just wanted a bit of, never mind, we have work to do, right?" She asked as they approached the music room.

"Right." He answered, opening the door, "I usually spend my afternoons replying to letters, making notes, calling ambassadors, and planning visits. The last you will be helping me with." As they entered the room, he explained, "Once every two or so months, I visit two to three worlds to check in on some of the half-demon populous." He explained.

"Some?" She questioned.

"Those who just transferred there, babies born, ones who've caused problems, some who work for me, and a few who have just requested a meeting." He explained as he crossed the room, grabbing a chair by its back and placing it on the opposite side of the desk, "Sit here." He instructed, picking up and moving a few things to clear a workspace for her before walking around his desk and taking a seat in the big leather chair. Kathrine Ann did as she was told and sat across from him, smoothing out her dress as she watched him silently shuffle through a few things before opening a drawer she couldn't see. "You will be filling in these cards for me." He informed, handing her a stack of rectangular cards, which she grabbed and let her eyes fall to the first one, "You'll find the name of the person and their homeworld. This book will guide you." He informed, sliding an old-looking, well-worn book in front of her, "'The Book of Worlds' written by my father. It lists every world and everything you need to know about it. Temperature, water, atmosphere, nutrients, wildlife, length of a day, time in a year, and reference numbers to all living creatures on the planet. This is the information you will need." He informed, opening to a random world and flipping till he found what he was looking for, "Here, towards the end, it will list the species on the planet and a reference number. You'll be looking for this." He said, tapping his finger on a line that read demonic, "This number here will refer you to a ledger of all demon-blooded occupants of the planet. Once you have that number, you will find the ledger over here on this shelf," He instructed, pushing his chair back and quickly walking towards the bookshelf, causing her to scramble out of her chair in an attempt to keep up. "They're all organized numerically, so it should be easy enough to find." He reassured, plucking a book and moving to where she stood, "Once found, you will look up the names alphabetically and then fill in all the information for me. Simple, right?"

"Yes." She smiled as he replaced the book, "I can handle it." Turning back to the desk, this would be easy. She worked in a hospital where researching, documenting, and organizing patient medical records and histories was a daily ritual.

"Confident." He smirked, lifting a brow as he paced back to the desk.

"What, you thought your Princess wouldn't be up to the task?" She retorted, taking her seat and pulling the stack of cards to her, "I'm more than just a pretty face."

Lucifer took his seat across from her, and she watched him pull out a stack of blank paper, what looked like a laptop, and finally, a pen. She wondered what he was working on as the soft clicking of his keyboard filled the room. Turning her focus back to the challenge in front of her, she took the first card and followed his instructions, but by the time she had filled in the information, it was evident that it had taken way longer than necessary. Quickly brainstorming on making the process quicker, she shuffled through the cards and noticed that there were only three worlds. She began separating them by the world and placed them in alphabetical order until all the cards were organized into three neat stacks. Quickly flipping through 'The Book of Worlds,' she jotted down her reference numbers and hopped up. She walked over to the shelf and pulled the books she needed in reverse order so the first book would be for the first stack. She could feel his eyes glancing up at her from time to time as he worked switching from typing to writing. He had been stealing glimpses since she began her task, but she tried to ignore it because it made her nervous, like she was being observed by an examiner or a potential boss judging their candidates. Placing the ledgers on the desk, she got to work filling in the cards quickly and efficiently, but something was bugging her,

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"Lucifer?" She finally called just after finishing the last card of the first stack.

"Hum?" He replied, not looking up from the screen in front of him.

"I couldn't read your phone, but I can read these books and the cards. Also, how do I understand everyone here? It's kinda freaking me out because there's no way everyone in Hell speaks English." She stated.

"They don't. You understand everyone, and they you because this world says it's so. Just like Heaven, this world's gifted with translation. Tell me, Baby Girl, when you were in Heaven, did you ever struggle to understand people?"

"No." She replied.

"Rules of the worlds, Heaven and Hell, are the only two planets in this universe. Ying and Yang, we balance each other. So very different yet so very similar, one cannot exist without the other, and we are getting quite off-topic," He explained, looking up from the computer finally and stretching his neck, "Simply put, in both Heaven and Hell, you will understand anything anyone says and they, you. Cool, yes, but it only applies to the spoken word. Writing no, which is why,"

"I couldn't read your phone. But how can I read this?" She asked, fanning her hands across the books and cards.

"That's because my father or I wrote them. We have angelic souls and read and write in the angelic language."

"The what?" She sighed, massaging the upper part of her nose.

"Angelic language, it's all the languages and none of them. Every living creature can understand what we write, assuming the living creature can read. It's not a language that can be learned or taught. One has to be born with it; it's a gift that all of God's children have, and before you say it, no, you and the other mortals are not his children. God made you lot in his likeness, but the archangels were made from him. He gave each of them a bit of himself that makes up their souls. Whereas mortal souls he created, having part of God's soul gives the archangels special abilities, one of which is the gift of communication. The ability to understand and be understood, and since I'm my father's son and my mother had no soul. My soul is all angelic. Grandpapa was not happy whenever I popped into existence."

"Does Hell have a language?" She asked, closing the ledger she had just used and stacking it off to the side as she pulled a new card from the top of the second stack.

"Of course it does. You saw it on my phone. Hellish is the language here." He answered.

"Not Demonic?" She hummed.

"Oh no, Demonic is an ancient, almost forgotten language rarely used unless opening portals."

"Wait!" She said, looking up from the open ledger in front of her, "Azazel wrote something in a journal of mine. How could I read it?"

"Hum," He looked back at her, puzzled, "That's odd. Are you sure?"

"Yes! I know I was able to read it!" She replied, excited and, for some reason, a bit nervous.

"Well, that can only mean one thing. Azazel, she must be able to read and speak English, along with French, Italian, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, and many other languages you aren't familiar with." He explained, and she glared at him angrily, "Oh come on, you walked into that, don't be all huffy." He chuckled, looking back to his screen, "Azazel is one of the few who my father grants permission to travel between the worlds so she can gather items for her father's business and items my father requests for himself or others. For her to be able to do this, my father requires she speaks the languages of the worlds she travels to."

"You said I couldn't learn Angelic, but can I learn Hellish?" She asked, stifling her annoyance though she knew he could smell it.

"Sure, if you can find someone to teach you." He answered.

"Okay, I'll ask around." She smirked and turned her attention back to the cards but swore she heard a light laugh.

"Wait, how did you know I spoke English?" She asked. "I never told you where I came from."

"By the books you read from my shelf." He replied, and she mouthed a silent 'Oh' before returning to her task.

She worked through the cards quickly and was on the last stack. As she opened a new ledger and noticed similar markings from the others. None of them were on the names she was researching, but her curiosity had reached its peak,

"Lucifer?"

"Yes?" He hummed in reply, tapping away.

"Some of the names in these ledgers have different colored lines through them. Why?" She asked as she continued to jot down details on the card before her.

"A black line through the name means the being is dead, and that line is accompanied by a gold line above or a red line below. The gold line above means their soul went to Heaven. The red line below means their soul came to rot here. If you see just the red line, it means the soul was a half-demon and fucked up, so it got sent back to Hell for breaking the rules but is still alive." He explained.

"What if it's just a black line?" She questioned curiously.

"Not possible. There is never just a black line. When you die, you go to Heaven or Hell." He answered.

"So then ghosts aren't real?" She asked, sliding a card to the finished stack and quickly grabbing the next before flipping pages till she found the new name.

"Sure they are, just not the way you think." He replied, shifting to the paper he had been writing on and began scribbling away, unfazed by the conversation, "Ghosts aren't suffering souls that won't move on or can't or yada, yada. They are simply stains left on a place. You, humans, believe that living animals are the only things that can hold feelings and memories, but you are wrong. Memories are held by anything important to a soul. A locket, a ring, hairbrush, kerchief, curtains, stools, paintings, even light switches, anything really, it could be something a living creature carried around, loved, cherished, or even a simple object involved in a life-changing incident. All that's needed is a strong emotion to stain. 'Ghosts' are just replayed memories of coveted items that only the gifted can see." He explained.

"Can these memories do anything exciting like move objects or talk to people?" She pressed.

"No, they're just memories that repeatedly replay in a continuous loop."

"I knew it! All those stupid ghost hunter shows, frauds!" She laughed before calming down and blushing, "Sorry, just on Earth, there's a bunch of self-proclaimed ghost hunters, and I always thought it was bull shit, and I'll just stop talking." She mumbled, her face glowing brighter than an award-winning tomato.

He just chuckled, "Cute." He smiled, "I know your world's fascination with the dead and the inability to let the dead lie. However, it's understandable, seeing as your world is not like any other, and some of these things you call 'ghosts' aren't just stains."

"What?" She gasped.

"Too soon, don't want to shatter that adorable little universe of yours quite yet, Baby Girl." He smirked.