The Devil's Details - Ch. 01

When Tabitha looked at her face, she almost felt like she was looking through an out-of-focus camera, as if parts of Veronica's head were drifting through blurry patches of reality. It made her head hurt if she tried to concentrate on the blurry patches, so she decided not to focus on them for the time being, glancing over to see that the two men she'd men in the elevator were sitting on either end of the table, both of them still wearing their sunglasses. They had a sense of amusement about them.

"I'm... I'm not sure what we have to discuss, ma'am," Tabitha said, moving into the room, sitting down at the table as far as respectfully away from everyone as possible. "I'm just an intern here, and the firm keeps us all pretty much in the dark as to what we're doing and why. I don't know that I'm going to be of much help."

Veronica casually tossed a large folder down onto the board room table with a flourish, moving to sit down at the head of the table. "Let's not get bogged down in talking about the firm, Tabitha. We're on a different subject today. I want to talk a little bit about you."

"Is... is that all about me?"

The woman extended a single fingertip and hooked it beneath the edge of the folder, flipping it open, the paper making a very quiet thud as it did so. "Tabitha Saint Cloud. Reported birthday of June 29^th, 2001, although because the adoption agency couldn't get a confirmed birth certificate, that date is speculative." She smirked a little bit. "It's right, though."

"How do you know that?"

"Adopted by Thomas and Rene Saint Cloud of Syracuse, New York on August 15^th, 2001, who were content to name their new child Tabitha. Thomas was a cop and Rene was a teacher, both accomplished in their fields without being remarkable in any way, shape or form. Both good people, although both lived tragically shorter lives than they should have. He died in 2015, killed in the line of duty, and his wife, your adopted mom, passed of cancer just a couple of years ago, just after you'd left for your first semester of college at Buffalo State College," Veronica said, her voice even keeled and giving nothing away. "I imagine that must have been quite hard on you, being left completely alone in the world, with no one looking out for you, no one to have your back when times got rough, and being without your adopted mother and father, I would consider that to be about as rough as it gets. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Have... have you been spying on me?"

"Spying is such an ugly word, Tabitha," Veronica chuckled. "I prefer to think of it as 'keeping tabs' on you. Besides, I think you're going to want to hear what I have to say. I know your mother, after all."

"Mom's been gone for-"

"Not Rene, Tabitha," Veronica said with a predator's smile. "I mean your real mother, your birth mother. In fact, it's my relationship with her that brought you here."

"You... you know who my real mother is?" Tabitha said, suddenly feeling very antsy and eager to have that bit of information. "I've spent quite a bit of time trying to find that out."

"I'm aware."

"And you're telling me it's just sitting there in that file in front of you?"

"Not exactly."

"Give it to me," Tabitha said, her voice taking on a funny echo, blood boiling behind her eyes for a moment, as she felt a flare of pain inside of her skull like a hornet trapped under glass.

Veronica's hand moved to the folder jerkily, as if she both wanted to and didn't want to, before she finally forced the paper across the table towards her, a slightly nervous laugh rolling from the older woman's lips. "That's good. That's good, Tabby. How long have you been able to do that?"

"Don't call me Tabby," she said, her eyes moving to scan the papers in front of her. "There's nothing in here about who my real parents are. Nothing about my mother or my father."

"You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you?"

"What do you want, Miss Gomory?" Tabitha said, frustration cutting through the tone of her voice like a knife.

"When you turn twenty-one, Miss Saint Cloud, you're in line to inherit quite the legacy. But you have to survive to be able to claim it, something I'm rather invested in making sure happens, despite what some of my fellow brethren might have in mind for you."

"Lawyers are blood thirsty," Tabitha said, "but they usually aren't cold-blooded killers."

"That's true," Veronica said with a smile. "But I wasn't talking about my professional brethren so much as my blood kin. You see Tabitha, you're the daughter of Lucifer, the Queen of Hell. And every time she gives birth to a child, the child is eventually given a test, to see if they're worthy of assuming the long vacant post of Reagent of Hell."

"Wait, you're telling me my mom... was Satan?"

"Is, darling, is, although I haven't been in touch with her for quite some time. It's been..." Veronica whistled for a moment. "Almost seven years since I saw her last, although she looked good for a demon in self-imposed exile."

"Self-imposed? I didn't think anyone was allowed to leave Hell. Isn't that why it's HELL?"

"When you're in charge, they let you do it," Veronica said, tilting her head a little. "Your mom, she's been wandering the Earth for centuries, living a life in concealment, trying to further understand the divine plans, avoiding angels everywhere she goes. And usually once a century, she takes a lover and gives birth to a nephilim. In this century, that's you."

"Nephilim?"

"Half angel, half human, although when it comes to Lucifer, it's half fallen angel and half human."

"What's the difference between an angel and a fallen angel?"

"The books more commonly call fallen angels 'demons,' dear girl," Veronica said with amusement. "A matter of semantics really."

"And I suppose these two men are angels or demons or whatever."

"Gods, actually," Shango said, a dry chuckle rolling off his lips. "From the non-Judeo Christian pantheons. I realize we aren't quite as in fashion as we used to be, but when the angels and demons are having one of these little contests, they are quite content to call us to serve as judges."

"And, you're, what, the god of outdated fashion sense?" Tabitha said to him.

Shango removed his sunglasses and where humans would have eyes were two empty holes through which Tabitha thought she could see swirling storms, clouds lit up by tiny sparks of lightning. "I am one of the gods of lightning, little nephilim, and while I am not on one side or the other, you will still provide me some basic respect." He lifted the glasses back up and slid them in place over his eyes once more.

"I thought that was Thor," she said quietly, still entirely uncertain of what she had seen. The man's missing eyes had felt the same way her visions had, solid enough to seem true, but beyond the realm of what possibly could be true.

"There are many gods for any one thing, child," Zhurong said to her, taking off his own glasses for a moment, letting her see that instead of eyes, the old Asian man apparently had flames inside of him, filling up those holes with flickering red, orange and yellow shades before he placed his sunglasses back on. "Nothing is simply one thing or another."

"And you're... you're here because of me?"

Shango smiled, a tiger in the wild. "We are here at her request, and she has requested us on your mother's behalf."

"My... my mother. Lucifer."

"That is correct."

"This is insane," Tabitha said, starting to panic.

"All your life," Veronica said to her, "you've thought you were seeing things that weren't there, but instead, you were peeking behind the veil, able to see what's really going on in the world, one of the gifts of your mother's lineage."

"It's never felt like a gift," Tabitha said. "It's felt like I was going crazy."

"That's been you struggling to overcome the base glamour your mother placed upon your as a newborn. Think of yourself as a baby bird, struggling to peck your way out of your eggshell. There's still bits and pieces of it lingering on you. Let me just sweep them away."

Veronica's hand lifted into the air, and for a moment, Tabitha was certain she could see sparks of purple and red dripping from them before Veronica clenched her hand into a fist, and for the first time in her life, the world snapped completely into focus.

"So Tabitha," Veronica said. The blurry patches around Veronica's head were gone, and in their place, Tabitha could see two small red horns sticking up from the woman's scalp. "Let's talk about what your next month is going to look like..."