The Pleasures of Hell 01.008

~~David~~

He woke up in a cave. That was happening a lot. What wasn't happening a lot was doing that in the middle of the day, when the fire sky burned bright and even the depths of caves got some reflected light in them. Their cave wasn't all that deep, and even with the sky out of sight around its curving insides, the amber lights didn't have to fight hard to keep it well lit with all the ambient light. It felt weird waking up in the middle of the day in Hell, like waking up after a nap gone wrong in the real world.

Groaning, he pushed himself up to sitting. Tried to, anyway. Dao gently pushed his head back down, right onto her lap, and he blinked up at the eyeless demon as she smiled down at him. Her claws combed through his shaggy red hair, her other hand against his chest beside the half breastplate. She clicked at him a few times. Stay down.

"Feeling okay?" Caera asked. "We weren't sure you were gonna wake up." She lay a few feet away, long body aimed at the cave path out, but she turned her head to face him.

"I... yeah, I feel fine. How long was I out?"

"About an hour," Jes said. She sat beside Dao, and grinned down at him as she poked his forehead with a claw. "Wanna explain?"

"Explain?" He tried to sit up again. No go. Clicking softly, Dao shook her head as she pushed him back down.

"Yeah, explain," the gargoyle said. "You're unmarked. You have an aura--that Caera says changed for a second when you were fighting by the way. A giant invisible... thing, is out to kill you. You can read the ancient language no one can read, not even spire rulers. And apparently you pass out when eating human hearts?"

He blinked. Right, the human heart. Right, the flood of memories that hit him when the person's flesh... the person's resonance, had hit him.

"Caera," he said, turning his head to look at her, "you... said humans can't absorb resonance, right?"

"Only demons can absorb resonance. We turn it into essence, the fuel we -- and you -- use to do stuff."

"Like a digestive tract turning food into fuel for our bodies to burn off."

She shrugged. "Close enough. But like I said, humans can't absorb resonance. You have your own resonance that you can never burn, so you need essence directly, which hearts have a lot of, too." After a big stretch that forced him to suppress the urge to say 'ooh big stretch', Caera sat up. "What's that go to do with you passing out?"

"You... fed me the heart of the woman I killed, didn't you?"

She raised a brow, and prowled closer. "How'd you know that?"

Fuck. Fucking fuck fucking fuckity fuck. Why? Why was all this weird shit happening to him? The fuck did he do? He was just a regular guy!

Apparently not.

"I saw... her sins, I guess. Took me so off guard, I guess I fainted. Fainted pretty hard, if it took me an hour to wake up."

The demons all blinked. Even Dao somehow managed it, despite the lack of eyes, and she clicked a few times, high pitched but soft.

"I don't know," he said. "I ate the heart Caera gave me, and then I was... I was her. The woman. I pushed someone into traffic. I saw some quick flashes of other things, too, other things she did. Noises. Scents and tastes. I remember what the person's shoulder felt like." He closed his eyes. "I'm guessing demons don't experience that when they eat the hearts of people, or demons."

"Uh, no, they don't," Caera said. From the sound of her voice, she'd leaned in and was now examining him from up close. He kept his eyes closed, and tried to focus on Dao's fingers combing his hair and caressing his head. "You're really not human."

"I'm starting to believe you."

"That is pretty fucking weird," Jes said. "That... I mean, that does sound like you absorbed something about her. But even if you absorbed her resonance, that wouldn't make you see her past. Jesus fucking christ, why are you so... unique? What's going on?"

All he could say to that, was nothing. He just shrugged. Had he absorbed the woman's resonance, the thing about her that determined whether she went to Heaven or Hell? Considering the flashes had obviously been some of the really shitty things she'd done in her life, that made a little sense. Something about him allowed him to see why their resonance was the way it was? But humans didn't absorb resonance!

Fuck. Another nail in that coffin. He wasn't human. Double fuck.

"I don't have a clue," Caera said. "I've never read about anything like this. I mean, maybe there are runes in the deepest places in the spires that might know more? Or maybe at False Gate or the Forgotten Place?"

He opened his eyes. "Why those places?"

"Lots of old, important shit deep in the spires I've never seen, so who knows about those places. The Old Ones and Lucifer also did a lot of their shit in the Forgotten Place and False Gate. They were important places. False Gate for the vortex, but no one knows much about the Forgotten Place."

"Lucifer? The Old Ones? What do they have to do with me?"

"Fuck me, I don't know. But this is some weird shit, David, like breaking all the rules of Hell and Heaven weird shit. If anyone has any idea about what's going on, it's the Old Ones and Lucifer. And far as anyone knows, they're dead. The only idea I have, is maybe some of the lower areas of spires we're not allowed to go to, or False Gate or the Forgotten Place. Maybe they wrote something down, something... only you, and probably your sister, can read."

"That's a pretty wild shot in the dark."

"Got a better idea?"

He took a deep breath. "Then I guess when I get Mia, that's where I'm going."

Caera snorted. "I told you I've never entered the False Gate province, David. I like being alive. And no one knows how to cross the sea to the Forgotten Place. Not anymore."

"Then I guess I got a lot of work ahead of me." He pushed against the ground. The tone of his voice probably told Dao to let him up, and she did. He smiled at her. "'Cause, I mean, you're right. A lot of crazy shit is happening and I don't understand any of it and... and... I can't have that."

Jes raised a wing claw. "Can't have that?"

"Can't have that. I can't not know. Something is going on with me, and I can't not know. This has to do with how I died, right? The strange way I died, the strange thing that happened at the Gate of Heaven, the strange... everything! Something's happening, and I have to know! I have to figure out what's going on, so things can make sense!"

They slowly looked between each other before him again, Caera and Jes with raised eyebrows like he was a crazy person.

"David," Caera said. "You--"

"You can't tell me you don't want to know. You made me eat that heart to keep me alive at all costs, remember? You're desperate to read more of those runes."

"Not so desperate I'll die for it."

He squinted at her. She squinted right back.

"I'm not going to let this go," he said. "I have to find out. I have to know. I have... I just have to." How could he explain? It wasn't the first time he ran into this wall, and it was like trying to communicate with someone who didn't speak his language. It was written into his bones. He had to know, be it why he was unmarked and in Hell, or why his computer lagged an extra few seconds when opening a random program. Stay up all night, no sleeping, no eating, and all-consuming need to know that sank into him until he was searching online for answers for multiple days straight, until Mia demanded he take a shower and eat something.

He knew that about himself well enough. But apparently he didn't know much, if he wasn't even human. He had to know.

"You're going to get yourself killed," Jes said. "You can do that after Diogo's dead."

He grinned at her. "Of course."

Dao clicked a few times, but sighed after a while and patted his shoulder.

Everyone got quiet after that. No need for a translator. Dao didn't want him to go.

He smiled at the satyr as he slid in to sit beside her, back to the wall, and leaned against her good shoulder. Her leg and arm looked a lot better, still swollen but healing. Jes's wing looked better too, and her ankle. Demons healed crazy fast once they had some food in them.

"How long till we're good to go?" he asked.

"Two more rekindlings at least," Caera said. "More, if Dao and Jes need to fight anything. And Mia's probably already at the spire."

"Can we get eyes on the spire? Maybe get to a spot where you and I can at least see it?"

"Yeah, sure. Tomorrow." Nodding, Caera prowled over toward the entrance, and slid something along the ground toward him. It scraped the stones, making a very unpleasant noise. A black sword, its blade and handle big chunks of metal beaten into shape, literally. It was like a giant with a mallet had grabbed a bunch of chunks of metal and smashed them together, with zero smithing skill or anything. It didn't matter. A sword was a sword and as long as it didn't break, it didn't matter how shitty it looked.

Problem. He wanted to break it.

Groaning, he got up, and grabbed the big hilt with both hands, and--

"Damn." He stumbled, rocking back and forth slightly with the blade held up. "I'd... kinda hoped..."

"Hoped what?" Jes asked

"I dunno. Apparently I'm not human, so I'd kinda hoped after eating a heart, maybe I'd be stronger? Demon strong?" Nope, not happening. He let the sword's tip fall, and it clanked against the rocks hard enough to leave a dent. Not stronger, or different in anyway he could tell. Damn. So much for that fantasy. "Alright. I'm gonna need help breaking this."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~Mia~~

"P-Please don't eat me." It was out of her mouth before she could stop it.

Zel chuckled. Giggled? It was more feminine than her tall, alien, elegant body and face looked like it'd make.

As Zel stepped toward her, Diogo stepped aside, bowing slightly again for the tetrad demon. The ruler of the Death's Grip spire squatted down in front of Mia, and was still taller than her, four giant black horns a crown on her head, with the amber, glowing horn sticking up from the top of her forehead, between the four others. The thin tall body, the four arms, the hooves and lack of tail or wings, it definitely made her look distinct. The fact she was almost a foot taller than Diogo, the biggest demon Mia had seen so far, only made things worse.

She was beautiful. Seeing her up close, too close, didn't change that. She did have a nose, but it was subtle, almost completely flat to her face with two tiny nostrils barely noticeable. It gave her face a smooth, almost mask-like alien quality.

From underneath her giant horns, long black tendrils dangled from her skull, like Adron's except a bit thicker, and pierced horizontally with tiny bones up and down their lengths. They weren't the only bone decorations on her body. While she only wore a few pieces of white sheer silk, nothing more than long scarves that only casually and accidentally covered her moderate breasts, she had what looked like a belly chain under her long set of abs, and a few skulls dangled from it. The chain was made of black metal. She wore a necklace, too, the same sort of skinny black chain, and it had a few skulls dangling from it as well. Some were human, some were demon.

"And what is your name, unmarked one?" Just like her laugh, her voice was quite feminine, and soft, and elegant, and playful. It was almost like the sort of voice a bitch in high school might use to manipulate someone, while pretending to be kind and sweet and innocent.

"M--"

Diogo got a fraction of a second into the word, before Zel shot him a look, shutting him up instantly. Holy shit.

"Mia," Mia said.

"Mia. What brings you to the center of my kingdom?"

Mia blinked at her, and looked up at Diogo. The brute stood there, said nothing, and glared down at Mia. Enough said. Lying was not a good idea.

"Diogo noticed I was unmarked, and thought you... might want to see me."

Zelandariel nodded, red and black eyes staring straight into Mia's soul. "I see."

"And... because, apparently, I... have an aura."

The demoness raised a dark eyebrow before standing back up. God, she really was taller than Diogo. Mia's head barely reached the underside of her hip.

"Diogo," she said, eyes still on Mia, "describe this aura to me."

"Similar to a vola's aura. It became problematic when she nearly fucked Adron. It's a... very powerful, very wide aura."

Mia squirmed. Zel didn't so much as glance Diogo's way anymore. Like a scientist analyzing a pet project, or maybe a dominatrix watching her sub squirm, she kept her eyes on Mia, one set of arms folded across her chest, the other resting on her hips.

"A sexual sin aura, from a human? And an unmarked human at that. How interesting. You were wise to bring her to me, Diogo." Nodding, Zel reached down with one of her lower arms, and set a hand on Mia's shoulder. Long claws. "I knew strange things were afoot, but I did not expect them to manifest in such an unusual way."

"Strange things?" Mia asked. The harsh glare Diogo threw her was like a slap to the face. She wasn't to talk unless spoken to.

But Zel just laughed and shrugged. "Quite the tongue on you."

Mia gulped. Yeah, a stupid tongue, and it was probably going to get her killed if she didn't get control of it. The spikes outside were not a pleasant memory she was keen on revisiting.

Again Zel laughed, and guided Mia to turn around and follow her as Zel walked past her and Diogo, one hand and its long claws still on her shoulder.

"You may go, Diogo," Zel said. "You will be rewarded for your efforts, and may enjoy my comforts for a few days. I assume you'll wish to see Acelina before you leave?"

Diogo snorted, but nodded, posture relaxing as he followed behind.

"I do."

"You know she does not wish to speak with you."

"I'll be... careful."

Mia forced down the bubbling urge to ask. Acelina? Diogo's romantic interest? Did he have a romantic interest? Was he capable of romantic interest? Maybe just a friend? He seemed less likely to have friends than maybe a girlfriend.

Did demons have girlfriends and boyfriends?

Zel walked them out of the throne torture room and back out onto the inner balconies of the spire, but guided her into another archway, a metal one lined in black teeth. If anyone so much as nudged Mia into the archway's frame, it'd tear her arm open. Diogo didn't follow, choosing a different path.

She sucked in a hard breath as the archway took them out onto an outdoor balcony, one of the ones she'd seen from outside. It circled the spire, and its width was probably fifty feet across. She was right, the outer edge was tipped with giant, white, sharp teeth, and now that she was on the balcony she could see the teeth came out of chunks of pulsating flesh that grew over the metal, and connected to the spire.

"Is this spire alive?"

Zel grinned as she looked down at her. Shit, she talked again.

"How long have you been in Hell, fresh meat?"

An insult, and no answer to her question, ugh. Don't frown. It was just a couple words demons often used to describe her, and probably any human.

"This is day four."

"You were lucky Diogo and his servants found you. Most fresh meat is dead within the first three days of their arrival. Many within the first three minutes."

She groaned and nodded, and followed the tall woman toward the edge of the balcony. She couldn't mention her brother, ask about him, anything, unless she wanted him to end up like her, captured. Whether that was better than being dead, she didn't know yet.

If Zel had two unmarked humans in her grip, the demon might think it worth sacrificing and eating one of them to see if she gained any power from it. Not good.

"I guess. I..." Her voice trailed off, and she stared out from the balcony.

Holy shit she'd climbed high. It'd been horrible, going up those stairs, but now she was damn high, almost as high as some of the mountain tops, and some of those mountains were fucking colossal. Not Mount Everest colossal, but still. She could almost see over the mountains clockwise around Hell, and could easily see over them counter clockwise, to some place called The Black Valley. It was certainly black. She could even see over it, and to the horizon.

It wasn't a horizon. It was an endless, blurry distance, merging, gradients of red mixing with fire. It was beautiful, and horrifying.

She gulped and stepped back as she clutched her stomach.

"Tell me, unmarked one, how did you die?"

"I..." Oh god, what to do? How the fuck should she answer her questions? Fucking shit where was David. He'd know what to do. He'd have already had the conversation in his head a thousand times, and had come up with some 4D chess strategy to say the right thing and not get himself killed.

Lying was dangerous, and with Zel knowing Mia could create an aura, she couldn't just pretend to be a normal human anyway.

"I died randomly," she said. Fuck it, for all she knew this warlord of a ruler would be her strongest ally. "Just, randomly."

"Randomly?"

"Yeah. I was sitting at my table eating breakfast, and then I was in pain. Ten or twenty seconds later, I was dead. Doctors couldn't figure out what killed me, either." Dodging saying 'us' was proving difficult.

"That is quite strange. When was this?"

"Uh, almost three weeks ago? I guess twenty days, yeah."

Zel nodded as she came closer to the edge, and closer, before motioning for Mia to join her with one of her four hands. Wincing, Mia joined the ridiculously tall demon, and stared out over the balcony to the fall below. One of the big white teeth sticking up from the balcony proved to be her saving grace, and she pressed both hands against the tall fang, holding on as she looked down.

The spikes and burning skulls on the ground weren't placed randomly. They were spread out around the tower in a perfect circle pattern, dozens of circles that circled the spire, something you could only notice when looking straight down at it from above. It was beautiful and horrifying, like everything in Hell apparently was, Zel included.

"Something has been amiss, Mia. Something strange spreads through Hell. The angels visit frequently, flying high where I cannot reach them. They are worried. And they are looking for something." The demon smiled down at her, exposing some of her fangs in her small mouth. Small for her head, anyway, but considering how big she was, still more than big enough to bite Mia's face off.

"You think they're looking for me?"

"I do not know. Perhaps. Something is happening in Hell, fresh meat. Imps and grems have whispered of strange movement in the Black and Grave Valleys, no doubt stirred by the angels and their investigations. Whether that is because of you, or you are simply another symptom of these changes, I do not know, yet. The angels increased their activity about twenty days ago, which is when you died. But since you have only been in Hell for four, I assume you remained a ghost on the surface for some time?"

Thanks to her brother.

"Right. But..."

Zel looked down at her. "But?"

"Uh, when I went to Heaven, and tried to go in, the gate stopped me. And then, one of the angels said... 'not again'." She rubbed her arms. "And that's when the Hell portal swallowed me up." That was a lot of information, and for all she knew she was feeding it into someone who could turn out to be a deadly enemy. But what else was she supposed to do? Her best bet at finding David started with her staying alive, and making herself seem important was probably her best shot at doing that.

And, maybe she was important? The whole aura thing was very real.

"Not again?" Zel held her chin in one hand, the other three arms folded across her chest. "The angels grew active when you died, and your delay before accepting your death is perhaps the reason they spoke such a phrase, if others like you did not wait. Perhaps there are more of your kind then, out there, somewhere. Unmarked."