“The only thing we fear more than you, my lord, is the Bleed,” the tiny creature whispered through a mouth full of fangs.
“You’re the smartest of your kind,” Kalandar assured the creature. “Practical and wise.”
“You honor me, sire.”
“You’re right; I do. Now then, tell me what demons will be able to do once the Bleed has only our worlds left to ruin? What do you think the Bleed will do? Will they, in their victory over all other things, sit back, and leave us to do what we do?”
“Their devastation will know no end,” the demon said, flapping its too-small wings and lifting upward. It still held the nail file in its clutches. “There can be no armistice. Not because our enemy are merciless, but because they are evil, and driven to sow chaos. Theirs is only to destroy. They are dangerous because they have nothing to gain.”
“Nothing to gain?”
“I believe that, my lord. They want for nothing other than the obliteration of everything. They seek not to build nor conquer. You cannot trust any being that desires no treasure. If something wants nothing, then they cannot be manipulated by greed. They carry nothing, therefore, nothing can be taken from them. You cannot exploit their ambitions, for their goals are entirely pure. They seek to consume and destroy; nothing else matters. They do not want allies nor will they tolerate neutrality. They seek no quarter; there can be no coexistence.”
“Precisely,” Kalandar said, sitting forward, sending his aerial servant-demons scattering. Only the enlightened nail-filing demon remained in his orbit. “There can be no coexistence.” Kalandar sat back, chewing on that conclusion like the unicorn meat he’d eaten earlier. “We have watched passively, and done what we have always done since the beginning of our time. This laissez faire has manifested as complacency in the face of a mortal enemy. We have treated the Bleed like a dangerous, albeit remote, wild animal, but we should’ve put it down like one rather than let it consume all the wildlife in the countryside.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“And what do hunters do when the monster has grown too large to kill?”
“They become food, my lord. Food for the monster.”
“The armies of all Hells cannot be reduced to fodder for the Bleed. Demons have worked too hard to become the pinnacle of evil and terror only to be shoveled into the mindless maw of a foe that won’t even relish victory.”
“That would be a travesty, my lord.”
“You’re very wise for a lesser demon. Have you a name?”
“No, my lord. Creatures such as I are not allowed a name.”
“Of that, I am aware. But I am also aware that those such as you rarely follow the rules. You’re a demon, creature. If you weren’t at least a little unruly, you’d be dead by now. If you’ve given yourself a name, tell it to me now.”
The creature laughed. “Of course my lord. I think of myself as Rodrigo.”
“Rodrigo? Compelling. Well, Rodrigo, I ascend you to the rank of the named. You shall no longer serve me as you have. I will make you my advisor, and junior Castellan.” Kalandar reached out with one freshly sharpened claw and carved a simple rune into Rodrigo’s forehead, just above his thick, horned brow. “Fly to the dungeons and find the ascension chamber. After forty days and forty nights of torture, your body shall emerge anew, born for the elevated role I’ve given to you. Go.”
“An eternity of thanks, my lord,” the creature bowed midflight and departed the room as its fellow servitor demons applauded Rodrigo’s good fortune.
“See? Serve me well, and an eternity of opportunity awaits,” Kalandar said to them. “Now, I have given my word,” he said, hoping that the deity and power to whom he had dedicated piety had taken interest, “to a human. To a woman named Maddie. She and her little entourage have the potential to fight. With my assistance, I think we can claim a world, and there stifle the Bleed. I must rescue her from the oubliette I left her in, and lend to her tribe my unending might.”
The servitor demons floating in the room watched and listened, rapt. Kalandar stood.
“I can return to her…but how will we depart? She cannot traverse the worlds…and it is unlikely any of the machines that she can operate there are still functional…though I shall try.”
Father…
A whisper came through the room, and as it did, flames atop the torches in sconces flickered, and shrank to go out. Kalandar glared at the failing fires, and they returned to bright, hot form. Kalandar listened in with his keen ears for the voice he recognized.
Father, I have been trapped on a Bleed-ruined world with two half-gods I am trying to assist. I believe you should meet them. They have value to you. Within my words lies my location. Come soon. There are storms here that seem determined to kill us, and there’s little food and water for the humans.
“What are the odds that my son, along with the offspring of the arrogant gods, has arrived on the world where I left Maddie?” Kalandar asked aloud, his mouth cracking into a wry smile. “Signs and portents abound. This cannot be mere coincidence. In this, I see divine providence. I see the message my god wishes for me to lay eyes upon.” Kalandar closed his eyes and connected with the magic his son—his only son—had sent to him from across the void of time and space. “I must gather my tools of war, and I will soon be at your side, Timtar, my
