[???? Wake Me Up – Avicii.]
• TITANS LANDING, THE SAME DAY
The many turrets of the Castle pointed like dark fingers at the sky. The alabaster stones and white bricks used in its creation had being stripped when her gates were brought down. Now, everything in sight from the ports and harbors of the Cold Sea was in the image of the Usurper, death black and blood red.
Lilith admired the city's panorama from a balcony on the fourth storey.
Merchants rode in dearborns in the streets below, and the few Eldorian nobles without demonic bloodline—Luciferan or otherwise, that were allowed to keep their estates marched down the new District of Lords in company of guards with fresh black banners, their buggies and wagons catching light of the evening sun. The cold had just starting to creep in.
Beyond, the fog was clearing in from the ports, making ships vanish on the docks. Many porters hurried back and forth along gangplanks, wishing to beat the snows home.
Lilith's eyes picked the littlest details: their worn boots that had carried the goods of a thousand and one frigates to dock from its long voyage. She smiled on the belvedere. Eldoria had been rebuilt, and would soon be populated again.
From the tidal nimbi cresting the seascape, she didn't need to open up her [Vishnu Third Eye]: a god-tier seeing ability, to know that it was going to be a severe winter night. Maybe she'd play with her pet; get warm together. Who knew?
Cold nights were the best for some wax play. The whole city would be silent and sleepy and no slave would dare disturb—
"Excuse me, Dowager?"
Lilith turned, spotting a handmaiden standing with her head bowed behind.
"Why are you shivering, wench? Raise your gaze!"
The girl—mortal no less—lifted up soft blue eyes to the tall, smoky goddess. She looked like she was about to cry. She better not, Lilith admonished in her heart, and hope the girl could read her face, for her sake. "Well, what is it? Why the intrusion? GO ON, GIRL?!"
The handmaiden, whose name was Skye, half-blood daughter of Lord Asmodeus, visibly shivered.
"T-The Court i-is gathered, milady."
Skye moved to leave but Lilith held up a straight, pale hand adorned in rhinestone rings and sharp, onyx nails, motioning her to stay. The Dowager turned for a final glance toward the creeping snowstorm on the horizon, and left the balcony. She paused in her exit through the door to bear down on the handmaiden. "You need to work on your self-esteem, Skye.
How else would you prove yourself to your father?"
And with that, she left; poor Skye was trembling.
Lilith clicked in astonishing heels to the castle's war room, where the Court was assembled. This being the Court of Whispers, established by the very first fae Queen, Etheria to keep the Seely secrets and guard the magic of the realms. But ever since the Titans landing, the dark Dowager now commanded its affairs. And she wasn't sorry about it.
A 10ft Mauler held the black door open for her to walk in. He softly shut it after.
But all you seem to be doing so far is getting ass-fucked in arguments with your ex-wife. . .oh! Who is a Seraph by the way. Did you guys know that?!
HIS WIFE IS A FUCKING SERAPH!"
"Hell, Meph!" Belbys droned from her seat.
"Shut up, bitch! You're no better." Lilith instantly fired back. "Every fucking demon knows there is no greater slut than Belbys. It's a fucking song! They call you a cum rag. Some days you don't even know where you wanna eat Adonis' ass or suck Hades off!"
"Shit! It's knives out today, innit, Lily?"
Lilith ignored Lucifer's rhetoric. She didn't back down as Belbys sat straighter in her seat, self consciously covering her ample amount of cleavage. "From now on," the dowager fumed, "we will all do our part. You can keep all the virgins, and male concubines, and fucking lolitas you want, but we will do our jobs. There are Angels now on the mortal plane.
Since we have broken the covenant and interfered with humanity, they can too. We have to be prepared that they would foul our moves. We must be swift and accurate on the board."
"Can you quit the board games metaphor? I don't understand shit you're saying?" Asmodeus lent.
Lilith sighed and rubbed her temples.
"Thebault, please from now on. . .act like a fucking King. Don't walk around the palace in diapers—"
"I own the place!" Thebault roared. "No one would tell me how to fucking live in my own FUCKING home!"
Lilith's eyes smouldered and poured out a poison of purple lightning. She said quietly, in such a hushed voice even Lucifer sat up in his seat.
"Do not interrupt me again, Mephistopheles. You are only being tolerated in this Court. Do what we order, and shut your mouth. You are the reason we're in this mess in the first place. Find the Apollyon even if it means tracing your estranged Half-Angel daughter. I trust you can handle your ex.
DO IT.
But keep her at arms length. I don't want her coming too close to foil our plans. AND NO MORE FUCKING RAPING IN THE CASTLE. Do it for the sanity of the handmaidens that work here. And Lou, I'll need you to deploy your Tormentors to work with the dragons patrolling the sea."
The devil, raven haired and handsome, smiled warmly. "Will do, ma'am," Lucifer said.
"Good. Now, Moloch—"
Lilith was interrupted by the coalescing of many shadows in the war room into one great mass. It soon sprouted limbs, and a head. The umbra writhed and solidified into a pale creature.
A Spectre.
"Your Eminences!" The female reaper bowed before all; her hollow eyes distracting from her beauty. "I have news about the Apollyon."