A Weapon’s Serenade

Focalor had to conjured a stool to find an even remotely comfortable pose on the cramped bridge of the submarine. The moment she appeared in her demonic form, several guns were pointed at her.

“Hello boys.”

“Identify yourself.”

“I am executor Focalor of the pandemonic chariot Nemesis. I would ask you to take me to your leader but I don’t fit through your bulkheads. So… take your leader to me?”

“I am already here. Put your guns away, if she was here to harm us, she would have done so already. I’m captain Pierce. I will just assume we agree on the basic facts of why we are all here. Your protection of a portal used by sirens to leave this world and our government sending an utter idiot who knows nothing about fuck to deal with you after someone entirely unrelated ran into you by accident. Anything I forgot?”

“Just a new development that you had no chance of observing. We made a deal with Harriman to make sure his crew gets out alive in case this goes bad. He also relayed your warning about Broysc to us.”

“A good man. I am glad you decided to work with him. That you showed up like this tells me that you already know who we are and what this sub is.”

“Yes, and if you would like to be on the side of the people who gave you the tech you used here, you should know that the heavens decided to back our course of action here. We have one of their representatives aboard.”

Pierce nodded. “That’s good to know and might convince some of my crew, but you don’t need to worry about me. The old FBC might have had their differences with you but most of us, including me, didn’t join them for ideological reasons. We are not here to stop you or the sirens. But we are also not here to help you in case admiral Douglas decides to do something stupid. We will make sure humanity’s interests are protected and nothing else.”

Focalor sighed. “And who decides what is in humanity’s interest? You?”

“Who else? The FBC no longer exists, RICA is under your control, the Chinese are too busy twiddling their thumbs, and the Germans? Fuck knows what they are doing with that horror on their lawn. Yes, we decide what is in humanity’s best interest. We are the only ones with the means to hinder you, the only ones with the means to force a real negotiation, not one where you dictate the terms.”

“Humanity first, eh?”

“Precisely. Just as you rule Hell with demons above all. This is our world and if the sirens want to leave it, who are we to stop them? One more step to a human world under human rule.”

“Since we are putting down clear lines, here are ours. Any attempt to interfere with the travel of the sirens, no matter where, will be met with deadly force. We will go however far we need to protect innocents from anyone. Any attempt to interfere with our operations, or just the presence or actions of anyone under our protection, will be met with deadly force. Harm a single siren and we will pacify every military capable of operating in this region. Harm one of our humans and we will eradicate any involved in the harm, no matter how many. Kill a siren or one of our humans and we will wipe your country off the map. It wouldn’t be the first.”

“Then we understand each other. I do not want anyone to cross any lines. I doubt we could work together but we can each work on keeping others from crossing those lines.”

“Good. I will take my leave then. Let us hope that there will no reason for another meeting.”

“Indeed. Have a pleasant day, executor.”

“Thank you, you have pleasant day too, captain.” Focalor and her stool vanished.

“Right now, it’s still a hypothetical but if there was other intelligent life on this planet, why would you not be excited to meet it?” Captain Harriman rubbed his forehead after Focalor had told him everything that had just happened in her meeting with captain Pierce.

Focalor shook her head. “I don’t know. There was a time when we didn’t see you as much more than cattle but things changed. We might be more powerful, capable of shaping reality itself, but mentally we are equals. You are not lesser just because you cannot conjure whatever you like from thin air. We have shared our world with humans before and we have walked among your kind for a long time. Still, we get excited when we meet human artists, human scientists, all the people who want to make this world a better place for everyone.”

“I must admit that I still eat meat, animals die for my dietary preferences, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to harm one without reason. Especially not because I need to feel superior over it. Doing the same to something intelligent? Something that could communicate with us? Never. I don’t care if it’s vampires or aliens or zombies or whatever. As long as they aren’t trying to do anything bad, who are we to harm them? This human supremacism you are talking about is… it reminds of some very dark times.”

“Dark times that humanity seems prone to repeat once they have forgotten about the last time. But every time, you progress a little further. The light after the darkness shines a little brighter. I want to believe that this isn’t the threshold of another dark time. Your people are not people of darkness at heart.”

“I wish I could share your faith in us. Maybe, just maybe, this operation of yours is a moment where we can prove to you, to anyone watching, that there are some of us who are better than our darkest thoughts.”

Focalor smiled. “That simple desire is the spark that will make that happen. I must admit that using your language for all this is weird. Darkness isn’t evil in our culture. There are so many terms that are different metaphors for us. In our language, we are children of shadow and fire. Darkness is in our hearts, it’s the wild part of us all, all the things that are not thoughts but still so very important to who we are, the shadow we cast. A shadow that fire can direct. When the darkness wants to consume in revenge, we raise the flame to focus it into justice. Seeing darkness in your language as something bad, something to be avoided feels almost wrong.”

“I can see why. You aren’t just telling me about that because you felt strange about words, are you?”

“Would that be so bad? I wish you were wrong there, but no. We might not be able to control Pierce or Douglas, but together we can move the flame to redirect their shadows. As long as Pierce believes that you are on his side, or at least a useful puppet, he can be controlled.”

“You are talking about treason. Treason that I am inclined to cooperate with. Move the flame to use Pierce to get rid of the admiral, one way or another.”

“Yes, and then we get rid of Pierce. If nothing idiotic happens, we will know more about that submarine than its crew does. No matter how this ends, the Corpus Christi cannot return home. They know too much and the vessel itself is far more dangerous than you can imagine.”

“I can imagine a lot. I know this isn’t just a normal submarine, they haven’t surfaced in days. They are equipped with magical technology, just like your airship is, right? Let me guess… angelic?”

“Exactly. There was a group, now dissolved, that was part of your government and they made a deal with the angels to gain access to some angelic magical technology. That was during a time when the angels worked against us. Now, we are working together again and this vessel is a pain point for everyone involved.”

“How bothersome. Just to clarify… Broysc is a human supremacist who doesn’t know about most things, like the truth of what you are doing here, and Pierce is a human supremacist who knows exactly what is going on and Broysc doesn’t know about Pierce, and Pierce doesn’t like Broysc because he is the wrong kind of human supremacist?”

“Pretty much.”

“If you pardon my French, that’s just fucking stupid.”

Focalor chuckled. “I don’t disagree.”

“So, our plan is to wait for anyone to do anything and hope no one does?”

“A shit plan but yes. It’s the only one we have right now that doesn’t see anyone hurt.”

“Alright. Let the enemy make the first move and hope they blunder. If we are prepared for that, we can capitalize on that.”

“Before every storm, Vadria held her blade close. Not to be drawn until the thunder would roll through the plains of Acheron. Her steel would taste none but the blood of the ocean if it were to rise over the cliffs to swallow the land.”

“Pardon?”

“An old demonic story. Vadria was a warrior of the ancient times, protector of the plains of Acheron. Her greatest fear was not warriors or bandits or any other of the nameless children of the endless lands. She saw the greatest danger in the sea, just below the cliffs where the river Acheron met the ocean. She was ridiculed for that but in the end, after a century of standing guard in what everyone thought to be the wrong direction, she was proven right. A heavy storm saw what you might call a tsunami push into the Acheron delta, the wave tall enough to crash over the cliffs and force the river to flood the plains. Vadria drew her blade and split the waters to spare the village.”

“A cautionary tale of sorts?”

“Very much so. It’s widely agreed that it tells us to prepare even for the impossible and to watch each other’s backs, especially when there is something the other is missing. A wave tall enough to crash over the cliffs of the Acheron delta should be physically impossible, but I don’t want to see your ship washed away when Pierce opens fire on admiral Douglas.”

Harriman nodded slowly. “Consider the impossible… I should discuss this with my crew, without the lovely story sadly, but this is something where I can’t keep my eyes on everything and our communication is too slow.”

“Then we are, as you say, on the same page.”