A Weapon’s Serenade

“Baal.”

“Nemesis.”

Baal was standing at the window of the observation dome, watching the guardian outside. Alone until Nemesis flickered into existence.

“You have been down here for a while now. Are you okay?”

“When I arrived here, I thought of you as just Focalor’s little toy. The interface of the chariot. I overheard some of what you talked to your sister about and it made me realize things. I am sorry for not seeing you for who you are.”

“Even if your politeness might have been superficial, you have nothing to apologize for. I have no bad experiences with you.”

“I still made a mistake. One of so many. What your conversation taught me is that you are more of a person than I am. Focalor correctly called me a smooth-talking bootlicker, and she was right. I didn’t deny it back then. I am all façade. Maybe that’s why she decided to talk to the humans directly and not use me to, in human words, butter them up.”

“Or she simply forgot.”

“Possibly.” He shook his head. “I must thank you for insisting that I join you in viewing the eclipse. I did not care much at first but being there changed my mind. How much I wish you were a Nightmare to see into my thoughts and confirm that I am not just saying these things to make you trust me… everything I have ever done, all the deceit, the bootlicking, the twisting of words, it is all harming me now. I cannot voice a genuine thought without everyone, even myself, not believing it.”

“I have avoided asking about your past, reading about what you did and said. All I know about you is your ability to pick your words carefully and your apparent history with Thrasir. If you wish it, I can provide you an open ear and the promise to not divulge your thoughts to anyone else, unless, of course, to protect the safety of our friends.”

“So you will believe what I tell you?”

“I will not dismiss it.”

“That is all I want. May I ask you something before I bare my thoughts?”

Nemesis turned from looking at Baal to looking at the guardian outside. “You may.”

“When did the demons pick you up and which civilization were you given too in the first place?”

“I only had one host, Brothir. He was a forerunner for a group of the northern nomads. I never learned if they ever chose a name for themselves. When it was almost time to move with the seasons, he ventured out to find a safe home for the coming summer, or winter for that matter, and would leave behind markers to show the others the way. I was given to him to make sure that it would be difficult for any other power to influence his path and to give him the tools to deal with the rapidly changing climate from year to year. The ice age was ending, the glaciers receding. After many decades of leading the group to safety again and again, he became too frail for the journey. When he eventually passed, the war between the heavens and Hell was coming to an end as well. His family returned me to the demons voluntarily.”

Baal took a moment to respond. “Do you remember him fondly?”

“I do. He used to sit at his campfire late in the evening, drawing little figures in the ground, dreaming of stories and places he would never see. But it didn’t matter that he wouldn’t, he could see them in his mind. Every summer, when the others had caught up, he would sit with his children and watch the first sunset in their new home together. He would tell them that one day, when the ice is gone, he wanted them to find a place to call home permanently. A place so beautiful and with plenty of food and warmth, that they didn’t need to travel anymore. And if they ever found such a place, even if it took their children’s children to find it, he would smile upon them from the veil beyond and be proud of them. All of them.”

“What I wouldn’t give to live such a life. Just once. Sometimes I wonder if we live too long. Maybe we aren’t made for immortality like you.” He shook his head. “That is not why I asked though. I just wanted to know what part of my past I should tell you about, if you had been there and remembered things already. But you seem to have missed when ’God’ seized power for himself.”

“I wasn’t awake then, no. I have heard some vague things about a dictatorship, cruelty and casting out an entire group of angels. I don’t know any of the details.”

“I would like to tell you about it all. There is so much your side never knew, so much we kept a secret, so much I kept a secret. There must be at least one demon who knows, someone I can trust to tell others when needed.” Baal shot Nemesis quick glance before forcing himself to keep looking outside. “And I can’t trust my own people with that. The truth has always been too much of a weapon in our world.”

“I appreciate that trust but must wonder if it is not misplaced. Why not tell someone more experienced, like Apollyon or Focalor?”

“I could certainly trust them to do the right thing, but I cannot trust them to believe my words. They know me too well.”

“Fair. Would it be in your interest if I were to verify what you tell me? Maybe even share it with some I trust to do the right thing with that information?”

“That is the entire point of telling you. Yes, please do so. If you want to write it down, place it in your library to never be forgotten, do so too.”

“I understand then and I am willing to listen now.”

“Long before you were created, our two kinds came together for a shared goal. We both needed a source of souls to feed on that would be self-replenishing. The primitive humans just needed a nudge. At the same time, two ambitious twins were rising through the ranks of the heavens. Yahweh and El, both gifted biosmiths but one a brash and boisterous soul, the other a calm but ambitious one. The only way to tell them apart was their personality and dress sense. Not that the latter would make much of a difference in a society that values uniforms so much. When the demons invited us to work with them on the human template, Yahweh dismissed it but El did not. The slightly older twin, Yahweh, withdrew to his labs and kept working on his own project, El meanwhile took to working on humanity. I was brought in to assist with the observation of the altered humans in their natural habitat. During that time I quickly befriended El.”

Baal paused to run his hand through his golden hair before continuing.

“When Cain killed Abel, El came to me with a confession. Yahweh didn’t just dismiss the humans, he had laughed at El for choosing them over what his brother wanted to achieve. Humans were lesser, humans were mortal. If Yahweh had his way, we would never need to feast on a soul ever again, we would be what our legends called God.”

“I remember ‘God’ just being a name. Is that wrong?”

“I am sure you have myths in Hell too. One of ours tells of an ancient kingdom of angels long before we all came together in peace. It would become a foundational story to how our society works. Among the angels of that nation, there was chaos, fear of what lay beyond the borders of their little kingdom, fear of their very neighbours within the kingdom, fear of everything. One day, the king had an epiphany. If all his subjects knew their place was safe, did their part in keeping it safe and did their part in keeping others safe, there would be no fear anymore. So, the king ordered all his subjects to tell him what they were able to do for others. With that knowledge, he and his advisors gave everyone a task. Something they would be good at that was needed for a safe society. When his turn came to be assigned a task, he realized that he was not fit to be a leader, but to be a philosopher, a guide for leaders. But there was no one to lead, no one who knew everyone else’s tasks enough to guide them properly. So, the king, as his last act, created a council to rule, one angel of every pillar of society would come together to lead the former kingdom. He also told them to strive for the unachievable, to become the one who knows all and needs nothing, no food, no souls, no guards. The word for that person in the ancient language of that kingdom was God.”

“So it is a name of sorts.”

“In a way, yes. Over the aeons, more and more powers were said to be part of what it meant to be God. The name became far too much to be something you name your child but it was still a name for a hypothetical person.”

“And Yahweh wanted to artificially make angels good at everything, create someone nearly omnipotent or at least omni-talented. Create God.”

Baal nodded. “Exactly. El’s desire was not to create God but to learn as much as possible, gather as much power as possible, to become God. I answered him that this was something we all strive for, but he disagreed. This wasn’t something to strive for and never reach, he was serious. If there was to be a God, it would have to be him. He promised me to share this power with me if I swore to never tell another soul what he was about to confide in me. I didn’t think much bad of it, so I did. He told me that, when Yahweh had laughed at him for his plans, they had come to blows and he had killed his brother, but no one was allowed to know. He wanted everyone to believe that Yahweh was still alive. The perfect scapegoat for when El made a public mistake. When I next met with the demons, the template project was ready to be tested on a larger population. Meanwhile, El had demanded the demons, who knew nothing of that myth, call him God and all the angels, believing that the demons saw something special in him and didn’t just go along with his seemingly innocent wish, started calling him that too.”

 “And you went along with it.”

“I encouraged it. He was still my friend, even if I disagreed with some of his actions. I didn’t know it then, but El had gotten what he wanted, the first step in his plans to seize power over all of the heavens. He asked me to use my talent with words to convince the others to pull out of the entire humanity thing. Only Gabriel protested but he did not hold much sway. The demons wanted to guide the humans, our leaders, relying on El’s expertise with these mortals, insisted the demons withdraw from the border world. When they didn’t, we struck the first blow of the first war.”