A Weapon’s Serenade

Serena rang the doorbell and was immediately teleported into the apartment.

“There you are, hello.”

“Hi. That was a neat trick.”

“Truly useful when you are lazy. I hope you haven’t had lunch yet.”

Serena shook her head. “Not yet, didn’t even have a proper breakfast.”

Melody stepped out of her room. “Then we need to fix that. We have some hot varied skewers and other finger food in the fridge.”

“How spicy are they?”

“Not hot in that way, hot as in warm. There are some mildly spicy ones though.”

“Hot… in the fridge? Magic fridge that keeps things just preserved the way you put it inside, I guess?”

“Exactly that, yes.”

“That is so useful, holy shit.”

Melody grinned and nodded. “We get so many nice leftovers from everyone, it’s great. And they all stay perfect for, well, literally ever. It’s proper preservation magic.”

“Amazing. Anything I can help with?”

“Just some plates for us all would be good, they are in the big drawer down there.”

“Alright.”

After a very filling lunch, the girls were faced with a question: what to do now? They couldn’t just take Serena to Hell but hanging around the city was also not an option, there was a storm brewing on the horizon that would hit the city in an hour or two. Thankfully, there was another option besides staying inside this lovely apartment.

The group snapped into existence in one of the corridors in the back of the library.

 “You really are a bunch of nerds, I love it.” Serena chuckled as she followed Kuria into the library proper.

Anne nodded in amusement. “Of course we are.”

Kuria suddenly stopped, making Serena bump into her. “Oh, sorry.”

“It’s alright. You might meet some new people today, just let me see what’s up.” The young demon gestured to the two visitors talking to one of the librarians at the reception desk. One of them was Famine, the other, seemingly younger, had noticed the group and waved them over.

“You girls are causing me so much work.”

“Apologies, high inquisitor.”

“It’s alright, don’t worry. I have good news for you four.”

“Did you decide on a course of action regarding the sirens?”

“That and more. We are mobilizing the two brand new chariots that just finished construction. Their field tests will be our little endeavours here. Executor Focalor will take the Nemesis to a remote spot in the Pacific Ocean. There, Famine will handle diplomatic talks with the sirens while mistress of the real Umbria, a specialist for stable inter-universal portals, will work on a way to allow the sirens to freely move between this world and Hell. That way, they can make an educated decision if they want to be resettled. Meanwhile I will take personal command of the Discordia and, together with a few specialists and another inquisitor, see if we can get any further information about our pattern emitter and the other missing pieces.”

“That is way more than we could have hoped for, thank you.”

“This was all necessary sooner or later.”

Serena spoke up. “Excuse me, uhm, miss high inquisitor, would it be possible for us to help with the sirens?”

The high inquisitor nodded. “You will have access to the Nemesis, but you need to follow Focalor’s instruction while you’re there. She will likely be deployed over the ocean for several months until we reach a proper conclusion. If you feel like you can do anything, you are welcome to help. Also, just call me Azazel. Kuria insists on the proper title but I don’t really care.”

“Of course, Azazel. I’m sorry, it’s all very new to me. You are also a demon?”

“I am, yes. And you are Serena, I have heard quite the lovely things about you.”

“Oh, thank you.”

“Now, I don’t want to keep you any longer, you have a nice afternoon to enjoy and we have some ancient texts to dig through. I am sure we will see each other again soon enough.”

“Thank you, Azazel.”

The others also said their thanks and together, the little group made their way to a nice table away from the central shelves to call their own for the day.

“So, uhm, that was the high inquisitor then? She seemed so normal.”

Melody giggled. “Oh my dear Serena, Azazel is the least normal thing you might ever encounter.”

“I have so many questions but that ‘might’ worries me. Might encounter… makes me wonder what else is there.”

“There are many things you might encounter. Many things you might already have encountered. Who knows. The list is too long for one day.”

“I don’t know if that is supposed to be reassuring.”

“At least to me, it is. All this means is that there are wonders out there you haven’t even imagined yet. Wonders that you might see one day. For a lot of people, the sirens are just a myth, for you they are reality. A wonder you have witnessed. Don’t spoil yourself on them all, some are best left as surprises.”

“I guess that’s fair. So, what are you doing around here when you hang out at the library? I take you aren’t just reading in silence.”

“I mean… we often do just that. But this is also just a nice place to spend a quiet afternoon chatting or doing some work. We are fucking nerds, you diagnosed us correctly so… we sometimes just find something interesting on the shelves and dig through it together.”

“That honestly sounds like fun. I’m a fucking nerd too after all. I’m glad you didn’t just want to drag me through some pubs. God knows I spend too much time with people like that. Well, not anymore since they all went to the fucking ocean. Yea, I am still upset about that, sorry. You gave me something so much better, thank you. Just too bad that I can't gloat about that.”

Melody shrugged. “It takes time but one day you will realize that silently gloating and simply knowing more than they do is satisfying enough. But I won’t lie, it’s also a bit isolating. Even just knowing the sirens and the demons, without having seen anything else, is knowing a world they never will.”

Serena tilted her head slightly. “Why does that sound so yearning? No, don’t answer that. I feel like I am just steps away from never having anyone be able to do this to me, so I want you to do the proper spiel. Just unironically, hit me with that monologue.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, the ‘I have seen things you cannot even dream of’ speech.”

“Ah, alright.”

“And make it only real things.”

“Obviously.” Melody smiled and took a deep breath. “Serena, I have seen the falls of the Acheron as it splits Dis, I have walked the hallways of the pandemonium, beheld the last of the great forges of Phlegethon. I have dreamt of cities lost to aeons, my voice has told stories long forgotten, legends of a people who walked the worlds before any human could remember them. I have slept under skies of eternal amber twilight, bathed in endless silent oceans, tasted delicacies unimaginable by human tongue. I have wept to a banshee’s lament, danced to devil’s song, fallen to a Nightmare’s words and took a Shadow’s hand. I have shared dinner with the omnipotent, sought advice from the all-seeing. I have played games with the end of humanity. And yet, my own humanity still clings to me, my mortality haunts me even as eternity has become a promise and a threat.”

Serena stared at Melody with a sparkle in her eyes and nodded. “Yup, exactly that. That was awesome.”

“And all true, a bit melodramatic but I actually did all that. We mostly did it together actually, all three of us. But… one of those we just did in a simulated reality, long story but the environment is actually really harmful to humans so we got the fancy simulation.”

“Oooh, let me guess. Not Dis, not the ocean thing, a Nightmare’s words?”

“No, those are only as harmful as the Nightmare wants them to be.”

“Okay? Anyway… it’s either the pandemonium or the forges then.”

“The forge, yes. The pandemonium is just a very pretty and imposing building but the forges are built over semi-artificial lava rivers. The fumes and radiation are a bit deadly.”

“In Hell, right?”

“Like most of the things I just monologued about, yea.”

“Hell must be a crazy place.”

“It sure is. And full of cats.”

“Cats?”

“Like Tiny. There are so many cats everywhere.”

“Why does Hell sound like paradise?”

Melody grinned. “Oh the temptation to drop another speech on you.”

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