Chapter 4 Part 8

Unlike the northern coastline of Freon where he had spent the previous week, Hell was a fabled place of horror to mortals and immortals alike. Yet, as Miguel looked out over the landscape of Nessus, the very vilest of the nine hells, he found the winds of flame and the coexisting lakes of frozen air quite beautiful and somewhat relaxing, even though exposure to such extremes would kill him instantly. As a guest ambassador of House Blackheart, he was standing in the home palace of Asmodeous. He was there to attend the congressional meeting of the Dukes of Hell as an avid onlooker. The talks in Freon had been shaky. There were many arguments between House Blackheart and House Cadaver, the ruling house of Freon, remaining to be resolved.
During the first conference, Asmodeous had informed the other Dukes of the alliance to House Blackheart of the mortal realm. There had been reservations by some, chiefly the Duchess of Avernus, who had chosen to appear as a humanoid instead of her natural multi-headed dragon form. Asmodeous eventually convinced the other eight that the alliance was the best way for the nine realms of Hell to further their causes.
Miguel was no fool. The devils could be trusted to keep their word--that was their nature, but there was no doubt they were in this for themselves. They cared little for his father and much less for himself. Agreements with devils had to be carefully worded. The devils only followed the spirit of a contract as long as it suited them. Then, they would follow the wording in whatever way they could twist its meaning to their causes.
Darwina entered his chamber and walked over to where he stood. He felt her diabolical presence and looked into her eyes. There was only lust there.
"What is your desire, lover?" she asked running her hands across his body in a seductive way. When this produced no reaction, she backed away slowly. "Perhaps, you would rather watch me taking pleasure with another tonight," she said slyly. "You have often enjoyed watching me perform with animals." She conjured up a minor devil of low caste and molded its shape to that of a horse. "Or would you prefer to try something else." The horse melted and reformed into a human male. Still there was no reaction.
Finally, Darwina dismissed the minor devil and stood beside Miguel and stared out the window. "You are the most perverted human being I have run across, and here I offer you activities that even one of my kind might find repulsive, and you show no interest. What is wrong?"
"I do not like the thought of allying ourselves with Freon," he said at last.
"We need their strength," she stated.
"They can not be trusted at all. They hate us only slightly less than the gods of good. I can't shake the feeling that when our backs are turned they are going to stab us."
"Then we do not turn our backs to them."
"We will have little choice. We can not fight the gods of good and watch the demons of the Abyss as well."
"What have demons to do with this?" Darwina's voice turned to ice as she spoke.
"They are patrons of that city. Orcus, Demogorgon, Pazuzu, Leraje and all the others are worshiped there."
The she-devil hissed at the mention of those hated names. "My master would likely have your tongue eaten out by maggots if he had heard those names spoken aloud here."
"Forgive me," Miguel said sarcastically. "I had forgotten how much demons and devils hated each other."
"Words will not earn you forgiveness," she said disrobing. "Only actions will remove your blasphemy from my memory." Miguel watched her strip her clothes off one by one, and this time her efforts produced the desired result.