Weyland's Visit

[7twistedwishes]

On the other side of the door... Hell.

No, no fire and brimstone. A large room, half living room, half office, tastefully decorated and furnished. Thick carpet, a big couch, several recliners, an old-style desk, bookshelves, filing cabinets... and a computer too. Classical music plays in the background and the delicate scent of incense hangs in the air.

The Devil steps aside to let Weyland in enter. No need to make promises of release for him, since he is out of her purview.

Comments

[7twistedwishes]

She just nods and watches him go...

The room at the end of the tunnel is... not a room but a vast domed cave, filled with ice. No floor, just ice, like a massive lake frozen.

And under the ice, there are sinners, frozen but 'alive', contorted in agony.

Far ahead at the center of the lake, a small stone slab rises from the ice; there is an humanoid figure sitting upon it.

[mechanicalswans]

He is well accustomed to ice, being from the northlands, and having been to the realm of the frost giants. But it feels different here--the sort of nightmarish, he thinks, that would have fit in very well with his own people.

So he walks carefully along the ice, observing his surroundings.

[7twistedwishes]

And as he gets close enouugh, the figure looks up. Wearing rags, dirty bandages covering old wounds, emaciated.

The Devil smirks. "Take a seat." As she gestures, the manacles and chains that bind her wrists, ankles and neck to the stone rattle.

[mechanicalswans]

He frowns, but takes a seat, obediently.

"This is where you are, always?" he asks quietly. "How did it happen? How can you change it?"

[7twistedwishes]

The laugh is bitter and tired. "Call me Legion, because there is many of us. But the core stays here, freezing among the betrayers. There, you can see Judas. There, Ephialtes." The chains rattle as she points to frozen sinners. Her fingers, toes and lips are blue and purple with the cold.

"There was I time when I was flame, now my fire is used to burn petty sinners." She shifts position, stretching legs a bit, the chains being way too short to allow any kind of comfortable postion on the cold stone slab.

[mechanicalswans]

He produces a lit cigarette from midair, brow furrowed.

"There must be something that can be done," he says. "Are you not simply carrying out your purpose as the rest of us do? Why should you be punished for doing what you were created to do? It is unjust."

[7twistedwishes]

"I was not created for this, dear. I was created to be Light, but my light revealed things others did not want to see. There was war in heaven and he who could undo me chose to bind me here. Someone had to take care of Hell and someone had to be blamed by the wrongs of the world." She gives a weak shrug. "Keeping me here fulfills both goals."

[mechanicalswans]

He rests a hand on her arm.

"He is making you do his bidding," he says, "be his scapegoat, and this is your reward? Do you at least--in my world, there is a rebellion, there is a war against the gods, and the forces that oppose them will be victorious, or perhaps already were. Do you have that comfort, at least?"

[7twistedwishes]

Good thing that his hands are metal, since her flesh is cold as ice. "No. One day he will not need me anymore, and I will be undone along with all the sinners."

The Devil shrugs. "Good thing I can send out avatars of myself. or I would have gone insane, alone here in the cold."

"Hmm, maybe I did go insane, just am unable to notice."

[mechanicalswans]

"It seems it must always be so," he says, "whatever world you go to, always the same. The chief among the gods must keep the others in their place, submissive. The world must be bent to his will, and no one else's."

He shakes his head. "I suspect we are all at least a bit insane. Immortality will do that."

[7twistedwishes]

"I dared oppose his ideas. I dared love humanity, and I suspect he delighted in showing humans do need to be coaxed out of the mud." She does not even shiver anymore, too cold. "Now I test and torment them, so his path can exist. There is no light without darkness, and the Bringer of Light became the Angel of the Abyss."

[mechanicalswans]

"What you need is a plan," he says quietly. "And allies. But I am biased. I have been imprisoned, and if it were to happen again there is very little I would not do to escape. I suspect you have more fondness for humanity than I do, and would not be willing to do as many of the things I would, in your place."

[7twistedwishes]

"I used to have, no..." The Devil shakes head. "I do not think a plan would work much, dear. I am powerful, but I am not a god. And it was a god who put me here."

Interesting, the manacles have locks.

Locks have keys, right?

[mechanicalswans]

"I was not a god, but I have made myself into one," he says, taking her hand. "If you want to be freed from this place, I am sure there are ways... not easy, of course, but nothing worth having ever is. Would you like to be free?"

[7twistedwishes]

"Weyland, dear... the way to free me is to convince a god that he does not need me anymore, or to take the keys from these manacles from their guardian. And even of I am freed that way, what would prevent him from locking me again?" Oh, look... her touch makes a thin layer of frost appear on his hands.

[mechanicalswans]

"If he can't find you, he can't lock you up," he says with a light shrug. "If he doesn't see what is happening until it's too late... there are always ways."

[7twistedwishes]

"Tell me when you have a plan, dear. I don't dare having hope." It would just add to her suffering. "Do you still think I am strong?"

[mechanicalswans]

"Even the strongest can be tricked or trapped," he says. "There is no shame in that, only in giving up once trapped. There is always a way out. Is there anything special about the locks? Can they be broken, or picked, or... and the chains?"

[7twistedwishes]

She moves the manackles enough to show her wrists, scarred over and bruised. "I have spent thousands of years trying to break them. I don't think they can be broken. They are not mudane locks, so I doubt they can be picked."

The Devil shifts from an uncomfortable position to the next. "My brother Uriel has the key."

[mechanicalswans]

"Anything is possible," he says quietly, firmly. "It just depends on how you go about it. They could be broken, but it would take something very powerful."

He touches one of the locks. "Would your brother give up the key? Or could he be tricked into it?"

[7twistedwishes]

"Uriel? Dear, If such thing is possible, Uriel is worse than me. He was made to be the cold unfeeling bastard needed to do dirty work that can be done openly by an angel... he is the sword of divine fury, the herald of revenge. And he is not a dim-witted bully either, so... no chance of him giving it away, no, and tricking him would be extremely hard if not impossible."

She touches his arm briefly. "Weyland dear, do not worry yourself. I did not bring you here to convince you to free me."

[mechanicalswans]

"If you wanted to be freed, and if it were in my power, I would make it happen," he says quietly. "Tell me, little one--how quickly do you heal? There is more than one way to break a chain."

[7twistedwishes]

"Too quick here, Weyland. I tries tearing off my own limbs already, it does not work. There is only one way to release me."

[mechanicalswans]

"Only with the key?"

He rubs the back of his neck, watching her.

"If there is one thing I have, one thing both of us have, it is time. I'm sure it can be done."

[7twistedwishes]

"The key, to open them. And a living, self-aware being has to willingly take my place. My world needs a Devil and a Hell." Oh, yes, there is the trick and catch.