Yue

 21st November

11:06 GMT -5

"'Orange Lantern'." Mr Blood sidles up to me as we are marched through the lower corridors of Satanus' palace. "I seem to remember you not being a demon."

"'We do not fall suddenly on Hell, but advance towards it by slight degrees; we damn every day.'"

"A misquote of Seneca that doesn't actually explain anything."

"I don't believe that Satanus has become deaf since he addressed us in his throne room-."

Satanus glances back. "Orange Lantern-. Can I call you 'Paul?"

"Stopping you would require an escalation which I am presently avoiding."

"Paul, then. Paul has a set of rather interesting tattoos, designed to make it impossible to divine his location with magic. Which means -at the simplest level- unless he actually walks into one of my traps, I'd have to confront him directly in order to attack him."

"You managed to retreat in good order the first time."

"You were quicker than I expected. And you managed to retreat in good order last time. No lasting injuries at all amongst your people, and Agony was severely injured. To say nothing of the defense battalion the Exegesis Guild sent after you. You've been most helpful to me."

"Not that I'm surprised, but are you going to tell me how you profited from that?"

"Agony was getting bolshie, and now he's doing what he's told. Your fight demonstrated that regular combat battalions aren't enough when it comes to fighting high level foes, and as a result every hellish faction of any significance is buying augmentations and combat golems supplied by my allies. You also demonstrated that Lazarus Pits could be transformed into portals."

"And that's not even mentioning Fawcett City. How much of that did you actually plan?"

He chuckles quietly to himself. "The actual outcome was a low probability event, but one for which I had accounted. I would have been a fool not to find a potential way to remove five rivals in a single stroke, and John Constantine's relationship with the First is common knowledge. I even made certain that mother's sword was in Ishmael Gregor's hands so that one of you could deal with him."

"Bit of a risk there."

"There were other contingencies. I wasn't certain how long it would take for one of you to strike him with it, but with people as fast as Father's acolytes available it was quite likely that someone would."

Of course.

"You're using Theo."

Mr Blood huffs in irritation. "Would you mind explaining?"

"The First of the Fallen had an ongoing dispute with John Constantine. John prepared to deal with him in a number of ways, one of which involved having Chan-." Ah. "Satanus' mother telling the First how to kill the two immensely powerful demons the Silver City created purely to keep him distracted. She then used their remains to create a sword capable of... Removing his power. He got stabbed, experienced physical death and woke up in Greece as an adult male human. He pretended he didn't know who he was, and the people who found him started calling him 'Theo'."

"Then a demon called Buer picked a fight with Constantine in an attempt to get the First his power back. He was successful, though the First ended up punishing him for getting outmanoeuvred."

"Mother got the Sword back afterwards, then traded it to me for protection. I then passed it on to Ishmael as a -hah!- 'sign of my favor'."

"The League was on the lookout for Theo reappearing after I cut down the First. When we couldn't find him… We don't have eyes everywhere."

"The First stated out loud where he appeared as a mortal man. I had a few employees standing by in case I got very lucky."

Mr Blood nods. "And whatever the First is, he still represents a powerful connection with God, and through Him to the Silver City. And in his weakened state, he can't do anything to resist."

"He's actually quite pathetic." I can hear the amusement in Satanus' voice as he says it. "He has no tolerance for pain at all. We barely even need to threaten him to ensure his obedience."

"And the Silver City hasn't taken any action?"

"Everything I've done here requires less power than what the First used on a day to day basis. I was a little worried when Remiel and Duma disappeared, but nothing's come of it. Now all that remains is to develop weapons that can reliably defeat the hosts of the Silver City-"

"By studying the abominations, and their link to normal demons."

"-and we'll finally be free to define our own future."

Satanus raises his right hand, and two guards ahead of us pull open a large door. On the other side is… It looks like an exploded view of an apartment. Settee, television, bed, bookcase… There's even a desk with a computer.

The muscular form of Theo, dressed only in boxer shorts and a dressing gown, glowers at us from an arm chair. "What? You're giving tours now? Etrigan's ball and chain and some.. fat fuck."

I raise my right arm, middle finger extended. "This fat fuck sliced you to ribbons in Fawcett City. Up yours, Theo." His face falls as he recognises the gesture. "Lord Satanus has been very clever. I think he's earned the right to show off a little."

"Close the door." The guards comply, and Satanus turns away to lead us further down the corridor. "The First was never the cleverest entity in Hell. Outsmarting you on the other hand was far more difficult."

"I'm still not sure how you knew who Jade had killed. Unless Ra's is actually down here."

"No, but several of the League of Shadows' senior people preferred death to dishonor. And repentance. I didn't know everyone Jade murdered… But I strongly suspected that you'd get to one of the ones I'd tracked down sooner or later. And I wasn't talking about that. Have you felt… A strange inclination to rhyme lately?"

…

"That was from you?"

"Indirectly. I suspected that you might be coming here, eventually. Most likely to kill me, or otherwise to be a massive inconvenience. But then I heard about your tattoos, the ones which draw power from your surroundings."

"I haven't exactly kept that fact a secret."

"But I had to know exactly how they worked."

"Bollocks you know that. The only person who knows that is John, and he wouldn't stab a friend in the back like that."

"No… But his demonic alter ego thinks just like him and knows as much as he does. You wouldn't have drawn enough power during a short visit to affect your behaviour, but if I picked up a sufficiently powerful avarice demon and… Made their essence generally available, then it was simply a matter of waiting for something to drain it."

We reach another door, and the guards open it as we approach.

"Why don't you say hello to the actual Mammon