Chapter Two
The chill of purgatory swirled around his body, but Lucifer didn't even notice it anymore. He had come and gone from this realm so many times he barely felt the cold, let alone noticed it. If he noticed it at all, the cool air was a nice reprieve from the fiery heat in hell. He smirked to himself at the thought of purgatory being a reprieve of any sort before he started off down the stairwell. He didn't have time to find amusement in this visit. He was on a mission. The lights flickered as he passed by several floors worth of souls, some old, some very young. Painfully young. Lucifer clenched his fists a little and forced himself to keep walking. He hated it here. He supposed he should be thankful that He didn't see fit to send Lucifer to this realm for all eternity, but all he could feel was rage. Morgana was kept here. That took away most of his feelings of gratitude for his own fate.
He reached the bottom of the stairs, and after a brief moment of hesitation, he pressed forward. Surprised when there was no invisible barrier preventing him from moving forward, he stumbled a moment before continuing on. The lights were mostly out here, the few that shined had a dull glow about them as if the bulbs were dirty. The floor was wet in places, and it felt colder down here than in the rest of purgatory. He passed by a multitude of cells, some empty, some doused in darkness with the essence of a soul in them. Lucifer only found 4 cells that had halfway decent lighting in them. The first was empty. The second he found the soul of a young man, mid-twenties at most. He stared at Lucifer with hollowed out eyes while he shivered, sitting on the poor excuse for a bed and just staring at the wall. Lucifer walked quickly by, coming to the third cell with some semblance of light in it. Everything was in disarray. The mattress was turned upside down and against a wall, the bed frame was apparently slammed repeatedly into the bars, he could see the damage done to the frame and the slight damage to the bars at the point of impact. Bloody scratch marks covered the walls, as if someone had scratched at them until their fingernails broke and their fingers bled. The level of destruction indicated that had to be Morgana's cell. He almost couldn't look at it. So. This was where she was all this time. No wonder she had changed, had come back to him harsher. Darker. Anyone would have after being subjected to…this. Once again he felt that rage come back. How dare He leave Morgana in here to suffer like this? To exist in this endless dark, cold space with no hope for an out? He slammed his fist into the bars, feeling his skin briefly split before it began to heal itself. Perks of still being an ethereal being, he supposed.
Lucifer took a breath. His rage would not bring Morgana peace. If anything, his rage would only feed her own, no matter how justified she was in feeling that rage. He needed to focus. He needed to find that man. If he was even down here to be found. Lucifer briefly considered the fact that, once Morgana was set free, the secrets that man held would be at risk. He could have moved him. Of course, if He had moved the man, it was because the man held secrets that turned out to be true. He could have just been broken by his time in isolation, down in the depths of purgatory. It seemed so unfair to think about how these souls were trapped in such isolation. No one to truly look out for them. Well, not no one he supposed. There was always the Warden. No one knew which celestial being was stuck with the responsibility of purgatory, but the Warden was in charge of the souls here. He was said to be mysterious, rarely seen. Only coming by when a soul was going to either heaven or hell. He used to be in charge of sending souls to any realm, or so the rumor went. But no one had seen the Warden in ages. No one was sure he had even survived the fall.
Lucifer didn't want to ponder a fictional man any longer. He wanted to find out if the one in question was there or not. He walked up one way and didn't see anyone that stuck out. He passed back by the young man with the hollow eyes, and an older woman who was sat almost completely in the dark. She knelt on the ground, murmuring prayers that Lucifer knew for a fact would not be answered. He started to walk the other way, peeking into cells as he went. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary until he passed by one that was fully dark, minus a little sliver of light right by the bars. He stopped when he heard a noise, and was unable to hide his surprise when a young girl came walking forward. No more than 6, with blonde curls tangled in knots that brushed her shoulders. Her eyes were a dark brown but they still glittered like diamonds in the slender bit of light. She was still very much aware down there.
"I recognize your footsteps." She said, her voice soft, barely above a whisper. Lucifer cleared his throat, not sure what to say. She continued. "I know you've never been down this far before. But you have been above." Lucifer stiffened, immediately getting defensive.
"And you can tell by the way I walk, can you?" he aggressively asked her. She nodded, unfazed by his ire.
"I recognize everyone's footsteps. Especially those that come through frequently." Lucifer once again didn't know what to say. He looked her over, seeming to study her for a moment. Her deep brown eyes never left his, never showed unease or tension. Or the madness that so many others did. She didn't even seem fully…human.
"You're an ethereal being." Lucifer stated. She nodded, not that she needed to. He wasn't asking. "How long have you been here? Since the fall?"
"After. Not long after though. Souls of any kind don't age here, so while my mind is fully developed, my physical appearance stayed the same from the time I was taken from my family." That was curious. Souls who ended up here were normally here to atone, or to be given a chance to go to a better place. Or a worse one. None were usually placed here without any hope of escape. As far as Lucifer knew, Morgana was the only soul that was placed here indefinitely. Clearly, that was not accurate. How many others? Why were they taken here of all places? How long had they truly been here? One question at a time, he told himself sternly.
"And why were you taken?" he asked. She gave a wry smile.
"Angels are not permitted to have relations with the fallen. When He found out about my mother being with my father, well. He did away with me in the only way He could and still look like a benevolent being." Lucifer felt ice settle in his veins. So that meant…No.
"How long have you been here?" his voice shook, unsure if he even wanted the answer to this question. The little girl gave him a gentle smile, as though she was trying to soften the blow for his sake, despite her being the one that lived through the horrors of purgatory for millennia.
"I have lost track. I stopped counting after one thousand eight hundred and twenty four years." Her whisper grew softer, more faded. Lucifer felt his fists clench as that ice that had frozen in his veins turned slowly to liquid fire. His rage spiked, despite his best effort to contain himself. The girl looked him over, then said in the same rasping whisper, "He will not speak to you if you are angry. He doesn't respond well to anger."
"Who?" Lucifer all but growled the word. The girl gave him a look.
"Don't play coy. It doesn't suit you." She scolded him. Lucifer felt very foolish, being scolded by a little girl. He gave her what he hoped was a scathing look, but it lacked his usual fire. She smiled at him.
"You are here to visit the man that has seen Zeus." She said softly. Lucifer tilted his head.
"Has he seen him?" he asked. The girl shrugged.
"We all have. Or at least, what we believe to be him." Lucifer tired of her riddles. He took a deep breath.
"How many like you are here?" he asked. The girl looked sad, as though the concept of others being here like her made her upset. Her look slowly shifted, however from sadness to calculation as she tried to puzzle out an exact number to give to the devil. Lucifer waited patiently while she worked out her answer.
"I cannot say for sure." The girl finally answered him, her raspy whisper raising in volume, but only slightly. "My brother I know for sure is here. He is two floors below."
"What lies below?" Lucifer wondered.
"The dark." The girl answered, fear coloring her words. Lucifer felt his heart hurt. He didn't usually allow children into his realm, but…this girl was not actually a little girl after all, was she?
"What is your name?"
"It has been too long since I have heard it. I do not even remember what my mother named me." The girl answered, sounding disconnected from the answer. Lucifer decided this was something else he would need to take up with Zeus, if that was really who was in charge here.
"I will find out for you." He promised. The girl gave him another soft smile. "Who am I here to see? Do you know where he is?" The girl pointed.
"At the end of the hallway. Left side. Closest to the stairs that head up to the Warden." She answered him. Lucifer nodded.
"I will come back for you." He said softly. The girl's smile turned jaded.
"You are not the first to say so." She told him. Lucifer wondered who else had been to see her. But she faded back into the dark of her cell, away from the bars. She was apparently finished speaking to him. Lucifer lingered outside of her cell, as if he was reluctant to leave. Already he was planning out where she would stay in his domain. Her and her brother too. She didn't say her brother's name, either. Only he was two floors down. Lucifer supposed that didn't matter. He would get the information from the Warden on them both in the end, and he would take them out of this dreadful place.
Lucifer began walking in the direction the girl had told him, peeking into other cells almost as though he were afraid of what he'd see. The little girl was certainly the most jarring thing he'd found so far. He took breaths as he walked, wanting to maintain a calm, aloof demeanor. He will not speak if you are not calm, the girl had said. Finally Lucifer reached the cell at the end, which was surprisingly well lit. He took a look inside, and was almost relieved by what he saw contained in the cell.
There was a man there, scribbling away at a notebook. He was murmuring to himself, what hair he did have was disheveled and missing chunks where it appeared he ripped them out in frustration. His eyes, from what Lucifer could see, were wild. His fingernails were broken, papers were scattered all across the floor. Where did he keep getting them? And the pencils? Was no one worried about him harming someone with them? Clearly that was a non-issue, as he was still given the tools to let the madness in his eyes onto the pages. The scribblings from what he could see were that of a man half mad, something about an island and an artifact. Lucifer's eyebrows shot up, unable to contain his disbelief. This was the man that Morgana was convinced knew where Zeus was? He stepped a bit closer, listening to the man's murmuring.
"He'll come back. And when he does, I'll be ready." He was saying, over and over again. Lucifer was thoroughly confused. Was he planning on attacking Zeus? Or was he waiting on further instruction? Who was he working for? Or rather, who did he think he was working for? Zeus may not have wanted the man in his employ, with how close to the surface his madness clearly sat. He cleared his throat, startling the man. He didn't know what he was expecting when the man's head shot straight up, but the grin that he got was certainly not it.
"You're here!" he cried out, standing so fast that he toppled the chair. He rushed to the bars, causing Lucifer to step back in surprise. What sort of reaction was this?
"I am." He said, confusion evident in his tone. Was this man expecting him? How did he not know he was expected in purgatory? The man leaned forward and whispered, almost conspiratorially.
"Did Zeus send you?" Lucifer started to deny it, then thought better of it and nodded once, a crisp clean nod. This pleased the man, who thrusted his papers out of the cell with a renewed vigor.
"Please. Take these to him. Tell him to pass them on to my daughter. She'll know what to do." Lucifer took the papers and glanced at them. They appeared to be instructions. Not very clear instructions, but perhaps they meant something to someone else. He nodded, then leaned close in a way similar to how the man did.
"Where do I find Zeus? He didn't tell me how to get back in touch." He whispered. The man nodded slowly, as if he understood Zeus' being sneaky. Lucifer almost laughed at how easy this was.
"He does like his secrets. He's upstairs. All the way at the top."
"The Warden? Zeus is the Warden?" Lucifer asked, surprised. The man nodded, a wild and excited grin on his face.
"The perfect place to hide, yes?" he said, giggling a little at the end of his sentence. Lucifer nodded. Perfect place to hide indeed. He never would have found him here, and he had been to purgatory hundreds of times since the fall. The thought that Zeus had been here from the start seemed almost too good to be true. Lucifer was familiar with the saying "Never look a gift horse in the mouth" but he couldn't seem to help himself on this one.
"And you're absolutely sure Zeus is the one up those stairs?" he asked. The man's wild eyes narrowed accusingly.
"Of course I'm sure! How can you not be sure? Were you actually sent here by him?" Lucifer immediately back peddled. He would get no further with this man.
"Indeed." He told the man. When he still stared Lucifer down with harsh, almost angry eyes, he continued, "I'll head up to see him immediately." The man's glare suddenly shifted, and he looked so relieved, Lucifer almost hated deceiving him. Almost.
"Thank you! Tell him, tell him I sent you. I did what he asked, and wrote the letter for my daughter. Tell him. And tell him I kept his secret." Lucifer nodded. He assumed that he wasn't supposed to tell anyone else down here where Zeus was. But since Lucifer 'was sent' by Zeus, it was alright to share the information. He didn't ask, so he didn't blow his cover. Instead, he took the papers, murmured his thanks, and climbed back up the stairs to the main level.
The little girl and the man both said that the Warden was up the stairs, all the way at the top. Did he trust the ramblings of the madman? No. But he did trust that little girl. And he knew no matter what he needed to speak to the Warden, Zeus or no Zeus. She could not remain here. Neither her nor her brother. He'd take every single ethereal child with him if he could get away with it. But there was only one way he could ever even attempt something like that. He needed to get to the top of the stairs.
Lucifer looked up, at the massive amount of floors above him. He tried to focus himself to the top of the stairs, but he was blocked from doing so. He glared. So. Zeus wanted to make this difficult did he? The Olympians were all the same. They saw themselves as gods, so they behaved as such, bringing nothing to the table unless they had something to gain and making everyone else do the hard work. Lucifer was almost relieved he didn't have to interact with any of them after the fall. Although, if their fate was anything like that little girl's fate was, he felt immediate pity for the Olympians, no matter how annoying they were to interact with. He sighed, looking up at the task before him, not thinking any further on the Olympians. He wasn't certain of their fate. He was certain that he didn't want to climb all those stairs. But he knew for sure he needed to know if this was where Zeus was hiding, and if he really knew how to get them all back into paradise. And even if that path didn't pan out, he promised that little girl. He was going to get her and her brother out of this hell hole. Today. So he took one last deep breath, to steel his resolve, and began climbing the stairs.