Chapter Three
It was trying, but Lucifer finally made it to the top of the stairs. It felt like it took ages, although in comparison to how long the souls had been left there to suffer, he supposed it wasn't very much time after all. He found all the rage that he had been holding onto had burned itself away somewhere amongst all the steps, which was another odd thought for him. Working off his anger with physical exercise. Lucifer supposed the self help books in the mortal realm had a bit of a point to them when saying exercise was good for mental health after all. He straightened his tie and made sure his hair was still in place, amazed to find it was. He briefly wondered if all ethereal creatures had little bits of nervous habits, or if it was just him. And if it was just him, did that make him flawed, or was he ahead of the curve somehow? He took a deep breath, calming his mind. Another human type gesture. It still amazed him how many human characteristics he had developed, despite never being human. Lucifer shook his head. He was getting off topic. He needed to get to the Warden.
The top of the stairs opened to a short hallway, with brighter lights than Lucifer had seen in any other place thus far in purgatory. There were no doors but one, at the far end. That had to be Zeus' office, assuming the information he had been given about the Warden was correct. He took another breath, just to get the last of the nerves out, before he strode confidently down the hallway, with much more calm being exhibited than he felt, and knocked on the door. No answer. He knocked again, this time with more force. Still no answer. Alright, no more being nice. Lucifer didn't bother knocking a third time, he just reached for the doorknob. When it gave no resistance, he pushed open the door and stepped through.
The office was plain and gray, like everything else in purgatory. The floor was gray tile with a black rug in the middle of the room. A desk sat on the edge of the rug, with a dark office chair on the tile, currently moved away from the desk. The desk had folders on top, folders that Lucifer had assumed belonged to the souls in this domain. Or perhaps of souls that were due to leave? There was a row of filing cabinets against one grey wall, all black in color. The room was devoid of anything bright or happy. Well, with one exception. One entire wall was painted in a beautiful scene of the ocean, with a lone boat sailing off on the horizon. The painting was a realism piece, and the quality was so high Lucifer could almost swear the water was moving, splashing up against the rocks in the corner and rocking the little boat that was adrift in the distance. He stood transfixed for a moment, wrapped up in the piece. So wrapped up that he didn't actually hear anyone approach until a voice to his left spoke up.
"Beautiful, no?" To the devil's credit, he did not jump. He did, however, turn a little quicker than normal.
Before him stood a woman, which he was not expecting. She was short, and appeared to be Middle Eastern in descent. Her long black hair was tied in tight braids all over her head, and small wooden beads clacked at the end of them. She wore a black tank top and khaki cargo pants, her small bare feet half covered by the pants. Her deep brown eyes were staring intently at Lucifer, with a look of obvious relaxation about her. She knew who he was, she had to with that look in her eyes. He was having difficulty placing her, though. He met her gaze with cool, guarded indifference and shrugged a shoulder.
"It is a divine piece." He answered. "Who was the artist?"
"I am." She answered, turning her deep gaze to the wall with a smile. "I needed a small taste of home."
"I see." Lucifer answered, his tone guarded. Who on earth was she? And how did she gain access to this office? She did not have that air of humanity about her, and was obviously an ethereal. But which one? Maybe one of His soldiers, here to keep Zeus in line. If that was the case, Zeus would be here, right? Lucifer's eyes darted around a little, as though looking for the man.
"I am not who you were expecting." She said simply, no hint of a question in her tone. Lucifer shook his head, his eyes finally falling back to her. She continued to look at the picture on the wall, as though she was completely unbothered by this conversation.
"I'm afraid you're not."
"But you know who I am?" she asked this one, as though she expected him to answer in the affirmative. Lucifer was not about to give her the satisfaction of knowing that, no, he did not in fact know her. He stared her down, not giving her a reply. The woman turned her gaze back to him with a laugh.
"We have not yet met." She said, tossing her head a bit and making the beads in her hair clack together. He waited. She held her hands out, continuing. "I'm the Warden." Now Lucifer shook his head, deciding to play like he knew his information was factual.
"No. Zeus is in charge here." He wasn't ready for the woman to let out a laugh, the sound bright and almost playful. He glared at her a little, waiting for her to stop laughing at him.
"Is that a fact?" she asked, still giggling a little. Lucifer barely had time to blink before the woman before him transformed, shifting to the shape of a man with bright blonde hair and electric blue eyes. The man had darker blonde streaks in his hair, almost in the shape of lightning bolts. His eyes almost sparked with electricity. He was tall and broad, and had a blue lightning bolt tattooed on his left forearm. He was in a uniform that resembled a corrections officer, though the uniform strained against the press of his clearly defined muscles. The only thing that this man and the woman had even closely in common, was they were both darker complected. The man before Lucifer smirked, and Lucifer felt himself take a step back. That was Zeus, clear as day. But how did…
"It is a gift." 'Zeus' answered. Even the woman's voice had changed, transforming flawlessly to Zeus' confident drawl. Zeus' face broke into a wide grin, wide enough to show teeth before transforming back into the woman that had stood before him only moments before. Lucifer was immediately wary. So this woman…creature…could read his mind. That was good to know. It felt weird to him to be on the receiving end of that, but he shook it off. There would be time to be uncomfortable later. After he had gotten out of this insane trip to purgatory. He knew now he couldn't hide it anymore so he finally asked the question he had wanted to ask from the moment she spoke.
"Who are you?"
"Circe." She answered, gesturing to her desk. Lucifer blinked in surprise as two chairs now sat at the front of her desk, as though they had been there the whole time. Circe grinned at him."Would you like to take a seat? May I get you a drink?" Lucifer almost asked for a whiskey but he bit it back. He couldn't trust her. Circe had been known for her deception, for her tricks. Which clearly explained her shapeshifting in Lucifer's mind. He couldn't help but wonder however what had got her sent down here instead of banished anywhere else.
"I am not being punished. Well, I am. But I am not being cleansed as the souls here are." She answered his unspoken question with a grin, moving her way to her desk. She took a seat, leaning back in the chair and propping her feet up on the desk, crossing one ankle over the other. Lucifer remained standing, not quite ready to lower his guard enough to sit down with her. He crossed his arms, watching her with carefully guarded eyes. She smirked at him.
"You are nervous." she stated.
"You are unknown to me." Lucifer bit back.
"But not to your lady." She said with a hint of lust in her eyes. Lucifer snarled, the sound inhuman. He was already on edge, and for Circe to speak about Morgana in that way… Circe raised her hands in surrender.
"Relax, relax. I never touched her. That was against the rules."
"There are rules here?" he asked, genuinely curious. Circe nodded.
"I cannot touch those that come through here. I cannot inflict pain, or joy. I cannot interfere with their punishments. And I cannot leave." She growled out the last part with obvious disdain. Ah. So that was her punishment. She was isolated, completely alone after being with so many other beings for so many years. Lucifer felt for her for a brief moment. True, he could no longer get into paradise, but he was at least not confined to hell. He would have probably gone mad if that was the case. He told her so, and she smiled a bit.
"Even after all this time, you haven't lost that touch of humanity He gave you." Lucifer didn't dignify that with a response. He didn't like to think of anything that He gave to him. Finally, he took a seat, sitting on the edge of the chair. Rather than think of unpleasant things, he instead elected to change the topic of conversation to address a question that he'd had floating around in his mind since she had transformed into "Zeus".
"Why hide who you really are?" he asked. She lost all of the amusement on her face, instead moving her feet back to the floor and leaning across the desk. Lucifer remained still.
"I wanted to send you a message." She answered. Ah. So this was all about getting his attention, then? Why? Perhaps she thought him to be her most likely ally. He masked his interest, adopting a bored tone. He shot her a half look, like a businessman about to dismiss a client to get to his next important meeting.
"Well. You got my attention. What can I do for you?" he asked. Circe, to her credit, did not look phased by his show of indifference.
"You can leave." Now he was confused. She called him down here to tell him to go away? Before he could ask, she continued. "That man downstairs, the crazy one. The one that was next door to your woman? He knows something."
"He was actually down the hall from her." Lucifer corrected, enjoying being the one in the know for once. Circe shrugged; she couldn't care less. "And define something. Because something on the spectrum of crazy is still crazy."
"Listen." She leaned forward, her voice dropping to an urgent whisper. "He talks of knowing where Poseidon is."
"Impossible." Lucifer dismissed, shaking his head. "I saw him. Spoke with him. The man's mind is gone."
"Gone, perhaps, but that information is there." she insisted. Lucifer chuckled a little, shaking his head.
"Can you prove it?" he asked, tone condescending. She nodded.
"He gave you a letter. Did he not?" At Lucifer's nod, she pulled out about 15 pieces of paper and tossed them onto her desk. The letters seemed to be backwards or missing on most of the words. Lucifer blinked at her and finally took a solid look at the letter he had been given. The letters were the same way, with missing and backwards letters. Lucifer shook his head.
"The ramblings of a madman." He said, tossing the letter onto her desk with the others. Circe held up a finger, leaning down.
"That is what I thought too. Until." She pulled out another piece of paper and handed it to him. Lucifer took it and scanned it briefly. It was a paragraph or two, depicting a trip to the beach, in vivid details. The writing was beautiful, elegant in tone. Scratched much less frantically onto the page than the others. Nothing at all like the ramblings that made little to no sense on the rest of the letters currently scattered across the desk. Lucifer held it up to her.
"This is not from the same man." he said.
"It absolutely is. I brought him up here to write it and everything. So that there would be no distractions. No mistakes. No sign of the madness when he was talking about his family."
"What sort of backwards magic is this?" he asked. Circe laughed.
"It's a curse, not magic. Someone, I'm guessing you know exactly who, is blocking out the knowledge that was written on these pages. Which is all fine and good except: it is a way to prevent me from leaving. To prevent all of us from leaving. If he has the knowledge to find Poseidon, there is a chance we can all be freed, we can all go back to the above. We could rewrite the whole narrative. Change things for the better. Render this place completely and totally useless, something that would just be a distant memory. And you know as well as I do that He does not want that." Lucifer nodded.
"That I do." He scanned back through the paragraphs on the paper that he still held in his hand and paused, briefly, on a name. A name he had seen before. "What is his last name?"
"Caldwell." She pulled out a rainbow file and handed it to Lucifer, who took it and immediately searched for a page on his family. His eyes lit up with recognition, a light that was not at all lost on Circe.
"You know this man." She all but accused. He shook his head.
"No. But I know a family member of his."
"Oh, someone in your realm?" she asked, curiosity chasing out the accusation. She glared at him as he shook his head.
"Not quite." He stood up. "How about this. I will investigate this lead for you. But I would not hold your breath. I do not expect it to go anywhere."
"When it does, you are going to owe me." She said confidently. His eyes narrowed.
"And when it doesn't, you will owe me." He answered, his voice low. A flash of fear jolted through Circe's dark eyes, and Lucifer smirked. He stood, taking the file and tucking it up under his arm. "I am taking this. I will keep you posted." He began to leave Circe's office, was halfway to the door even when he stopped, and remembered his promise. "Wait."
"Something else?" she asked, as though she already knew. Lucifer nodded.
"That girl. The little one"
"She is not as little as she seems, in her own mind that is." Circe answered. Lucifer growled.
"Yes, I know. What is her name?"
"Valeria. Her brother is Elias. He lives further down below." she spoke almost sadly, as though she didn't like they were down there. Interesting. Lucifer was pleased that she seemed to still have a heart.
"I want them both." Circe raised her eyebrows, caught off guard now.
"What? You want to just…take them?"
"That's what I said, yes."
"Where, to hell?" she asked, incredulous.
"Yes." He answered her slowly, as though she were unintelligent. Circe rolled her eyes.
"You cannot take them."
"Why not?" he asked. "Do they have files?" Circe nodded, producing them with a flick of her wrist. Solid gold files. Lucifer had never seen these before. They were the only etherials with files that he knew of, though, so that made sense. Lucifer nodded, then continued.
"If they have files, they can come with me."
"You'd condemn them to hell?" Circe seemed surprised. Lucifer glanced around. How closely was her office monitored? Circe glanced up, to the far right corner of the room, and looked back in his eyes. Lucifer glanced there as well. A camera light blinked at him. Ah. He nodded, saying out loud what he knew anyone who was watching would want to hear him say.
"Yes. Hell is the punishment that those souls deserve after all." He had no intention of sending those two to the fire. But with files, those two were just another soul that could eventually leave purgatory. Hell, he could take the man with him too, if he so desired. But that would have raised far too much suspicion. He was already risking much taking the two ethereals. He held out his hand for the files and Circe pretended to hesitate before she gave them over. Lucifer felt a pull, like sticking his hand in a live wire, as he took their files. Their souls were his now.
"I don't suppose I could plead with you for mercy?" Circe asked him, sounding defeated. Her eyes sparkled though with what looked like clear relief. Lucifer gave a very convincing, dark smirk.
"I am the devil himself. I am not capable of mercy." With that he turned and left Circe's office, ignoring the half of a question she started to ask. He didn't need anything further from her at that moment. Now he needed three things. He needed to collect those children, and have a conference with his brother.
And a way to get a message to someone in heaven.