Calli gets back into the Hotel, having been scouring Wrath Ring for any sign of Eve whatsoever - Alastor managed to tell her Eve's a shapeshifter, well, his shadow played a game of charades with her for that little revelation, so she's been searching high and low for a furious psychotic insane person.
And, given the detail that Alastor's convinced she went nuts from sheer hatred for Heaven…Wrath Ring would be where she'd likely blend in best.
Because he doesn't know where she took him for seven years, other than the same place she's got Lilith, and even if he did know he couldn't tell anyone.
So, all Calli's got to go on is an insane psycho who hates Heaven - Hells, on some of her worse days while she was setting up Lucifer and Lilith's reign, she fit that description perfectly. She was losing her mind, the only method Lilith had to communicate with her at the time was the Charmed Notebooks she made, and her anger at Heaven was ever-present. One of the reasons all the Sins know better than to bring up the subject around her - she may have gone off on Satan, Leviathan, and Mammon simultaneously when Mammon told her to go back up to Heaven where she came from in the early days of the whole 'campaign,' and they may have gotten such a beatdown that day that the other three Sins were taking care of them for a solid six months. She, meanwhile, went back up to Pride Ring to give Lilith a break and check in with her two best friends.
Wrath may be Satan's domain, but there's unfortunately a line between angry and crazy. And everyone she discretely observed down there was firmly on the angry side.
Gluttony Ring tomorrow, then.
Alastor's shadow waves at her from the wall, then then takes her through a nearby shadow up to his own room - Calli promptly falls face-first onto the bed, kicking her shoes off before pulling herself up. Scouring an entire Ring for any trace of an insane shapeshifter she's really sure is Eve - and, fuck, if it's Eve they've got even bigger problems, Adam and Lilith both ended up extremely powerful, potentially due to being exposed to so much magic in their mortal lives, and she's sure it's not a coincidence! - is utterly exhausting.
Plus, her feet are killing her.
Alastor sits down next to her, quietly asking "Didn't find anything?" If he sounds like all his hopes are hinging on this...it's because they are. They really, really are.
Calli wordlessly shakes her head, then starts pulling the other half of her body up the bed…up until Alastor apparently takes pity on her, picking her up and setting her down so she's curled up in her usual spot.
After a moment, Calli tiredly says "I could talk to Luci, you know…" He may have an idea of where someone might go to hide from her...she hasn't told him she thinks Lilith's been kidnapped, not wanting him to blame himself for not seeing it wasn't really Lilith that took Charlie and left him. She knows her best friend, and knows the truth about Lilith 'leaving' him would shatter him just like learning Roo made Hell did. He'd blame himself, fall into another depression, and nobody has any ideas of where to start looking for her.
Alastor immediately shakes his head, saying "No. If she finds out he knows… Aside from that, I don't have much more information. Even if I did, I wouldn't be allowed to share it. I don't know where she took me, how to get there, or what it is she wants. Other than to get past some kind of magic-infused stone wall, that is." He'd almost say it's Calli's magic, except it's nothing like hers. Oppressive, suffocating, he felt like he was being crushed just by being there, like it was trying to flatten him into a Sinner-pancake. Calli's has never felt like that - she's just as strong, yes, but her magic behaves completely differently.
Calli hums, then nods her head - Lucifer can't interfere with mortals' free will, being Heavenborn as he is, else she'd ask him if he could take a look at Alastor's contract. Lilith had more leeway in that specific area, having originally been a mortal soul herself - one very convenient loophole that allows her to void soul-binding contracts if the right circumstances are in place, such as if it places the signed-away soul in danger in some way or the Contractor is abusing the terms of the contract somehow.
The thought of what Lilith would've done to Valentino had she gotten her hands on the moth, for instance, runs through Calli's mind…she'd have ripped away every single soul he has under his thumb, Angel included, and then turned him over to her.
If Alastor can get just five minutes alone with Lilith, most of which would hypothetically be spent telling the blonde woman he knows her and wants to save them both, then this whole disaster would get a lot simpler. As it is, this woman that's likely Eve won't leave the two of them alone for five seconds, much less five minutes - according to Alastor, she's unstable, has extreme mood swings from certain topics, and far stronger than him even now thanks to his powers being limited. But, unfortunately, she's smart enough to know that leaving her two very powerful prisoners together is a bad idea. Lilith's songs could quite literally empower those she chooses, making them stronger, faster…if Alastor were freed from his contract, the two of them might stand a chance at getting away from their captor. But only if Lilith gets at least thirty seconds of uninterrupted physical contact with Alastor - preferably, the two of them holding hands. Or Lilith gripping onto Alastor somehow.
And then…in what's most likely a sign she's far too tired, Calli glances up at Alastor's fluffy-looking ears and gets an idea. Seeing Alastor's lost in his own troubled thoughts, Calli tugs on his arm and murmurs "Can I rub your ears again?"
Alastor starts, clearly having been deep in his own thoughts, then glances down and sees the look on Calli's face - not quite mischievous, perhaps too tired for that, but certainly not idle curiosity or a passing question either. After a moment, Alastor asks "You- my what?"
Calli shrugs, saying "You like to help me with my wings, and it always feels amazing when you do. Thought I'd return the favor at least once." Plus, he seemed to thoroughly enjoy it when he'd had those 16 smoothies.
Alastor blinks, then eventually lays down next to her - positioning himself so his head is tucked under her chin, instead of the other way around like they usually do. Calli's slender fingers start carding through his hair, her other hand resting over his shoulder - quickly followed by two of her wings - and then they tentatively brush against the lower part of one of his ears. When he doesn't react much, other than the ear twitching on its own, Calli's thumb and index finger start rubbing at the base deliciously.
Alastor can't stop the soft bleat that escapes his throat, but also can't find it in him to be embarrassed when Calli doesn't react to it. If he'd glance at his face, he'd see Calli's trying very hard not to say anything in response to the ridiculously-adorable sound - so that's why Alastor has all of Pride Ring thinking he's completely heartless. Aside from the detail that he's always had to watch his back and couldn't rely on most anyone…there's the detail that he involuntarily makes adorable deer noises in the right circumstances.
He shifts in her arms, making her wings flap up for a moment…and that's when she realizes one other thing nobody in Hell likely knows about him…he's got a tail. A cute, fluffy little deer tail! It quickly gets hidden under her wings once more as they settle back over Alastor's body, but Calli just knows she's not going to sleep any time soon after seeing that.
Is it as fluffy as it looked?
Was it wagging? She swears, for just a moment, it was at least wiggling.
Will he tell her about it on his own or should she ask about it?
Her own eyes eventually start growing heavy, and she shuts them without a fight - she's going to need to at least rest her eyes for tomorrow, Gluttony Ring is just as big as Wrath Ring and she was gone most of the day today.
Calli's sitting at the table as Lucifer keeps setting out more dishes - he insisted on cooking this time, a surprise since she missed lunch yesterday - when suddenly her phone buzzes with a number texting her.
Calliope?
This is Emily.
Um, I'm not sure how much you know about what's been going on since Extermination Day, but
Calli and Lucifer trade glances when the text suddenly sends, but then a new message comes in, asking 'Can we talk? On the phone? There's a lot to go through.'
Calli heads out of the room, saying "I'll be back in a minute. Luci, you want to hear this, or you want the short version after?"
Lucifer frowns, then snaps his fingers and the rest of the dishes teleport onto the table. "I'm coming. Everyone dig in, we'll be there in a minute." The two of them sit down on a couch in the common area, and Calli starts the phone call - Emily picks up immediately, thankfully.
"Oh, thank the Father…is anyone else with you, Calliope? Or is it just you?"
Lucifer raises an eyebrow at the voice he doesn't recognize, and says "I'm Lucifer, King of Hell. You must be the Seraphim my daughter was telling me all about. Emily, right?"
They hear Emily actually squeak, and then she says "Oh! Um, greetings Lord Morn- I mean, Your Highn- Your Majesty-"
Cali says "Emily, breathe, alright? Luci's not gonna go off because you called him the wrong title or anything. What's going on?"
"Right, okay…so, pretty much once Extermination Day happened…things have been changing. Sera collapsed as soon as it started, and her power's been slowly decreasing ever since. Raphael thinks it's part of the consequences of her breaking her Deal with you, but…other things have been happening as well. With the Exterminations having been revealed to the Council, and Heaven at large…along with the revelation of this Roo person having created Hell in the first place…"
Lucifer tenses up at once, and Calli puts a hand on his shoulder before saying "Right, that. What are the Council going to do in regards to Lucifer's unjust 'punishment' and the false accusations heaped on him, by the way? As well as the attempt on Queen Lilith's life, those angels breaking and entering my cottage, my home getting destroyed…basically, the whole situation."
There's a swallow from the phone, and then Emily says "I…don't know, there's been a lot of things they've been debating about. What I do know, though, is that Heaven is in an uproar, the Winners are pretty much on the verge of rioting after it was revealed that the Second Woman was brainwashed…and the ones that reversed it were punished. And how you three were punished…and how bad it was…"
Lucifer flatly says "So, it's a shitshow up there." Is it bad that he's glad about that? Maybe...the look that Calli's giving him says it isn't, though.
"Yes…yes it is. We don't have anyone to blame but ourselves, though." She's honestly glad she wasn't around then, it means the Winners aren't angry with her - it also means she's the only one that can talk them down, try to keep the peace somewhat whole. The detail that no other Exterminations have been planned helps a great deal, though.
Calli snorts, saying "Pretty much the only thing humanity has ever been able to band together about is free will, Emily. The ability to choose…people have gone to war for it, packed up their entire lives and started over for it…it's pretty much the one thing most of all humanity holds sacred. Sure, there are some who trample the free will of others, but I'd say ninety-nine percent of people would agree being able to choose their own path, make their own mistakes, find their own way…it's worth fighting for. Worth dying for, even."
There's silence on Emily's end for a moment, until she says "I…I agree. At any rate, one development that's happened is that the council agreed to send a delegation down to the Hotel. See how it works. That's how it was pitched to Adam, according to Lute, so..."
Calli pinches the bridge of her nose, and says "Emily…Charlie wanted to protect her people, find an alternative to Extermination Day that didn't involve violence. She pitched it to Adam and Lute as 'redemption' because that was the only thing she could think of. Adam laughed in her face, Sera was against it right from the start. Even if the Council wasn't aware of Extermination, there's no telling whether they actually disapprove of it. Or if the Delegation that comes down will feel any differently than Sera and Adam did."
"I…I know. Sera swears approving Extermination Day was an agonizing choice, but…"
Lucifer flatly says "But she's lying through her teeth. She had no problem ordering my Fall, and I wasn't any threat to Heaven whatsoever. I loved my home, loved what we were creating. I just…wanted it to be perfect, is all. And, for that - for not being satisfied with the status quo they had…she had zero hesitation when she passed my sentence. No remorse, no regret, no grief, no anything in her expression or voice as she judged me and found me guilty. I've no doubt she was trying to protect Heaven from Hell once more when she greenlighted Adam's annual invasion, but I can't find it in me to believe she felt even a drop of pain over ordering the deaths of a bunch of nameless, faceless demons she never even had to glance towards. Much less how they died to the Exorcists, how brutal and sadistic they always were."
Calli squeezes Lucifer's shoulder, knowing just how upset the whole set of topics gets him - he was upset enough about Extermination Day to spontaneously generate a contract regarding it, after all - and asks "Do you know who the Delegation will be, Emily? Or when they'll arrive?"
"No, not yet. That was just decided about an hour or so ago. And I don't know very many people that would be able to defend themselves if push came to shove." Or…go down to Hell in the first place. Potentially because Calliope will be there, likely pissed off at them and more than willing to tear them a dozen new ones over Lucifer's unjust Fall. There's also the detail that many Sinners likely won't recognize or care about the difference between an Exorcist and anyone else from Heaven and attack them on sight.
Calli says "Well, if anything happens, call me. If Sera gets the idea to Fall you to try and retake control, that pendant I made you will make a barrier and alert me. Good luck, kid. Sounds like you need it."