Demon Bait (Keeley Thomson) (23 page)

"So, these things are real
and you
aren't
just screwing with me because I'm the newb?"

Rather than answer instantly,
Gregor sat, his body not making a sound as he did.

"Well, it's one or the other,
isn't it? It really is the first one, but I'd love to get out of this without a
fight, if possible, so if you need to believe something else, I can work with
that, too."

Without nodding or moving in any
way, she thought about that. It was reasonable, if you were talking to a being
that you naturally assumed was incapable of knowing what you really were.

She'd used the same trick
herself, once or twice.

Only
now
she could see
just how damned annoying it was.

"So... You, and I presume,
your kind, have kept yourselves secret from the rest of us because..." She
held up a hand and then sighed, getting the basic idea without being told.
"Because the rest of us are morons?"

That wasn't really true, but she
still
fell into the trap of thinking that regular beings that couldn't understand
things like that weren't as bright as the others, didn't she? It was more than
possible that a few different sorts around the greater world could see Angels
too, didn't it? The rare Human that was more than a bit mentally unstable, for
instance. It took a lot of work and some genetic gifts, for regular people to
be able to understand that
anything
existed that way. Even if they were
raised around them, they'd eventually end up forgetting about it and believing
that it was all just a dream, or fantasy world, if they weren't living with
strangeness all the time to constantly refresh their thoughts on the matter.

For instance Hally, when she went
off to college, would probably forget that her girlfriend was a Greater Demon.
Oh, she'd remember the words, but if Keeley wasn't around a lot, she'd
eventually imagine that it had all been a game that they'd played, or that
Keels was just a bit weird, or narcissistic. It might take years, but it
would
happen, if things were normal, long enough.

Eve would be fine, since she was
going to become a Vampire. Gary...

She was pretty certain that he
phoned in most of his beliefs that way already. His life was too stressful for
there to be
more
strangeness in it. So he heard people claiming to be
Vampires and figured them to be Humans that liked to drink odd beverages and
wear fake fangs. Only, because of everything he'd seen, he also knew that
wasn't really true. It was starting to tear him up inside. That was Zack's
trouble for now however, not hers. She nodded, getting the basic idea then.

"I can
pretend
that
Angels are real, after a fashion. They don't fit what I know, but if you aren't
too... Um, Godly, for me, being nicely presented as you are, then I should be
able to remember that we had a conversation, and if nothing else that you said
the words. I know that isn't the same as
belief
, but it's all I can
think of for the time being. I'll try to work on that. Condition myself to
understand it." She grinned at the rather peaceful looking man and then
shook her head a little. "However, if this is a game, fess up now, since
if I do that, and you're playing with me, it will pretty much drive me insane.
In the short run, if nothing else. Is that the real Second Crucible then? I did
kind of think that first one was a bit too easy. So
now
I have to work
out that you're all a bunch of douche nozzles, and get around it? Which you
wouldn't admit... if you were really tricking me."

He made a sharp, but not
aggressive, pointing gesture at her. "That right there. It's why none of
the other Greater Demons have ever managed to understand that we exist. Not
since the change was made. The forgetting. The best results any of us have
gotten have been high level attacks. We can hold our own in battle, my kind,
but it's much closer than I'd like to admit, and on a deep level Greater Demons
are simply better at fighting than we are. I can box a mugger, at need, or even
slap around some terrorists like I really mean it, but my act falls apart if I
have to do too much of that sort of thing. It has, as you will no doubt
understand, come up." He looked at the wall of the place and then patted
the smooth stone of the wall behind him. "So, in general, I cheat. I live
a protected life, much of the time, and keep to myself when possible. When it
isn't, I bring back up."

He waited then, because, as she remembered,
he'd asked what that other Angel had wanted. It was a strain to think of him
that way, but if it was real, then she needed to make herself do it. If not,
then she was going to look like a giant clod, but that was always the risk with
reality. You had to give it a chance, and at times that meant going in blind.

"Mike, if that's who he
really is, suggested that I kill some Greater Demons, rather than allow them to
be trapped. Something about a balance? Tarsus has a plan in place. I'm good,
personally, not trying either one, if you want the truth, since... You get the
idea, I don't really want to die?"

"Oh? Whom? If it's all right
to ask?"

She shrugged.

"Well, that's the kicker
isn't it? If you're really who and what you say, then... I guess it's fine. If
you aren't, or things are much different than I think, then telling you,"
she looked at him and thought for a bit, not speaking. "Actually, doing
that probably won't make a difference at all to the real end game. I may not be
able to do anything at all, no matter how hard I try. It's The Rage, The
Chaotic and Helmsman. Also The Void, but I have a strange idea that this Mikey
fellow, or at least the Angels like him, might be responsible for all the
activity attributed to that one."

There was a long pause, and the
sitting Demon, or Angel, as the case may turn out to be, made a steeple of his
fingers right under his chin. His glasses glinted as he turned his head a bit,
thinking, it seemed.

"You can't beat them, singly
or as a group. Not quickly. In a few hundred years you may be able to take The
Rage. The nature of the others will make that much more difficult. On the good
side, for you, I doubt that they would have an easy time returning the favor,
either. My guess is that you'd come to a draw each time. Trapping them... In a
different local space?" He seemed interested, but it was hard to tell if
that was too much attention for the project, or held too great an insight into
what was planned for him to have.

"A different reality. One
where there is no magic. I don't know more than that, and haven't been given
the books yet."

"Ah. Sensible, on Tarsus's
part. My personal suggestion is that you tell them both,
thank you
,
no
,
and let the balance handle things. If God has a plan for this, he can handle it
himself. It's very hard to get around that kind of thing, if it's His true
will. On the other hand, if he wishes you to handle this, then, as you might
have begun to understand, you will. We are all but agents of His efforts, no
matter who we believe we are."

She looked at the man, flatly,
her mind rebelling against the very idea of there being a
real
God at
all.

"I... pretty much thought
that all the religious people were being... Um,
morons
, actually.
Delusional. You're saying it's all true? I'm almost certain that the world
isn't six thousand years old, for instance, unless that's a different trick of
some kind?" She didn't like how she sounded, which was slow and confused,
but Gregor didn't make fun of her about it. In fact he leaned in a little, to
show he was more than a bit fascinated by what she was saying.

"Yes and no. Evolution so
clearly happened that you'd have to be a
fool
to ignore the fact. It
didn't even take much guidance to achieve, as I understand it. On the other
hand, there
was
a man called Jesus. The son of a carpenter, or more
exactly, an architect. It was more like a general contractor back then, than
what we have today. He didn't provide any miracles and was no more than a local
religious leader at the time. I rather... Embellished the story about seventy
years later, so that no one could use the facts against me. So in that way, it
was both true and not. The purpose is to instruct people, not for them to take
the tale as complete truth. Not that it matters either way, as long as they
gain the needed basic form, which underlies the whole thing. Anyway, yes, there
are
bits of real things in the story. I was tasked with making bits of
the plan accessible to the Humans, since the vast majority of them cannot see,
or remember, the Host. They are like your kind, in that way. Blind to parts of
what is. The idea was to simply get them to not destroy the world, but, as you
know,
that
didn't work too well. In my defense, it isn't simple to work
with beings that can't even admit you exist."

She... didn't buy it. Not even
for a second. Oh, it was all as logically consistent as what she'd been told
over the last months, but it just seemed
wrong
. Which it would, if her
mind was going to constantly try to reject it. Keeley couldn't mentally find a
way around the idea either. She could
pretend
it was real, and act her
way through this, maybe even carrying on that way for a time, but in the end,
her being, her very self,
had
to reject it.

Being
right
wasn't enough
to change her thoughts on that idea, was it?

Not yet.

"I sort of got, from both
parties, the idea that we either had to control those three, or four, Greater
Demons, and get rid of them, or that bad things would happen? At least my
mental note mentioned that concept to me."

"No doubt." This sounded
just a bit sour, but the Angel shrugged, still looking like he always did.
"Because when the totality of what is real is in the balance, go to a mere
child to fix it? I'll have a word with Michael, but I wouldn't go hunting The
Rage just yet. My guess is that
he
fears The Librarian. My elder brother
Michael, that is. Not The Rage. That one has no room left inside for things as
subtle as worry or caution. We should try to work out why Michael feels that
way, but things will, ultimately work out. Probably with a lot of us dead, but
the
totality
is very hard to actually destroy, or so I hear."

That was reassuring, if nothing
else.

"What does that mean for me?
I
can't
just tell them no, not and expect to live. I can't kill those
Greater Demons either, and while I might, possibly, pull off trapping them if I
have help, I don't think that visits from your people is a good sign there.
Would this Michael guy lie to me? You mentioned that some of you can? The
Fallen? I do like the way that sounds. Far more approachable than Archangel,
isn't it?"

There was a smile then. A real
one, that seemed much lighter than his face had been, even a half moment prior.

"Not him. He is incapable of
saying something that is not Truth. With a capital T, meaning from His voice
directly. Not even a little. Your note said that
I
was him? He can't
have told you that. What probably happened is that you came up with the idea
and he didn't reject it well enough. The effects of the forgetting can be a
little disorienting, around his sort. I used to be like that as well. The
answer to your question is...
no
. If he gave you information, it was, as
far as he understands it, the truth. It may not be complete, but it won't be a
fabrication
.
It will not be a trick. The difficulty there is that you cannot recall what was
said, can you? I can, so let me see about this in your stead. In the mean time,
you should try to remember all of this, and perhaps enjoy your new found
freedom? Try to be good and all that, for one of your kind at any rate, but
being on your own for the first time is exciting, isn't it? How are things
going, in your new territory?"

They chatted then, for about half
an hour, over plans that she had, some troubles that he wanted to get Zack's
help with and a few other things that had little to do with anything Angelic,
or even close to being that stupid sounding.

It really did seem silly to her,
even as the magic in the place kept her cut off from everything else so totally.
Short of being in another dimension that couldn't happen really. Not and let
anything through at all. It wasn't a thing in her mental library at any rate.
True, it
could
have been that Gregor had simply worked out a magic that
Tarsus didn't know, but nothing else even came close, which was a hint that the
whole thing could be real. Not that it
was
.

Only that it
might
be.

That was less than perfectly
reassuring, but she made herself let go of that bit of things. It either was,
or was not, real. For the time being she needed to keep that in mind without
simply dismissing the idea. It was more than possible to hold something like
that in place, it just wasn't comfortable. Not even for a Greater Demon.

So she spoke about her plans,
didn't let herself forget what they were talking about or simply dismiss it,
and then looked at Gregor closely, wondering how long he'd been pretending to
be one of her kind. Also, how hard that must have been. It was difficult to be
a Greater Demon even when you were one. Faking it
had
to be a pain.

They didn't have food or drink,
and it wasn't offered. For her part, she did get hungry, but suppressed the
feeling, gathering energy from the world instead, to offset things a bit.

That worked, which was
interesting. The basic power of reality was still in force, so whatever was
stopping the flow of magic was geared toward her? More or less? After all, it
wouldn't be about Keeley
directly
. That was way more work than would
have been required, even to fool her into believing this was real.