Chapter 62 – Kerubiel

The middle of nowhere in the Antarctic ice desert wasn’t the place Melody had thought of when she imagined the confrontation between her mother Thrasir and the angel Baal. And yet, here they were. In the middle of the Antarctic, thousands of kilometres away from the nearest human research outpost.

It was cold and windy and overall remarkably pleasant for early spring at the south pole.

“Melody told me of what you did for the sirens.” Thrasir’s voice was as cold as the wind.

Baal nodded. “A small attempt to do something good in this world.”

“Do you understand what scars your actions caused?”

“No. And even if you show me, I doubt I would truly understand.”

“I appreciate your honesty.”

“Beside my life, it is all I can give.”

Thrasir shook her head. “That’s not true.”

Baal only raised an eyebrow in response.

“You can give me Kerubiel.”

“And if I cannot, will you take my life instead?”

“Are you protecting him?”

“No, I just don’t have the authority to command him here, my superiors might decline my request.”

“Then you can give me his location and I will hunt him down myself.”

“That I can do.”

“You can also answer whenever I or the ones I love require your aid.”

Baal nodded. “That is a given, should I survive this day.”

Thrasir smirked. “Bring Kerubiel’s neck under my blade, I don’t care how, and you will live to repent for your digressions. I came to realize that I do not want to kill you but him. And now that Melody wants you to live, I am inclined to just let you leave with what the humans call a slap on the wrist.”

The angel took a moment to ponder his options. “Kerubiel may not trust me but I think I can make him come here and even set a trap for him in the heavens. If you would indulge me for this, I think I can offer his permanent death.”

“Right now?”

“Right now.”

“Will you fight beside me if necessary?”

“To kill Kerubiel? Always.”

“Then do it.”

Baal let a brief smile flash across his lip, conjured some paper and started writing a reasonably long letter. After several minutes, he teleported it away. “And now, we shall wait and prepare. Maybe it would be wise to get Melody-“

He couldn’t even finish his sentence before Kerubiel teleported between him and Thrasir. The new arrival took a second to orient himself before attacking the old demon.

Baal jumped to shield Melody from the golden flames. Thrasir simply seemed to ignore them.

Kerubial laughed. “And this is what Baal called me for? To scar you again? I would have called this all unworthy of my time but burning you to ash before your daughter’s eyes will at least be amusing!”

Thrasir disrupted the whirl of flames with a flick of her wrist. The veil over her scars had been burned away, letting everyone see how the holy fire simply dissolved into the sharp bone-like tissue.

“The thing, Kerubiel, is that I had a long time to study what your fire did to me. And you never understood what you wield. In what strange, twisted reality would a child of silver and sky ever defeat a child of fire and shadow by setting her aflame? Fire is in my nature, it is in our hearts. Your holy fire is our hell fire, merely the kindling differs. Your fire is mine.”

“What…?”

“Don’t play stupid. Baal, I appreciate your offer to set a trap but we both know why all sides where eager to ban holy fire.” Thrasir held out her scarred hand and snapped her fingers, setting Kerubiel aflame in black fire. “It can kill angels no matter where they are. Goodbye, Kerubiel.”

The angel screamed as he slowly crumbled to ash. The flames died out as his last remains scattered in the wind.

Baal dropped the magical shield around Melody. “Accepting the risk that I am overstepping but… good riddance. Good fucking riddance.”

Thrasir raised an eyebrow. “You hated him that much?”

“Oh I did. I thought I was a self-righteous twat in the past but he surpassed me in all aspects.”

“I am strangely glad that you agree with what I did. And thank you, truly, for protecting Melody.”

“I have grown fond of her.” He looked over to Melody who shook off the snow from her coat and rushed to hug her mother. “I am proud of you kid.”

Melody returned a smiled. “And I’m proud of you, Baal.”

“That means a lot. Thank you. I should leave you both.”

Thrasir raised her hand. “Not yet, we are not done.”

“I am listening.”

“Firstly, if holy fire is not yet banned, it must be.”

“It is already. We banned it after signing the treaty.”

“Good. Hell fire is also disincentivized, I doubt there will ever be a reason to use it again. Melody spoke of your plans to make furniture and she wants some that you made.”

“Yes, she already told me that she wants me to work with her architect on furnishing her future home.”

“Good, do not disappoint her.”

“I will do my utmost to impress. This is very important to me personally.”

Thrasir smiled warmly. “Then I am optimistic. Before I ask you one last thing, I want you to know that when the time for Melody’s home in Hell comes, I hope we can speak again. I need time before I can accept you as you are now, but I want to.”

“I will be there whenever you wish to speak to me. As you already demanded, I will come when you call.”

“Alright. Now, Melody, you know that there is a way to heal these scars. There has always been.”

Melody nodded. “Killing you.”

“Yes and I think it’s finally time to rid myself of them.”

“And you want Baal to do it?”

“A first step of acceptance, of trust, yes. If he has changed as you said, that step will mean something. You don’t have to watch that. I really think you shouldn’t watch me get killed. I can just send you to my house in Hell to wait for me to wake up there.”

“Don’t send me there, send me to mum. We can both wait for you in your home.”

“She is already there.”

“Okay, then just send me over.”

“I will be right with you, might be a bit before I wake up but I will be there soon. Don’t worry about me, okay?”

Melody grimaced. “I know how this works, doesn’t make it any easier though. I hate the thought of you having to go through all this.”

“I know but it’s the only way to heal scars inflicted by holy fire. It will be okay, I promise.”

“I love you, Ma.”

“I love you too, Melody.” Thrasir teleported her daughter away. “There are some words I have for you that I don’t want her to hear.”

Baal nodded. “I understand.”

“You live because of Melody. If it wasn’t for her fondness of you, I would have killed you together with Kerubiel and Cassiel.”

“I think I understand why, but I would like the confirmation. Why kill Cassiel too?”

“Because without his research, none of my pain would have happened. Melody just mentioned it as an aside, just a small sentence. Why kill someone who didn’t want to hurt you? You didn’t intend for the fire to harm me, even El didn’t share it with Kerubiel to harm demons, it was supposed to be a tool to keep your own in line, wasn’t it?”

Baal frowned. “It was. I shared the knowledge with El because I trusted him to advise me. I didn’t expect him to share it with anyone and I didn’t expect him to ever use it. El wanted a trial of the fire and he got it. His deal with Kerubiel was his silence after he was pardoned. El wanted it to be his own personal weapon that no one else could use against him. Only Cassiel and Kerubiel ever knew how to wield it and Cassiel went into seclusion after Kerubiel’s use of the fire. Though I must wonder how you know that El was involved.”

“Sariel brought El’s private diaries with her when she joined us. I don’t know how she got them but our inquisitors happily dug through them.”

“Interesting. I would love to know how she got a hold of them.”

“I would like to know that too. In any case, it is good that this entire debacle ended satisfactory for everyone in involved. I am sure Cassiel would be relieved to hear that his discovery is no longer a threat. Except if you knew how to wield it.”

Baal shook his head. “I don’t and I never intend to find out. Even in my lust for power, I never dared to ask. It horrifies me. And your hellish version horrifies me even more. I suppose that is a good thing.”

“It is. You should tell Cassiel about what happened here.”

“I will.”

“Good, then let’s finally get this over with.” Thrasir readied herself. “Please just teleport any remains to the library, they will know what happened.”

“Of course.”

“And Baal…”

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”

Baal nodded slowly as he pulled the gleaming white outline of a sword from thin air and swung at Thrasir’s neck.