The Unifier

My iron foot echoed heavily as I strode down the stone steps into the deepest dungeons of Castle Resolve. Must filled my nose as I walked, half-crouched through the low hallways and around tight corners. They might have been large for a lesser being, but as it stood the Demonfather could not fit through the halls without crawling, and I had to stoop just to make progress through the labyrinthine maze of stonework. The stooping was made worse by the pervasive exhaustion that still plagued my frame after the Uplifting two nights prior, but I continued on with determination. I could have sent one of my underlings in my place, but my desire to see her urged me on, alone, even as the passages tightened.

Eventually, I reached the deepest cell in the darkest corner of the holds. Up above I had passed cells still inhabited by inferior beings, petty murderers or thieves, but down in the deep the cells had emptied. They said that the deep cells were only used to hold beings so vile that they could not be redeemed, beings of some rare villainy that they deserved to be abandoned and left to rot with neither food nor sunlight. It was a wonder, then, that this castle had so many of them. Were the vast rows of empty cells supposed to impart the convicted with a sense of loneliness and isolation, or were the lesser races really so vile that so many of them must be deemed irredeemable by their own kind? If I had half a mind to, I would have asked one of the captives, but in the current moment my thoughts were only concentrated on her.

I pushed open the door with a creak. The light of my torch shone into the room, illuminating a tight cell, no more than six feet square. Aeshphelar, known to all others as the Lady of Plagues and Boils, curled motionless in one corner of the room. The cell was barely big enough to contain her even in that state, for even though she was not Uplifted by the Demonlord or a fellow general, her frame still contained the Gift deep within.

She raised her head slowly, then shot up with a start when she glimpsed me. The lesser beings had not fed her in years, leaving her thin and gaunt, sustained only by the power of the Gift within. Dark, tangled hair obscured her face, which was covered by grime. The humans, I would later learn, had made it a point of stripping her of her veil and robes to reveal what ‘evil’ lay within. I hated them for it, and hated doubly so that my Aeshphelar felt such shame that she must hide her form from everyone, even the others of her own rank.

Behind that mop of dark hair, I knew, her face was marred by countless boils and blisters, deformed and discolored by the disease that had been inflicted upon her at such a young age. She was stunted and short at only seven feet tall, and walked with a limp that slowed her pace to that of a determined crawl. She had my leathery black complexion and gaunt affect in the parts that were not too affected by disease. Her eyes were the only part of her that were truly untouched by the illness and they were the blue of a midday sky unmarred by clouds, endless and infinite and pure. Everything wicked and vile about her had come from me, but those eyes were her mother’s.

“Father!” She gasped. It was not the proper way to address me, and had anyone been around to hear they would have thought lesser of me for allowing her to say it, but in that moment I did not care. I nodded and Aeshphelar slowly stood and staggered into my arms.

“I’m here.” I said, holding her in a tight embrace. “I just needed the strength to find you. Much has happened since you were captured.” Relief filled my being. Some rumors said that she had died down in these dungeons, and I was glad to see them proven wrong.

“You were injured.” She said, motioning to my iron foot.

“Not badly.” I replied. “Not nearly so badly as the injury they did to you.”

“It’s how I knew you were real.” She said, “In my dreams, when you rescued me you always looked as you were. When I saw you now, you looked different than I’d ever seen you before. This isn’t a dream.”

“No,” I agreed, “It is not. Now come, let’s get you out of this cramped place. There is work yet to be done if we are to go home.”

“We’re returning to the Demonrealm?” Aeshphelar asked, finally breaking our embrace.

“Yes. The decision has been made.” I said, “All that stands in our way is a single Demonslayer and his army.”

A bit of Aeshphelar’s old self had returned to her by the time we made the upper levels of the dungeons. She walked on her own, with no help from me, at her own insistence. Protocol dictated that we were to leave family ties behind when I became a general, and doubly so when she followed in my footsteps.

Aeshphelar hesitated before the grand door that led up into the rest of the castle. “They’ll see me.”

“You will acquire clothing to your taste soon enough.” I assured her, “The others won’t say a thing. None of them would deign to insult the Demonlord’s daughter.”

“The Demonlord?” Aeshphelar asked, a sly smile appearing on her lips.

“As I said, a lot has changed.” I said, “Try not to abuse the power too much. There are things expected of me, and I would not wish to make the decision between you and my throne.”

“Of course.” She replied, “I would ask the same of you, were our roles reversed.”

We ascended from the dungeons and into the grand hall of the keep. I’d ordered it cleared, save for a large wooden table for my officers to gather around and the king’s oversized throne, which I found suited me more than it did its prior occupant. The Demonfather waited patiently beside it, running a hand up beneath his mammoth’s skull to scratch his chin. When we entered, he eyed Aeshphelar with suspicion.

“She looks unhealthy.” He muttered.

“Do I ever?” Aeshphelar asked, annoyed.

“She will recover.” I said, “And will prove a valuable asset in winning more generals to our cause. This move has not been made in folly.”

“We shall see.” The Demonfather grumbled.

“Where’s Skythrasher?” I asked, suddenly aware that the young general was not among us.

“I released him to conduct training drills among his new battalion.” The Demonfather replied, “I thought it best to acquaint him a bit more with his new underlings, and to allow the Lady some room to breathe.”

“You’ve Uplifted a new general?” Aeshphelar asked, “Yes, you do not have to say it. You have been busy indeed, Demonlord.”

“And I must stay busy, I’m afraid.” I sighed. The work of a Demonlord was never done, and while I would much rather have stayed inside the keep and slept off the residual weakness left over from Skythrasher’s Uplifting, it was up to me to meet with the remaining generals and win them to my side. It had to be me. Skythrasher was too inexperienced, Aeshphelar still recovering from years of imprisonment, and Demonfather, who would be equally respected as I, was taking the strain of the Uplifting harder than he let on. The old demon wouldn’t show it, but I knew that he was hurting within. His movements were sluggish even days later and his emerald eyes lacked some of their usual ferocity.

“I’m ordering the both of you to rest.” I said, “I will need you both at full strength for the battle ahead. Skythrasher will command the reserves here at the city until such a time as you are both ready to operate. Then, Demonfather will assume control of the reserves while Skythrasher will launch offensives against the larger resistance cells in the nearby area.”

“And what is my part in this grand defense?” Aeshphelar asked.

“The Lady of Plagues and Boils will do what she does best.” I said, “You will sow disease and chaos amidst their major population centers. They will be too busy fighting the plague within their ranks to bother trying to fight us.”

Aeshphelar returned a wicked smile at that. “I compliment your wisdom, Demonlord.”

“I’d still caution you about going to this meeting alone.” The Demonfather said, “Foebreaker was always difficult to control, even for your predecessor.”

“It has to be done.” I replied, “We will need the strength of every true demon for this battle.”

“And if you do not return?” The Demonfather asked.

“Give me six days. I can think of no reason why this quest might take longer.” I told him, “If I do not return by the dawn of the seventh, then you will become Demonlord, and it will be up to you to find a way to utilize the power of the Truck and send us home.”