Infernum

It was midday on Caelo and only a few clouds were in the sky when a meeting was called. The lords of Caelo were to gather to discuss a troubling event.

“Good, many have come,” said Lord Prisca who was believed to be the oldest, after Saccularius ascended, although no one could remember which one actually was.

“Yes, many have come,” said Demeter, the only female lord left, not that it mattered since the lords had stopped breeding countless millennia ago.

“Where is Felix?” asked Acacius who shied back after asking the question as he usually did, being rather timid compared to the others.

“Felix has risen to the plains of ascension,” a voice called out.

“It is about time, he has been an orb for nearly five centuries now,” said Drust who was referring to the state of being a lord took just prior to ascension. He scanned the room and took notice of all who had come to the meeting. There was Titus of course, who never missed a gathering. Standing near one of the columns of the round council chamber were Belenos, Tertius, and Decimus. Just across from them stood Septimus and Nonus, who rarely attended meetings as they preferred to spend their time in meditation attempting to speed along their ascension. Octavius and Quintus stood near the entryway showing little concern or interest in the meeting, but they showed up, which meant volumes in their eyes. And last but not least there was Cnaeus who was standing where he always did, next to Drust, the unofficial leader of the lords, as he tended to care the most about their well-being.

Drust looked around the room and took note of who showed up, twelve was a good number he thought to himself. Thirteen counting himself was more than half of the lords who remained in physical form; of the one hundred seventy-seven who originally came to Caelo only twenty had remained in their physical form, all the rest had ascended to a higher state of being, transcending to a state of pure energy to join the rest of their species who had all ascended over the eons of their existence.

“Come to order!” announced Cnaeus with only a small prompting gesture from Drust. Cnaeus’ voice commanded attention as it was a remnant of the old world when he commanded legions of lords as their general. The lords in the room all looked toward Cnaeus and slowly moved to the center of the room. Drust stepped forward moving ahead of Cnaeus showing his dominance.

“The first order of business is the matter of Felix, as you know he has ascended leaving us with a vacancy in our ranks,” Drust said with conviction and concern. “Humans have not seen our true form in half a millennium, for them to see us now could be a minor setback,” Drust exclaimed. He looked over to Titus. “Titus, I put you in charge of this. You will be our new face, make our power known in your appearance.” Titus said nothing but the slight nod of his head said everything Drust wanted to hear. Drust looked around the room and waited for any challenges to Titus’s new position, but their silence meant they were all in agreement. “And now there is the matter of House Animosus. Gabriel and Hope were both sent to the Infernum to plug a hole, and now both have gone missing,” Drust said to open the discussion.

“Then they have failed them,” said Demeter in an assuming tone. “I will call for two more to be made to replace them, as soon as another guard dispatches the loose daemon on Earth,” she said in the same tone.

“Not so fast, Demeter, they may still be alive,” said Acacius in an argumentative voice. “We need to give them more time; they could be having problems unrelated to the daemon,” Acacius added. He looked around the room for support of his statement but there was none.

Prisca stepped forward. “What if it was not a daemon that got out? What if it was a Voluptuary, have we considered that possibility?” he said in a calm and collected manner; then he stepped back.

“The Voluptuaries are not a curious race; they would not have ventured from the paradise we gave them,” Acacius said.

“We must investigate this matter further, we must learn of House Animosus’ fate,” Titus said with concern. Nonus and Decimus both nodded their heads in agreement, momentarily taking part in the discussion.

“Do we send a puppet?” Demeter asked, referring to the guardsmen with their ribbons that looked like puppet strings and their eagerness to follow orders.

“If it was a Voluptuary that surfaced, we cannot risk further contact with it. Perhaps it is time to end that tiny planet and be done with it for good,” Belenos said with a smirk on his face.

Acacius quickly stepped forward. “We cannot consider this course of action, ignoring the billions of inhabitants who now reside on Earth. There is a matter of the Voluptuary Concordat. We cannot break that contract, this is our word!” he loudly reminded the others. Tertius, Septimus, Demeter, and Nonus all nodded their heads agreeing with him.

Belenos turned toward him. “These humans are insects for us to use and then destroy, why must you continue to protect them?” he yelled at Acacius.

“For someone who thinks so little of them, you seem to waste a lot of time thinking of ways to dispatch them. Do you really fear them that much, Belenos?” Acacius replied with a grin.

Belenos and Acacius were at each other’s throats about to have it out in another one of their pointless arguments when Drust stepped in. “Enough!” Drust screamed, instantly commanding their attention. “You know we need that planet, Belenos, our ship has almost extracted all the ore from this one and we cannot ascend without it. Soon it will be time to move on again, the time is drawing near.”

“We have been through this before, Drust, We don’t need these humans. We can defend ourselves without them,” Belenos argued.

“True. We have many enemies out there and we can protect ourselves if need be, but why fight our own battles when we have puppets to do it for us? Finding this race was a miracle, you know that there are not many creatures out there that are smart enough to use our technology and yet gullible enough to do our bidding,” Drust said, snickering.

“Yes, they have proved most useful, Drust; they have eradicated numerous threats over the years while we have extracted the ore from this world,” Demeter said, agreeing with Drust. “But what do we do now?”

Drust looked over to Demeter and with a cold-hearted tone he answered, “We stick to the plan as it was handed down to us. But for now we will send puppets to eradicate all traces of House Animosus on Earth, we cannot risk any exposure with the Voluptuaries and therefore they must be eradicated.”

All the other Lords in the room nodded in agreement except Acacius, of course, who just dropped his head in shame.

Drust looked over to Titus. “Titus, this task will fall upon you as it is now your duty to speak for us. You will send for Probatus of House Condietur, Ariston of House Nobilis, Coeus of House Tracta, Aiolus of House Umbra and the twins Daire and Danu of House Gemina. You will summon them here and assign them the task of tracking down and eliminating any member of House Animosis,” he commanded.

Acacius was staring hard at Drust as he continued to list names off to Titus; as Drust finished his sentence Acacius had to say something.

“Drust, is that not a bit extreme? I mean six puppets? We have not sent that many puppets since the destruction of House Sully,” he reminded the other lords in the room.

Belenos looked over at Acacius and smiled. “Some of my best work,” he said with a snicker.

Drust turned toward Acacius and Belenos quickly. “Enough you two! This matter needs our attention and quickly, we cannot risk any further of a delay.” He looked over at Titus.

Titus nodded his head slightly in agreement and then began to walk out of the room to do as commanded.

The meeting was adjourned, and the lords made their exit from the room mostly in groups as idle chit chat about the meeting was exchanged, mostly that is except for Lord Acacius who left the room by himself in quite a hurry. Once he rounded the corner and was out of sight he raised his hand slowly and ribbons came out of the floor and formed a large circle. It was a porthole and Acacius could not get through it quickly enough.