"Fine."
Agra knew immediately that Lilith was upset. They had been together too long for her not to recognize the signs.
"Want to talk about it?"
"There really isn’t much to talk about."
"Meaning there is but you're not sure now is the time. So what’s up... and don't start the ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ crap. Did Intunecat say or do something to piss you off?"
"Good grief, no! He’s the perfect gentleman," laughed Lilith. "We just talked about the old days... and it brought up memories I’d just as soon have forgotten."
"Ahhh. Let me guess... your origin and the good old days," Agra replied intuitively.
"And what made you jump to that conclusion?"
"It’s the only period that puts you in your most pensive mood... and besides... Intunecat is ancient. He’s probably heard every story out there except yours. I have no doubt he would find it interesting. Few know the truth about you and Adam."
"There aren’t very many who even know I existed. It's probably just as well too. It's a story that would turn the human world topsy-turvy."
"Yeah. They need their beliefs... even if they aren't accurate. But who are we to say otherwise? So... let me guess what’s got you down... the Child, right?"
"We’ve been together too long."
"Naw... but I know the look. You may have fooled the others into believing you were indifferent to her but I know you too well. She was still your child."
"Yes... she was," replied Lilith.
* * *
She had a name... or at least once there was a time when she did. Now, however, she was only known as the Demon Child or just the Child. Even Lilith and Dis refused to call her by her real name... but she didn’t care. There was a strange sort of prestige in the anonymity of being nameless even if she was the most recognized offspring in the Underworld... and the most feared.
Most of the demons and minions chose to ignore her, thinking it safer to pretend she didn’t exist. Others acknowledged her existence only to stay in her mother and father’s good graces. They were the ones that amused her. Stupidity wasn’t in short supply in the Underworld. The more intelligent inhabitants knew Dis didn't care what his followers thought and Lilith had little tolerance for sycophants. Neither did the Demon Child. On the other hand, it didn't mean she couldn’t use them for her own purposes. The only reason the stupid existed was for the benefit of those who were smart enough to use them. She had come to that conclusion on her own.
From the moment of conception, she had an awareness of the world beyond the womb. By the time she was born, she understood life in the Underworld, its strengths and its weaknesses. Although there were alliances amongst small groups of demons or minions, only Dis and Lilith commanded total obedience and only they received it. By her birthright, the Child felt she was entitled to the same. It was the beginning of her fall from grace.
Were she a normal demon child instead of the offspring of the Underlord and an altered human, she would have enjoyed the attention of the others as they competed to gain her favors. Power in the Underworld came from the number of followers one commanded and a demon's relationship with the Legion of the Elite... those delegated by Dis to keep the order in his domain. Some of the Legion were from his seedline and were called the Nephilim. They were the result of liaisons between Dis and the Fallen, followers of the Twin who had decided to champion Dis during the Great War. The Fallen were not his original supporters, the ones who believed in their Master’s free lifestyle, but had sided with him rather than live with the more restricted beliefs of his brother. Like their sire, the Nephilim were more interested in their lust than their jobs, preferring to leave everything to their underlings. Discovering this weakness, the Child found it easy to maneuver around the Underworld without attracting the attention of her parents... and eventually created enough havoc to forever change the future of Heaven and Hell and all the worlds in between.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Agra asked quietly, interrupting Lilith’s thoughts.
"After all this time? What is there to say?"
Agra shrugged.
"Maybe the truth. No one ever knew what really happened between the two of you... and Dis was conspicuously absent for a long time afterward. Some say she was the cause of the rift between you and the Underlord."
Lilith snorted.
"Only the ignorant. She may have contributed to it in a small way but we had grown apart long before she started her mischief. Dis doesn’t have it in him to be monogamous and I don’t have the patience to live an eternity with someone who’s main thought in life is sex."
"Yeah, so I found out," smirked Agra.
"I can imagine. You sure didn’t stay married to him very long."
Agra gave her friend a mischievous grin.
"But it was the best thing that ever happened to me. It’s the only reason he gave me the whores. After a few hundred years he
begged
me to leave him... promised me half his kingdom," she laughed. "His half... not yours."
"That must have been something."
"Oh... you can’t imagine. When I told him I didn’t want anything other than to be given domain over the whores, he was so relieved he released me from my fealty oath to him."
"Dis nullified your vow?"
"Yep. I am a free spirit, so to speak... and so is anyone else I choose to emancipate, not that I do that very often."
"No wonder he leaves you alone. Only a few demons have achieved that level of freedom. I’m surprised the Twin hasn’t tried to convince you to join his Army."
"I think he knows I could never be on his side. Like Dis, I like my sex too much. I am just a lot more discriminating than he. Now enough of me. What really happened between you and the Child."
"I’m not sure where to begin," murmured Lilith. "She was, I don’t know... someone who should never have been born... a hybrid between two totally different species or energies, I guess. I blame myself for what happened. Anyway, when I found out I was pregnant I wasn’t sure what to think. Hell, I didn’t even know what being pregnant meant. Dis had to explain it to me. The whole concept seemed... alien. I think she sensed my confusion... my reluctance even before she was born. There were times when I felt as if she were calling to me... begging me to love her... to want her... and I pretended I didn't hear. I told myself it was my imagination. After all, she wasn’t even born yet. How could she feel or know what I was thinking."
"I knew!"
came a reply, uninvited, and totally unexpected.
Shaking her head, Lilith frowned at the intrusion. "
Child? It's been a long time!"
"Yes it has, Mother, but then you’ve tried your best to forget me, haven’t you?"
"Forget? No, I could never forget you. You're still a part of me."
"Then why do I feel forgotten?"
Lilith couldn’t answer that. Perhaps there wasn’t an answer or perhaps the Child was right. She certainly had tried not to think about her daughter, avoiding anything that reminded her of the child she had abandoned before she was ever born. In a way it was an unconscious attempt to forget her.
"I’m sorry,"
Lilith replied, knowing it wasn’t enough but unable to offer anything more.
"Am I never to be forgiven, Mother?"
the voice asked.
There was no pleading, no sorrow in her question. It was asked calmly and unemotionally as if they were discussing the weather or something more mundane, but behind the pretended dispassion were thousands of years of a haunting loneliness and millions of lost souls who had died because of her personal vendetta.
Lilith still remembered her daughter's face. She was beautiful. How could she be anything else with parents like Dis and she. He was the perfect male... large, muscular and irresistibly handsome. With dark red skin and glowing, reddish brown eyes and elliptical pupils, he was a sexual predator who could sense every female’s wants and needs, and then fulfill them. The consummate charmer, few could deny him once he started his seduction... and that was the problem. Dis grew bored with his conquests quickly. Lilith had lasted the longest, staying with him for over 10,000 years, and although he never grew tired of her, she finally grew bored with their relationship. Eventually their decision to part had been mutual, but he still retained a strong affection for her. There was no question that he respected many of his exes. She, however, had been the one person he came the closest to actually loving.
"Am I interrupting something?"
For a moment, Lilith looked confused as she stared blankly at Agra. Her daughter's sudden mental intrusion had caught her by surprise, leaving her slightly disoriented.
"Sorry. Where was I?"
"You were wondering if the Child sensed your reluctance to have her."
Lilith nodded, picking up where she had left off.
"When she was born she was able to walk and talk within months. She grew at a phenomenal rate and was as big as a human teenager in less than five years."
"Wow! That must have been impressive."
"To say the least! At first Dis was smug about it but quickly lost interest. Soon she was running around the Underworld getting into all sorts of mischief. Perhaps if I had paid more attention, things might have turned out differently," sighed Lilith.
"Or not!"
Other than a slight frown, Lilith gave no indication she heard the comment.
"It’s a little late to second guess things."
"I know. Anyway, somewhere along the line she heard the story of Adam and me... or at least some perverted version of it and decided to punish him on my behalf. Can you image? She hated him because of some stupid rumor. My child wanted to defend my honor when there was nothing to defend."
"I was just a child, Mother. I knew a lot about the world but nothing about feelings."
"What in the world did she hear?"
"Mostly bullshit. Had she been a little more mature she'd have known it for what it was. Then again, had I been wiser, I'd have seen what she was becoming and intervened."
"None of us is perfect," responded Agra. "And you surely can't blame yourself for your lack of knowledge, considering your origin."
"No. I feel no guilt about what I didn't know. Maybe I should but I know there was no way for me to understand what a child was. That doesn't stop me from wishing I had though. Some demons were angry about the Great Battle and blamed me for their losses. A lot of demons and minions were destroyed. Everyone lost friends."
"And they used her to punish you. Payback was hell, as they say. In your case, Hell's child."
"Yes. They told her Adam tried to force himself on me. That he was abusive and had humiliated me so much I ran away. Then they said he lied to the Twin and had me kicked out of Paradise and then whined about wanting me back."
"Well, if there’s one thing you can bet on in the Underworld, it’s that the place is filled with idiots. Sometimes I think Dis's brother doesn’t want his Army trying too hard to save some of these souls."
"You may have a point. Anyway, the stories were so ridiculous I never took them seriously. I guess I expected my daughter to know better, too. She was so bright."
"Maybe she was, but like you said, she was still a child."
"Yes. I know that now. Remember I was created fully cognizant of everything around me. I had no childhood, no infancy. There was no reason to believe her to be any different."
"
But I was different! I was a half-breed... the cross between a human and a demon. You should have known better
."
"Why? I wasn't human at the time, and in my own way, I am the real half-breed; more so than you. I was completely human before Dis made me a demon. Contrary to what you think, you were conceived from two demons."
"You have never been pure demon, Mother. Even Father, as powerful as he is, could never completely alter his brother's creation. Within you still lies the essence of humanity."