Underworld. Pentagram City, Silence District, Silence Mansion in the Forest of Mist. A week after the Comet stopped being felt.
"...and thus, assuming my knowledge is sufficiently reliable or its margin of error is within an acceptable range, it can be stated with certainty that Earth souls, 'poisoned' or souls who have undergone 'Kara', undergo some sort of 'transformation' within, something that causes their 'inheritance' from Eve..."
William kept notes. He was summarizing all the latest information the 'priest' had received during services and close observations of the congregation... the ones that came to him. Those who dared to do something strange by the standards of modern common sense and logic.
To turn to a priest for help. To save their souls. In all seriousness, because other things just don't work in this age of reason.
William... had a hard time working with these souls. It had been so many years, even if he could allocate enough time to research his... "Kara" that had struck the souls of the survivors, he... It wasn't that William couldn't move forward in that direction... It was just that there were so many things to do.... Charlie, maneuvering between her, Lilith and Lucifer, there... World War II, when he, Father George and the sisters gave shelter, refuge and aid to the residents, Jews and just refugees... even deserters that were just afraid to die.
...William had a lot to do. That's right. Business.
Even now, besides these calculations, William was busy with more "urgent" business - the "Mist Sanctuary", a place where he would be able to expand, creating and experimenting with Incarnation, Life and Soul, which would definitely... definitely... definitely move him in the direction of "Kara"... William was definitely not trying to run away from it, definitely not afraid... He was definitely not ashamed of why he couldn't work properly with poor people who could only get temporary relief, but not healing....
William was disgusted with himself. Christmas Eve was coming up, Charlie was already inviting him to the Mansion, and William had immediately started planning the meeting!
"The only good thing is that Eve is going to Heaven..." William sighed, leaning back in his chair, throwing the last of the creature calculations on the table. Sketches, calculations, formulas, Patterns... William chuckled quietly, imagining what these scribblings would look like to a less educated soul... at least his own.
"The writings of a madman, would probably think so...", William chuckled quietly, kneading his tired face with the palm of his hand as his thoughts drifted from one topic to another.
William had stopped feeling "Comet" a week, seven hours, thirty-five minutes ago, the "same" where Eve slept, the one that was supposed to go to Paradise. William knew the reason perfectly well. William's gaze fell on a package that lay a little further away, on the edge of the couch.
A simple cardboard box that could easily be confused with the ones that people made nowadays, at least... William thought that people made cardboard and made products out of it. He'd learned about it recently, with this package, and now he remembered something similar that the Minions had brought from Earth...
The dark brown cardboard box was adorned only by a golden thread, like the one from the legend of Theseus, which held a small golden note, the author of which William recognized immediately.
She's home.
Fucking hell, she's home with me and*two words crossed out*.
You're a fucking asshole, just the faggotiest of faggots.....
(William grinned then, chuckling slightly as he ran his eyes over the uneven handwriting)
SHE'S HOME, FOR FUCK'S SAKE!
Only now was I able to take the time, to express, at least in some way.
All that this means to me. To my children.
Thank you
I know you got some kind of Sentence, I know you think it was deserved, but... If you ever want to try to cheat the fucking system that kept my Eva out for some fucking reason... Just write me and I'll cover it or try to figure something out.
(This is in case reality bends you over and you want to save yourself somehow, but I respect your desire to get that cunt that made you happy last time we met.)
(Then, William's eye twitched, and the good grin turned to a sinister grin as William paused in his reading of the note, taking a moment to visualize future maps for Adam... Just to calm himself down a bit).
No idea what was going on with her. You don't discuss such things in letters.
...What else is there...*Pair of weird drawings of elephant heads.
3===) 3======) DD======D
8====D
...An acquaintance did "ODEL" (suck a dick with your spelling rules!) what you asked me to tell her....
(William's eye twitched once more and his hand nearly crumpled the paper).
I feel fucking great. I'm happy. Titty (everyone) is too. The wife is too.
Thank you.
I'll bring the goodies later, don't be mad.
Suck the bibu and thanks again.
William laughed quietly, shaking his head as he recalled the funny text. The main thing in it was not the promise of some "gifts", not the message of Sera's readiness.
William was pleased that he could naturally feel the emotion of the text. He could easily imagine the smile with which Adam had written to him, could easily imagine him drawing those "elephants" on the page, thinking of how to veil the phrases they needed, while Eve walked or even sat in the background.
He was genuinely happy for his friend, remembering his well-deserved happiness with a faint smile.
"At least something good came out of that damned Song...", William sighed, stretching and getting up from the comfortable armchair of the hallway that was adjacent to the kitchen, where he was going to make himself a new batch of tea.... as he usually did it with his hands, rather than by weaving or constructing, wishing to change his occupation for the sake of a new "go".
The dark wood, decorated in a gradient 'varnish', creaked pleasantly under his pink bunny slippers as William rose from his dark brown, floor-appropriate, minimalist chair. He pushed the table back into place between the two sofas, separated by a small corner, the farthest of which had its back to the small fireplace, which was now actively burning, adding to the coziness of the already warm room, filled with dim golden light.
William knew that it was winter on Earth, at least in his England, so that instead of the usual raindrops on the windows that almost completely filled the "hallway" of his house, there was now white snow that was not visible because of the dark window coverings.
Next to the large wide TV, there was a small decorative stove, which served as a beautiful cover for a device enchanted to receive all the waste paper, which then went either to his office, which was located on the second floor of his Mansion, or flew directly to his coffee table.
William didn't like TV, not as much as Alastor, who couldn't stand it, destroying any manifestation of the technology, but... William sometimes watched old reports on Charlie's work, some of the "cartoons" that were now being produced on Earth, and sometimes used the TV to monitor and project images from the "cameras" of the Crawlers.
William headed for the kitchen with the intention of making.....
Knock, knock.
There was a knock on the door. William blinked.
He would have even wanted to turn immediately to the door, intending to immediately unlock it, as a couple of sensible thoughts caught up with him.
"I have no guests and will not have any. Sinners are trash that won't be worthy of coming through here, much less those who can't even find my Mansion, and Charlie, if he somehow finds himself outside the Mansion, hasn't knocked in a long time..." - was the first thought that ran through William's mind as he turned sharply on his right foot toward the solid wooden enchanted door.
"Lords have never been invited into my home, and Replicants are immediately transported here from the fireplace..." - a second thought as William warily approached the door that he, such a fool, hadn't even bothered to make a peephole in.
William stopped once more, halfway to the very door behind which the unknown man was. William hesitated, catching himself in a neko.....
Knock. Knock. Tu-uk.
There were new, stronger sounds from behind the door, which made the door itself creak faintly. William just blinked, adjusting his white robe and smoothing his black hair down to his shoulders....
William opened the door.
"Hi. Got any salt?" - came a cheerful voice.
"Lucifer." - William said in a somewhat doomed tone, looking at his "uninvited guest". His mood immediately sank.
Lucifer was in the same "circus manager's outfit" as before, just as William remembered him from their first meeting, somewhere and sometime back there... in a strange and quiet town named after the male sex organ.
"Hello, neighbor." - Lucifer nodded to him, smiling a friendly smile that did not arouse any confidence in William, who was looking at his guest with an emotionless expression. -" Will there be salt?" - Lucifer repeated the question, leaning on his cane, slightly swaying on the black heels of his shoes. - "I'm out of my own, so I thought I'd stop by..." - Lucifer smiled, averting his gaze behind William's back.
"Did the Aspect of Wonder and Imagination run out of something?" - William tilted his head, arching an eyebrow questioningly, to which Lucifer only nodded gravely, scrutinizing William's "parade" appearance.
"I don't believe it myself, but she just took off." - Lucifer spread his hands and closed his eyes. - "I also like your pajamas. Wo!" - Lucifer gave a thumbs-up, smiling broadly. William just blinked.
"Get out." - William sharply slammed the door in the Devil's face.
Or rather, he tried to, for the door just spun in place, simply passing through his wall, immediately returning to its "original" position, right into the hand of a frowning William. Lucifer quickly patted his eyes, not even trying to hide his grin.
" So you're going to let your King in...?" - Lucifer asked in a cheerful tone, looking at these efforts with a playful glint in his eyes. - "More precisely...!" - Lucifer sighed sharply, twirling his cane, hitting it against William's porch with a satisfying clatter. - "Partner?" - Lucifer interjected snidely, leaning toward William. He paid no attention at all to the fact that he was almost a head shorter than William, which he sighed tiredly, just turning around to head for the kitchen.
"Just don't kill yourself." - William tossed, taking a quick step back toward the kitchen as Lucifer, chuckling, crossed the threshold.
Like a polite, intelligent man with manners, he wiped off his shoes first, took off his shoes, only to find that his feet were wearing the same cute slippers, but in the shape of ducks. Yellow ducks.
Lucifer whistled naturally, looking around the large room, full of glass, cozy golden light and space. He paced the room, circling as if he wanted to take in the whole room at once, though he didn't need to. He and William knew what they were capable of.
"This is the shack!" - Lucifer nodded, looking around the room with a delighted smile. - "Even old Christ would be envious. I approve." - Lucifer nodded importantly, taking a seat on the wide rectangular sofa at the window of the corner closest to the door.
Lucifer loudly plumped down on the black sofa, immediately putting a white cushion under himself, throwing his feet on the soft square, immediately looking at the large, almost full-wall window, behind which there was a beautiful forest landscape, on which the artist had added snow and pleasant evening fog with the redness of clouds. And what a pleasant frosty wind there was!
William simply put the kettle on, with a sharp movement opening the door of the upper cupboard where the salt was kept. He was a polite and friendly guest, and therefore, even if the Devil himself came to him, breaking all the laws and regulations of his realm that Lilith so honored, William would give him all his hospitality, as long as the Fallen Seraphim himself did not want otherwise.
"Did you really, as in the Scriptures, show Christ the earthly kingdoms?" - William asked without interest, making two cups of tea, himself three and a half spoonfuls of sugar and Lucifer three and a half and some milk. Lucifer chuckled, tossing his cylinder on the corner of the armrest at the opposite end of the sofa with a graceful gesture.
"Oh, you should know that humble man!" - Lucifer shook his head, playing with his cane. -" All his life he sat in his Judea, never seeing the light of day, though the Son of God is supposed to represent all men!" - Lucifer raised his finger importantly, nodding.
"And why would you show Jesus the Earth? Just for fun?" - William asked monotonously, trying not to show... irritation.
He, whatever that means in regards to the Prince of Deception, has known Lucifer for several years. He's close to his daughter and has a pretty good relationship with Lilith. The Devil isn't going to take him out-kill-kill-traumatize him, or he'd come in with a different mood, words, and just a different atmosphere. So...
William wasn't in any way afraid of Lucifer, no... He just didn't... care?
William is already in Hell. He's already doomed. His soul is warping more and more every day, though his defenses and preventative measures are delaying that moment as best they can. He no longer cares whether Lucifer, Lilith, One of the Sins, the Goetia Princes, or Paimon himself, Lilith's right hand. They won't do anything worse to William than what God has condemned him to.
Even so, William had a healthy fear of the imagination and cunning of the Aspect of Imagination, albeit taking liberties that Lucifer himself was indifferent to.
"You wouldn't believe it!" - Lucifer sighed, rising slightly from the couch.
"I won't believe it." - William nodded, arranging the cups on the cup holders, placing the salt next to Lucifer's cup. -" Here's the salt." - William nodded, sitting down as far away from Lucifer as he could, keeping his conversation polite. The man merely hummed, sitting upright.
"Even so..." - Lucifer smirked and looked away. - "Then I was just being kind and wanting to help people!" - Lucifer looked at William with wide eyes. He just blinked, not a single emotion showing on his face.
Lucifer's eye twitched, and the corners of William's lips lifted faintly.
"Just like you did with Eve?" - William tilted his head, to which Lucifer puffed his cheeks playfully, turning away childishly and crossing his arms over his chest.
"She's already in Paradise, leave her alone... In fact, I don't want to talk about it now!" - Lucifer turned up his non-existent nose. William just sipped his tea, covering his eyes.
A moment of silence. William sipped more tea.
Lucifer was still sulking.
Another moment, and William took an even louder sip. Lucifer, deliberately-unintentionally visibly turned on William, with loud sighs, puffing.
William simply sipped his tea.
Lucifer turned abruptly, drank the entire cup of tea in a gulp, swaying back and forth unhappily.
"Actually, I did it because that Jew was a lucky break, and God needed some way to prove to me that people can reform!" - Lucifer nodded, and immediately brought out a bottle of wine, along with a glass of bloody liquid that smelled of some exotic berries.
William nodded, knowing from Christ's own words that he was in fact the Son of God, contacting Lucifer only at the will of the Devil, without being distorted in any way, further assuring the Seraphim of his purity and purity.
"I believe." - William said quietly, to which Lucifer only groaned loudly, dropping his shoulders.
"Oh-ho... You used to be more cheerful..." - Lucifer stretched out, toying with the glass and the liquid in it. William just shrugged.
"You know yourself how much your 'paradise' changes people." - William nodded, gesturing to his favorite teapot, which immediately poured a new hot liquid.
"You used to be white?" - Lucifer asked suspiciously, scrutinizing William's dark gray skin, where various runes flickered, meaningless and altered by William.
William didn't comment on what Lucifer said, just stared at the smirk of the Fallen One leaning over him.
" ...You wanted salt." - He pointed his finger at the waiting earth salt from some warehouse in London.
" Oh, right." - Lucifer nodded, immediately putting the glass back in its place, levitating the opened package with a gesture ...
Burying his face in it, inhaling loudly.
"...Oh!" - Lucifer wiped a trail of salt from the place where people's noses should be. - "That's the stuff! Good salt." - Lucifer nodded, smiling as he looked at what William had given him. The same, just sighed.
"It's simple table salt, not 'that' salt." - William voiced tiredly, looking at Lucifer's widening eyes.
"And I know." - Lucifer nodded, tasting the salt crystals with two black claws. - "Did you know that's how we used to take salt in Ancient times?" - Lucifer asked ingratiatingly, looking into William's calm gaze.
"I know now." - William nodded again. - "Is this from the 'most true facts from Lucifer' opera?" - William tilted his head, setting his cup aside and leaning back on the couch. Lucifer repeated his gesture.
"Something like that." - Lucifer nodded. Then with a sly look at William. Again. - "Did you know that the Greek Gods of Olympus were not gods, but archmages of my art?" - Lucifer asked with a touch of pride, finally evoking an emotion from William. His eyes widen in surprise.
"I thought they used God's Miracle?" - William asked, putting a pillow under his tired back. Lucifer chuckled.
"Nah. Those degenerates who fucked first each other and then half the people of that Greece have long since been abandoned by God's Grace." - Lucifer shook his head playfully, waving his legs. - "Tell me this..." - Lucifer leaned sharply toward William, resting his hands on the soft edges of the couch.
"...What did the Olympians lack that I lack?" - At Lucifer's question, William's eyes narrowed and the Devil's smirk almost became a grin.
"Responsibility?" - William asked, lifting the corners of his lips.
"Mimo." - Lucifer shook his head.
" Adult thinking in a powerful body." - William folded his hands into a lock on his chest, leaning back fully on the pillow, assuming a semi-reclining position.
"Not this time." - Lucifer nodded.
"Sense of style." - Without blinking an eye, William voiced it, eliciting an exasperated sigh from Lucifer.
"...How dare you!" - The Devil's angry tone did not frighten William, who simply chuckled weakly. Lucifer immediately confirmed William's thoughts, immediately calming down. - "...How dare you talk about my wife and daughter like that!"
"What does that have to do with it?" - William asked with interest, trying to avoid direct eye contact with the Devil.
"What has to do with what?" - Lucifer immediately changed his tone and style of speech.
"...You wanted to take the salt." - William nodded at the bag hovering nearby. - "You took it." - Lucifer nodded in agreement. - "What else did you want?"
In a flash, the packet of salt disappeared in a golden flash, as if burned in a flame like paper, and Lucifer rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Really, why did I come here...?" - narrowing his eyes, Lucifer nodded thoughtfully at his thoughts, playing out an even bigger spectacle that William just wanted to hide from behind his studies.
" Salt?" - William's tired tone and doomed sigh didn't need to be played. Lucifer simply brushed it off.
"No, not that, too shallow..." - Lucifer shook his head as his eyes ran thoughtfully around the room. - "Mocked you, told you the truth about the past..." - Lucifer crooked his fingers, playing with his cane. - "Tricked you and just had a good joke..." - Lucifer continued, looking up at the ceiling as if asking the closed windows for answers.
William knew very well that this clowning could go on for a long time, until the Fallen Seraphim was truly bored, so he decided to finally play along with Lucifer.
"How about a 'threat'?" - William suggested, while Lucifer sighed in relief, nodding gratefully.
" Right. Thank you." - Lucifer sighed theatrically, naively gaining a full chest of air as his face-" "You piece of shit!" - Lucifer jabbed his finger accusingly at William. - "How dare you accuse me of lack of style, lack of manners and lack of beauty!" - the evil smirk was not of the 'horror' variety, rather it was just another 'playful' smirk when Lucifer wanted to... unwind?
In a way, Adam and Lucifer were alike, but as William knew very well, both would rather break every bone in their body before admitting such a thing, at least to themselves.
William just sighed, taking another sip of tea as Lucifer waited patiently for his words, caught in the same 'accusatory' pose. Not even a grimace of rage was removed.
"Let her have your face, 'red spots' or whatever it really is..." - William tossed, looking at Lucifer's cylinder, or rather the 'apple' and 'snake' that braided the crown and top of the hat. - "You just don't have..."
"WHAT?!" - Lucifer shouted, which strangely did not hurt William's ears in any way.
"Horns." - William shrugged, creating small figures of the Morningstar family with a wave of his hand. The Queen of Hell, proudly towering over the rest of the family, seemed much taller, thanks to her beautiful bardic horns that curled gracefully around her head, complementing the small tiara that was the symbol of power.
Lucifer only scrutinized the figures that appeared above his palm, paying special attention to "himself", occasionally glancing at the figure of Lilith. He bent, changed angles, looking at the image from many angles, and his pupils, like new camera lenses, shrank and enlarged.
"The models are good, praise here." - Lucifer nodded, massaging his chin. - "Do you make custom adult toys?" - Lucifer asked as if he were talking about the weather.
" ... 'Some of it' Adam showed me." - The corners of William's lips lifted slightly, seeing Lucifer's eye twitch for a moment. - "Yeah and the general 'lore' about goat horns and creating an image that doesn't arise from nothing doesn't help some..." - William mewled naively, clutching his hand. The image disappeared immediately, and Lucifer straightened up in a flash, sitting on the couch as if he hadn't moved, in exactly the same pose as before.
"Char Char and I have horns." - theatrically mockingly said Lucifer, unnecessarily naively scuffing up his nose, which was not there. - "Here's a look..."
William did not even have time to blink, as the "snake" and "apple" from Lucifer's cylinder, in a flash rushed to his master, and on his forehead, along the edges of the front of the skull, quickly grew purple horns. The horns looked upward in the shape of a simple "U", tapering at the beginning of the horns and coming out with tips in different directions.
The golden "snake" strangely encircled the horns themselves, curving slightly in the "back of the head", not completing the halo completely. The strange halo began with the "tail of the snake", ending with its muzzle, not reaching the end, "joined"... The Flame of the Hyena, above which was the very "apple"....
Against this background, the reddened white of Lucifer, highlighting the bloody color of golden eyes with vertical pupil could not even be noticed.
With this 'transformation', Lucifer seemed to have more 'predatory' notes. He immediately had a black tail with a sharp tip, in which there was some strange red spot, and the hem of his coat turned red and in them "opened" eyes....
"Beautiful, isn't it?" - He spoke in a deceptively soft voice, in which an otherworldly echo could be heard, which seemed to change Lucifer's soft voice, making it more rough, even "demonic" and "evil", then as if it were like a distant echo.
"...Charlie has a halo too?" - William swallowed, equalizing his breath. Lucifer's new "joke" had thrown off the atmosphere of the room, and William was sharply reminded of the power and might of the Fallen Seraphim, who was on a par with Michael himself.
"...You know... and a good question..." - Lucifer rubbed his chin thoughtfully as William gazed warily at the 'Flame' on Lucifer's 'halo'. - "I have no idea, but my Char Char has horns just like it... And most likely even better and more beautiful!" - words could even seem nice and pleasant, if they were not said in the echo between "demon" and "angel", strongly disrupting the mood.
A small photograph immediately appeared in Lucifer's hand, as if taken on some camera from the twenties or thirties, though the color and even... the mood, were in the photo. Lucifer, like an excited child, showed picture after picture of Charlie in her early childhood, when, according to the Prince of Deception, she had just "awakened" that part of her lineage and was always walking around with her horns, much to the amusement of her parents, for in a couple of pictures, Charlie was being comforted by a laughing Lilith.
"...And here Char-Char accidentally knocked over Lilith's favorite vase, which made her very upset and less likely to swing her head around trying to reach something taller than she was!" - Lucifer's low "demonic" voice, which only remotely resembled his former one, was enthusiastically broadcasting.
"...That's all wonderful, of course..." - William nodded, glancing warily at the strangely cheerful Lucifer. - "But why are you showing me this?" - William's words came out, and Lucifer immediately clenched his fist with the photo, where it, like a magician's, immediately disappeared.
Lucifer slowly, deliberately slowly turned to William, straightening up and putting his hands behind his back. The kind and wide smile was more like a smile of horror and excitement, and in the crimson eyes William saw his own death. In front of him was not a "kind, dumb and cheerful fool"...
Before him stood Lucifer Morning Star, who had created Sin and had repeatedly fought such creatures that would have given Adam a head start. William even read somewhere that some group of the Righteous had suggested that Lucifer could be stronger than Michael....
" And you tell me yourself?" - The banter and amusement was gone from Lucifer's voice, leaving the coldness of Cocytus, the usual smirk was gone, just a flat line. Bloodshot eyes looked at William more like an amused animal than something dangerous. - "What do you want with my daughter, Fallen Archangel Virgil, formerly William Anderson Jung?" - With one intonation, one question, Lucifer asked everything.
Why William had decided to interact with Lucifer's daughter in any way, why William had decided to play along with Charlie by helping her, why William had decided to...
William shook his head, turning to all his mental shields and practices, trying to regain his composure, which was unusually difficult under the gaze of the Devil himself, who had decided to cast off one of his masks.
William had to remind himself that he was already close to Charlie, that he was already on good terms with Lilith, that at the very least Lucifer couldn't just kill him and tell his daughter he was dead. And the rest...
"She's a pure and straightforward soul." - With a sigh, William raised his eyes back to the purple oceans. Lucifer didn't react in any way. - "She's fun to be with, and our acquaintance is interesting, and her ideas themselves..." - William tilted his head to the side, and Lucifer's pupils narrowed. - "Interesting, giving some hope..." - looked away from William.
"...Also, it seems to me that she has gone into you." - William abruptly changed his tone to a more cheerful one, though Lucifer himself....
"What, TRUTH!" - Lucifer immediately lost all his "image" and in an instant lost his voice, his horns, and the "snake" and "apple" immediately appeared on the cylinder.
William only had to smile awkwardly, nodding.
"She's so energetic, funny, and just winding up..." - William began to recount, trying to recall Lucifer's own exemplary behavior and Charlie's own stories.
"...With just an idea?!" - Lucifer interrupted him, moving closer, taking William by the shoulders, clenching his sharp claws, tearing his black-stained white robe slightly. - "What else did she tell you about me!" - Lucifer glared at him.
" ...That you tell interestingly..." - William began to tell what, in fact, Lucifer himself should already know. Charlie didn't go into her relationship with her father more than was "necessary"... That is, she didn't tell the most "old" stories from her life and didn't go further than her concerns about their relationship....
Sometimes William regretted that he knew so many "harmless" facts about the most terrible creatures of the Universe... From their kind and naive daughter, who blurted out such things as if he were her fiancé, at least the fact about the souls of demons, with whom Lilith regularly came in contact and tried to introduce Charlie... Without Oaths, Vows and other nonsense.
Charlie believed in Trust, that her good heart....
Thus, retelling some of the stories about Charlie's family to her father, carefully avoiding the topics most personal to Charlie herself, she and Lucifer...
"Those aren't bad drawings." - nodded to William's intricate calculations, the Miracle Aspect himself. - "Commendable aspirations." - nodded Lucifer, taking a couple of papers in one hand, looking with interest at the "sketches" of his future... Beasts? - "How about the Ekai?" - As if reading his mind, or just noticing the notes on the records themselves, Lucifer suggested, arching one eyebrow.
"Too narrow, doesn't fit all types of beings, and the very cultural code of Asia..." - William brushed off, pouring himself some new tea while Lucifer sipped a glass of some kind of wine. He didn't offer that to William, and the Fallen Archangel didn't insist.
They moved to the 'middle' of his living room, where his notes were, moving them from the small kitchen table, to the coffee table in the middle of the two couches. Lucifer and William settled on different couches, William taking the one with his back to the fireplace, and Lucifer taking the one on the right.
"Oh, really?" - Lucifer sighed sharply as William sighed heavily. - "...You came up with this idea too..." - Lucifer asked in a reproachful voice, carefully holding one single dark paper with white ink.
William knew very well that on those calculations, having decided to test Adam and Sera's words about that strange creature, as well as the complexities...
"See how the Master works!" - Lucifer exclaimed with a gesture, as if pulling an image from a drawing... A wave of golden-black energy, a broad grin of Lucifer, whose cylinder was lying next to him on the couch, and a couple of strange gestures....
"Ta-da!" - theatrically presented Lucifer his creation... - "The most naimile, fire-breathing, floating in both water and lava, able to float but not fly... Duckbill!" - The designated creature... 'ducktailed', William simply couldn't find another word for it. The sound of a "duckbill" with a white face, strange ears, an elongated beak, a purple body, sharp claws on duck's webbed feet, and a thick tail with strange smooth black outgrowths made... something between the quack of a duck, a swan, and a cat.
"Look how cute it is!" - Lucifer immediately sat down next to the "creature", stroking, scratching and just holding the contented and strangely kind creature to his face. It was breathing, making sounds and showing initiative, but...
"Something's not right about him," William immediately remarked.
He silently looked at the "creature" Lucifer was playing with, noting the truly "jewel-like" work of detail, worthy if not of God, then at least of his finest instrument.
No, now William understood what Adam had meant when he spoke of the "scary creature" that had caused quite a stir among the Seraphim, who might have been the first creature to be "banished" from Eden...
"A scary fucker that barely resembled anything that was created by Him and the Seraphim... It took a good fuck, a lot of consulting with the Seraphim, and me straining all my original brains, but we were able to get the scum to 'work' by significantly altering the one... You should have seen what that creature looked like originally..." - Adam's words, which described in more detail one of Morning Star's designs on Eden.
It seemed to William that this was roughly what "that" platypus looked like, but... Something... William couldn't name what exactly, was wrong with this creature. This creature and a couple others. A fox that looked like the one William had once seen in Eden, a golden duck that looked more like a toy than a living one...
They were all almost alive, almost having souls, which was unattainable for the other Seraphim, for 'living' could only be created by God...
"Maybe that's why Lucifer has such strange creatures?", William thought, listening to some of Lucifer's stories about the 'creatures' of the Earth after Eden...
They sat like that for a couple of hours while Lucifer told William stories of the past, adding images to them, as if giving him a show. William did not mind such lessons, watching the work of the Miracle Aspect, noticing some details and trying to memorize some of the processes of his work...
At the same time marveling at what it had been like in the days of Adam and Eve.
Who knew that some dinosaurs existed in their time, though they were almost immediately extinct.