“There you are finally!” he hissed, looking at these men with an appearance so frighteningly average that remembering their faces seemed a damnably unrealistic task. „What do you bring to me?”

„Cintron is falling”  smiled one of them. „The atmosphere is very revolutionary. All they need is weapons and a leader.”

„Here the demons are plotting something, but we still haven't established what,” added the other.

„Princess Ksira has been captured and escaped,” continued the third of them. Tiramis twitched with a hand gesture stopping the next from speaking.

”Tell the story.” he commanded.

„The priestesses of her order captured her and demanded her willful resignation from the throne. She escaped while keeping all her rights, but if she does not return soon they will judge her on the charge of desertion,” the spy straightened up evidently pleased with himself. After all, he knew that if his master wished to reach for the crown of Heaven himself, he would have just handed it to him on a plate.

„Where she is?” Asked the god of memories as he took out another cigarette and lit it with the flame of his own finger.

„I don't know," answered the man immediately. Tiramis inhaled heavily and then slowly let out the smoke without taking his red eyes off the man.

„What do you mean you don't know? I pay you so much that you should even know the colour of her underwear,” he burbled finally.

„I apologise, but she was too quick.... we lost her.”

„Find her and find out what she's going to do next,” he nodded at the first of them. “I don't care about anything else today. And you two...” he paused looking then at the second then at the third in the row. “Pray. Maybe that will save you.”

“But I... I brought the information,” groaned the third, the one who told him about the Lady of Heaven.

„Incomplete. Do you know what I can do with them?”

„No.”

„You don't know, because neither do I. I won't help her, I need data for that and I can't attack for the same reason. Everyone get out, but that's it. And for the future... I want to be informed about these kinds of incidents immediately, even when I don't call,” he growled before they left.

You were right. The queen has been overthrown.

“I am always right. Sometimes just a bit early or too late. She needs help,” he replied, sitting down slowly at the table.

Would you like to send me? You're not going there alone, are you?

Tiramis threw the still-burning cigarette into the corner of the room and poured wine into the glass he had left there earlier.

„I would go, but... I don't know if I should. I've got Beelzebub and Lucifer in a bunch, exactly as you wanted, but Ksira is something else. I don't want you to go there, she has enough problems without you. Better would be that Belz bodyguard, naive Arod. After all, he owes me money anyway, it's a fair deal. Then he wouldn't have to know it was me.”

Who else? She'll figure it out, she's clever.

He'd rather she didn't guess. He didn't have a good reputation in her eyes, or indeed in anyone's. It would be hard to have her comply with the demands of the Almighty Prince of Darkness, and he didn't have much choice, so at least he tried to have fun. If she didn't know, if his involvement in all this could be hidden it would be easier for her to accept help.

„I'll send a gun and some boy to Cintron. Will you tell me what the demons are up to?” He asked raising his glass to his lips.

No. But they're demons, so probably nothing good. Giggle.

He found it hard to take another breath, it was speaking again, eating him up bit by bit. He glanced at the closed door and then reached into his pocket for his powders, divided them carefully into dashes and took out one of the swipes of Demon Parchment to roll it up and snort what he had prepared for himself. A little high shouldn't interfere with anything.

Does it hurt you?

„How did you guess ? I'm about to throw up, and that's hardly appropriate for a ruler,” he muttered more to himself than to him as he rolled the piece of parchment in his fingers.

Four dashes, about as many as would kill the average man and a few too few for him to be gone for long. He tilted his head back, his long hair spilling down his back, and he closed his eyes. He was sleepy, tired and needed rest, but there was no time or conditions for it. And he had so little faith in his safety to let himself fall asleep.

Drink some wine, then it would help. As it always did.

Obediently he poured what was left into himself and waited for the pain and fatigue to subside leaving that nasty bitter aftertaste of chemistry and a slightly too much swirling image on his lips.

„Someday it will stop helping.”

It still works.

„Where's Lissi?” he hazarded, but knew full well what he would hear.

Probably in some whorehouse, like she's a whore.

„I'm asking seriously. Where is she? My spies know nothing about her, though I have sent four. That's more than guarding Ksira.”

I know, no amount of them will make you find her, because you don't need her. You can take care of Ispis for a change. That would be the girl for you.

„She's Beelzebub's girl and I'm not going to change that. If he stops liking me then he'll also stop pretending he doesn't see what I'm doing and Lucifer will put me in the dungeons.”

Take another share and see if they both play their roles .

„I don't want to do that. What your plans has no right to happen, they don't deserve it.”

They will deserve it, you'll see son. You should get rid of that conscience you recently uncovered and cleaned up. It's getting in your way.

He didn't answer that again, but he didn't plan to let all that happen. Not once again, not when he finally knew the stakes. He did, however, lay down his powders and stuck his eyes on the table top. He couldn't afford to protest at the moment.