Ashley's Tale - Demon's World 03

"Secondly, keep this knowledge to yourself. Tell no one, not even on your world. Humans are not as aggressive as Demons, but if they found out the riches of information here, I think they will invade when they can. Feel free to tell them what I did, and what I requested of you, but keep this repository of knowledge to yourself."

I immediately wanted to deny that, but found I could not. Humans would probably do anything to learn what was in here.

I said without thinking, "I can do that, I'll even pop over to say hi every couple of months to check on you after I go back home." Then I cringed, inside. He had started to feel like a friend, and I forgot to guard my speech.

He raised an eyebrow, "Is our newest Ruler going somewhere?"

I sighed, he had trusted me with five thousand years of his life's work, and asked me to take it over sometime in the future, how could I be less than honest with him now? Plus I hadn't got a whiff of deception from him all night.

I said sheepishly, "Me coming here was only ever a temporary measure, we are working on closing Earth off to any Dimensional travelers. Once that is done I don't need to be here. Ironically I am one of those police people you were talking about, I want to go home and back to my life."

His eyes went wide and he asked with an excited edge in his voice, "You can do that? Can you teach me how, Demons never learned."

I pondered that for a second and asked why.

He raised a brow, "Do you think I would have let them continue invading and enslaving races if I could stop them? It was hard enough to get them to stop the unnecessary violence and genocide. If I could close off this world to travel, I'd have done it long ago."

I considered this new idea, instead of closing Earth, put the enchantments in orbit here. Kind of like a big ass jail cell for the whole Demon race. Of course, it might be smart to do both. Demons probably aren't the only dangers in the multi-verse.

I explained, "Well, we discovered even a .005 G variance would be enough to stop a forming or even formed dimensional portal. So we are building eight devices to cover the Earth from orbit. Do you have anything that might do something similar?"

He shook his head, then elaborated, "Demons did learn how to create gravity, even anti-gravity fields. But the power requirements were huge for a small area. To use it for a whole planet... Where are you getting that power?"

"Witch magic," I said with a smile. "If you are serious I can ask her about it. Can I ask your advice on something?"

He replied, "I am serious, so please do. Of course, I'll have to vilify the damned Humans in public about how you ensnared us. What did you want advice on?"

I said, "When I leave, how do I do it with the least amount of disruption, I had planned to just go, but was thinking the power vacuum in nine demesnes, ten including mine, might be... chaotic and violent."

"When were you planning to leave?"

I squeaked out, my face trying for artfully cute, "Tomorrow." I cleared my throat sheepishly.

He sighed. "I'm glad I got you here tonight then. Well, I would say put someone in charge of your demesne and say you'll be back when your Earth demesne is under control. When you don't come back they will try and investigate, when the connection fails they will assume you either can't get back or was defeated. At that point all the vassal demesnes become separate again."

I smiled and said, "But what poor bastard would want my job?"

He laughed, "All of them of course."

After that he led me back up. After assuring him I would get back to him about the devices I walked out. I opened a portal back to my palace as soon as I got off his palace grounds and into the city...

My day wasn't over yet, I had to go over my night and face questioning on every detail of it from Devon and Bonnie as Simone looked on in amusement. I considered the idea of leaving this demesne to Simone, but she really didn't have the power to defend it. She was strong, stronger than most, just not in that upper two percent of power that the Rulers all seemed to have. It would be a death sentence.

When I got to the good part, I asked Simone to leave. It would hardly due for it to become general knowledge that the Demon race had been manipulated for the last five millennia and by a half Angel to boot. I had even considered asking her to come with us to Earth tomorrow, but that would have required telling her about the whole plan, which I wasn't keen to do.

I liked Simone, I just didn't trust her.

As for the tech warehouse, I didn't even tell Bonnie. I felt a little guilty about it, but I had given my word. I think Devon had a really hard time coming to grips with Harmon's view of the Demon race. Devon was a protector, an FBI agent, I think he was loathe to believe he would be a power hungry Demon willing to kill anyone in his way if he hadn't been raised among humans.

I wasn't quite sure either, but I did believe at the very least, the percentage of good verse evil, for lack of a better term, was skewed much differently for the Demons. Part of the survival trait was race survival, so surely there were some in which it would be apparent.

I finally had to break up the debate, I was tired. I headed back to my room with Bonnie; I decided I would wait until I was home before asking about closing off this planet. It would have to wait until the eight for Earth were finished anyway, and I was too tired to want to pop over and back.

Tomorrow my only goal was to find a replacement before heading back home in the afternoon...

In the morning I banished two more Demons, I think I was up to eight or so as Ruler, not including baby Dane or the asshat I had to kill. I went into my office and closed my eyes. I was scanning the city for the most powerful aura, besides mine. I think that might have been Devon, so I kept looking, ranging out farther into the city. I found one that was comparable to the other leaders I met.

I grabbed one of the Elven blocking charms, thinking whoever I left in charge would need all the help he or she could get. Following the trace I walked to the northwest side of the city with my usual entourage. As I got closer I could figure more out, it was a succubus. I figured out the building she was in and as I reached for the door I started feeling contentment and happiness, which sadly, confused me.

Those weren't the emotions Demons usually rolled with.

I snorted as I saw why. Turns out the most powerful Demon in the city was a breast feeding baby. Couldn't leave her in charge. I snorted, at least, not for a few years. I waved away the concerned look of the mother and stepped back outside to try again. As my search seemed to be coming up empty I wondered if I should have picked one of my challengers and seen what they said.

But eventually I found another aura I thought was strong enough and headed that way. It was in the northeast section. As we got closer I realized this one was female as well, which I thought odd. Perhaps all the powerful males from my city were the few non-rulers I banished? Figures, it was probably about to quiet down right as I was leaving.

It was another store, this one weapons. Daggers and such. I left everyone but Bonnie and Devon outside and walked in the door. She looked to be young, but when I scanned her she was older than I was, of course, I was still a baby in Demon years.

She asked, "Can I help you?"

I probably should have done it differently, but I just blurted out, "Want to rule the demesne?"

She snickered and rolled her eyes, "Sure, but the Ruler is a powerful bitch, won't she object?"

I snorted, I could feel genuine amusement from her and that she had no idea who I was. "Nope, this bitch has to take care of her demesne on Earth, and needs a vassal for this city."

It took her a minute, but she got there and her face whitened, "I'm so sorry Ruler, I didn't realize... Why me?"

"I need stability while I'm gone; you have the power to accomplish that. If you're willing to swear fealty to me as a vassal and if you actually want the job?" I gave her the get in control of my Earth demesne and be back to check on things here story that Harmon had suggested. She seemed a little suspicious, I was guessing it wasn't every day a Ruler handed off a demesne.

Finally she nodded and dropped to her knees. To my surprise, she knew the words and rattled them off, and just like that I felt the weight come off my shoulders. I really hated being a Ruler, I wasn't the type. I thought guiltily of Harmon, of course, I had a lot of time to decide on that one. Plus, how was it my responsibility?

I handed her the charm, at which point her eyes went wide, and I led her back to the palace. I liked her immediately, she had an understated sense of humor. Her name was Lori, and like Simone, I liked her, but I never showed her my back as I toured her through the palace. Being a Ruler in the Demon dimension was a nerve wracking thing.

It was with a great amount of relief that I opened a dual portal to my condo after lunch, but as Devon, Bonnie and I went through, despite Earth's new dimensional shielding, I couldn't shake the feeling that my homecoming would be temporary at best...