White as far as the eye can see.

  With snow covering everything, it made it even more difficult to find one’s way around, especially at night.

  Having slowed his speed, Lucifer flew gently, afraid of missing the stop Leonard would have made. Suddenly, to the right of his vision, he noticed a pentagram glinting in the darkness. Diving into the grove of fir trees spared by the snow, the Devil landed in the clearing at the center of the trees and gently placed a shivering Abigail near the fire. She nevertheless thanked him before taking refuge in front of the flames, under Leonard's amused gaze, seated on a golden enchantment, a red notebook in one hand, a pencil in the other. "Why such a delay?" she asked him with a smile. Since his friend's human body couldn't withstand the gusts of his speed, he had preferred to take his time so as not to inconvenience the young woman. A mocking smile coupled with a disparaging remark about Humanity, and Leonard plunged back into her work under Abigail's surprised gaze. Barely warmed, her body still trembling with chills, even though she was wrapped in her sleeping bag on her stone seat, she watched the Devil approach her.

  On the branches and trunks of the surrounding conifers, a fascinating spectacle of light and shadow unfolded, courtesy of the campfire. For the night, the grove would serve as their shelter, protecting them from the icy gusts of wind. As Lucifer sat down beside her, Abigail stifled a yawn with her hand but remained by the fire. Although he would have liked to start a conversation, the Devil struggled to find a topic and resigned himself to appreciating the situation in silence.

  They remained like that for long, blissful minutes. Then, trying to hide yet another yawn, Abigail gave in to fatigue, wished him goodnight, and went to her tent. Leonard watched her, and as soon as the human was in her shelter, she approached Lucifer, a bag in her hand. Holding out her belongings, she asked if he wouldn't prefer one of her magical shelters; she'd write the spell, and in five minutes, they could sleep inside a comfortable wooden cabin. With a smile, Lucifer thanked her but declined, preferring to leave the place as unmarked as possible by their presence, an intention that earned him a strange look from his fallen friend, though she said nothing more.

  He felt as though he had slept for barely an hour when the Devil awoke. Outside, darkness still covered the sky and the fire still burned. In the ochre and gold glimmers, Abigail's form was emerging. Pulling himself from his tent, he went to her and stood beside her.

  "You can't sleep either?" she asked him, her hands stretched out towards the fire.

  "No," admitted Lucifer, his gaze lost in the flames. "Neither do you, I see."

  “No, it’s true,” Abigail admitted. “I’m not in the right state of mind for that…”

  "How I understand you," sympathized the Devil. "Are thoughts tormenting you?"

  "Some. A lot, actually," she corrected herself. "But it's mostly because I don't know what to expect when we're in Hell. And you, what's worrying you?"

  “My thoughts also turn to Hell as well. What state will I find it in? Will it be as I left it, or will Beelzebub have changed it so much that I won’t recognize it? Will the friends and subjects I abandoned forgive my departure?” he listed quickly, as if simply putting his fears into words gave them substance. “I don’t know, and that terrifies me.”

  "But why? Even when Leonard spoke of the beginning of the rebellion, I didn't really understand," Abigail confided, giving him a sideways glance. "Aren't you the Lord of Hell? The King of the Fallen and the Demons?"

  “The demons never truly accepted me as their king. They submitted to the law because they had no choice, but as soon as another opportunity for regency arose, they rallied behind it,” explained Lucifer, troubled. “When I left, only the fallen were still loyal to me. I fear that now, they too have turned away.”

  Adding another log to the fire, Lucifer felt torn, tortured, unsure how to find any semblance of peace. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Abigail deep in thought, staring at the dancing shadows of the flames on the surrounding tree trunks. As if inspired by the sight, she turned and asked him for a description of Hell. When he replied that he had already done so, she interrupted him, insisting that he describe it in much greater detail, so that she would feel as if she had already been there when they set foot inside. Amused by his friend's determination, Lucifer felt a smile spread across his lips.

  For the next two hours, the Devil painted a picture for Abigail of Hell's many landscapes. Its vast, wild plain, was nestled between a mountain range to the northwest and a thousand and one volcanoes to the southeast. A river meandered lazily across Hell, bordered here and there by peaceful hamlets as well as by the four Infernal Cities. According to Leonard, Lilith had taken refuge in the mountains. She now lived amidst a labyrinth of rocky valleys with snow-capped peaks, lost among the caves and crevasses that crisscrossed her new territory. The cluster of active volcanoes, gigantic furnaces with thousands of basins, concealed the dwelling of the Infernal General Adramelech, itself hidden within a network of subterranean tunnels and buried magma chambers.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

  Lucifer also described to Abigail the cities of Hell, each different from the other: Irkalla, the pyramid city which the Infernal General Amon ruled by preaching peace and the only place where all species lived in harmony, though under martial law; Arall?, the city of demons left to the supervision of Beelzebub and where the flaws inherent in large cities were exacerbated by the bestiality of its inhabitants; and Kur, the city of witches, nestled in a majestic tree and constantly nourished by magic, which had inherited its name from the female majority of its population when it was created by Leonard, several millennia before.

  When Abigail asked what the fourth city was, Lucifer's face broke into a smile. Pandora was the capital of Hell and had been the first of the four cities to be established. It housed the Fallen folk in Victorian-style homes, long before the style existed on Earth, and followed the curve of the river, providing many homes with a splendid view. Overlooking the city on one side and the river on the other, Pandemonium stood on its rocky promontory. The Infernal Fortress housed not only the Generals' residences but also the Council Chamber, the Throne Room, among many others. Within this building, the fate of Hell and its inhabitants was decided, whether through day-to-day affairs or war councils.

  Lucifer had always presided over the meetings, and he admitted to a focused Abigail that he liked to believe he was the guarantor of peace in Hell. Alas, given Leonard's latest revelations, it was hard not to believe he had been mistaken about that. Silence ended their discussion, plunging each of them into their own thoughts. However, soothed by what he had shared, the Devil thanked his friend and then, gently placing his hand on her shoulder, informed her that he was going back to sleep.

  It wasn't the first rays of sunlight that awakened Lucifer, but the voices of Abigail and Leonard outside his canvas shelter. His head poking through the opening, he discovered the two women sitting around the fire, whom he joined after dressing.

  "Hello!" his human friend greeted him enthusiastically. "Tell me, Lucifer, I didn't understand when you said that my rhetoric would have pleased Samael, but Leonard explained to me that it was thanks to him that she was able to gather the mages!"

  "One simple inaccuracy and the soul of everyone who had ever used magic was transferred to a different place of torture," Leonard recalled. "Even after eight millennia at the head of Kur, I am still in awe of his prowess."

  "Hey Lucifer, did you know that magic existed even before Adam and Eve, like during prehistory?"

  He gave Leonard a questioning look and explained that this theory had been on her mind since their arrival on Earth. In her research over the past five years, she had delved into the subject more deeply, particularly after visiting the Lascaux caves. When he raised an eyebrow at the name, Lucifer asked his companion if it was the same time when she had visited him, which she confirmed.

  For a fleeting moment, a shadow crossed Leonard's face at the mention of a witch's tomb he had visited near the caves, but it quickly vanished, especially when the witch spoke of the magic she had found at Lascaux. With infectious enthusiasm, she described an ancient, rudimentary magic, its simplicity a reflection of its time. When Abigail asked for a demonstration, Leonard turned to him to ask, a question Lucifer immediately dismissed. After all, Hell wasn't going anywhere anytime soon; they could spare time to witness her magic. With pleasant surprise, Leonard agreed and then jumped from her stone seat.

  She took a cold piece of coal from the ashes and broke it into powder in the hollow of her hand, arranging the remains in a small, dark pile beside her. With a spell, Leonard then flattened a large square of earth before her and, in a prehistoric style, traced the outline of a bison with her fingers. Though no trace of magic was visible until then, the witch nevertheless ordered them to step back. With a guttural sound, her hand outstretched toward her creation, Leonard brought it to life. From the bison's outline sprang a blue flame, consuming the ashes into a thick smoke that, little by little, took the shape of the animal, as it once was when this species still roamed the earth.

  Perfectly imitated, the creature was nonetheless composed of an ethereal blue veil, making it almost ghostly. Leonard continued and added a second drawing next to the first: that of a man, a spear pointed at the animal. In a language as unknown as it was similar to that of the first spell, the spell revealed a prehistoric man, armed with a wooden stake. When he saw the animal, the man crouched, approaching the bison stealthily, aiming his weapon at it. With a swift movement, he then hurled his projectile into the bison's neck, which, struck in the neck, collapsed and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

  Sweeping the earth with her hand, the witch concluded the performance and erased the motionless hunter. "No matter the distance or location of the target, this spear always hits it," Leonard explained. "However, I haven't yet had the time to test all the possibilities." Greeted by applause, Lucifer and Abigail congratulated her. His friend never ceased to amaze him, the Devil thought. Smiling broadly, the Infernal General thanked them with exaggerated bows but then explained that, due to the turmoil in Hell, she had been unable to study this magic more deeply and had to interrupt her research. With a pointed glance at Lucifer, she expressed her joy that soon, peace in the Realm would finally allow her to resume her work.