Belial, an old rival of Azazel’s, pounded with his hoof on the table and said, in mincing words, “The right honorable member is sufficiently talented to expand a single demonic intrusion into an onslaught by a sewer warfare gang. I see no gang: only a single rather foolish-looking demon. I would also point out that sanctum is more correct than sanctorum in this case, which the honorable member would know if he had ever mastered the dear old mother tongue, Latin.”
Azazel’s eyes smoldered, little wisps of blue smoke came out of his snout, corrosive acid dripped from his nose and ate holes in the ironwood table. “I’ll not be mocked,” he said, “by a jumped-up nature spirit who has been made a demon rather than born one and who, because of his ambiguous ancestry, cannot be relied upon to understand the true nature of evil.”
Other members clamored to be heard, because demons loved to argue about who really understood evil, who was most evil, and by extension, who was insufficiently bad. Azzie, however, had now regained his poise. He realized that the attention of the Lord Demons would soon be turned to him. So he made haste to speak in his own defense.
“Gentlemen,” he said, “I am sorry to be the cause of this dispute. I would not have broken in on you if I had not something urgent to say.”
“Yes,” Belial said. “Why have you come? And I notice that you haven’t brought any presents, as is customary. What have you to say for yourself?”
“I come without presents,” Azzie said, “that is true. It was my haste, and I beg apology. But I do bear something more important.”
He paused. It was that dramatic demon sense working in him that made him stop at that moment rather than blurt on.
The Demon Lords also knew a thing or two about drama.
They stared at him in accusing silence. After what seemed like forever, Belphegor, who was anxious to adjourn this committee and get a little sleep, said, “All right, damn you, what do you bear that is more important than presents?”
In a low, husky voice, Azzie said, “What I bear, gentlemen, is that most precious of things: an idea.”
Chapter 3
Azzie’s words hit upon a common concern among the Lord Demons, namely, their need for an idea for the coming Light versus Dark festivities, a drama that would be their entry into the contest of Good versus Evil, and whose outcome would demonstrate, homiletically, as it were, the superiority of Evil, thus giving them the right to dominate man’s destiny for the next thousand years.
“What is this idea?” Belial asked.
Azzie bowed low and began to tell them the story of Prince Charming.
Fairy tales have great weight and resonance for demons as well as for humans. All of the Demon Lords knew the Prince Charming story-of how a youth came forth to save a princess who had been enchanted by a spell and cast into a perpetual sleep. This prince was Prince Charming, who, aided by his pure heart and loyal spirit, fought his way through the various dangers that beset the Princess, conquered them all, won through the wall of thorns to her castle, climbed to the top of the mountain of glass upon which her palace had been set, and kissed her. Whereupon she awoke, and they married and lived happily ever after.
Azzie proposed to stage this pretty story, but with characters of his own devising.
“Gentlemen, give me a grant so that I can draw freely upon Supply- and I will create a Prince and a Princess who will act out the Prince Charming-Sleeping Beauty story and turn this insipid tale on its ear. My couple will demonstrate a different ending. Their conclusion to the tale, arrived at by their own free will, with only a minimum of behind-the-scenes tampering on my part, will show conclusively, to the enjoyment of our friends and the confusion of our enemies, that given a free hand, evil must inevitably win in the contests of the human spirit.”
“Not a bad idea,” Azazel said. “But what makes you think that your actors, given free will, will act the way you want them to?”