The Devil's Daughter

Chapter 16 ~ Stagnum Ignis

Chapter 16 ~ Razakiel

Stagnum Ignis. The Lake of Fire. An eternal prison of torture for angels and true demons who have broken the laws of nature. The place Lucifer was banished to after betraying his Father. Carita is opening the gate. He's trying to gain entrance to the one place that may be worse than Lucifer's newly formed Hell. And he expects us all to follow him through once he succeeds. My eyes drift back to Abby where she sits cross-legged against an already energised tree, worry lining her face as she watches Isa pace back and forth between the ten trees forming the pentagon that is the entrance to Stagnum Ignis.

A smile brightens Abby's face as Isa looks up, running a hand through her hair, and notices her stare.

"It'll be fine. It's obviously possible to get from Stagnum Ignis to Hell, Lucifer managed it."

"Yeah. Lucifer. An Archangel. Someone who could easily open this door before he was shut inside it. How do we know we won't be stuck down there below Hell, burning eternally? And even if we do manage to follow Lucifer's trail into Hell, how do we know we won't be trapped there simply because we passed through this gate? Carita said it himself; nothing that enters Stagnum Ignis has ever gotten out before the end of their sentence. We could be trapped down there for thousands of years!"

"He also said that this is Ahriel's plan. She wouldn't send us down there if there was a chance we wouldn't be able to get out again. You're her daughter. She wouldn't risk losing you like that." Abby says, like she is absolutely certain that she's right.

"My dad died yesterday. You know, the man she's loved for the past eighty years. She doesn't care about anything other than getting revenge on Chastir and Lucifer. She wouldn't care if we all died as long as she gets revenge."

"That's not true, Isa. She still cares about you, maybe even more now than she did before. She just lost John, what would she do if she lost you too?" Abby asks quietly, despite Isa's rising volume.

"Right, and what would you know? Your only parent is Lucifer and he only created you to help him take over Heaven." Pain instantly jerks its way through my chest as Abby's hurt moves through me. She glances away and nods slowly.

"That's enough Isa," I interrupt as she opens her mouth to continue through Abby's silence, "We know that you're scared; we all are. But don't take it out on Abby, or the rest of us. We're about to enter the worst place in known existence, if there we are going to have any chance of getting out alive, we have to work together. If you want to stay behind you can. No one is forcing you to come with us."

"Stay behind? Are you serious? How can I stay behind? Chastir," she spat his name like it was a disease, "killed my father, he tried to kill me. Even if I didn't care that Lucifer is attempting to destroy the world, I would have to come. I don't have a choice. We have to stop them." Her eyes flick to Abby, where she sits, arms resting on her knees, watching the conversation, "I apologise for what I said though, Abby. There was absolutely no need for it." She bows her head as she speaks, remorse clear in the set of her shoulders. She barely has time to lift her eyes before Abby is smiling once again.

"It's fine. You were only speaking the truth."

"Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way, maybe we can try one more before we stop for the day." Carita appears from nowhere as he has been doing for most of the afternoon. As the son of Avarice, he has the ability to give his energy and power to anything he touches; to open the gate we need to energise the ten trees that mark the points and joints of the pentagon, after that we'll apparently have enough power all together to open it without an Archangel. Carita is yet to explain exactly how, if he even knows; Ahriel has not been entirely open with what exactly her plans entail. After he finishes each tree, Abby and I heal him and then he disappears into the smaller trees surrounding the pentagon, only to randomly appear out of nowhere to start on the next one.