The Fiasco at Scala

The Forsaken, part nine

9. Back at the royal palace, a paranoid king Vico was tracing the outer rim of the throne room while a small witch in a red cloak spoke incantations over a floating blue orb. The new king had called upon the mystic to foretell his future in the case his sister were to return and fight for her throne, while the witch mentioned how he would fall to his sister in battle when the time was nigh. The unwelcome news was like shattered glass to Vico's ears, so he called upon his green codex for guidance. He swivelled through the pages, eagerly trying to find something that could keep his sister at bay. 

Vico then spoke in a tongue the witch could not understand, causing the codex to emanate a red smoke before it glided across the room from Vico's hands and rumbled. A bright light escaped from the pages before a tall pale man in a red suit appeared from the red smoke. His wide grin made Vico firmly aware that he had summoned the Devil himself, but why?. The witch backed down with caution at the sight of the root of all evil, who approached the king, pleased to offer whatever services were deemed fit. Vico's situation seemed very dire by his own morals, so he decided to make a deal with the Devil: in exchange for helping the king take down his sister Ilaria, Vico would give the Devil whatever he wanted, a price too good to resist. 

The Devil warmly accepted the royal's deal by putting it down in writing, each signing with a prick of their own blood on the parchment before it was snatched up by the Devil. Vico had expected the being to be more demonic and monstrous, but apparently, the Devil liked to keep up appearances, knowing full well how the greatest monsters of all were the humans who had created him in the first place.