you a family member whom I’m unaware of?”
The girl appeared confused and turned to the young, fair-haired man who sat to her right and directly across from Bael as he sat down next to Leianna. The girl asked her companion, “May I answer?”
The young man, who seemed familiar to Leianna, said, “Of course, you may, Regan. And tell Leianna who I am as well.”
“Good evening. I am Regan, a concubine from the harem of Lord Azmodeus and honored to sit here at this table with him and to serve him and his family.” She spoke demurely and lowered her eyes after speaking.
Leianna sat quietly for a moment and then gazed at Azmodeus, Bael and Ashtoreth’s younger brother. “I didn’t recognize you, Az, until you spoke. I remembered the fourteen-year-old I once knew. You’ve obviously become a man, but your speech patterns haven’t changed.” She didn’t mention the Halloween over five years ago when he had disguised himself as an obnoxious, sarcastic teenager in the mortal world and harassed her as she, as Leigh Ann Elfman, and her sister Ginnie were taking Daniel out trick-or-treating. She also hid her surprise when Regan asked his permission to respond to her and then described herself as his concubine. Now she nodded to the timid girl and said: “Good evening to you, too, Regan.” The girl raised her eyes briefly to meet her own and gave an almost imperceptible nod back. “You look so like Affaeteres that I thought, at first, over the long years since we’ve seen one another, that she might have had a daughter.”
Affaeteres spoke for the first time. “My son simply wishes to insult me by parading about a woman whose beauty is similar to that which I once possessed.”
Leianna simply stared at the woman who had once been like a second mother to her. “Mother Aff? You’re still just as beautiful.”
“Are you blind, Leianna? I have shriveled in this realm, my skin dry, my hair dull, my nose pinched. My youngest son has to remind me of this, even on this day when I am to reunite with you, Bael’s beloved, who was to be my daughter through marriage, whom I loved and nurtured when you were little and your true mother, Eve, was trapped on Earth. Azmodeus, why did you bring your trollop to this monumental dinner?”
Regan’s cheeks burned crimson; she appeared torn between appealing to Azmodeus for direction, who sat there motionless, and fleeing the room. A thick, coagulating silence engulfed them. Leianna felt Quatama’s hand briefly touch her arm. She looked at Affaeteres. “Mother Aff, perhaps you feel that way inside. Bael told me of how Hell has tested and tried you. But although I don’t know Regan at all, I feel that she is not deliberately trying to mock you by resembling you. She has no control over that at all, and your accusation may have deeply hurt her. Az is not using Regan as a mirror to remind you of your flaws. You are not flawed, your beauty is your own, and any who resemble you only compliment you.” Leianna sat waiting to see how Affaeteres would react, glancing anxiously at the troubled woman.
Affaeteres stared back, her eyes suddenly wet with tears. She stood up stiffly. “My dear, soon-to-be adopted daughter through marriage, it took your visit to Hell to open the thickly scabbed wound that Hell has inflicted upon me.” She pulled back her chair and began walking away from the banquet table. “It still pains me, and now it bleeds again.”
Leianna also stood up. “Please don’t leave, Mother Aff. I need you here!”
The older woman hesitated, turning back.
“Please! Don’t leave me. Not alone here,” she said, sincerely uncomfortable confronting Lucifer without Affaeteres beside him. The fact that Mother Aff seemed to have succumbed to a sort of madness made Leianna all the more determined to want some justice in this sad dimension for those being manipulated within it. “Please, Mother Aff! I was only trying to help.”
Lucifer twisted in his chair, confronting his wife. “Sit down, Affaeteres! And apologize to your youngest and his damned trollop.”
Leianna sucked her breath in and expelled it angrily. “Father Lucifer!” Her tone plainly rebuked his insult to Regan. During the war in Heaven, Leianna had expressed herself just as plainly to him.
He apparently still felt no qualms in responding back to her just as blatantly, leaning toward her with a confidential air. “Azmodeus has many concubines. This one is nothing more than an ornament that Az has chosen to wear on his arm. And he did deliberately choose her because she resembles his mother and he knows that irritates Aff. He also probably means to impress you, Leianna, with the example of Regan’s extreme subservience. Or maybe depress you with it. If I recall from that long ago time, during Eliom’s short-lived war, you were anything but subservient to Bael’s needs until you knew you were about to lose him.
“You and Quatama must forgive us our little entertainments. It gets so boring here in Hell and when we have extraordinary guests, we like to test them in little ways that give us a rise. Please pay these little squabbles no attention, Quatama. We are glad that you’ve accepted our invitation to dine and discuss, shall we say, a new tomorrow?”
As he spoke, Affaeteres had reseated herself. She held up her crystal goblet and struck it delicately with a silver spoon, creating a dulcet ring. “I wish to say something: I have returned.” The dinner guests waited patiently. “I apologize to you, Regan, as Leianna has requested of me. You are most welcome at my table.” She gestured with her hand to the four standing waiters. “Dinner may be served.”
One of the waiters snapped his fingers and new waiters came into the room, carrying various trays of food and beverages, wheeling carts also laden with food. Leianna watched curiously as the other three original waiters surveyed the food, and sliced then lifted morsels of each dish with their own cutlery into their own mouths. When all met with their satisfaction, they gestured for the new waiters to begin serving each offering, first to Lucifer and then to his guests and family.
A thick soup ladled into large bowls held what appeared to be succulent chunks of chicken within the broth and chopped vegetables. Salad plates were heaped with green feathery leaves, orange pepper slices, ordinary cucumbers and tomatoes and pale slices of mushroom. Small clear canisters of salad dressing were placed beside each plate, a thick purple sauce within. Leianna pointed to it. “What is it?”
A waiter answered. “A plum vinaigrette, my lady.”
She nodded. All but two of the waiters had thin black hair combed slickly down and back onto their necks; all wore dark suits with white shirts and were thin. The head waiter and one of the tasters were bald, and now all but the headwaiter withdrew a few paces from the table. The headwaiter placed a jeweled centerpiece on the table before Lucifer and also stepped back.
Lucifer reached over and pressed one of its ruby jewels. It lit up like a lamp, its rays scintillating and spreading out, around and beyond the table.
Leianna became startled, scraping her chair backwards, but Bael stayed her with his hand. “A protective aura,” he explained, “safeguarding us. A custom long established.”
“You need protection during dinnertime?!”
Lucifer answered wryly. “We have upon occasion suffered disruptions and distractions.” He spooned his soup and swallowed his first mouthful.
Water in crystal decanters had already been placed on the table. Azmodeus said, “Regan.” It was not a request. She rose and poured each crystal goblet full, attending to her own last and then took her seat again.
Lucifer said: “Once the force field is set, we engage a trusted servant to serve the remaining meal. This is for your protection as well. Many here suffer no sympathy or love
