The light of abyss (The owl house x Marvel)

In the early evening, while Alador was in his lab and her eldest children were off doing whatever it is that they do with their time Odalia Blight snuck out of the manor, disguised by a cloak, to a shady bar at the edge of town that only opened at night.

Giving the code word "politesse" to the doorman, she was let in and immediately escorted to the private table where her latest business partner was already seated. As she was seated, a glass was placed in front of her and her business partner held up a bottle of a tastefully expensive wine vintage. "May I tempt you, Ms. Blight?" the red-skinned demon asked.

"You may," Odalia agreed as she held out her glass. Her business partner poured her a generous amount and upon sipping it, Odalia found it to be suitably sour and bitter. When the food and drink made Odalia crave the treats in her private stash, she knew it was worth the money.

"I assume that everything went well on your end?" her partner asked.

"Like a charm," she declared haughtily. "With the human branded as part of the Emperor's Coven and acknowledged by the Emperor himself as blessed by the Titan, she is the natural successor if and when our beloved Tyrant 'falls,'" Odalia still wasn't exactly certain what that bit of the prophecy meant, but occasional rumors that Emperor Belos suffered from some sickness or curse, probably inflicted by wild witches, did go around and she suspected the most likely explanation would simply be that he would succumb soon. "I've even seen a number of futures where the human or my Mittens are fighting alongside a young man who I strongly suspect is the Golden Guard, or are dressed in the uniforms of Emperor's Coven scouts."

In fact, the possible future of Amity and her human as coven scouts seemed to be quite soon. Odalia had assumed that Mittens's chances of joining the coven were shot after she started the riot but perhaps the Emperor was more forgiving than she thought.

"Alternatively," Odalia continued, "I've been able to use," others might call it abuse, "my position in the PCA to get a look at the human's transcripts. She seems to be doing well, and a few of the possible futures I've seen glimpses of had scenes of her wielding powerful magic in addition to the strange powers she possesses. Should this foolish bit of rebellion not die out, should the seeds planted at the riot blossom into full revolution... I have not foreseen any future where she battles our Emperor, but I wouldn't put it past her. Especially if Mittens is encouraging her, and well, to the victor go the spoils. The human succeeding the Emperor is almost inevitable." The future was never 100% certain, of course, and each time Odalia looked for the scene of her child and her child's human on the throne it was a little different: Sometimes they were older or younger, different outfits, different haircuts, a handful where the human had seemingly be transformed into a horned demon with black fur and a carapace of bone, sometimes accompanied by servants or palisman, but almost always those two together on the throne. When it wasn't... Well, a future that prominently lacked the human depicted her Mittens standing over a razed castle, while one that lacked Mittens showed the human in the same position that the head of an army of monsters. Clearly, the two of them ruling the Isles together was the best result for everyone. "In the meantime, the Emperor's Coven has cut a favorable contract with Blight Industries. We are currently supplying them with weapons and Abomoton soldiers in order to make up for the obvious deficiencies that the little riot revealed in their strength of arms. Profit in the short term, and a stronger army for Mittens and her human to inherit. Having the girl branded was the best decision I ever made."

"Yes, my associate went above and beyond expectations on that job," the red-skinned Demon. "He even managed to frame things so it looked like he'd been broken out rather than escaping on his own. If I hadn't made him sign such a strict contract I might have given him a bonus for that."

"How did you make the acquaintance of such a talented demon?" Odalia asked.

Her business partner gave a charming smile, "Oh, I have a habit of cutting deals with people and have accumulated quite a lot of favors over the course of my life. Now that our little Queen in Black's ascension to proper royal status is all but guaranteed, all you need to worry about is making sure your daughter becomes her 'consort.'"

Yes, that was quite important. Odalia's oracle spirit was certain of it: royal or not, Mittens's fortunes were best in timelines where she was romantically involved with the human and as the primary heir, good fortune for her was good fortune for the Blight Family. The truth was, Odalia would have preferred anyone other than a commoner who consorts with criminals but the oracle spirit didn't lie and Mittens was apparently far less successful in life in general with any of the match-ups Odalia would have arranged before the human came to the Isles.

"That seems to be going well on its own," Odalia admitted. "As we speak, Mittens is in the human realm meeting with the human girl's mother. She's been trying to learn the human's strange language for weeks, hoping to impress. As if she needs it, the human's a commoner. The Blights are old money, nobles technically," not that that had meant much. "And while my own family made our money much more recently we did it through hard work and business sense. The current generation of Blights are the union of earned and inherited wealth, any peasant would be delighted that her daughter is marrying up."

"Already planning a wedding?" Her business partner asked.

"If I had my way, they'd already be married," Odalia admitted. "The sooner Mittens is the human's 'consort' the sooner the 'good fortune' starts, but alas."

"Is that even legal?" The red-skinned demon asked.

"Anything's legal if you exploit enough loopholes," Odalia countered. "There are some old laws and traditions that were never officially abolished. If I could get Alador to agree and get the human's parents' and/or guardians' signatures on a consent form with three credible witnesses and proof that no one was being compelled or coerced then I could get it officiated, but then the only venues willing to perform the ceremony would likely be in Las Pancreas and a fifteen-minute ceremony in a temple that holds only a dozen witnesses in between a dive bar and gentleman's club would never do and it would certainly cause a scandal. No, we'll have to wait a few years."

"It's probably for the best," the red-skinned demon replied. "I never much cared for romance myself, but even I know that rushing into things too quickly or at too young an age is just asking for the relationship to end badly."

"You're probably right... Though, I do find myself curious," Odalia asked, "what exactly are you getting out of this arrangement? I didn't think too closely about it when we first met, but... How does putting my daughter on the throne benefit you."

"Oh, it's nothing so grandiose, I've just... taken an interest in our little Queen in Black," the demon replied.

"You know, I'm still not quite certain what that means," Odalia mused. "It's not a term I've ever seen before. I've considered trying to bribe the Master Librarian to let me into the Bonesborrogh Library's forbidden stacks to look there, but if he doesn't take the bait he'd probably fire Mittens, and I'd never hear the end of it." Her youngest daughter could get so dramatic.

"Oh, now that's a story and a half," her partner began. "As you recall, I've got my ways of traveling across dimensions and I've seen and heard quite a lot."

Oh yes. Odalia had been skeptical of the man's claims when they'd first spoken after bumping into each other while Odalia was on her way home from a PCA meeting. Then he produced a rectangular device, similar to a scroll, which he called a "cell phone" which was similar enough to a device that the human was spotted using, with pictures of the human realm and other worlds besides. Then she was convinced.

"Yes."

'There are lots of dimensions with some form of magic," her business partner continued, "and every reality has its own way of categorizing it... But one which is employed in most dimensions is simple enough. It divides magic into the Right-Hand Path, pristine and elegant calling upon the divine and the cosmic powers and the like, and the left-hand path which is... well, it's vulgar and visceral. The power comes from flesh and blood, sex and violence. For simplicity's sake, the two paths are respectively called white and black magic, spellcasters who invoke them are thus respectively white and black magicians."

"Typically," the demon continued, "a white magician, invoking distant powers and drawing on clean cosmic energies, lives apart from the world and interacts with it either indirectly or from a place of authority. Thus, they aren't overly affected by changes to the world, some realms have stereotypes of studious wizards in ivory towers." The demon took a sip from his wine glass. "Of course, those realms use a different definition of 'wizard' than this one does. Black magicians, by contrast, live in the world as they interact with it, and so are affected by changes to the world and, to a degree, the changes they themselves impose on the world."

"There are exceptions of course, the Human Realm's Sorcerer Supreme is the stereotype of a white magician, someone who lives isolated in a magical sanctum coming out only to solve magical problems, but while they channel the clean cosmic energies of White Magic for most of their spells, one must be a "Master of Black Magics" in order to be considered worthy of the position."

Odalia hummed. "So, I suppose by the standards of these realms of which you speak, most witches would be black magicians? Or magical power comes from our bile and phlegm and if we're being honest I'm not sure how society could function without magic."

"Exactly correct, the witches of the Boiling Isles are an entire species of naturally occurring black magicians," the demon replied. "Now, plenty of people confuse black magic with dark magic, which is magic with inherently harmful or corruptive, but that's mostly because, well... Most black magicians who don't naturally have magic in their flesh and blood need to do less than savory things to fuel their spells and when your power comes from sex and violence, it gets very easy to see other people as batteries and when you start making moral compromises..."

Odalia could see the logic but pretended that she didn't. Instead, she changed the subject. "So, is a Queen in Black some... Archmaster of black magic?"

"Not quite, there's a concept in realms where sorcery is more common than inborn magic: As above, so below. Magic in the mortal plane is a reflection of concepts in the divine and cosmic planes and vice versa. White magicians in their ivory towers are reflections of the Ivory Kings, or Kings in White." The Demon smiled. "Beings pure energy in the form of bipeds who sit outside the cosmos looking in, using pristine cosmic energies to maintain the integrity of creation from the outside and rarely stepping in and cross them are the Onyx Kings, the Kings in Black, who maintain the cosmos from within with life... And flesh."

"Are you telling me that the human girl is some kind of deity?" Odalia asked skeptically.

"No no no," her business partner denied, "at least not yet. You see, there are two types of entities who serve as Kings in Black: Elder Gods, which are ancient beings of deep magic who embody natural forces and concepts, each essentially a living force of nature, and mortals who inherit the position from a previous. Whereas the Kings in White are rather uniform, all being members of a race calling themselves The Beyonders, Kings in Black are more unique and the King in Black of the human realm rejected his duties." The red-skinned demon laughed. "Being a King in Black is a tough job, and the King in Black of the human realm was alone. He ranted and whined about how he never asked for it, how it wasn't fair, and then tapped into a force known as the primal anti-life, a sort of equal and opposite of creation, becoming the Elder God of the Void and going on a crusade to kill all gods and cosmic entities out of spite."

Odalia snorted. "I believe the children these days would say something along the lines of 'what a warlock.'"

"Yes, he was something of an edge lord, as the human youth say," her new partner agreed. "Using the Anti-Life and his own shadow, he created creatures that served not only as weapons and armor with which to kill and steal the powers of his prey... But also to infect and subvert others to his cause and once those creatures have infected someone, a trace of them always remains behind dormant."

"The God of The Void, Knull was his name, was eventually betrayed by his spawn and imprisoned. Recently he escaped, enslaved most of his spawn, and continued on his conquest, but he's dead now, killed by a mortal living in a symbiotic relationship with one of his own spawn if you'd believe it, who has usurped the position of King in Black." Another sip of wine. "After the betrayal, some of his spawn attempted to be heroes while others continued to conquer on their own, including Earth, the planet in the human realm that humans are native to. Your daughter's human paramour's parents were both infected and so she was born infected... Essentially, she has for genetic parents: Two humans, and two of Knull's elderspawn. Half human, half god-murdering eldritch monstrosity. Since coming here, her elderspawn side has woken up."

"So she's effectively a descendant of this Knull fellow," Odalia reasoned, "and... What, could take his title from the usurper?"

"It doesn't quite work like that," the demon replied. "But... Other realms have their own Kings in Black. The Demon Realms, for example, had an entire race of them. Massive Elder Gods whose flesh and blood and bone and breath and bile were hypersaturated with magic, whose bodies were built around it, who instinctively commanded the elements in their own languages of magic, who created constructs of flesh and bone to serve them, who emitted life and magic in vast amounts, who even dead generate magic ex nihilo, whose decaying flesh spawns myriad organisms each with powerful magic inherent to themselves as well."

"We had such a race?" Odalia asked. That would imply that they don't anymore. But... Some of the details her partner had mentioned clicked together. "Oh dear, merciful Titan."

"Indeed," her partner confirmed. "You know it's funny? This dimension is called the Demon Realm but by the definition used commonly in most realms that know of magic and the multiverse, none of the inhabitants would be considered demons. The Boiling Isles natives would all be considered Elderspawn. Isn't it amusing how the same word can have different meanings in different places?"

Odalia took a large sip from her own wine glass while she contemplated what he just said.

"The human girl... You said that the... Elderspawn of Knull steel power from gods. If the Titan's ambient magic field..."

"Bingo," the red-skinned demon said, a gleeful smile on his face. "Our Queen in Black to be, without even realizing it, has been absorbing the power of an Elder God, a King in Black of a different realm, bit by bit, piece by piece, for months no. Just being here breathing in the air and eating the food is fueling a metamorphosis. I suspect it's what awoke her latent eldritch heritage, to begin with, and... Well, when a Klyntar, that's the proper name for Knull's Elder Spawn, consumes enough divine or cosmic energy, it may rarely become a deific being itself, or do the same for its host. If the human girl stays on the Titan's corpse long enough, she will ascend to divine or semi-divine status herself. A homegrown Queen in Black... The question is, of course... Will she take after Grandpappy Knull, after the Titan, or will she become something else entirely? I can't say I'm not curious," he finished, "and I intend to have my curiosity sated."

Odalia responded by downing the rest of her glass. "May I have another?"

"Of course, Ms. Blight," the demon agreed before pouring her another glass.

Odalia was halfway through that glass when she'd finally fully processed what her partner was saying. Then she smiled smugly, her daughter was going to be the consort of a deity and they'd be ruling the demon realm together. The Blights would live forever in the annals of history after that. And the prophecy did say something about a Titan's rise.

Then something occurred to her. "You know, I don't think you ever actually told me your name."

"Oh did I not?" The demon asked, somewhat amused.

"No, you simply introduced yourself as a man of wealth and taste."

"Oh silly me, it must have slipped my mind: My name is... Mephisto."