The Kings

         The spy walked into the circular chamber and sat at his designated spot. He had just returned from the funeral of King Faust, the one he was spying on. The man he was working for had promised him that after delivering this message he could retire. He looked forward to that.
         In the meantime, he had to pay attention. It was mostly normal stuff. The queen got the vacation house, now that was weird. She had been dead for years. Their one daughter got a large sum of money. The rest went to the next king. He got a bed. Wait. HE got a bed. The spy shrugged it off. He didn't mind. He would take it wherever he retired to.
         After a while though, the spy became bored. He had to stop himself from falling asleep a couple of times. He was really tired though. The king had asked him to prepare his funeral. Apparently he had done to good of a job of getting close to the king.
         He thought of this when he heard something that jolted him out of his revery. His spine straightened. Every demon in the building were also showing varying signs of surprise. One king, he could not be sure of which, besides the fact that it was male, asked for that passage to be read aloud again.
         This time the spy listened intensely as the passage was read. It was simply this: "My dear council, I am sure that many of you will be surprised at this, but I was the youngest child of my late father, not the oldest. My brothers had more power than I. Both were killed before my father could announce their birth. So my father told every one in the kingdom I was his first and only, to appease his embarrassment. I, to save him, have sent my son out into the human world, to be adopted by a human I can trust. He has no clue of his ancestry. Please find him and re-introduce him to our society. He is to be put to the test. He may very well be the King."

         The spy leaped out of his seat the moment the reading was over. He rushed through the entry hall and out on the street. He jumped into his buggy, yelling to wake the demon the council had assigned him as driver. He was about to tell the startled driver to go to the teleportation building for the third time when the king of water ran up. In order to keep up pretences he stopped and waited. She was a dainty female, very pretty, and if he didn't hate her and her race to the end of time he might of felt something for her.
         "Wait!"
         The spy turned to her, sighing, and answered. "Yes, sweet Water?"
         Water stopped and leaned on the side of the coach to catch her breath. When she had done so, she looked up again. "If you would come to my temple, some of the kings are going to discuss the matter of a new king. We intend to get a demon that has lived in our society to rule us."
         The spy looked into her steely eyes and knew she would not let him leave if he did so without pledging his allegiance to her. Not alive, anyway. "I would love to. But I am afraid I have pressing business at my temple. I'll tell you what. I'll come to your temple as soon as I'm finished at mine.
         She stared at him a moment, then nodded and stepped off. He gave his driver a command to go to his temple, and the buggy shot off.
         That was another thing about demons that he found disturbing. The king was the demon with the most power attuned to a certain element or thing. Sex did not matter. It was something more against god's will. It was something more to hate the demons for.
         
         As soon as the king of water could not see them any longer, he stopped his driver. "I have changed my mind. I need to go to the South East teleportation building." His driver looked confused and so he said "You know, the ones put in by King Grelin?" The driver gave him a dirty look but went off.
         The carriage hurdled through the city of Hell, underworld city. Only five buildings stuck out of the rock ceiling, the palace and the four temples of the main gods. The spy glared at the one temple they passed the temple of Fire, the only one they passed. Soon afterwards the carriage came to a jarring halt, and the spy got out of the carriage.
         He stood in front of a stone building. It was built to fit in the corner of the wall of the cavern of the city of Hell. It was one of four, built by the King of demons Grelin, the great grandfather of the one who just died. He had died in the great project these were part of. The spy walked into the building.
         When he walked in, the spy was greeted emphatically by the attendant. He was given a privet room. The spy put in his call and waited.
         He did not have long to wait. Soon after he sent the message his boss appeared. The spy knelt in greeting. "Hello, bishop."
         The bishop smiled jovially at this unnecessary honorific. He was a stocky man, not fat, but well taken care of. He was slightly shorter than average. "Stand, father, and report."
         The spy stood. "Bishop, I have heard the will. I am sure you are not interested in most of it, but there is one thing for you to know. The current king, erm, the most recently passed one, rather, has a son."
         The spy's boss looked unbelieving at this statement. "Are you sure? If he does, he hid it rather well."
         "Yes, he did. Bishop-"
         The bishop put up his hand. "Stop. Do not call me that. Just today, I was appointed cardinal."
         "Congratulations!"
         "Thank you. You were saying -."
         "Ah, yes. Bi-, er, Cardinal, the son of this king is living in Rome, under our very noses." The spy then told the new cardinal the story of the son.
         The cardinal looked bemused rather than the rage the spy had expected. "Really. Hm. You have done well."
         The spy perked up. "Cardinal, you promised. My retirement."
          The cardinal looked blankly for a moment, then perked up. "Oh yes. You may retire. Come here." Cardinal Terrance took the spy in his arms as if to bring him back to their world. Then the cardinal quickly took the spy's head in his hands and made a quick twisting motion. "Have a good retirement in your heaven." Terrence the stepped into the teleporter.


Chapter 2

         What you just read is what I found happened before I was shoved forcefully into my own world. That is what I found to be true after carefully checking the events in my life that are shared with you in this document. The rest of this is the story of my becoming king, and my establishment of my kingship. I will be telling it as I experienced it, from my point of view.

         I paced in my sitting room, staring at the letter the Vatican had sent me. Why would they be sending in a Cardinal to talk to me? That astounded me in more ways then one. The Vatican had already made it clear it wanted nothing to do with me. I was the only non-christian in Rome, and they were certain that when I converted that I would be a huge evangelist. Of course, they didn't know about the pagan rituals I preform for other people regularly. But they still thought it was just a matter of time for me, and they said themselves that they would leave me alone if I left them alone. And so I did.
         I plopped in my easy chair and stared into the fire. He now only had to wait until the Cardinal turned up. Suddenly, the fire flared up, and a slightly-charred envelope flew out. I opened it and read the - strangely unburnt - piece of velium inside.

You will be visited by a messengers for the King of Demons at 10:00 PM give or take five minutes. Please be prepared to accept him into your home. You will receive this letter at 9:45, so please hurry

         I stared at the letter than glanced at the clock. It was, indeed, now 9:46. I quickly got out a fine bottle of port, chilled, and two glasses. I then unlocked the front door and sat back in the easy chair. I glanced back at the clock and noticed it was now 9:50. Nine minutes later, I almost had a heart attack as a man started to raise out of the floor. I stared for the few minutes it took him to get up. He then spoke my name.
         "S-sorry, can you repeat that?"
         "I said, are you Damon of Rome?"
         "Yes, I am." I went over and locked the door, making sure that all three locks were locked. "So I suppose you're that messenger that I was told about?"
         The other man just looked bored. "Look, just come with me, I'll take you back, and I can give you to someone to answer your questions."
         Looking back, it was probably at this point that my inherent stubbornness kicked in. Well, never mind that. Whenever my stubbornness kicked in, at this moment I refused to leave. "I am not going anywhere untill I know why the Vatican and the King of demons both want to see me on the same night!"