The Politics of Hell Smashwords Edition By Shawn James Copyright ©2003, 2012 This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. Front cover art designed by and Copyright © 2012 Shawn James This is a work of fiction. All events, locations, institutions, themes, persons, characters and plot are completely fictional. Any resemblance to places or persons, living or deceased, are purely coincidental.   Chapter 1 There’s fire everywhere. Walls of blue flames have the goddess Isis surrounded. I’m about to incinerate her when I feel something cold and hard tear through my chest. It hurts so bad I scream in pain without thinking about it. In shock from the pain I close my eyes and mumble something I don’t remember when I crash to the ground. The fire tears at my flesh and then everything goes black. I open my eyes and I feel myself falling fast, falling deeper and deeper into the dark pit of Hell headed down into the flaming azure lake below. I try to make bat wings sprout from my back, but nothing happens. I try to make myself teleport to a nearby cliff, but I can’t. I grab for a ledge but my hand slips through it. As the heat gets hotter and hotter I start to panic. I frantically flail my arms up and down desperately hoping that they will break my fall. The fire begins to tear at my soul; I see the agonized faces of Seth and all those souls I tortured up close. I let out a terrified scream before I plunge into the burning lake. Then it all turns black again. I lay there for a long time balled up in a fetal position. My mind is blank during the long silence. When I start thinking my mind races. Four eons of past memories of ideas, concepts, laws, and events in my life are all running through my mind so fast that I feel like I’m about to go crazy trying to process them all. In a few moments the stream of memories ends and my mind clears. I start focusing on the questions I have regarding my recent death. If I landed in the lake, why isn’t the fire tearing at my flesh? Why aren’t the worms gnawing my body? How come I don’t hear any souls wailing in anguish around me? I wonder to myself if I actually hit the lake so hard that I busted Hell wide open. This could be the bottom of the lake without the fire in it. I stir out of my daze and take a moment to get over the trauma of falling into the pit. This can’t be Hell; the cool air swirling around me is just too sweet. The room is too quiet. I touch the spot between my breasts where the spear where the spear pierced it and the skin isn’t broken by a wound. I feel my heart thumping and gasp in shock. I’m alive! I start to feel my surroundings with my hands. The silken texture of the sheets I’m lying on tells me that I’m not in the lake of fire. If I’m not in Hell then where am I? More important than the question of where I am, who brought me here? I open my eyes and realize I’m lying on a bed under some some purple silk sheets. I squint making out the four posters on a cherry canopy bed. My eyes start to reclaim their focus as I peer down at the paisley pattern in the red rug under the bed. Wherever I am I’m in someone’s guest bedroom. And a nice one at that. Only the wealthiest men have furnishings like this in their homes. I hear heavy footsteps pounding into the floor outside. I slide out bed still feeling groggy from the near-death experience. In the moment I take to compose myself I realize I’m naked. It’s a good thing I’m not modest. I need answers from whoever is coming down that hallway and I’m going to get them from whoever it is. “Good. You’re awake.” The deep voiced stranger barks as he opens the door. The tall handsome burly bronze-skinned man dressed in a tailored Italian red suit, black shirt, and black Italian shoes steps into the room with my dress draped over his left forearm. As he gives me a smile with his bright brown eyes and straight white teeth I wonder if he is a demon or a human. He doesn’t have any yellow snake eyes, black horns or cloven nails on his hands and feet like other demons do. If he is a demon, he’s the strangest one I’ve ever seen. As the stranger approaches me, I turn and get a look at my reflection in the mirror on the door. The sight of my face appalls me. What happened to my horns? Why are my eyes brown? My teeth-where are my fangs? My hands-my feet they’re human! I have to calm down. I’m sure that the stranger will explain everything. I take a deep breath as he stops in front of me. He looks me up and down then gives me another smile. I hide my nervousness behind a smile. I can’t show him any weakness. “Could you explain what’s going on?” I ask. “I’ve saved your life.” He says. That can’t be possible; I know I was falling into the lake of fire. I felt the flames tearing at my soul. How could he possibly prevent me from meeting my final fate? “I felt myself falling into the lake of fire.” “Perhaps it was a dream you were having. You’ve been here recovering from your injuries for the past several days.” “That can’t be true. I was mortally wounded-” “True, you were fatally injured a few months ago. However, my agents were easily able to restore you to full health before bringing you to my palace.” “Your palace-this isn’t Hell.” “Perhaps it is. And perhaps it isn’t.” “Look, I need to know where I am. What is this place and who are you?” I demand. He smiles at me. “I expected you to know E’steem. After all you are quite erudite about the transpirings of these realms.” “How do you know my name? Are you…God?” He laughs at me. I give him a look. He laughs at me some more after seeing the awkward grimace on my face. When I scowl at him he decides to finally give me the answers to my questions. “For one who aspires to be a Lord, I’d think you would make it a point to know whose image you were made in.” That has to be a lie. When I performed the ritual a dragon dunked my head under the blood, and when I came out of the fountain I wasn’t looking like him. If he’s a demon then he’s using magic to cover his true identity. However, that doesn’t explain how he knows so much about me. Only Seth and the dragon know how I became a demon. Whoever this stranger is he must have privy to Hell’s secrets. The more questions I ask him the more queries I have for this intriguing stranger. “When I came out of the fountain I didn’t look like you.” I snarl. “Like you I can take many forms. To Eve I was a serpent, to you a dragon, and to men I am an angel of light. But this is my true form.” “We’re Demons. Our true forms are-” “Whatever I choose them to be. In my palace you’ll have no need of a terrifying visage to do your work.” “I never thought I was grotesque.” “You were always vein.” “How do you know so much about me?” “This is my realm. Nothing transpires here without me being aware of it.” “Then you are-” “Lucifer of course.” “Lord.” I say bowing before the Lord to show him his respect. He gestures his hand and I rise. I give him a thankful smile as he hands me my dress. It was agony standing around him naked for so long. “What do you wish of me Lord?” I ask slipping my dress over my head. “I have been observing your actions for some time now E’steem. The way you manipulated your foes in your attempt to attain Lordship was quite impressive.” “I didn’t manipulate-” “You knew what you were doing. You sought to bring the goddess Isis to Hell to kill her. While you manipulated her, you made it appear to Seth as if you were bringing her here for him to torment. You never broke face, not even when you were in the process of giving her the killing blow. None but me would have known you would have acquired Ladyship until the goddess had died. It was an excellent scheme.” “Thank you Lord. If I’ve impressed you then I’ll assume that you’re going to allow me to take Seth’s place among your Elect.” “Then you would be wrong. Only one who can slay a god can be one of my Lords.” Great, he’s sending me to go serve one of the other Lords. If that happens I’ll be worse off than when I started. Under Seth I was free to do as I pleased due to the fact that his tail was too heavy to cross the bridge of dead men’s bones. The other Lords won’t give me that kind of independence. I’ve got to persuade him to give me Seth’s Lordship or all that plotting and planning I did to kill Isis will be for nothing. “You’re going to put me under another Lord- I don’t think that helps anything.” blurt. “True, Seth is dead.” Lucifer replies. “His inability to control you has shown me that he was unfit to be among my Elect. However what you do from here will be for me to decide.” “I don’t believe sending you to serve as harbinger for one of the other Lords would be an effective use of your skills E’steem.” Lucifer continues. “You have proven that your skills aren’t being utilized to your full potential as a herald. I need to find a place for you where you can be of better use to me.” “And where would that be Lord?” “For the interim you will work as my Librarian. You will remain here at my side taking notes, cataloging the books in my private library and studying texts. In a few weeks I will find you something more challenging for you to do.” “Being a Librarian isn’t a challenging way to use my skills. I was a scribe for Osiris.” “If this job doesn’t please you, you could always join Seth in the lake of fire.” “Where do you keep the pens?” Chapter 2 E’steem showed a lot of promise in her quest to kill the goddess. It was the only reason why I spared her life. Out of all the demons in the old guard I believe she’s one of the few who will be able to adapt to my new operation on Earth. If she works as efficiently as she did as a herald for Seth, I see her as one of the senior executives of my new operation. Now that the last of the Lords has been dispatched of, Brent can ramp up the building of the infrastructure of my industrial complex. Once it’s in place I’ll have billions of souls for the taking.   Chapter 3 When Lucifer made me his Librarian, I expected to be following him around, taking a lot of notes, and researching things. However, since I got the job I haven’t done any writing or researching at all. In fact he hasn’t even been around to supervise me. During the three weeks I’ve been here he’s left me to fend for myself in this enormous palace. For the interim, I’ve been taking advantage of the autonomy my new position offers me. There are no servants around to care for the residence or even a pet dog or cat to play with. Since Lucifer has been gone I’ve been all over his palace looking for anything that will allow me to capitalize on this opportunity granted to me. That’s kept me so busy that I’ve barely had time to eat or sleep. So far I haven’t found anything that will help me in my quest for Ladyship. The palace is full of so many distracting temptations; that made it hard to concentrate on my goal. In the first two weeks here I got so caught up playing with Lucifer’s numerous toys that I almost forgot to take a good long tour of his library. When I got there a few days ago, the sheer volume of books almost overwhelmed me. There must have been a million books in the study alone and billions more in the main library. I didn’t know where to start, so I started with a book I was familiar with, the laws of Hell. According to the texts I’ve been given a very prestigious position, one with far more power than I ever had as a herald to Seth. As his scribe I’m one of the highest-ranking demons in Hell next to the Lords themselves. It seems I’ll have a lot of free time; In addition to cataloging his books all the Librarian really does is take notes when the Lords meet with Lucifer once a month. The Lord is often gone roaming the world destroying men’s’ souls and accusing righteous men of evil deeds. So I may yet find an opportunity to attain my Ladyship. Since I’ve had my fill of Lucifer’s pleasures, I’ve made myself a second home in the library. I’ve been researching the ancient texts looking for some long-lost offspring of the gods who is unaware of their immortal lineage. Unfortunately, I still haven’t found anyone to kill. It seems Isis was the last of the forgotten children of the gods. My quest for Ladyship will be a lot harder now. Now I’ll have to find a god and fight them face-to face in a battle to the death. I’m in the library reading about the Master when a flash of light startles me. I look up and see Lucifer staring down at me. I rise to greet him. “Lord, I was just reading about you.” “It seems you’ve made yourself comfortable in the short time while I was gone.” “Your house is very inviting-” “Have you been doing anything else other than drinking my wine and leaving rings in my bathtub?” I guess I’m caught. “I was bored. I had to find something to do. And that tub was clean when I got out of it.” He gives me a look. “Is this you first time visiting the library?” “I’ve spent some time here. I’ve been doing research on my title and how it regards to the laws of Hell.” He glares at me. “Don’t patronize me.” “That’s what I was reading about while you were gone.” “That’s not all you were reading. You were also reading about the families of the gods looking for another forgotten child of the gods to kill in your quest for Lordship.” He’s caught me. I’ll confess to my deeds but I’m going to find out to how he knew about what I was doing. “Were you spying on me?” “You don’t think I wouldn’t know what was transpiring in my own palace?” Lucifer demands. “I thought I’d get some privacy.” “And you did have that. I never invaded your baths.” “But you did spy on me.” “I wasn’t spying on you.” Lucifer continues. “I was testing you. I wanted to see what you would do if left to your own devices.” “And how did I do?” “I expected better of you.” “Better- I’m doing exactly what got me here.” “That’s the problem. You’re doing the exact same thing that led to your defeat at the hands of Isis.” “What’s wrong with that? I’m trying to capitalize on the opportunities available to me.” “You’re looking for things to come easy.” Lucifer continues. “You underestimate the resourcefulness of your foes. You think that by playing to their strengths you can take advantage of their weaknesses. A good strategy for a novice but you’ll need much more than strategy to stay competitive here.” “A novice-” “Yes a novice. Don’t make the mistake of using the tactics you used with Seth on me. I assure you they won’t work.” “I know my strategies must be quite effective.” I reply. They’ve gotten me to one of the highest-ranking positions in all of Hell. If they didn’t work I’d be an imp right now.” “You think you know the politics of this realm. You don’t really know what’s going on. It takes more than a charming smile and glib words to compete in the realm of the Elect.” “I’m not looking for anything to come easy. I’d work hard to be one of your Lords.” “I’m well aware of your ambitions E’steem. But are you aware of what you aspire to be? To be one of my Lords is a tremendous sacrifice.” “Look, I’ve taken many sacrifices to get this far. I’m willing to go even further to get power like yours.” “Are you sure that you want power? Or do you merely want the prestige and accoutrements a high title will offer you?” How dare he ask me such a question. “For the past two thousand years I was the one who kept Seth competitive among the Lords of Hell. He was too busy obsessing over his brother to think about his place among demons.” “And you believe your hard work entitles you to his position?” “I’m smarter than Seth and I deserve to be at the table with the highest ranking demons making decisions. Not serving as a lackey to a blind fool so consumed with hatred that he neglected his duties to you.” “I’ve rewarded you for your hard work E’steem.” Lucifer continues. “You have a prestigious position full of privileges all other demons envy. Perhaps you should be content with what you have.” “I don’t want a consolation prize. I deserve to be a Lord.” “I want you think about what you desire. To be one of my Lords is to journey to the depths of an evil far darker than the most diabolical forms of depravity. To be one of my Lords you must do more than merely kill a god. You must compromise your morals, values, your very soul to be one of my elect.” “I’ve pledged loyalty to you. I believe that’s enough.” “True, you are loyal E’steem. But are you committed enough to sacrifice your own soul for your title?” I don’t say anything. I don’t have to say anything. My reputation speaks for itself. In my eons of living I have always committed myself to destroying all those around me in my quest for power. He should know that I’m dedicated; I betrayed my own master to join his elite cadre of demons. “I’ll give you some more time to think about it. I want you to truly assess the cost of what you aspire to be.” “You don’t have to give me any more time. I know what I want and I know I’m going to attain it. With or without your help.” “You really should think about this-” “You really should stop procrastinating. I’m beginning to wonder if you had any higher position for me other than being your glorified secretary.” He takes a moment to think about it. I think I’m persuading him to see things my way. Lucifer smiles at me. “Perhaps I underestimated you. Maybe I was hasty in promoting you to this position.” “You were.” “I will give you another chance to join my elect. Kill the goddess Isis and bring her body to me today.” What is he crazy? I’m supposed to go out there and kill a god face to face just like that. I need time to prepare and a strategy. It took me almost a year to get as close as I did to Isis. I won’t just rush in like a fool. “You’re funny.” I say. “It shouldn’t be so hard for you to kill her now. After all you almost killed her on your own.” “I had time to prepare a strategy then.” I reply. “I can’t just go out and kill someone on such short notice.” “Are you sure you don’t need more time to procrastinate?” Lucifer asks. “I thought you were ready to be a Lord. When I give an order to one of my Lords they do it without question.” That last comment irks me. I really am getting tired of him questioning my readiness. “I need to think up a strategy-” “You have an excellent strategy in front of you E’steem.” Lucifer continues. “Isis doesn’t know you’re alive. Use the element of surprise to your advantage.” “That plan would work if she weren’t redeemed. Isis is a lot more powerful than she was before.” “You still have an edge. Even though she’s been redeemed, she’s inexperienced in the use of her powers. She still thinks like a mortal. You know more than she does.” He’s making some excellent points. Everyone thinks I’m dead. And it’s evening over here so it must be early morning on the other side of the world. I could slip onto the island unnoticed and kill her in her sleep. Even if she has powers she’s I’m far more experienced in the use of my abilities than she is. The opportunity for attaining ladyship is still there for me; I have to take it before it’s too late. Before I leave I initiate my transformation into my true form. With a thought, horns shoot out of my forehead and my teeth grow into fangs. My eyes change from human ones to snake ones and my fingernails and toenails turn back into hard black cloven claws. He may disguise himself with a human visage, but this is the face I wear when I do my work. “I’ll have her carcass in front of your throne by this afternoon” I say as I disappear in a flash of light.   Chapter 4 So Lucifer is sending me out to kill the goddess. My arguments must have been very persuasive for him to give me another chance to become a member of the elect so soon. I thought I’d have to wait years to get this opportunity. The master must have a lot of confidence in my abilities to send me back out after her so soon. I teleport a few miles above the Island of Solitude and the cool early morning east winds catch underneath my wings allowing me to circle around the island. I take that time to plan my attack. The topography has changed quite a bit since I died. From this vantage point I can see the large house in the center of the island. That must be where Isis lives now. I could use an old strategy and easily incinerate the whole island. However, if I attack directly with Hellfire, Isis would become aware of me and get on the defensive. I don’t want to have to contend with her and her enchanted weapons again. Worse, I may arouse the suspicions of the gods with such an attack. Since I still have the element of surprise I’ll used some stealth to infiltrate the island. I shed my wings and teleport on the West side of the island far away from the house. It’s a long trek up the beach then another long walk through a forest of trees. Even with the early morning sunlight it’s difficult to see anything in the thick tropical foliage, however I find the chimney of the house jutting out above the trees. It doesn’t seem too far; I keep my eyes on the red brick tower as I keep walking east. Within a half hour I’m at the back of the house. Excellent. I peer over the brick fence. No one seems to be about. The shadow those two trees cast in the backyard will make good cover. I leap over the stone wall and dash through the trees. I steal into the house through an open patio door. This is going to be easier than expected. She must be really foolish to leave her door open like that. Anyone could walk in. I walk softly and slow my breaths. I don’t want Isis to hear me; I need the element of surprise to make this kill quick. As I walk through the corridor, I notice a large room full of books. That must be her library. I never pegged Isis for an intellectual. The girl seemed somewhat simple to me. From the childish way she speaks I thought she would have a hard time understanding the most rudimentary of human tasks. Perhaps I’ll take a moment and look at her tomes. Just as I’m about to look at what’s on her bookshelf, I notice something useful above the fireplace across from wall of books. Mounted on the mantel is Isis’ golden spear, the very weapon she killed me with. With my dagger destroyed, it’s probably one of the few remaining weapons that could kill a god. This is too good to be true. Carefully I lift the spear out of the brackets. I slip out of the room and through another long corridor. Quietly dashing up the stairs I notice one open door among the dozens of closed ones on the second floor. I’ll look in that room first. I peer in the doorway and a smile sprouts on my face .My heart starts to race in anticipation at the sight of the sleeping Isis lying on her bed. The sound of her harsh snore only makes me more excited. This will be even easier than I expected. I tiptoe up to the edge of the bed and get one last look at the peaceful sleeping beauty. I hope she’ll look just as content in her coffin. I’ll make this kill quick. I raise the spear high above me and aim for her heart. With both hands firmly planted upon the spear I slam it into the bed with all my strength. The four-poster bed crashes down around her. When I see the gold spear jutting out of the broken pile of wood and linens I frantically dash to the broken bed and push the collapsed parts aside looking for Isis’ corpse. The spear went right through the mattress and into the floor but not into Isis’ heart. Where did she go? “If you’re looking for me I’m right behind you.” Isis says. I’m startled by the sound of her voice. I tumble in the air and crash into a wall. As I wake up out of my daze I look up to see Isis scowling at me. She becomes surprised at the sight of me.   Chapter 5 I catch a glimpse of my destroyed bed. I would have caught the bad end of my own spear if I hadn’t acted on my own instincts and teleported out of the way. It’s a good thing I never forgot my samurai training. I get a look at my attacker lying on the floor and see a woman who should be dead. I’m shocked to see her. Really shocked to see her. I thought she’d be burning in Hell along with Seth right about now. “E’STEEM!” I blurt without thinking. She doesn’t say anything; she’s still dazed from the judo flip I gave her. I’ve got a lot of questions I want to ask her. First off, how is a dead woman here in my bedroom trying to kill me? Second, if Seth is dead then why is she still after me? She never held a grudge against me; she was just doing Seth’s dirty work. I need to find out what this about. “I saw you die!” I demand. “Osiris came back from the dead. Why can’t I?” E’steem says getting up. “You’re not a god.” I snarl. “Let’s just say I know other people in high places who resurrect the dead.” The surprise backhanded slap knocks me into the ruins of my broken bed. I frantically stumble about shoving broken wood, pillows, and sheets out of my way. Just as I push the debris aside, E’steem charges at me with my spear. I grab the end of it before it reaches my heart and twist it away from my chest. She wrestles me using all her might to push the spear towards my chest; I use all my might to push it away. “Seth is dead. Why are you after me?” I ask struggling with her. “Revenge?” “The demon who slays a god becomes a Lord, one of Lucifer’s elect.” E’steem says. “So what happened last time had nothing to do with Seth?” “I was using him to get to you. You’re the youngest and the weakest of the gods. You’re the easiest to kill.” That explains why she was so tenacious in attempting to kill me after Seth died. However, I’m not as weak as she thinks I am. She’s not facing some powerless naïve young woman; this time she’s facing a goddess who knows who she is and knows how to use all her powers. If she thinks she’s going to come to my island and kill me she’s got another thing coming. I’m going to kick her behind up and down this little stretch of land and send her back to Hell in a whole lot of pain. E’steem thinks her little revelation will get me to loosen my grip on the spear. It doesn’t. While she focuses on the spear, I tuck my knees into my chest then push my legs upward. When I feel my feet on her stomach I roll backwards. E’steem flies over and falls out the bedroom window. I look out the window and see E’steem’s twisted body lying on my patio table. Before she can make a move, I grab my spear and vault out the window. As I land feet first on E’steem’s stomach, the patio table she’s lying on breaks in half. I roll with the impact and spring up in a fighting stance. She looks unconscious. Perhaps that took the fight out of her. I approach E’steem carefully. I have to be cautious; E’steem is very crafty and one mistake by me could give her an advantage over me. I poke her with the blunt end of the spear; no response. I better find some chains to bind her with. “You should know better than to turn your back on me goddess.” E’steem teleports behind me and wraps one arm around my neck and uses her free hand to reach for my spear. Her grip is so tight I can barely breathe. Reaching to get her hands from around my neck, I drop the spear. Before it tumbles to the ground the weapon lands in her grasp. E’steem shoves me to the ground hard. The impact of the fall stuns me. She smiles as hurls the spear at my chest. My weapon comes at me like a bullet; I barely have enough time to put my bracelets in front of me. As the metal spear slams into my bracelets it shatters like glass. E’steem’s eyes grow wide and her jaw drops. She doesn’t know I’m full of surprises too. “The spear-” “Was a replica.” I say getting up. Do you think I’d be foolish enough leave the real golden spear lying around in plain sight?” I say. “I don’t need any weapon to kill you.” E’steem snarls. “I can do this with may bare hands.” “Big talk for someone getting her butt kicked.” I taunt. “And you talk bigger for someone who’s about to die.” “You have to kill me first.” I tease. E’steem begins pacing around the lawn in a circle stalking me looking for an opportunity to strike. I gesture with my hands for her to attack me. She charges at me; I see her fist coming a mile away. I grab her hand and then slam my knee into her stomach. I press my attack with a karate chop to the back of her head. The blows stagger her for a moment but she quickly gets her wind back. The right cross to the face catches me by surprise. She throws her shoulder into my gut and tries to tackle me into the oak tree a few yards from us. But I’m ready for her. Before my back hits the bark, we disappear in a flash of light. Startled by being teleported across the island I flip E’steem over me and she crashes into the sand. “Lets see how you like sand in the eyes!” E’steem says. Before I can approach her, she hurls a handful of sand at me. The grains that hit me in the face feel like razors. I stagger about blindly brushing the sand off my face. The grains don’t feel gritty; they feel hard like pieces of a broken bottle. She fused the sand into glass shards with her Hellfire before she threw it at me. That’s just dirty. As I try to get the shards of glass out of my eyes, I hear E’steem charging towards me. She grabs me around the neck. Her grip is like a vise; I gag as her grip tightens. The fact that she’s fighting dirty shows how desperate she is. “Glass in the eyes. Clever but dirty.” I say choking. “Wasn’t dirty when you did it.” E’steem snarls. “No, it was desperate.” I say. When I fall to my knees I catch her arrogant eyes and her evil smile. She believes I’m dying. That’s her mistake. She doesn’t have the upper hand in this fight. Ever since we got out in the backyard I’ve been taking the time to assess her fighting style. She’s been running on emotion, her anger causing her to lose focus and make mistakes. She irrationally throws punches haphazardly not thinking about where they land or how to use them to incapacitate me. Even without my powers I’ve been besting her in this battle. With them this fight is over. E’steem tightens her grip even more. In the blink of an eye I teleport out of her grip and reappear few yards away from her. I wish I had a camera; the look on her face is worth capturing forever. “Who’s desperate now?” E’steem taunts. “You still are. You actually think you can choke out someone who can teleport out of your grasp?” She’s talking like she wasn’t surprised by me teleporting. It’s an act to convince herself that she still has a chance. She’s woefully unprepared for me; that’s not like her. The last time E’steem and I fought she had me beat because she knew I was both naive and powerless and used that information to plan an effective battle strategy. It was a miracle of faith that I beat her then without my powers. Why didn’t she plan for me having them? It’s like she rushed out here to attack me. If planning was so important to her then, I wonder why she didn’t have a plan now. I’m about to turn to make a move when I see a blue fireball coming at me. She throws it wide; I’m able to easily duck it. As I’m ducking, the sand underneath my toes starts to feel very hot and slimy. My body starts to sink into the ground. I look down to see Hellfire melting the sand underneath me. She’s fusing the sand into glass! “Teleport out of that.” E’steem taunts pressing her attack. She charges at me again, so I deicide to press my defense. With a thought I rise out of the sand with the fused glass on my feet. It doesn’t weigh me down; E’steem wasn’t smart enough to fuse it too deep. The sight of me flying shocks E’steem and she doesn’t notice me kicking her in the face until the glass blob slams into her chin shattering into shards. E’steem falls on her backside and I fly away hoping she’ll be foolish enough to pursue me.   Chapter 6 Flying away like a coward. I see right through you Isis. You won’t get away from me so easily. The fact that I have you running tells me that you’re beaten. Ladyship is mine. She’s not the only one who can fly. While I can’t match her speed with my wings, I have other ways of flying. I point my hands at the ground and fire blasts of hellfire at the ground. The fire is so powerful that it propels me into the air. Within a few moments I catch up with Isis. Rocketing upwards I slam into her back shoulder first. It stuns her, but she keeps going. I’ll keep going too. One of us has to give soon enough. I wrap my legs around Isis’ waist. I grab at her throat. She’s moving so fast that I can barely keep a grip on her; it’s hard to make a killing strike. “It’s over Isis.” I .say. “Is it?” Isis replies. “I wouldn’t look down.” I decide to oblige her and look around. I gasp at the sight beneath me. The world looks so small from up here. We must be thousands of feet in the air; the air is so thin we can barely breathe. I gasp for air as Isis twists her body downward flying down at the same speed that we went up at. I try clawing at her throat, but I can’t move my arms. A fervent heat builds around us. I look down and see her headed for the ocean. At this speed and at this height hitting that water would be like slamming into a brick wall. I’ve got to make her stop. “You’ll kill us both flying at this speed.” I demand. “You weren’t so worried about me dying earlier. You shouldn’t be worried about your death now.” “When we hit that water will it’ll feel like hitting a wall.” “You’re invulnerable. It won’t hurt much.” As the blue water gets closer and closer, I feel a change come over me. My horns and claws start to retract. No! It can’t be! I’m losing my powers! I’ve got to persuade Isis to stop. “Isis you have to stop- my power is-” She can’t hear me. We’re moving so fast that the air screams around us. I’m terrified as we slam into the water; as we make impact it explodes around us. Momentum pushes us deeper into the ocean and riptides from the ocean filling itself back up pull Isis away from me. I think to reach for her but I’m so dizzy from hitting the water I don’t have the strength to move. Water fills my lungs, I can barely breathe. In desperation I try to swim up, but the currents keep pushing me further down. Everything is so black down here; I reach in the water to grab on to something but find nothing I feel myself losing consciousness I have make it. I have to………   Chapter 7 I watch as E’steem blacks out in the depths of the South Pacific and shake my head. She had so much promise. But she just can’t let go of the past. There’s no way I can make her part of my new operation, it’s clear she refuses to adapt to the ways of a changing world. If I employed her in a position in one of my new businesses she’d corrupt all my new agents with her ancient way of thinking. That’s going to prevent me from acquiring souls. It looks like I’ll have to chalk up her resurrection as a loss. She’ll have to spend the rest of her days working in my library cataloging and transcribing until I can find something else to do with her.   Chapter 8 Just like I planned, hitting the water at this speed would weaken E’steem. The impact of our bodies slamming into the water is like a cannonball slamming into a stone wall. Water explodes around us. The ocean filling itself back up pushes us down further into it. Riptides push E’steem away from me. Fighting for her own life will keep her from thinking about killing me. Now that she’s beaten I’ve got to make my escape. I may be immortal but perhaps under these conditions even a goddess can die. I seem to be holding up well under water. Even in this deep dark part of the ocean I’m still in one piece. The pressure would have crushed an ordinary person in moments. However; flying all the way up into the Earth’s upper atmosphere and coming down fast used up most of the air around me. Slamming into the water was a great strategy but it weakened me too. I can barely stay conscious. Luckily I took a very deep breath before E’steem caught up with me. I’ve got a few seconds left to plan an escape before I pass out. Swimming to the surface at this depth would be futile in my weakened condition. I’d drown before I reached the surface. Maybe I can teleport to the island shore there in time. I think about the shore of my island and in an instant the light envelops me and takes me there. Drenched I stagger into the beach crashing into the sand and everything turns black…   Chapter 9 I wake up lying on one of the guest beds. As I open my eyes I look out the window and see the sun high in the sky. It’s noon now; hours must have passed since I blacked out on the beach early this morning. In my warm dry bed I notice my wet clothes lying in a pile on the floor. When I see Osiris sitting at my bedside next to them I know who brought me in the house. Thank God my father was watching over me. I wrap my sheet around me and sit up in bed. When I catch his smiling brown eyes he smiles at me. He’d like to know what happened to me. Unfortunately I don’t have many answers for him or myself. Maybe I can make what transpired this morning make sense if I start talking about it. “Isis, are you all right?” Osiris asks. “What happened to you this morning?” “I had a fight with E’steem.” I answer. “I’m fine now.” Osiris’ eyes grow wide. “E’steem? She’s dead.” “Well she’ found her way back to the land of the living.” I say. “She snuck in here with my own spear trying to kill me. Unfortunately for her she found the replica I had made to display in the library.” “She must have been here trying to get revenge for you killing her and Seth.” Osiris says. “No, she was here for other reasons. Something about killing a god to become a Lord.” “It could be more of her lies. Don’t let her confuse you.” “That part I believe is true.” I continue. “It would explain why she continued to try to kill me after Seth died. It would also explain why she sought me out in the first place. She knew I was extremely naive about life as a goddess and I was eager to leave here. My heart being filled with hate and me being totally powerless at the time, she would have easily killed me and got her title.” “Perhaps my brother did not even know what treachery his herald had planned.” Osiris says. “She definitely kept her information close to the vest.” I reply. “I wouldn’t have figured it out if she hadn’t told me.” “It still doesn’t explain why she attacked you now.” Osiris continues. “I’m still figuring that one out myself father.” I say. “Someone cunning as E’steem wouldn’t just participate in a such a sloppy scheme. It’s just not her. I think someone else is pulling her strings this time.” “It could be the mysterious entity who resurrected her.” “Maybe.” I reply. “The way E’steem acted this morning was so disorganized and unfocused. Like she was trying to prove something by attacking me. Whatever that is, she failed at it. I left her at the bottom of the ocean.” “Did you-” “I doubt she’s dead.” I say. “If I could escape from the deep I know she did too.” “Perhaps even E’steem is unaware of the subtle politics transpiring around her.” Osiris says. We’d best keep out eyes open daughter. Whoever is pulling E’steem’s strings may soon be after you again.” I agree with you there father. This isn’t over. Not by a longshot. Final Chapter I wake up from my state of unconsciousness sopping wet. Cold air swirls around me as I violently cough the bitter saltwater of the Pacific out of my lungs. I feel the familiar mosaic tiles of Lucifer’s palace underneath me. He saved my life again. I wish I were dead. I’d rather be tortured in the lake of fire rather than face him. I look up and see Lucifer sitting in his throne with his legs crossed and a gold goblet in his right hand. He takes a sip of wine and smiles at me. He doesn’t have to gloat. “You promised me that you would attain Lordship today. Where is the body of Isis?” Lucifer taunts. “I see your carcass in front of my throne but I don’t see hers.” “I had a setback.” I snarl. “Setback? I thought you were ready to compete in the realm of the Elect. Those who are among my Lords don’t have setbacks. When they promise me something they deliver.” “I guess they don’t make mistakes either on the road to fulfilling those promises.” I snap. “They don’t make me promises that they can’t keep.” Lucifer replies. “I knew you were going to lose.” Lucifer continues. “That’s why I took your power at the last moment and brought you back here. There was no need in continuing your humiliation any further.” That last comment strikes a nerve in me. The son of a bitch never had any intention of making me a lady! This was all one big set up and I fell for it. I’m angry with him and angrier with myself for letting him embarrass me. I shouldn’t have been so eager to do his bidding. If I had been patient and taken my time to think things through I could have figured out what his scheme was and outsmarted him. “You took my powers!” I yell. “You could have killed me!” “You only got a little wet from your dip in the ocean.” Lucifer replies indifferently. “If you knew I was going to lose then why did you send me out there?” “You were the one who said you were ready to be a Lord. It was only fair to give you a chance to see if you were capable of achieving what you boast. You’ve proven to me that you still have much to learn.” “And you could have told me the truth from the beginning. I’m beginning to think that this was one big joke to you.” “It is amusing how someone so wise still cannot see the simple mistake that caused her downfall.” Lucifer says smiling at me. “I almost had her. If my power hadn’t been taken from me-” “You would have bested her. I am familiar with the excuse. I am also not interested in hearing it anymore. When are you going to stop being so arrogant?” “I know what I’m doing-” “You do? You were so greedy to get your title that you couldn’t even see the trap I set for you. A child could have figured it out.” “Trap-I did everything you told me to do.” “And that was your mistake. What is the first lesson everyone learns in associating with me?” “Always be aware of the subtle politics transpiring around you?” “Never trust the father of lies.” If you loved this story you’ll enjoy: The Temptation of John Haynes Paperback ISBN 978-0-615-42592-4 Paperback retail price $15.00 Also Available as an eBook for a reduced price. Death Kills the Flesh. Compromise Kills the Soul. The Devil doesn't like John Haynes. To take his soul, Lucifer recruits E'steem a beautiful she-demon to seduce him. If she can persuade John to compromise his beliefs and values, he'll allow her to join his Elect, a cadre of powerful demons in his inner circle. To balance the playing field in E'steem's favor, Lucifer isolates John by having him fired from his job. Unemployed and emotionally vulnerable, John eagerly takes what he thinks is the job opportunity of a lifetime as CEO of Morris Phillips. Distracted by his new high-powered job and its many duties, he has no idea that Lucifer secretly controls the multinational corporation or that his live-in assistant is a she-demon placed there to corrupt him. However as E'steem becomes romantically involved with John, she's torn between achieving her theocratic aspirations and saving the man she loves from eternal damnation. And the previous story : ISIS Paperback ISBN 1-58939-236-1 Paperback retail price $12.95 Also Available as an eBook for a reduced price. Also Available as an eBook In the aftermath of a horrible tragedy, Isis the long-lost daughter of Osiris has committed a heinous crime. Because she didn’t receive guidance from her father, the elder gods show mercy on the young goddess by stripping her of her powers and imprisoning her on an uncharted island in the South Pacific. Osiris and Queen Isis reunite with his long-lost child to begin the difficult process of establishing a familial relationship. Hoping to guide Isis towards the greater destiny she’s supposed to fulfill, her parents begin teaching her the ways of the gods. However, Seth’s herald E’steem lurks in the shadows offering Isis freedom for a price. Caught in the middle of a never-ending war between the gods, Isis must choose to either return to the troubled world she knows all too well, or take a journey down an unknown path where faith is her only guide. ### About The Author Shawn James is the author of the novels Isis, The Cassandra Cookbook, The Temptation of John Haynes the screenplay All About Marilyn, and the Fabulous First Season of All About Nikki. He is also a feature columnist for African–American social media site Onixlink.com. A graduate of Monroe College he’s been writing for over fifteen years. Connect With Shawn Online: Other eBooks by Shawn James Isis Isis: Trial of the Goddess Baptism of Blood The Saga of MastiKatious The Temptation of John Haynes A Recipe For $ucce$$ All About Marilyn All About Nikki- Three Episodes from the Fabulous first Season All About Nikki- Four More Episodes from the Fabulous First Season All About Nikki- The Fabulous First Season All About Nikki- Sesnsational Season 2 Sneak Preivew The Sneakers Spray em’ Up Non-Fiction by Shawn James: Stop Simpin- Why you Don’t need Finance to Get Romance The Invisible Black Men The Myth of the Strong Black Woman Why Black women choose thugs over good Black men Also published by SJS DIRECT Commencement Book One Commencement Book Two Commencement Book Three Commencement Book Four- The Conclusion Twitter: www.twitter.com/shawnsjames LinkedIN: www.linkedin.com/in/shawnsjames9973 Discover Shawn James’ blog at: