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“Always the poet,” says Muninn.
I wonder if he’d let me smoke a Malediction in here. I pat my pockets, then remember I’m not wearing my regular clothes. My cigarettes are back by the elevator, and probably soaked through.
“Let me have the Qomrama,” says Muninn. “Bring it back to Hell, where it belongs.”
“So Deumos and Merihim can grab it? I don’t think so? They might have minions on Earth, but they don’t have shit power yet. No. It’s staying where it is.”
Muninn says, “You owe me a favor, if you recall.”
I knew sooner or later he was going to try and fuck me up with fairness and logic. Good thing I’m pretty much immune to those things.
“Do you know how to use it?”
He shakes his head.
“No.”
“Then leave it with me. Believe it or not, I’m working with the Golden Vigil again. They’ve got this old Buddhist monk working on it. He seems pretty smart.”
Muninn looks at me.
“A month ago you talked about Gnostics and called me the demiurge. Now you’re spending your time with Buddhists. Your cosmological interests are broader than I thought, James.”
“Strange times, strange company.”
“Indeed.”
Damn. Looking at this ragged old man I used to know and drink with, I feel an ugly wave of sincerity coming on.
“I’m sorry I stuck you with this job,” I say. “I didn’t think about what was coming. I just wanted not to be Lucifer anymore.”
“Thank you,” says Muninn. “I appreciate that. But as you’ve pointed out, you weren’t very good at the job. I don’t know that I’ve done much better, but I’ve held Pandemonium and the provinces together so far. It’s better off this way.”
“Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”
“Thank you. I will. In fact . . .” He gets up from the table and leaves the room. He comes back a minute later with a yellowish potion in a stoppered bottle.
“Take this with you,” he says. “Just pour it across the ground at the entrance to my sanctuary and no mortal person or device will be able to detect it.”
“I’m not sure the monk is exactly mortal. He’s self-mummified. Died four hundred years ago and came back to leap tall buildings in a single bound, you know.”
“Whatever powers he might possess won’t be enough to see through this. It will be fine.”
“Great.”
“You still have the Singularity and the Mithras?”
“Safe and sound in the Room.”
“Good. Don’t remove them under any circumstances. If worst comes to worst, they might be our only hope.”
It must be getting to him down here. I’ve never heard that kind of kamikaze talk coming from him before.
“I’ve got them. Don’t sweat it.”
He nods.
“Would you like to say hello to Samael while you’re here? I could wake him up.”
