Excerpt from "Patron's War"

The stench was overwhelming. It was the kind of miasma that crawled into your nostrils even if you held your breath. It was an odour that paralyzed the other senses. It crippled the mind. It hung in the air and settled on every surface in an almost tangible film. It was omnipresent.

The Devils of the court squirmed in their fine, formal clothes, each trying to appear unaffected by the reeking wind that nearly oozed from their patron, the boy-king Indulgence. From his too-large throne, the Sin slid a haunch of flesh into his gaping maw, seemingl oblivious to the discomfort of his masked servants. To the disproportioned child, the Devils that filled the lavish hall might have been statuary or discarded play-things. The Devil nearest to Indulgence shifted. The man wore a crecent moon mask of pale bone that hid half of his face and throat. He smoothed an imaginary wrinkle from his pressed ivory suit and adjusted the cuffs of his crimson silk shirt.

"Master Indulgence," he prompted.

"Lord Saul," the child whined, "I am eating at the moment. What is it?"

"Master," Saul pressed, "your sister has been waiting on you outside the hall for nearly a day now. Should you not send for her?"

Indulgence scrunched his face up. "Not that terrible Resent, I hope."

"No master. Your sister Hubris."

Indulgence waved dismissively, his anxiety soothed. "Let her in if you wish, Lord Saul. I surely have no better use for my time than to listen to my big sister's pleas for ever more resources."

Saul nodded curtly at the shackled fallen angels who stooped in deep self-pity by the grand double doors of the feast hall. The broken exiles slunk to the golden ringed handles and, with a back-breaking effort, the slaves managed to pry the barrier open.

Standing patiently, the full eight feet of Hubris seemed- to all appearences- content to wait another week, if needed.

"Mistress Hubris!" Lord Barr called out from under his bug-eyed, frog-faced mask.

Hubris' lip curled up slightly as she regarded the sychophantic flesh filling the room. The metal talons of her prostetic hands dug into her palms as she forced her fingers from digging into the Devils, to improve them. Clouds of black soot began to belch from the curving smoke stacks that rose from her back as she moved into the chamber. She strode foward briskly, if somewhat stiffly, her tattered lab coat billowing out behind her.

Indulgence tossed his silverware into his mouth with a hollow, metalic crunch and waved his food away. Leaning forward eagerly, he balled his long, spindly fingers into fists and rested his head on them.

"What gifts has my favorite sister brought to her loving brother?" the child asked with possessive glee, emphasising 'loving' a touch too long. The tip of his tongue licked his lips expectantly.

Hubris made a 'tch' noise in the back of her throat, and a spasm of polluted flame licked the top of her smoke stacks.

"Unlike some," she sneered with condescending disdain and an empty voice, "I can look beyond the purely carnal. I have, in my infinite comprehension of science, torn back the veil of ignorance and fear the creator has blinded men with, and begun to decode the mysteries of Heaven's Butchers."

Indulgence settled backward, stroking the patchwork fur of his rich mantle. "And I must suppose you need MY help?"

The half of Hubris' face that still wore skin twisted in bemused disbelief. "Help? Ah ha, no. This is far beyond anything you might understand. I need only your fallen Angels. The batch I rounded up earlier did not quite make it through the initial tests."

The fallen Angels of Heaven- the "Lords" of Hell- shuddered in their place by the doorway.