By Neel Krishnaswami

Death is not the end, of course, though this is a concept that tends to receive only lip service from most of the Host and even the Exiles. A dead human either reincarnates, in which case continuous identity is lost, or they go to Hades or Heaven, in which case they stay there. The poor dears can't bind to Vessels, can't return to Earth, have a vanishingly small number of Forces, and currently stand lower in the Order of Things no matter what their ultimate promise may be.

It's just better for them to stay safe and cosseted, supplying nothing but Essence and cheering crowds for the angels. Isn't it?

There are those who disagree, of course. One of the first was Abel, who found his life cut short and all his plans for his life come to nothing. This did not suit him. His afterlife didn't, either. He was still young and restless, and all of Heaven's diversions and amusements struck him as pointless.

It was at this point that he discovered the Library, and Asmodeus. The angel of the Game is always willing to share words with anyone who will listen, and from him he learned some hard facts: his sacrifices, of the first fruits and of his life, did not matter at all. God was dead, and never heard. And now so was Abel, and all for nothing.

These were not words to comfort a young man, and so when Asmodeus offered to show him another secret, he gleefully accepted. Asmodeus showed Abel one of the hidden exits of the Library that led from Heaven into the Marches. Go free, Asmodeus told him, and make that freedom count for something by liberating other souls discontented with the pleasures of Heaven.

He has. For thousands of years, he has crept in and out of Heaven, leading the discontented and dispirited out of the Kingdom. The Ghostly Legion have set up their own hidden fastness' in the Marches, and made their own hidden places there. These days, it is not merely Heaven; the halls of Valhalla, the palaces of Pushpaloka, the loas' city beyond the sea - every pantheon has seen its discontents quietly vanish as well. (Hades remains the one stubborn exception - it has but one gate, and it is too well guarded for him. But Asmodeus has promised to look into it for him....)

His mother, Eve, does not approve of his activities. It is, to her way of thinking, appallingly reckless and irresponsible. If the Host were to discover his excursions, they would curtail even the measure of freedom the humans in Heaven currently possess. She does not exert her power to trap him in Heaven (though it is surely sufficient) because if she did he might start to preach to the other souls, and then secret would then certainly be discovered. So she quietly pleads for him to restrain his recklessness, to play it safe for the sake of all the others.

Though ages have passed, he has never seen fit to approach his father Adam. He has met some of the Undying, and finds them profoundly unnatural, wrong. The fact that his father (by all reports) created that state bothers him even more - who knows what Adam would do if he found his son's soul, alone in the Marches?

This is the reason he has avoided the Exiles, as well - Hatiphas, the Angel of Sorcery, is far too close to his father for his comfort. Worse still, the Exiles worship God still, and would demand that he believe, when everything he has seen in millennia of wandering refutes Him.

Meaning? These days, he makes his own meaning, and there will be a whole lot of surprised people when they find out what it is.

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Over twenty thousand years, you can release a lot of ghosts from Heaven. And since they are ghosts, people tend to ignore them, except as sorcerers' servants. You can learn a lot just listening. When all of them are malcontents and revolutionaries, you can turn them into an army.

This can't continue forever, of course. The Marches are shrinking, and the ranks of the Legion have swollen. Someday soon someone is going to realize that there's a whole army of specters out there, and that they are every man and jack of them pissed off at the universe.

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Q: What is Asmodeus thinking?

A: Deep thoughts. Deep, evil, thoughts.

If Abel asked him for his true reason, Asmodeus would tell him that if he remained in Heaven, he would surely die soul-death at the hands of Laurence or Zadkiel. Releasing him is simple kindness, and he values his friendship - his desire to make his own path reminds Asmodeus of himself.

This is true, and even True.

If Lucifer ever found out, Asmodeus could tell him that these discontents would surely end their days extinguished at the hands of Laurence or Zadkiel. They would be gone, and supply no Essence. By letting them out, Asmodeus has gained for Heaven a corps of highly motivated, resourceful, and fanatically grateful spies in the Marches. All gain, and no loss.

This is true, and even True.

If Asmodeus asked himself, he would think three things. He would note that releasing these souls from their appointed place disrupts the Order of Things, and hastens the death of the Symphony. And if ever he needs an army, he needs but call and Abel will send the whole of his Ghostly Legion to aid him, out of gratitude and love. If Blandine or Beleth discover the Legion, it will be war, and their battles will drive a rather surprisingly large fraction of mankind completely insane.

This is true, and even True.

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