Chapter Text
The Pact Insidious
Diogenes knocked at the door, and Eremis’s richly timbered voice echoed within. “Enter.”
The tension flowed through his wings as he flapped inside, yet Diogenes didn’t let it spread across his features. He wasn’t going to screw this up. “How’s it going, boss? Heard you wanted to speak to me.”
Eremis glanced up from the document he’d been examining and surveyed the imp with piercing amber eyes. He kept his abilities close to the chest, but Diogenes had the uncanny sensation like every inch of him was on display as the archdevil took his time in responding. “I have a task for you,” he said after a beat, and he gestured to the exquisitely carved basalt bench before his desk. “Sit.” His tone offered no explanation that his words missed, and Diogenes perched on the armrest of the bench obediently.
It’d been a couple centuries that Diogenes had been working for Eremis now, and the imp thanked Asmodeus every day for that. Slogging through Avernus under Zariel’s command had been brutal. The time blended together into a fog that comprised of an endless battle with images of frothing demons striking down the lemures beside him to bobbing between battling standards delivering messages. It was sheer chance he’d been picked as part of a mission to signal a strategic retreat, but he knew he’d earned the slightly quirked brow in recognition from Eremis when he’d reported his success and the bit of scouting he’d managed to do in the resulting chaos. It wasn’t long after that he’d found himself transferred to Phlegethos in service to the archdevil away from the front lines of the Blood War. When he’d asked about it later, Eremis had merely shrugged; yet Diogenes knew that this archdevil was his ticket to advancement. For the first time in millennia, he could feel that he wasn’t going to spend an eternity as an imp.
Eremis kept his even gaze on Diogenes for a long moment. The archdevil sat comfortably in his natural form. The entire chamber was scaled to his ten-foot tall height and wingspan. Most of the time, Diogenes felt insignificant to his more powerful brethren. Not Eremis, though. When Eremis turned his gaze, Diogenes had the distinct feeling that it only landed on something worthy of it. Being locked in his gaze was thrilling in a way that filled Diogenes with confidence and dread at the same time.
Eventually, the archdevil spoke again. “Your ilk are unreliable, Diogenes.” The words hung in the empty space, no judgment in them, merely a statement of fact. One that Diogenes couldn’t especially disagree with, if he was honest with himself.
“Necessary, though.” Diogenes chanced a bit of a grin at Eremis.
“True,” the archdevil chuckled softly. “Imps serve their purpose as well as can be expected.” Eremis turned his sight back to the document before him. “I was dispatched to the Material Plane to handle a contract,” he said finally, and Diogenes leaned forward with interest. “A promising wizard. A brilliantly creative mind, but inexperienced. We have made a Pact Insidious with him and delivered on our end of the deal, but I want you to monitor his compliance.”
Straightening subconsciously, Diogenes nodded quickly. If Eremis was sending him, then he’d earned a reputation as loyal. And if he was loyal, and if he was successful … “I won’t let you down, boss. What’s the deal?”
“Hmm. Exchanging his first child for eliminating a blemish to his record.” Eremis turned the contract for Diogenes’s perusal. “Walter Moineau, human student of magic at the Towers of Aecion in Ianora. It would seem a rival outmaneuvered him and put his position in danger. Academia,” he sighed, shaking his head with a fond twist of a smirk. “Such high stakes, such power, and it all can fall apart with an indiscretion or backroom maneuvering. Merit only buys respect once, it would seem.” Amused, the archdevil began to point out relevant portions of the contract writ in gleaming red ink before him. “You can see he was clever enough to gain what he wanted with minimal inconvenience to himself. Outright rejected any attempt to gain his soul in favor of transferring an unborn child.”
Diogenes ran his eyes over the usual boilerplate typical of every contract until he reached the noninterference clause. It was noticeably light. His glowing eyes jerked back to Eremis, stunned. “Not clever enough to cover his ass, though.”
Eremis’s smug smirk widened into a pleased grin. “So confident, he was. I suspect he had an inflated sense of his own control of the situation. He agreed to the terms three times as we crafted the contract together, thinking I had allowed myself to be bartered down from his own soul. Belial himself would agree the contract was made in good faith.” He tapped the relevant section for emphasis. “I am bound to protect his progeny as it is carried to term, and I am not to take any action to endanger the child’s life until it finishes infancy and is subject to collection.” Leaning back in his chair, Eremis meets Diogenes’s gaze once more. “He has assumed a great many things to be true, it would seem.”
“Yeah, like the fact he can even get it up,” Diogenes cackled with delight.
“He assumes more than that,” Eremis responded softly, tenting his fingers as he gazed intently back at his minion. “He assumes the barriers of Ianora to be as strong as they were, all devils must be summoned into the Material Plane, and he is incapable of leading to his own downfall.” The archdevil clucks his tongue in affected pity. “Not the first mortal to make these mistakes, and he will not be the last.”
“So, make sure he can’t fill his end of the bargain, then?” Diogenes stretched his wings in anticipation of flight as he readied himself to obey before stopping cold. “Whoa, whoa. Wait. Did you say Ianora?” The land had been long protected by divine wards, surely he’d misheard.
Eremis, however, nodded in response.
“Holy fucking shit,” Diogenes muttered to himself, eyes widening. “We’re able to be summoned there, now?”
Eremis gave another nod of his head, a smirk growing across his lips. “It would seem so. I was unable to do more than project a shade, but it was enough to judge the barriers weakened enough for imps to pass easily. Perhaps even I could fully travel there in the next few decades if it continues as such. Of course, Lady Fierna’s talents make this easier.” He pointed a crimson finger at Diogenes as he continued. “Do not underestimate him. Young he may be, but I believe he will prove a powerful wizard of his generation. Do not interfere with his studies. I want this soul in service to me.”