Soul Guardian

Chapter 42: The Question

It was not in Six’s nature to be a trusting person. That wasn't surprising, given the fact that her foster father Mike tried to sacrifice her to the first demon that could be bothered to show up. Now apparently her new foster father was supposed to kick off the apocalypse. It almost made Six wonder if there was something wrong with her.

Bael swore up and down that he had no idea what everyone was talking about. It was a chance he was lying, or there had been some mistake. But it was impossible to know for sure either way.

In the end Six decided that her best course of action was to try and independently verify the information. And for that she would need books. Lots of books.

The bell over the door rang as she entered and the effect of her presence in the bookshop was immediate. Granny looked up in surprise as a rabid copy of Cujo stopped trying to bite his leg off and quieted down. “Oh, it's you.”

“I need some books on demonology.” Six told him. “Preferably reliable ones.”

Several thuds echoed through the shop as heavy grimoires departed the shelves in the occult section and made their presence known. She decided to press her luck. “I am specifically looking for anything about Bael-Sharoth, baron of hell and lord of torment.”

There was a sound of several books trying to scramble back to their shelves all at once. They knew about Bael and the book in his possession. No way were they about to risk their spines and piss him off.

Six chased after the noise, trying to get to the books before they could hide. By the time she got there the occult section was neat and tidy except for the dust on the floor.

“Oh hell.” Sixl said, realizing that she had her work cut out for her. Why couldn't anything ever be easy?

***

Hours of fruitless searching later her head hurt and she was no closer to understanding Bael’s role in the apocalypse. In fact, Six couldn’t find out anything about him. There was a reference to a Bael in the Lesser Key of Solomon but it seemed to describe a different demon entirely and the sigil was all wrong.

Ditto for the Infernal Dictionary. Same first name, different demon. She paused her search for answers and tried to think of a way forward. There was one place she knew for sure his full name was mentioned. Unfortunately her copy was back at home. If they had one here it was probably hiding.

“It’s a shame there are no copies of ‘Summoning Hell’s Best’ in this shop.” She said, trying to coax out the elusive grimoire. “I left mine at home.”

She listened intently for the sound of falling books. “It’s a shame because I have a nice bookmark for it too.” Still there was nothing.

“I was thinking about sitting down with some tea but maybe I'll just go. The selection here isn't as good as I thought.”

An idea came to her. “Actually, I might start visiting Cornerstones in the mall and get something new. There's not much point coming back here if I can't find anything.”

There was an ungraceful thud as a book fell off the shelf onto the ground. The black grimoire looked up at the book that had pushed it and rustled its dust jacket with irritation. Didn't they know he was a limited edition?

Six picked up the familiar volume and flipped to the page she knew so well. But Bael-Sharoth’s sigil and name were missing. She checked the index. There was no mention of him there either.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“What the hell?” Six said as she looked at the book with confusion. Something very strange was going on and she needed to get to the bottom of it.

***

Back at home she compared the two books. Her copy featured Bael's name and sigil, this other one did not.

“What have you got there?” Bael asked, the prospect of a new book garnering his attention.

“A mystery.” Six said, pointing at the two books on the dining room table. She wanted to see how he would react to her discovery. “You're in one, but not the other.”

Bael looked the two books over, noting the discrepancy. “Fascinating.” He checked the index and ran his finger over the page. Any suspicions she may have had about him being responsible evaporated as she watched him work. He was too excited at unraveling the mystery for it to be his doing.

“What did you find?” Six asked.

He pushed the book with his name in it back over to her. It was open to the index. “Do you notice anything different about this page?”

“Besides the fact your name is on it?” She looked at the hand written index. “No, not really.”

“Look closer at the parchment around where my name is written. Do you see where it's a little more worn than the rest of the page? And there are these strange discolorations. I think it’s a palimpsest.” Noticing the lack of comprehension on his daughter's face he elaborated. “Someone scraped off one name and wrote another.”

“Oh!” Six looked at the altered page. “Why would somebody do that?”

“I’m going to chalk it up to laziness.” Bael explained. “It's easier than replacing an entire page and rebinding the book afterwards.”

He set the grimoire spine down and let it fall open naturally. Bael didn't seem surprised when it automatically opened to show his name and sigil. He repeated the experiment and got the same result.

“I thought so. It's an old trick, but effective.” He called her eye to the page with his name on it. “Do you notice how it's thicker than the rest? Someone put a fresh piece of parchment on top of an old one and glued them together.”

Bael was on a hot streak now. Books were one of his favorite things. Getting to unravel the mystery or how his name ended up in this one was particularly exciting. He flipped through the grimoires, looking for differences. As far as he could tell nothing else was changed.

The description under his name was all wrong. Bael frowned as he read the words aloud.

“Bael-Sharoth's domain is one of infinite wealth and he will gladly trade innocent lives for power or gold. He lays in wait while others fight to claim treasures left behind by the fallen. He is easily summoned and easily contained, his title as baron is a mere formality.”

“What's wrong?” Six asked. She was familiar with the description. The fact he was supposed to be easy to summon, and contain, was why she picked him in the first place. That and none of the other summoning rituals seemed to work.

“Where did Mike get this book?”

“I don't know.” Six shrugged. “Sometimes he bought them himself. Others were gifts from followers.”

Bael ran his fingers over the book one last time before handing it back. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I'm not sure what to make of it yet. But I will let you know if I find anything.”

There was a moment of tension in the air. “Bael, are you sure you're not here to bring on the apocalypse?”

He shook his head. “I have zero intention of causing any apocalypse or upheaval. I'm just here to make sure you are taken care of.”

“But could you do it? If you really wanted to?”

“I mean, if I really thought about it I'm sure I could find a way. But there's no point. The apocalypse ends in Armageddon, the battle between heaven and hell.” He took off his glasses and polished them with a lens cloth. “There's no defeating God so I don't see any reason to bother trying. It would take a real idiot to stick their hand in that particular blender.”

“But I thought demons hated God.” Six protested.

“Oh, don't mistake respect for reverence. I definitely do. In fact if we ever met on even ground I wouldn't hesitate to bury my halberd in his face. He and his creations slaughtered my brothers.”

Bael's face grew dark as he stood up from the table. “This was a fun diversion but I have work to do. I'll see you at dinner.” He gave her a kiss on the forehead then walked off.

Six watched him go. The book was puzzling but she was willing to accept Bael's explanation as to why he didn't want to bring about the apocalypse. She hoped she hadn't bothered him too much with all her questions. It seemed to have stirred up bad memories for him.

But what could be so bad that it would traumatize a demon, much less a baron of hell? She thought about going after him but decided to give Bael his space. If he needed to be alone for a bit or blow off some steam that was fine. She would be there for him when he got back. She just hoped he came back.