Arioch

From CleanPosts

ARIOCH

Although Belial had placed Major Rogziel in authority over all of his Eyes of Belial priesthood, a group of five Eyes led by one Balberith came to Rogziel and ordered him to join them in the hangar with the angel of Belial to answer for a certain recent development of some interest.

"You will hand me your sword, Major," Balberith told him, and Rogziel, sur- rounded by the five armed yeng, had no choice but to comply. They searched him roughly for any other weapons or paraphenalia he might use to evade judgment should Belial declare him a traitor, as they were quite convinced he would. Then Rogziel was frog-marched into the hangar, with very little of his dignity remaining to him.

The five Eyes of Belial prostrated themselves before the angel and com- pelled Rogziel to do the same with a rough kick. Then Balberith stood up and said, "Your pardon, Lord Belial, but a matter has come to our attention that we believe proves your trust in Major Rogziel is misplaced and un- founded."

Belial said, "Come closer, Balberith, and state your piece."

Balberith walked reverently forward a few more paces and said, "We know, Lord, that you commanded Rogziel to draft orders to Commodore Lahatiel of the Exiler to investigate the Iron Fist organization at Xanthos and destroy them. Instead, the Exiler has gone to the prison at Rhene and set free a notorious rapist and murderer, which will dismay certain very powerful clans on Gorpai when they learn of it."

"Is that true, Rogziel?"

"Yes, Lord, Captain Balberith's report is correct in every sense."

Emboldened, the Eye of Belial engaged in a little speculation. "Lord, this Commodore Lahatiel could not have ordered the release of Elimelech on his own authority. Only Rogziel acting as your most senior lieutenant could have swayed Warden Achimel. We have come to believe that Major Rogziel has done nothing but lie to you since he arrived here, Lord Belial, and hy is really serving your enemies."

"What say you to that, Major Rogziel? Did you really authorize the Commo- dore to release this prisoner called Elimelech."

"Yes, Lord."

"Why?"

"Lord, there are sixty-one identical domes that make up the city of Xan- thos. Your orders are to destroy the dome containing the headquarters for the Iron Fist organization, but few know where it is even among that city's own residents. Elimelech is an important figure in the Iron Fist. By re- leasing Elimelech from Rhene and setting him free at Xanthos, he will lead the crew of Exiler straight to the proper dome, and that is the dome that will be destroyed."

"Can the Exiler really track him from space, my old friend?" Belial asked.

"Lord, this crew put together by Commodore Lahatiel is absolutely the rari- fied foam on top of the cream of your naval crop. I trust that hy knows exactly what hy is doing, and I think we could all use a little bit more of that trust around here.

"Frankly, Lord, these are all tiny details which can be handled without your personal attention, and I am embarrassed for you. It was your will to appoint me to this position, Lord, and I find my mere presence here before you now, which was made mandatory by these same five Eyes of Belial, to be an unforgivable insult against your judgment far more than a simple expres- sion of disrespect against my office and authority."

"I agree, Rogziel. I will deal with the insult made against my judgment in my own way, but is there anything you would like in recompense for the dis- respect shown against you?"

"I want only two things, Lord, and the first is to have my own sword back from this Balberith fellow who took it from me.

"Return the Major his blade!" Belial commanded.

In the same instant that Balberith complied with the commandment of his god, Rogziel used his returned blade to take off the head of the captain with a single quick bloody stroke. He bent to retrieve it and held Balbe- rith's head upside-down by the beard so it wouldn't drip on the holy ground before the angel of Belial.

"This was the other thing I wanted, Lord."

The four remaining Eyes of Belial would soon realize in a truly horrific way that Major Rogziel had done Balberith a kindness.

   * * * * * 

At the conclusion of Exiler's operation at Xanthos Rogziel reported to Belial that the sagging allegiance of Xanthos had been completely renewed after the expenditure of only a single Mark 64 Mod 2 Torpedo. "Exiler is now en-route to Palato, Lord, and will soon pass through the ID Grid to Proxima Observatory in obedience to your command."

After that, in a corridor, Rogziel was disconcerted to run into an Eye of Belial hy vaguely recalled. The Major's face shifted to an expression of full horror when he realized hy remembered seeing hyz face briefly at the court of King Stronghammer.

"You!" Arioch growled, and his own expression of shock and surprise turned into the joy of a predator when after a long hunt he had finally cornered his prey.

For the better part of a day, Arioch tried to cajole the other Eyes of Belial at Palato to back him up in laying a set of accusations against Rog- ziel before the angel of Belial, but the Major was far too close within the counsels of Belial, and they had already seen what happened to the other Eyes who tried the gambit of assailing Rogziel and failed. The simple be- heading of Balberith by Rogziel was nothing compared to what Belial himself did to Balberith's four companions, and the Eyes shuddered when they remem- bered it.

Every hour or two while Arioch maneuvered in the background against him, Rogziel requested a report on Exiler's current position. It was still too far from the ID Grid, so he needed to stall for a little bit more time.

So at what he called "great personal sacrifice" Rogziel deigned at last to answer the annoying questions of this Lieutenant Arioch as though explain- ing to a child why it was dangerous to play with fire.

"Why did Exiler land at Menkal?"

"Why did Exiler land at Menkal, what?"

"Why did Exiler land at Menkal, sir."

"To load up on more propellant water," Rogziel told him, "because a proper Navy tanker wasn't available at Central at the time. I'm astonished at you, Arioch. You are an Eye of Belial and you didn't see the train of water wagons lined up outside of Akamar?"

"What god authorized the landing, sir?"

"Chokhmah, in the person of Ariel. Sha lives at Central, you know."

"Sha's not exactly a friend of Belial. Sir."

"What is the meaning of that question? Is there now war between the gods?"

"Not yet, sir. Why did Exiler unload eleven dependents at Menkal?"

"Because the officers chosen by Commodore Lahatiel to crew the Exiler were in the process of picking up their dependents from Hybla-Dia to be reset- tled at Gorpai when my urgent request to come immediately to Palato was deemed to take precedence."

"Are you sure it wasn't to get them out of our reach?"

"The dependents were temporarily lodged with King Stronghammer until other arrangements could be made later," Rogziel said. "Really, Arioch, are you very certain you want to disturb the Lord Belial with something as trivial as this?"

"Sir, you mentioned 'officers picked by Commodore Lahatiel'. Was Lilith one of these officers? Do we have humans crewing our ships now, sir?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, sir, I observed that Bravo was in the delegation of officers and dependents that emerged from Exiler for an audience with the King. Do you deny it, sir?"

"I deny nothing."

That interested the other Eyes of Belial. Rogziel had said nothing about it. Arioch didn't realize it yet, but he could now count on at least two companions to back him up.

Rogziel tried a bluff. "Did you see her embark on Exiler again?"

"No sir."

"That's right you did not. Because Lilith is the wife of the human incar- nation of Binah, and the Temple of Binah is in Menkal. Who knows what her purpose was? She rode together with us to Menkal as the price of my pas- sage from Seattle to the Land We Know."

Arioch said, "I did not see her embark on Exiler again, sir, because I was already on my own way, busy trying to break through the King's lockdown and escape hez kingdom. Why did the King close the gates, Major? Was it to stop me?"

"Who knows? What are you talking about? I have no idea what the King did after we embarked again on Exiler and left the Land We Know."

"After you left with Bravo, sir? I say she's still on the ship."

Rogziel turned to a technician seated nearby who was monitoring the status of Exiler. "Where is the ship now?"

"Only minutes from the ID Grid now, sir."

He turned back to Arioch. "Very well, Arioch, we will go before Belial shortly but here's what you can do right now. It is the commandment of Belial himself that this ship must now go to Proxima to bring news to the Imperial Astronomer of the tragic death of hyz son at Xanthos. You think, but you don't know, that Bravo is still aboard Exiler. Right now, you can countermand Belial, order this corporal to hit Transfer Inhibit, and simply block the ship from going through. Then we will really have something to talk about with Belial besides living arrangements for wives. What say you, Lieutenant?"

Arioch considered things for a moment, and then said, "I will not disobey the commandments of Belial, but I will bring a second warship into readi- ness to immediately follow Exiler, if Belial finds my tale has merit."

Arioch turned to the same technician and asked what was warship was avail- able nearby.

"The cruiser Tormentor is in position, sir."

Arioch smiled. "A cruiser. More than a match for your little frigate, Major."

"You betray far too much glee at pitting one of Belial's own vessels against another," Rogziel said.

The technician reported that Exiler had just passed through the ID Grid and the wormhole had appeared, carrying the frigate onward to the space around Proxima.

Hearing that, Rogziel shuddered with relief, and didn't care what this now betrayed to the Eyes of Belial. Mere seconds ago, a great turning point had been reached. Few would know the role Rogziel played here, and many would even curse his name after the Eyes of Belial spread their own stories about hym.

He did not want to die, and he especially didn't want to die at the hands of the Empire's secret police, but an evil god had been defeated just now, and that was its own reward and justification.

Rogziel stood up straight. "If Arioch is able to persuade one or more Eyes of Belial to stand with him, then we shall go before Belial and have this out once and for all," he said.

A sergeant Kasbeel came forth. "I will stand with Arioch before the Lord our God."

Arioch smiled at the sergeant and then turned to Major Rogziel. "Hand me your blade, sir," Arioch commanded him.

"Hand it to you?" Rogziel drew his blade in sudden anger. "I will never hand it to you, Lieutenant. But do you want to take it from me?" He looked at Sergeant Kasbeel and the others. "Do any of the rest of you want to take it from me? No? I've had more than enough of this constant insolence and back room maneuvering. You are all like a bunch of gossiping yen at a hen party. One way or another, it will end here and now. We will go before Belial immediately, and our Lord and God will judge between us. Woe to hym who invokes the wrath of Belial!"

Even this sergeant Kasbeel seemed to hesitate now.

Rogziel held his sword above his head. "This I swear to all the Eyes of Belial who stand with Arioch: Either you will walk away again from the judgment seat of Belial, or I will, but not both of us. Either Arioch and his allies will live, or I will live, but not both of us. And if the Lord in his infinite wisdom decides a second time in my favor, no Eye of Belial, ally of Arioch or no, will befoul my honor and my presence in this place again."

After that, Arioch was only able to muster two more Eyes of Belial, aside from Kasbeel, to go with him to force the confrontation with Rogziel before the angel of Belial.

In the hangar, which was already a different one from before (owing to the ceaseless and randomly nomadic existence of the angel of Belial under the surface of Palato), the four Eyes of Belial prostrated themselves before the angel as was their tradition, with Arioch at the fore.

Rogziel, who was armed and defiant this time, remained standing.

Rogziel already had his secret victory, but now a deep depression overtook him, because he knew his life was very likely about to end here in just a few moments. Fighting for his life against all the Eyes would be futile, and a spirited defense of the actions of Exiler would only make Belial more suspicious.

Belial detected his melancholy and addressed him first. "Rogziel, my best nephilim friend I see something is weighing on your mind. What is the pur- pose of this audience?"

"Lord, despite your rather creative punishment of these fools earlier it seems I will never be free of the plots that are woven in this place daily. This yang is Arioch, one of your agents who was stationed in the Land We Know. I will let him tell his tale, Lord Belial. Let no one question your judgment! But whatever you decide, Lord, I swear to you as I have sworn to this Arioch and his friends, this is the last time I will appear before you together with any Eye of Belial! This childish feud ends here, or I do.

And Belial, weighing Rogziel's angry words, commanded Arioch to speak.

Arioch said, "Lord, I am Lieutenant Arioch, and it was your great pleasure to allow me to serve you in what small ways I could in the court of King Brogan Stronghammer the Menkalese jen, in the Land We Know. Two other Eyes of Belial served with me also, Omiel and Rimmon. They now languish in the dungeons of the King or are dead, for I alone escaped to bring news of what we saw in the city of Akamar only five days ago now.

"It was an event of such import that the King himself sojourned a little outside of the city with hez child to see it. For the first time in the history of the Land We Know, and contrary to the will of all the gods, an imperial warship made landfall there."

"That I did not know," Belial said with an edge of anger to his voice. "Is this true, Rogziel."

"Yes, it is true, Lord."

"Why did you not speak of it to me?"

"When I imposed myself upon the crew Lahatiel was assembling for the Exil- er, Lord, of which I did tell you, they were preparing to move some of their dependents from Hybla and Dia to Navy housing here on Palato, but the housing authority had not yet found openings for all of them. Lady Ariel, our host at Central, suggested their dependents could be temporarily set- tled at Menkal until Exiler was released from the new task, and it was Lady Ariel who gave Exiler permission to land at Akamar. These are routine ad- minstrative affairs, Lord, and I did not believe it was necessary or fit- ting to relate these trivial tasks to you nor even to these Eyes of Belial, but apparently they feel differently about it."

"I fully agree, Rogziel," Belial said. "You served Azibeel in the Sol Sys- tem well, and it is not without cause that you have been reinstated here to serve me."

"Thank you, Lord. But lately it seems that every one of my actions are under intense scrutiny, no matter how insignificant. The Eyes read evil intent into the smallest decision. No one wants to work like that."

This conversation gave great pause to Arioch, because he had come before the angel of Belial under the assumption that Rogziel had hidden every de- tail of the visit of Exiler to King Stronghammer. Arioch's plan had been to roll out, in a stately progression, more and more awful revelations, beginning with the fact that Rogziel himself was aboard Exiler when it touched down in Menkal.

Now, from Belial's reaction, Arioch began to suspect that Rogziel indeed had told Belial many things of the Exiler. He even thought this whole au- dience might be a set-up.

Sergeant Kasbeel and the others were thinking along the same lines. They began to sweat with fear and perceptibly nudge away from Arioch.

"What else do you have, Arioch," commanded Belial, and now the edge in his voice had moved beyond anger into actual menace. So Arioch tried the Bravo card.

Belial didn't know about Lilith Gervasi being on the ship at Menkal, but he already knew Lilith had taken Rogziel through the Seattle wormhole to the Pool of Bat-El.

Rogziel successfully deflected this charge too: "It was unavoidable that she come with us, Lord. When it was decided that Exiler would go to Menkal, Bravo resolved to visit the Temple of Binah there, and demanded passage aboard Exiler as the price for taking me from River City to Central. If I had denied this to her out of a concern for the classified visual access to the interior of the ship, she would simply refuse to accept any future travelers seeking to journey from Sol to the Land We Know. I did not wish to close that sole remaining option."

Belial said, "In this too I deem you have judged rightly, friend Rogziel. So far I have heard nothing to justify the dishonor of bringing you before me to hear these accusations. I will listen to only one more 'concern', and then I will render my judgment.

Arioch stood straight up and looked the angel of Belial directly in the "eye", because he knew in that moment that he had Rogziel. He said, "Thank you Lord Belial, for indeed I do have one remaining concern to express to you. Aside from Major Rogziel and Bravo there came also from Exiler five officers of the Imperial Navy, and I committed their names to memory. They were led by Commodore Lahatiel, and they were Major Suriel, Captain Baraki- el, Lieutenant Adnarel, and Sergeant Kushiel.

My attention was drawn to the one who called himself Captain Barakiel, who struck me as rather effeminate for an officer of the navy, but apparently hy now felt free to act in such manner as came naturally to hym, and in hyz testimony to the King this Barakiel denied that hy was a captain at all, and in fact apart from hyz sister, hyz 'wives' were actually three male ne- philim wearing female garb, and they were cunningly bereft of body hair, their faces were very fair, and they had ample breasts like any yin.

"But the underlying musculature and bone structure of these 'yen' they could not fake, and they spoke with the voices of yeng. Then Captain Barakiel related to the King the tale of how he arranged two false death- combats to attain to his rank in the middle echelon of the Navy, and this delighted the King when Barakiel spoke of how widespread this type of de- ception is in the armed forces of the Empire, perhaps more so than the in- cidence of bliss yen in the armed forces, who do have legal sanction. "None of these revelations seemed to bother the other officers of Exiler, and I noted in particular that it did not trouble Commodore Lahatiel who had assembled this crew.

"But Lord, in all my years of service as an Eye of Belial I never heard a single rumor that merry yang had wormed their way into your armed forces in this way, and it tears at my heart to see your holy and eternal Law flaunt- ed in such a casual way.

"This Captain Barakiel is no captain, not even so much as a private, since he admits he has never killed another yang in his life, yet even now he is serving aboard Exiler and has passed through the ID Grid to Proxima, for what purpose I know not.

"Now forgive me, Lord, for wasting your time, for no doubt Major Rogziel has already told you all this, or if he has not, then no doubt he has a ready explanation for why it was deemed too small a thing to bother telling you."

Then Arioch sank to his knees and bowed his head, ready to receive Belial's penalty for his impertinence.

Belial did not ask Rogiel to attempt to defend himself from these charges. He knew he had been deceived. Time was short and he had no more time for lies.

He said, "Arioch, for your faithfulness and courage and much suffering for my sake, I appoint you to the office now held by Major Rogziel. You will dispatch the nearest available warship through the ID Grid to Proxima to raise Exiler by radio and order them to return here to Palato, before they dock at the observatory. If they do not immediately comply, then they are to be destroyed."

"Lord, behold, I anticipated your order. The Tormentor is parked just out- side the ID Grid and ready to proceed as soon as I give the word."

And Arioch raised his wristwatch to his mouth, which linked him to Palato space traffic control by prior arrangement. He relayed Belial's order to the commanding officer of that cruiser, and it soon began to lurch forward into the ID Grid. Everyone watched the progress of the ship on a large wall monitor.

Tormentor reached the end of the ID Grid but no wormhole appeared to carry it away. It simply flowed out of the ID Grid again into clear space.

The Eyes of Belial were too stunned to speak. Even Belial could only man- age to ask, "What is the meaning of this?"

Rogziel walked over to stand in front of the monitor which still showed the Tormentor and the ID Grid drifting apart. "What it means, Belial, is open warfare among you elohim. The gods are at war now, and I lived to see it!"

Belial said cooly to Arioch, "It was an oversight, Steward, to allow Rogzi- el to come before me armed with his blade."

"Yes Lord," Arioch agreed, "I expressed that concern as well, but none among the Eyes were willing to disarm him." Arioch drew his blade and ap- proached Rogziel. "And now, Major, if you please..."

Rogziel drew his own blade in turn, and flipped it in his hand to present it to Arioch hilt-first. But then without saying a word he set the blades' tip against his own heart, turned, and rammed as fast and as hard as he could into the dark gray wall next to the view screen. His knees buckled, and Rogziel sank slowly to the ground in the low gravity of Pala- to.

Arioch rushed to the body of Rogziel and flipped him over with a boot. The blade was still buried deep in his chest, piercing Rogziel's heart with a mortal wound. As insurance against a botched attempt to fall on his sword, Rogziel had simultaneously bitten on a cyanide capsule. The faint tell-tale odor of burnt almonds came from his open mouth even as he drew his final breaths.

The Eyes of Belial might have been prepared with an antidote for hydrogen cyanide, and they might have been prepared to save Rogziel from his wounds, but they were not prepared to do both. He was forever beyond the reach of Belial's diabolical interrogators.

And so Major Rogziel died with Proxima still a mystery to him, and he never knew the full meaning of his victory, but he was content to defeat Belial nonetheless.

Belial's first reaction was to cancel all his agreements with the other elohim, and withdraw his grudging contribution of dark energy to keep open the wormhole between Earth and Venus, and also the one between Venus and Mars.

Chokhmah, El, and Bat-El had anticipated that, and kept those wormholes open themselves. This simply meant there was no reserve capacity of dark energy to open a wormhole on demand between Centauri and the Land We Know, so Belial had really just cut off his nose to spite his face. All of the dark energy generated by the three allied elohim went toward terraforming the planets at Sol, and none was available to move Belial's Imperial war- ships around.

The ID Grid subway wormhole system established by Binah worked only one more time, weeks later when Binah regained contact, and Ariel evacuated the abandoned crew of the Proxima Observatory to Hybla-Dia.

When Belial realized the other elohim had cut him off, he flew into a rage and threw a furious tantrum that cost the lives of many Eyes of Belial by- standers with the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, including his new Steward Arioch, but it availed him nothing.

Binah had already been incommunicado for seven years. Chokhmah, El, and Bat-El now walled themselves completely off from Belial, even as he had walled them off from the trillions of other elohim in the city of the gods which spanned the universe. Never again would Belial hear a single word spoken by the four elohim he had antagonized for millenia.

After his anger had cooled a bit and it was no longer certain death for the Eyes to approach his angel, Belial could think of nothing to do but strike out at Chokhmah in mean, petty ways. He pulled the trigger on certain events that would soon bring war to the entire Land We Know.

Closer to home, Belial ordered Chokhmah's temple destroyed at Central be- tween Hybla and Dia. At least that would sever the link to the temple in the Land We Know and might even kill Ariel a second time.

But as Belial soon discovered, nearly half of his fleet had already gone over in their allegiance to Sophia just as Exiler did. Interesting times. Civil war had come to the Empire of Belial, and the fleet, divided in twain, set about the deadly task of eating itself.