"My queen!" piped a little demon, no larger than a cat, fluttering toward her with bat wings. "Hail Angel, Queen of the Abyss, and hail—"

Angel grabbed the little creature and stuffed it into her mouth. She chewed. Blood dripped down her chin like gravy.

They reached the throne of fluttering tongues. A child stood beside it—a beautiful, noble child, his skin covered in boils, his jaw hanging halfway down his chest, his eyes green and curious.

Raem reached out to him. Already his son was taller than him.

"Ishnafel," Raem said, clasping the boy's shoulder. He kissed the warty cheek. "My precious son."

Angel stood with her back to the throne. She raised her arms, and fire burst out from her, forming wings of flame. Smoke rose from her mouth, and lava leaked from her eyes. The cracks on her body blazed with red light.

"I've chosen a husband!" she shouted, her voice high-pitched, a storm like thousands of boiling seas. "I've chosen a mate, a male whose seed has quickened in my womb. No longer is Angel, Queen of the Abyss, barren. I have brought forth a son!" She lifted Ishnafel and displayed the twisted creature to the crowd. "For the first time in thousands of years, Angel, daughter of Taal, has created true life." She tossed back her head and laughed, the sound so loud it shattered several of the living sacks upon the ceiling. Blood rained. "And Raem will give me many more spawn. Step forth, Priest of the Abyss! Step forth and join two into one."

Fleshy doors opened in the wall like a cervix ready for birth. The priest emerged, stepping forth on black talons. His body was lanky and black, and his head flared out in a crown of spikes. A vertical mouth split the head from chin to forehead, filled with metal hooks, and eight spiderlike eyes stared from its sides. Chains of iron—metal unknown to the mortals aboveground—hung around the priest's neck, holding amulets infused with the blood of Taal, blood Angel herself had shed centuries ago.

Raem smiled. And thus I rise—from the king of a mere city-state to the lord of the underworld. He laughed. Oh, but if only my mortal children could see me now! If only the dragons knew of the power I gain!

The priest reached them, so tall its head nearly brushed the ceiling; it had to bend down, creaking and raining dust, to stare at Raem and even at the towering Angel. Its mouth opened wide, red and raw, and its words oozed out like pus from a wound.

"Two shall be joined. In the name of fear, of pain, of the unholy, of those cast from Taal's light, I will join your souls eternally like twins conjoined in the womb. I—"

A voice tore across the hall, interrupting the priest. "You will not! They will not join. I refuse it! You will not."