Non Serviam: Chapter 10 (Patreon)

Chapter 10: Purgatorio

Waiting was the worst part.

I found myself running my fingers over the frayed edges of my new prayer book. The thing was small enough to slip neatly into my jacket pocket, and though I wanted a chance to examine it, I hadn’t had a moment alone since I’d introduced Mittelt to Rias. The devils seemed oddly ambivalent to the Psalm of Beelzebub, and I didn’t want to be the one to draw attention to it, should the book turn out to be more powerful.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that it had led me to Mittelt in the first place.

I glanced up from the couch as Akeno stepped out of the summoning room. “Rias should be back soon.”

I nodded. “Mittelt and Koneko are in the kitchen.”

“Honestly, that girl.” She shook her head, but I could tell her heart wasn’t in it.

After Mittelt had revealed her employer, Rias had moved to discreetly share Kokabiel’s involvement with her brother. Somewhere along the way, someone had bothered to inform me about how angels, and more specifically the Grigori, worked as a faction.

Azazel was the leader of the Grigori, and he was a twelve-winged angel. Wings were how angels measured power, or rather, God made stronger angels with more wings, and that’s more or less how they stayed.

Kokabiel wasn’t exactly the second in command, because a bunch of fallen angels didn’t take orders well. But he was a ten-winged angel, and therefore had a large faction in the Grigori. Whether they would answer to him over Azazel was a different question, but according to Mittelt, at least one angel had come all the way to Kuoh to start a war on Kokabiel’s behalf.

As far as Kokabiel himself went, I was told that ten-winged angels could reliably blow away any and every Devil in Kuoh without breaking a sweat, only to get stomped flat when a furious Sirzechs Lucifer showed up to avenge his sister.

Which answered why the man hadn’t shown up in person, but the question of how far he would go still weighed on my mind as Akeno and I drifted over to the kitchen.

Both Mittelt and Koneko sat half crouched in front of the oven, watching brownies rise through window.

“Koneko, I expected this from,” I said, “But aren’t you an adult?”

“Alas, I am but a consumptive Victorian child.” Mittelt placed a hand against her brow without removing her eyes from the oven “And this device is unconscionable. I had a much better set of stacked wall ovens back home.” She sighed. “No one appreciates good hardware anymore.”

“I’m sure Victorian England didn’t have electric ovens,” I replied. “It’s a surprise you bake at all.”

Koneko shushed me. More proof that cookies were the way into her heart.

“A lady needs her hobbies.” Mittelt sniffed. She rose and gave a brief curtsey, but not to me. “Miss Himejima.”

Akeno stopped, a puckered expression flitting over her face. Sadly, neither of them seemed much interested in reveling what that little interaction was about.

Mittelt may be ostensibly on my side, but I didn’t delude myself regarding the depth of her loyalties. She’d betrayed the Grigori because fallen angels didn’t hold deep faith in anything, and while I’d done more with less, I did need her on my side.

While she was personally weaker than that foul-mouthed priest had been, Mittelt represented connections and capital that weren’t under Rias’s control.

I leaned against the counter. “Your old boss aside, do you think we’ll have any problems with fallen?” I asked her.

“What, once it gets out that you’ve made a deal with little old me?” Mittelt batted her eyes coquettishly. “The devils will be the real problem. The fallen are more likely to show up looking for hookers and blow.” She paused. “I do get to go to the devil parties now, right boss?”

“I’ll talk to Rias about it.”

“One would think you’d be more concerned about stepping into enemy territory.” Akeno raised an eyebrow. “Some families might take offense to your presence.”

“Moi?” Mittelt placed a hand against her chest. “I’m a party favor compared to some of the old monsters your Lucifer keeps locked in the basement. I wouldn’t mind being passed his peerage like a party favor. Maids are—”

“I wouldn’t talk about Grafiya like that,” I interrupted. “I’m pretty sure she can hear you.”

Mittelt blinked, before abruptly changing tack. “Anyway,” she continued. “My very presence would be a good counter to Kokabiel’s plans, even more so if I brought a bunch of my friends along.”

“You’re a diplomat now?” I raised an eyebrow. “Also, I’d think Heaven would have a problem with the devils and fallen angels getting too close.”

“They’re a bunch of bleeding-heart pacifists.” She waved a hand. “Michael didn’t have the guts a millennium ago, and he certainly doesn’t know.”

“Michael?” I asked.

“Archangel Michael is the leader of the heavenly hosts,” Akeno said.

Mittelt paused for a moment before turning back to the oven. “Yeah. That.”

“So you’re saying we should invite a bunch of fallen over to enjoy the brownies,” I said.

“No.” Koneko stood upright. “Only birds that bake are allowed.”

Mittelt giggled. “Aren’t you just the cutest?”

Koneko pouted. “Not cute.”

It was nice that they were getting along; I preferred the comedy routine to the lot of us sitting silently watching out the windows for an army of fallen angels to decent upon us. For her part, Mittelt was certain that no one else knew that she knew about Kokabiel, and that he wasn’t the type to care about a few piddly two-wings. Apparently, there was one for every blade of grass or something.

Before the war, I meant.

I was less sanguine about the nostalgic weight settling over my shoulders. It would be a shame if I died the moment I’d found my life worth keeping.

I’d have preferred to be in hell, but bringing a potential spy to the Gremory Estates was not on the table, and asking Sirzechs or Grafiya to come pick Mittelt up was exactly the type of movement that Kokabiel might hear about. So we waited, quietly, for Rias to return from hell.

Out of the four of us, I thought that Akeno was handling things the worst. Perhaps it was the weight of being queen, and therefore responsible for the safety of two people she didn’t like and one person she did.

I caught Akeno’s eye as the other two returned to bickering over the oven. A few steps put us back in the sitting room.

She folded her arms as I called up a simple spell to block out sound. “What is it?”

“Are…” I paused. The two of us weren’t friends. Still, I felt the need to say something. “Are you doing alright?”

Akeno scoffed. “’Are you doing alright?’” she parroted. “You may not grasp the magnitude of Kokabiel’s involvement, but some of us have been paying attention.”

I nodded. “I’ve been paying attention to your nerves.”

The scoff turned into a sneer. “Nerves? Nervous people are the ones who see things that aren’t there.”

“Like hostility?” I asked.

“It’s all you’ve offered in the past,” she replied. “What’s changed?”

“What’s changed is that we might end up in a war.” I’d been in one very short war, or one very long battle, as such things were reckoned but, “I’d rather not go through another one.”

“How kind of you to share your mysterious past the moment it’s advantageous.” Akeno turned away. “Unless you have something useful to say, I will return to minding our spy.”

I started to reply, but then I caught myself. We’d burned this bridge from both ends. I couldn’t even be mad that she wouldn’t listen to me now.

Instead, I said, “I hope my history won’t matter, and I hope ours won’t either.”

Naturally, she took that in the worst possible way.