The Lucifer Manifesto (Chapter Two)

 

“Welcome to Lanonandek.” Lucifer said as he ushered Asimov into his royal offices within the Canaan Estate. The lighting in the room was somewhat dim and Lucifer shone like a brazier. The walls were paneled in a dark wood imported from Dormia which did nothing to lighten the room. In the center of the room was a turned falconite table. Around it were five opulent chairs, the most exquisite and sizable sat in front of a large floor to ceiling energy window, framed by a dark curtain with rich jacquard embellishments. On the far end of the room was a stately desk.

 

When Asimov entered the office he took notice of two men in the chairs around the table. Lucifer held out his arm graciously, offering either of the two simpler chairs to Asimov; it seemed the grand chair by the window was his alone.

 

“Darling Asimov, I introduce you to Kalm Canaan, my great-grandson and Prince of Lanonandek, and Calagastia Fortuna, my chief advisor.” It was odd to see him address Kalm as his great-grandson for the man looked to be older than Lucifer himself. In turn the two men rose and offered the Prince their hands as was custom and the three of them were seated, with Lucifer stationed behind his desk. Asimov recognized this as an old move to assert one's dominance over a room. Yet, he clearly had the upper hand in dominance even without it. Perhaps his great-grandson was in more of a position to challenge Lucifer's authority than he had previously stated.

 

“As two of you already know, I've been planning a grand speech to take place on the Sea of Glass on Satania for at least a month now. This was Calagastia's suggestion, and I think highly of it. Darling, do you have any issue with that plan?”

 

Calagastia's face still beamed from the compliment, apparently such compliments were rare coming from Lucifer. Asimov began to wonder why a man who obviously knew so much needed an advisor. As it was he seemed to advise himself quite well. As Asimov remembered, he had always been the independent sort.

 

“No, in fact, I would be glad to sponsor it.” Asimov was beginning to enjoy their talk of rebellion. Much of his life as a ruler had been filled with boredom and red tape. There had been no wars within the system for over a century, at least none he had been involved in. And his people loved him for it, praised him even, the Prince of Peace.

 

Yet, occasionally there was word from travelers and traders of the Paradise Army skirmishing on planets filled with barbarous natives. Such gossip did not escape Asimov's keen old ears easily. Why Paradise would need an army, Asimov still didn't understand. He chuckled at this thought, but swiftly realized that he had been lost in thought and that Lucifer had already begun to speak.

 

“Er-hem, yes, I share Calagastia's fears in that regard. Already I am just under their radar by taking a position here at the Canaan Estate, and my use of the Estate's resources. If they were to see my reasons to claim power here, I would be branded a heretic and killed, not that I would let them kill me. I think I would be better understood by the people as a negotiator than a militant leader.

 

Satania's inner system, your kingdom,” he added with a nod to Darling Asimov, “is just isolated enough from the Paradise Sons, Creator Sons, whatever they want to be called now, and their armies would need at least a month to mount so much as an skirmish against Belzia Bubina. So I propose my speech come a week before the annual Conclave on the Sea of Glass. Most of the visitors from outside of the Satania System will be here by that point and at least half of the attendees from within the system will be too, and as they mill about the planet I intend to give them something to come to. This will also give time for word to spread before the actual Conclave and will serve to introduce my ideas to the rest of the Planetary Princes of the system. I have already sent invitations to all of the important nobodies that surround them.”

 

“So, by the end of the month, when the warriors of The Theocracy come knocking on our doors, my doors, you plan to have a system wide army amassed?” Kalm spoke with an extreme intensity, befitting a Prince and ruler of the three planets within Lanonandek's solar system. Calagastia and Asimov stared at the man, shocked, for this was the first time either of them had heard him speak.

 

“Yes, at worst I will have the eight civilized planets whose leadership is assembled here, now.”

 

“And how can you be so sure that those men, who have position and power, not to mention the purity of their souls, to worry about will assist you in defeating the rulers of all existence?” Kalm clearly had none of the fear the other two men had in regard to Lucifer. In fact, his intonations seemed to be directed as a not-too-subtle smack in the face. Yet still, Lucifer was calm and perfectly relaxed.

 

“I intend to be a very convincing speaker.” The three men gasped at what they saw behind Lucifer's back, the glow of it filled the room, and the three men would never look at Lucifer the same way again, for indeed were they convinced. The pure light seemed to pierce their very souls.

 

 

 

. . . . .

 

 

 

 

“I suppose you think this change you are after will come about peacefully? So why is it that you fear their brutality?” Kalm had summoned his great-grandfather into his study to discuss matters of the rebellion his house would no doubt be right in the middle of. Three days had passed since he had first met Prince Asimov and witnessed Lucifer's little demonstration.

 

“I hold hopes that this will be an intellectual rebellion which will strip them of their authority so quickly that they will have no army to fight us with.” Kalm's study was furnished to make the small Prince appear larger, however, with Lucifer in the room he felt no larger. The small furniture just made Lucifer seem all the more ominous.

 

“They will strike us fast; there is rumor of the size and spread of the Theocrat's army. It would astound you. I believe you have been away too long to truly know their power.”

 

“On the contrary, I have had the pleasure so speaking to a great deal of Ascendant Theocratic soldiers. I know more than rumor of their armies, I know their armies themselves. I know their soldiers on a personal, no, spiritual, metaphysical level. One who has not been to the Paradise Hub would know nothing of the intense bond created when two bare souls touch. It is absolute truth, nothing is hidden, or perceived, it just is, their lives in a moment. I postulate that I know their army better than they themselves do. And much of it would be quickly lost to my cause. And, no, they have not nearly penetrated this area of space like the others. On Moria and Onia, capital world's of legendary systems, Theocratic Soldiers march through the streets, stand guard at corners. It is enemy occupation. On worlds such as that, the whole systems even, mere rumor of my teachings could start a civilian uprising, if only they were to believe that somewhere else there were people fighting with them.”

 

Kalm sat for awhile, sipping his herbal tea. At last he pulled the smoldering Dormian cigar from his ashtray and took a mighty breath of it's smoke. He coughed harshly, expelling smoke from his nose as well as his mouth. His words were scratchy but deeply relaxed. “Perhaps, in your time, there was war. I wouldn't know. But now there is none. There is absolute peace throughout the galaxy. Though I do not agree with their methods, it is a means to an end. You know a great deal of this 'forbidden history', so tell me, has there ever been a time, so long, without war?” Triumphantly, he drew another long drag on the cigar.

 

“Tyrants, especially those with control over great amounts of land, have a very uncanny way of squelching wars. Why would they want civil war to further kill their peoples, their subjects. To end war they kill potential uprisers at birth and so deeply entrance, and scare the rest that rebellion is never attempted. Indiscriminate killing, that is the injustice that ends all war, it is war itself. Can you live with that on your soul, on your land?”

 

“But, you never finished the story, even I know the end. After the fall of a dictator there is anarchy of the worst kind. Life is an orgy of blood and death. Destruction is omnipresent.” Kalm's words had grown increasingly quiet, then, they exploded in a sudden burst of anger and fear. “My daughter's life will not be gambled, neither will those of my subjects. I want an army, or I cannot be behind you in this. And you will take the throne over my dead body.”

 

As soon as he heard Lucifer's first screamed words, he knew he had done wrong. Where Kalm sounded angry when he yelled, Lucifer was calm and his words even, however loud. But what got to Kalm the fastest was the way they were both inside his head and outside at once, as if his yelling voice demanded the attention of his thoughts to the point where he heard Lucifer's words in place of them.

 

“And in this peace you are raised as sheep for ritual slaughter by the name ascension. Your daughter will be served as a cooked lamb for the commanders of his army. You are grazed and farm fed; you suckle from his bosom for nourishment. You are entirely dependent of the power crazed b******s. And when at last they deny you, strip you of your power, slaughter our family and replace us with Theocrats, what then? Will your people help you then, when the butt of the Theocratic rifles come down across their backs and they are herded into the central square as to be unaware of your plight, what then? You are no royal, you are being bred for servitude and you don't even realize it yet. You are a pawn, not a Prince.”

 

At once, Kalm knew he was right, and the tears came, for the first time since his father's ascension. Somehow, in speaking directly into his mind, Lucifer had embellished every word with images, memories of a hundred men who lived in daily oppression on Onia. He watched as a villager beheld the Prince and all of his little Princelets being deposed and swept away. And from there his imagination filled in the blanks. He had never cried so long in his life. But when the tears stopped, Lucifer was still there sitting patiently, albeit a bit bored looking. When he sensed the time was right he spoke softly to his descendant as he dried his tears.

 

“And for your defending army, I offer myself. Guaranteed.” Lucifer's aura of intense light ran in thick rivulets from his feet through the ceiling . The doors and windows flickered in the presence of such power. Kalm could imagine such a figure could stare down a battleship and force it to run. But even that would not be enough.

 

“I am sure you could scare away an army, but there are too many sides we could be attacked from and you are only one man. And though you are intimidating, what if you were challenged by a battalion? You alone are not a standing army, it would take a hundred of you...”

 

“It can be done.”