Stars

He flew her through the gates of hell, held in his arms carefully, as though she meant something. She never quite understood that about her Lord. He was Lucifer, the King of Hell, but sometimes he acted like she was more than a body guard. She wasn't sure what that was, but she was a soulless demon, and he was a celestial, so she waited to learn what that was, if it was. Otherwise, she was content to follow him into a new world, far from home, Hell.

They landed on a beach. Instead of hot lava, water, living water with things in it danced up on sand and then drew back as though tempting to her to follow. She liked it. He explained the dangers of water, of not being able to breath and of being hurt by storms, and she nodded, committing it to memory to use in future if necessary.

Then he told her to cut off his wings and she felt a pain she never had before. It was similar to the time they both put down a rebellion, the first big one in her memory and he had gone done for a few moments under hundreds of demons trying to defeat him. She remembered that pain and didn't understand why it felt so similar.

She knelt in the sand, "Please my King, I have never harmed you."

"You will be setting me free, Mazikeen" He said, "Your loyalty means much to me. Please help me because I can't reach far enough back to do it myself."

And because he was her Lord, she did it, and water leaked out of her eyes. Something new. She used fire to burn his bleeding flesh. She hid his wings carefully so no human could find them. They would return later for them and hide them better.

Then she stared up into the dark sky. No ash fell, and she saw hundreds and hundreds of lights overhead, twinkling. She felt his hand touch her cheek where the strange water fell and he said, "Tears for my wings, Mazikeen?"

Ah tears, the damned cried. She remembered that. It was better than screams.

"I don't like hurting my King," she said. "Now it will be harder to keep you safe."

"I always am safe with you, Mazikeen," he said.

He looked up at the twinkling lights. "Ah stars. How do you like them?"

"I like them better than falling ash," she said, "They are beautiful."

"I made them, before I fell." he whispered. He had told her many things but she hadn't heard about him making little lights.

"You made all of those." she felt wonder.

"They are much bigger than they look, Maze. They are very fall away. Many of them are bigger than this entire planet."

All that first night, she made her able to see further and further away, to where he had made places where stars grow, to bursting stars, and magical dust that stretched away forever. He showed her pulsing bits of light that could eat everything in sight. He allowed her to hear the planets sing, and stars explode, and they both sat in the sand gazing up all that night.

Then morning came and she saw the fierce burning of the sun as it rose over the mountains. He told Maze gazing at its glory could blind humans, but he had made her immune. So she watched the sun rise in all its glory and knew her master had made it. And when they were both done watching, she followed her King to the world of living humans, content to know her King had lit the skies