When Angels Fall (Demon Lord) by T C Southwell

surrounding Bane. Drevarin shot him a horrified look, and Sherinias gave a cry of dismay. At the table nearby, Mirra buried her face in her hands. She knew that such reactions meant Bane was in trouble again. Kayos wanted to go to Bane’s aid, but the number of demons in the chamber was already overwhelming. The image turned black as the Fetch was triggered, and he sat back, scowling. The Eye would follow Bane. He just had to wait for the Fetch to release him. Until then, the dark power blocked it.
    Moments later, a new image formed, of Bane and Majelin lying motionless on the edge of a glowing red sea in a cavern. Once again, Kayos wanted to go to Bane’s aid, but paused, frowning. The Eye was not giving him a location, which meant that whoever had created the Fetch had concealed its destination, possibly to ensure no one would be able to rescue its victims, even though only a god could survive in that hellish environment. Nevertheless, it meant he could not help Bane, and he cast Drevarin a grim look, finding the same distress in the younger god’s eyes. He wondered why Bane was unconscious, hoping that was all he was, then shook his head in self-rebuke.
    If Bane had been dead, his body would be burning and the angel would have perished, too. In the Eye, Majelin woke and scrambled away from the sea, and Kayos wished he could communicate with him. He would undoubtedly jump to a lot of inaccurate conclusions, one of which would have dire consequences for Bane. Any child of the light would want to either escape or slay a dark god, but Majelin must know that if he did he would die too. An angel who had been tortured for five centuries may very well prefer death to further suffering, however.
    There were so many possible calamitous outcomes of this situation that Kayos refused to ponder them all. He relaxed when Majelin seemed to realise that he was better off with a live dark god than a dead one, and dragged Bane away from the rising sea. Now Bane just needed to wake up before they were engulfed. Evidently the triggering of the Fetch caused the cavern to fill with magma, but the reason for it escaped him. Only a dark god or black mage would survive for more than a few minutes, and a mage would not last much longer than that, but they could Move, so therefore would not be immersed.
    Mirra chewed her lip, and he assured her, “He is all right, child.”
    She nodded and sagged against Mithran, who patted her shoulder.
    The Grey God swapped a worried look with Drevarin before returning his attention to the image in his Eye, silently urging Bane to wake up. Sherinias brushed tears from her cheeks.
     
     
    Majelin frowned at the rising sea of molten stone with growing disquiet. Beyond the point where he had dragged the dark god, the walls became too steep and slippery to climb, so he could retreat no further. If they did not leave this place soon, they would be submerged, and the magma seemed to be rising faster.
    He shook the stranger again, cursing his continued senseless state. “Come on, wake up, you bastard. You got us into this. You have to get us out!”
    The man’s head lolled and his eyelids flickered.
    Majelin shook him harder. “Come on, you damned monster, wake up !”
    As soon as the stranger Moved them to safety, Majelin decided, he would kill him if he could. There was a chance he would succeed, since the dark god was mortal and already injured. Of course, the dark god might choose to torture or kill him where they were, but he somehow doubted it. The stranger had to have known about the Fetch in the chamber, yet he had triggered it and come with Majelin, saving him, so he must want him alive. He shook the man more vigorously as the magma sea reached his knees and crept up his thighs.
    “ Wake up !” he bellowed in the dark god’s ear.
    The man groaned and twitched, swallowing, and his eyes opened a slit, then widened. He grimaced and groaned again, raising a hand to finger the side of his skull.
    “You have