Voshtahl Files- Chapter 1
Jedah's Arrival

by Lord Voshtahl

The council hall of the demon world was as silent as it had ever been, and yet it also contained more people now than it had for many years. Centuries ago, the three greatest demons of their time, Belial Aensland, Galnan Voshtahl and Jedah Doma, all of whom had declared themselves king saw the need for a neutral meeting ground where they could make deals and compromise in order to prevent the realm from falling into an all-out war. However, when two of the demon kings lost their lives due to the ambition of one, the remaining king, Belial Aensland, assumed control of the whole demon realm. After that time there didn’t seem to be much need for any neutral ground.

But here they stood; the second time the Aensland family called a formal meeting of the three most powerful families in a span of less than twenty years. The last time a meeting had been called it was due to the threat of a being from the stars calling himself Pyron and the threat the Aensland family believed he would eventually pose to the demon world. Only Morrigan made an attempt to meet the threat, and in the end it was dealt with by those of the human world without any intervention on behalf of Makkai at all.

Upon three balconies representatives of the families stood. Azriel Vostahl the muscular green-skinned representative of the Voshtahl house stood alone upon his stand. His arms crossed and his foot tapping with impatience, though he considered himself a great negotiator, he never liked waiting. He looked upon the balcony where the representative of House Doma stood, a tall man with skin as soft blue as a blood-less corpse and a cold expression to match. Behind this man stood three figures hidden within the shadows, though none of them could be made out from his vantage point. Yet, while this made him suspicious, it was what he saw upon the Aensland platform that surprised him more.

There stood the beautiful and buxom daughter of Belial Aensland, Morrigan, one might well call her princess of the demon world though she never openly claimed such a title. Though she almost never cared for these meetings, the main reason they were almost never called, it was her personally who asked to meet with the other demon houses.

She boldly stood forward on the platform, her advisors who were usually more vocal having dropped back behind her. Instead of her typical bored expression, she instead had a very sullen look upon her face. Her lower lip quivering a little in a sign of weakness she typically only showed when she was trying to manipulate other’s emotions, being a succubus such a thing was quite her forte. Still, Azriel had known her for nearly each of their entire lives and somehow this seemed different. Perhaps it was her arms hanging low, her fingertips gripping tightly upon the railing of the balcony. Perhaps it was for the fact that for ten full minutes she did not speak a word as if trying to build up the strength to say what she needed to.

Part of the demon’s heart threatened to soften for the bat-winged woman, but his far more powerful mind had practiced well in order to not let that happen. All he could do was wait, to show open disrespect would be considered treason and give Belial the excuse he’d need to destroy House Voshtahl permanently… and after thousands of years of making it his main point to absorb all energy possible, there was not a force in all of Makkai that could stand up to the demon king.
However, Azriel’s patience had reached an end. When he opened his mouth to speak up a protest, Morrigan finally spoke up as if to cut him off.

“My father… our king… is dead,” she finally managed to speak without raising her gaze up. After those words were spoken, the dead silence in the room became almost deafening.

Demons did not typically die from natural causes, Azriel’s own grandfather, Galnan, had lived for thirty-two thousand years... the only demon who wasn’t killed long before they reached that age. And even his death wasn’t from his age, but by Jedah Doma’s hand. But while Galnan’s power came from his great knowledge, Belial’s power came from being physically and spiritually more powerful than anyone else.

Azriel’s gaze turned to the side to look upon those on the Doma platform, searching the representative’s eyes for any sign of surprise. However, as he saw none to speak of his frown deepened.

“Why, this is shocking news, Lady Aensland,” spoke the man on the Doma balcony in a distastefully sarcastic tone, “Are you quite certain that your evidence is correct?”

Morrigan shot the Doma a gaze that could kill before turning her attention towards Azriel. “Do you know anything of this, Lord Voshtahl?”she spoke in a tone that had a definite accusatory edge.
Azriel shook his head, turning his glowing red eyes to meet Morrigan’s gaze for just a moment. “This is the first I have heard of it,” he spoke sincerely. He then tore his gaze away from her eyes, knowing better than to stare into them for longer than necessary to make his point.

Morrigan’s fingers tightened on the balcony railing, her gaze then turning towards the Doma family. “And do you, Lord Doma, know what could have possibly destroyed my father?”

The Doma representative’s smile took on a rather cruel edge. “Oh, I am certain that both I and my Voshtahl counterpart here could each name a dozen things that could have happened to destroy your father, Lady Aensland.” He turned his gaze over and met Azriel’s straight on, “Isn’t that correct, Lord Galnan the second?”

Azriel’s blood always froze a bit when he heard that name. It was his official name since taking the throne of the Voshtahl family, but somehow it always seemed alien to him no matter how long he carried it around. He answered the question at first with a brief nod before answering, “I… do agree that there are numerous things that could have caused this.”

It was then that the blades shot out at both Azriel and his Doma counterpart. The Aensland advisors had done this once before, last time they convened. Azriel was ready and moved to the side to avoid the brunt of the attack, but still found the blade dangerously close to his throat. The Doma representative fared even worse, having moved back to not become pinned between the blade and the wall.

The blades were held steady from where they had stretched across the room from the wrists of the Aensland advisors who stood ready to use them lethally at any time. One of the two spoke up angrily, “Enough with the game!” he shouted out, “One of two knows what has happened to our king, and I demand you tell me.”

It was then that one of the cloaked figures by the Doma representative raised one of his hands. Dark tentacles leapted up from the ground without warning, grabbing onto the advisors and pulling them hard so that holding onto the balcony as tight as they could was all that prevented them from taking a plunge over the sides of the balcony and into the source of those black tentacles.

The third advisor behind Morrigan suddenly ran forward and leapt off the balcony, flying through the air towards the man controlling the tentacles. However, one of the other cloaked figures threw off her cloak revealing that hidden beneath was a soul bee. She flew forward and with a simple maneuver impaled the man midair and then sent him falling into the darkness below.

The man controlling the tentacles shook his head slowly as he stepped forward to the edge of the balcony. “My, my... It would seem our Aensland friends are as violent as ever,” he spoke in a very aristocratic voice. He turned to look down towards the last cloaked person by his side. “Do we know what happened to Lord Aensland,” he asked the person.

The third cloaked person rose a dainty hand up into the air and spoke up in an eerily familiar voice, “Oo! Oo! I know!”

Azriel’s mind raced as he tried to place where he has heard the voice before. He knew it was a voice that was once friendly and one he’d heard many years ago. Still, as stunned as he was at the events that had just transpired, he could not seem to think straight enough to figure it out.

Morrigan however brought a hand up to her chest letting out a soft gasp. “N-no..” she spoke softly, “It cannot be.” Her gaze then hardened as she glared daggers at the cloaked man, “What is the meaning of this? How dare you oppose the Aensland family? If you do not stand down, you will face the consequences!”

This vague threat didn’t seem to faze the cloaked man. He simply let out a rather amused laugh. He lifted up and motioned forward, “Before you tell them what happened to Lord Aensland, my dear, why don’t you introduce yourself.”

The cloaked girl removed her covering and behind it appeared a near-perfect replica of a much younger Morrigan. Her hair was lavender instead of green and much shorter and her eyes were crimson as blood. She hopped up onto the balcony before waving in the general direction of the other balconies, “Hi-hi! My name is Lilith!” she squeaked out in a very excitable voice.

Morrigan shook her head quickly backing slowly off from the front of the balcony. While Azriel knew that there were many creatures who could have doppleganged in this way, it was this reaction from Morrigan that confirmed for him that something more was going on here. He stepped back a bit more and crossed his arms over his chest, seeing no more reason to interject at this point.

The man removed the hood of his own cloak, revealing that underneath he was a blue skinned man much like the representative that stood by his side. “Now, why don’t you tell them what has happened to Lord Aensland,” he spoke with a very confident smirk on his face.

“Belial found out what happens to someone who crosses Lord Jedah Doma!” exclaimed the girl with a big smile on her face. She then hopped down from the balcony, scooting close to the powerful demon who rewarded her with a pat on the head.

Morrigan’s eyes widened with shock as she looked the powerful demon over. “You can’t be Jedah Doma… he’s dead… and you look nothing like him!”

Jedah simply nodded his head once before confirming, “Oh, I was dead. But how long did you expect that to stop the master of life and death itself? I am the Dark Mesiah, soon you will realize this as all souls join with mine.” As he finished the sentence the remaining two Aensland advisors were finally ripped off the balcony and pulled into the darkness below. Jedah then looked between Morrigan and Azriel before stating, “But you two… I think I’ll let you live long enough to spread my word to the people. There is no escape from the master of death.”

Neither Morrigan nor Azriel had any retort for this. Both were standing wide-eyed in disbelief of what they were hearing. Still, it was clear that this demon had power that very much matched that of the demon king. It appeared as though Jedah Doma’s soul truly had been resurrected into a new body.

Jedah turned around, his cloak sweeping the ground behind him. He walked off into the darkness and both the soul bee and the other blue-skinned man followed him. However, the younger Morrigan who had named herself Lilith stayed long enough to deliver one message.

“Enjoy that body while you can!” she shouted across the room towards Morrigan, “I am going to take it back soon!” Then the bat-winged girl took to the air and flew off into the darkness following the other members of House Doma.

Then the room was silent once again. Morrigan and Azriel stood there shocked and very disturbed by this twist of events. And for the first time since they were children, they were both thinking exactly the same thing.

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