“Ambrosia,” he says. “Food of the gods.”
He takes another sip and puts the flask back in his coat.
“So, if you’re down here and Muninn is on earth, where are the others?”
“Around. We travel a lot.”
“Are any of you in Heaven?”
“Always. At least one of us.”
“Lucifer knows you’re broken, doesn’t he?”
He nods.
“Lucifer was always the smart one. That’s why he and the kid never got along. One’s all heart and one’s all head.”
“This all happened after Lucifer left. Why don’t you send him down here to fix it?”
“It wouldn’t help. You’re right about one thing. I didn’t build everything as well as I might have. This was going to happen sooner or later.”
“Do the five of you know what the others hear and see?”
“Not everything. We like some privacy, too. Otherwise we’d all still be together.”
“Do they know about us talking right now?”
“They can hear every word.”
“Then you got the message I sent back with the angel from Eden?”
“We got it. You didn’t have to cut him up like that.” He nods at my new metal bug arm. “But I guess you’re even.”
I look away. The building the Kissi torched is really roaring. I can feel the heat all the way over here. I wonder if we should move, but Neshamah doesn’t seem worried, so I decide not to be.
“Maybe I was a little harsh. I’d just gotten over being dead. And he threw the first punch.”
“I guess that makes it all right, then.”
Neshamah walks across the parking lot and looks out over another part of Hell. The view isn’t any better from over here. I don’t say it because I can see it on his face.
He says, “He’s not Lucifer anymore, by the way. He’s Samael.”
“So I heard. Speaking of your kids, what’s the story with Aelita? She makes Lilith look like Mother Teresa. Didn’t she get enough face time with Daddy?”
“You’re not a parent. Don’t tell me how to raise my family.”
“I don’t know if she has Electra complex or Oedipus complex or diaper rash, but she really wants you dead. You need to get her some Prozac.”
We walk all the way around the roof. The sky remains a solid mass of smoke. Earthquakes rumble on the horizon.
“I knew that Lucifer was a troublemaker, but I also knew he’d grown out of it. But I never saw this coming with Aelita. I’ve tried talking to her, but she might be a lost cause.”
“You could always kill me. That’s what she really wants.”
“Don’t think I haven’t considered it. And that’s not what she wants. You’re just a symptom of what she sees as a larger condition.”
“Sounds like she’s gone Gnostic on you and thinks Daddy’s the demiurge, too.”