Ellie nodded, and replied in the same language, "Don't feel bad. I was guessing more than anything, based on his eyes and the weird aura. I'd never met a daeva before; I'm just going by the rumors that came down the grapevine."
She paused a moment to organize her thoughts. "You see, Morningstar didn't just want to be worshipped as the Creator's equal. He wanted everything, the whole enchalada. His own worlds and people, made in his image. He didn't abandon those ambitions after the Fall any more than the rest." She grimaced. Talking about these things did leave a sour taste in her mouth and a deep ache in places she generally tried her best to ignore. But Aziraphale had asked in good faith, and he deserved to know exactly what he was dealing with. "But of course he doesn't have that kind of power. Or even the imagination to do anything really different.
"He can change what already exists, like he did with Belial, or breed toward his notion of perfection, like Adam. Or he can take bits and pieces of other living things and remix them. The daevas are probably as close as he's ever gotten to something original, but they still turned out essentially in His image." She smiled humorlessly. "It must drive Morningstar up a wall. Word is he spoiled them rotten at first, but eliminated each in turn as soon as they disappointed him, which, of course, they were inevitably going to do. Our friend's got one monster of a Sword of Damocles hanging over his head, I expect.
"At any rate, this guy's coming at us from an entirely different world view. He's never been to Heaven, never felt the Presence, has no sense of kinship to anyone who has, and regards Lucifer as his sole progenitor." Pushing her hair back from her face, she sighed. "I shouldn't have goaded him, the poor slob. As much as I've got issues with Him Above, I don't even want to contemplate what it'd be like to have that psychopath as a father figure."
She shook her head, concluding, "But at least it's pretty easy to put a name to him. To my knowledge there's just the one left, so unless Lucifer has built a new one since I 'retired,' I'm guessing we're dealing with Asmodeus."
no subject
She paused a moment to organize her thoughts. "You see, Morningstar didn't just want to be worshipped as the Creator's equal. He wanted everything, the whole enchalada. His own worlds and people, made in his image. He didn't abandon those ambitions after the Fall any more than the rest." She grimaced. Talking about these things did leave a sour taste in her mouth and a deep ache in places she generally tried her best to ignore. But Aziraphale had asked in good faith, and he deserved to know exactly what he was dealing with. "But of course he doesn't have that kind of power. Or even the imagination to do anything really different.
"He can change what already exists, like he did with Belial, or breed toward his notion of perfection, like Adam. Or he can take bits and pieces of other living things and remix them. The daevas are probably as close as he's ever gotten to something original, but they still turned out essentially in His image." She smiled humorlessly. "It must drive Morningstar up a wall. Word is he spoiled them rotten at first, but eliminated each in turn as soon as they disappointed him, which, of course, they were inevitably going to do. Our friend's got one monster of a Sword of Damocles hanging over his head, I expect.
"At any rate, this guy's coming at us from an entirely different world view. He's never been to Heaven, never felt the Presence, has no sense of kinship to anyone who has, and regards Lucifer as his sole progenitor." Pushing her hair back from her face, she sighed. "I shouldn't have goaded him, the poor slob. As much as I've got issues with Him Above, I don't even want to contemplate what it'd be like to have that psychopath as a father figure."
She shook her head, concluding, "But at least it's pretty easy to put a name to him. To my knowledge there's just the one left, so unless Lucifer has built a new one since I 'retired,' I'm guessing we're dealing with Asmodeus."