Radicle (Terminal trilogy #2, can stand alone)

31: Faith without bounds

She glanced at my fingers, and luckily my useless blade was still on them. She frowned strongly. "Can we stay in this room? I have a job to do."

"Can the others leave?"

Moll looked at them, and the five demons got up and went into the hallway. I watched them through the glass and waited until the door was closed behind them.

"I just want to talk to you. That's all."

"I'm not satisfied with this." She sighed. "Just tell me where my daughters are."

"They're on Earth. Safe. I promise." I couldn't really promise her anything, since I had just dropped her kids off to the first vague gardener I had seen, but they were probably fine. "What did you sell your soul for?"

"What?"

"I'm trying to figure out your origins. You look like- well, uh, you seriously resemble a goddess. Literally. An angelic goddess we have, whose face is imprinted in our minds. So you know, I think that's why I'm so weirdly into you? I don't like you, you don't like me, but your face is carved into my mind from two hundred years of exposure, so seeing it in the flesh just drives me... up the fucking wall."

"That sounds scientifically dubious." She looked unimpressed.

"I hate it. It's like watching a picture move." I said. "What did you sell your soul for?"

"Knowledge. Who wouldn't?" She looked still thoroughly bored. "Some supernatural creature offers you anything you want, of course you're going to ask for knowledge. But I'm not an idiot. I didn't wish to know everything. I just asked for a college education on dentistry. Forgot to wish for a diploma though, so that didn't get me many places."

"Why did you seek out dentistry?"

"It seemed like a well-paying profession." She said. "Is this enough dull conversation to satisfy you yet?

"So, uh, did you honestly have two kids by the same angel? Who was he?"

"Are you expecting me to gush on the floor about this? Yes, it was the same asshole who knocked me up twice. I know what birth control is, even if you birds don't, and I'm not an idiot. I like kids. I thought having one would get me out of the army. But you know, they threw me into the army right when I got to Hell, too fast for me to learn there weren't any angels down here. So no half-breeds."

"You thought that, in a war against angels, there'd be a few here?"

"I thought it was some supernatural turf war, not a bout of species based hatred. Look, his name was Cersiph, we spent like a week together, had some nice sex, and then agreed we'd never see each other again."

"If you knew angels were irregularly drawn to you, why would you willingly have sex with one? Surely you didn't think he was somehow different from the rest?" I didn't know Cersiph, so I was sort of frustrated.

"Look, I don't need you judging what I do with myself. He saved my life, and maybe I didn't mind letting him indulge in some sex after that. Is that weak willed? Is that shallow? I don't give a fuck. He was nice enough. He never mentioned how weird he thought my face was or anything. And he wasn't like you, either, so driven to act so pointlessly."

"I'm offended by that." I said. "Anyways, so, how do you only have two kills? I mean, uh, you'd think angels have a hard time killing someone who looks so much like their goddess. Surely you had time to attack."

At first she grimaced, but then her face fell flat again. "Why do you keep referring to angels as a separate entity? This whoever or whatever is your goddess too."