The golden light faded to reveal a very large man. Seven feet tall, wide shoulders, ginger hair and full bear. An eye patch of iron over his left eye, his visible right was a piercing cobalt.

  Eli and Isla’s eyebrows raised in recognition.

  The elder witch deadpanned and her shoulders slumped.

  “Why are you here?” Virgil Gallows, wizard, asked the witch.

  “The stone in the boy's hand is from Planet Venus.” she said flatly.

  The wizard squinted, paled slightly, then smiled. “Wonderful!”

  Emerald met turquoise.

  They shook their heads in quick denials.

  “Come along!” he said and waved. He turned and walked away. The elder witch closed her eyes slowly and shocked her head slower.

  The elder witch turned and followed. The younger mages stood as well. They held hands and followed behind the masters.

  They walked until they reached a small clearing where Gallows’ cabin had been parked. The cabin was large and wooden. In front were two large stone statues of corvids.

  When they entered the cabin, the warmth and autumn hues within relaxed their muscles and ignited their brains. The whole place seemed to come into a focus the outside world could not manage on its own.

  The walls were lined with stacks and stacks of poetry. In between those cases, were fireplaces, nine in total. Four on either side with one lit one in the center wall oppose the door.

  There was a desk with several chairs in front of. The wizard sat behind the desk, the elder witch stood beside it, and the other two took their usual seats.

  My name is Eli," he said. "It's nice to meet you. What's your name? The woman in black just shook her head and closed her eyes slowly.

  "She does not have a name in a traditional sense," Gallows said. He had settled behind his desk, his large hands folded on its surface. "You may know her as Lilith."

  The blood left Eli's face in a single tide. Across the desk, Isla's eyes went very wide.

  Lilith stood beside the desk like something carved there. She did not fidget. She did not breathe visibly. The iron curtain of her hair hung perfectly still despite the draft from the nearest fireplace.

  "The Red Rider has remounted," she said.

  "What is that to you?" Gallows asked.

  "I seek the favor of the Accuser."

  "Satan?" Eli yelped.

  Gallows' cobalt eye slid to Lilith's amethysts. His brow knit, then slowly gave way to a smile.

  "For what purpose?" he asked, folding his hands.

  "Retribution." The word landed like a stone in still water.

  "Some things never change," Gallows chuckled. "Against whom?"

  "Who is like God?" A long beat passed. Lilith turned to Eli then, and the full weight of her attention came upon him. "The current Accuser," she said, "is the single most beautiful being in all of Creation."

  Eli felt the stone warm slightly in his closed fist. "Satan? The actual Devil? Evil incarnate?"

  "Of course not, boy." Something close to pity moved across her face. "You are horribly lost."

  "What?"

  Gallows leaned forward. "Do you know where the word Satan comes from?"

  Eli's seminary training answered before he could think about it. "The Book of Job describes an encounter with a being called ha-satan. In English it means the Accuser." He paused. "It's a role. Like a prosecutor."

  "Were your legal systems evil?" Lilith asked. There was no mockery in it. It was a genuine question, which was somehow worse.

  Eli blinked. "There are a few I would go as far as evil," he hedged. "But it wasn't always that simple. The context of who, when, and execution mattered a lot."

  "Indeed." The single word from Lilith hit him somewhere behind the sternum. Eli's heart quietly dropped to the floor.

  Isla leaned forward in her chair. "Then who is the Devil?"

  "That," Gallows said, settling back, "is the question of the evening, is it not?" He spread his large hands on the desk. "The Devil is essentially a meaningless title. If it were not for that evil incarnate you mentioned."

  "What?" Eli said.

  "Evil." Gallows let the word sit. He rose then, moving toward the central fireplace, the lit one, its light catching the iron of his eye patch. "Imagine having the power to define what that meant."

  "What?"

  "Whoever wields the stone has the power of Lucifer — who is, in the tale, the Devil. An uncast part to play." He turned from the fire. "Try to imagine having the ability to define what evil meant. What would you call evil that others don't? What would you decide is no longer evil?" He looked at the stone in Eli's hand. "It's an intoxicating amount of power."

  Eli became very aware of the warmth against his palm.

  "This is why it must not fall to the Horseman," Lilith said.

  "Why not?" Isla asked.

  Gallows returned to his desk but did not sit. He looked at Isla directly. "What would you do if you were the Horseman of War?"

  Eli stared. Isla chewed her lip for a moment. "I would set off every nuclear weapon if I could manage it."

  Eli turned to her sharply.

  "Indeed." Gallows' voice had lost its warmth entirely. "A flash of divine light, innocent bodies disappearing with it...but twisted to damn rather than save."

  The color drained from Eli's face slowly.

  "I don't understand," Isla said.

  "You're saying," Eli breathed very carefully, "that if the Horseman of War gets the Stone — he will set off a Rapture. Damn us all."

  "Yes," Lilith said. "Straight down to the Proud Scapegoat's front lawn."

  The fire crackled. Nobody spoke. Eight cold fireplaces and one warm one, but silence filling all of them equally.

  Isla tapped the table once. "But why would they do that if the Accuser isn't evil?"

  "War can be civil," Gallows reminded her. He sat back down.

  Isla tapped the table again. "Then who is the Proud Scapegoat?"

  "Very good." Gallows raised a finger. "The Proud Scapegoat is commander of the Damned Legions. One faction of the Underworld."

  "Okay, enough." Eli pressed his free hand to his temple. "Why do we keep using these epithets? I know I shouldn't invoke the name of the Almighty, but why does everyone else care?"

  "You'd have to ask them," Gallows said.

  "What?"

  Isla shifted in her chair to face him. "Each entity has its own preferences. Some of them like a continuous identity. Some will differentiate based on where they are or who they're talking to."

  "You have got to be kidding me." Eli's breathing had picked up. "How am I supposed to keep that all straight?"

  "You cannot, boy," Lilith said. "That is why we use the epithets."

  "Unless you know for certain a name is not the true name, you shouldn't use it at all," Isla added. "Even the language you speak it in could matter. Or not. It's entirely up to them."

  "And context matters once again," Gallows said. He trailed his fingers idly along the desk. "One name might have power in one context and not another. It's up to the being in question to answer the phone, so to speak." A faint smile. "Some have different phone numbers. Some don't."

  "But." Isla was not finished. "The Proud Scapegoat. Who is he?"

  "The fallen angel," Eli said automatically. "The Watcher who rebelled by teaching mankind metallurgy and weaponry." Lilith snorted a short, derisive sound. "At least that's how the story goes," Eli said. "But what does that have to do with this meteorite?"

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Gallows reached out and from a shelf behind him retrieved a small celestial globe, its surface tarnished silver, the planets marked in faded paint. He set it on the desk between them.

  "This Stone," he said, "is the very first in a very, very long time that a Venusian meteorite has landed on this planet. Perhaps even the first ever." He tapped the globe near a pale point of light. "Planet Venus — which in this context is better known as?"

  "The Morning Star," Eli and Isla said together.

  "Or Evening Star," Isla added, "depending on the orientation of the planets."

  Eli was already somewhere else in his mind. "But also Lucifer," he said slowly.

  Isla laughed. "What?"

  "Lucifer just means light-bringer. It was used to describe the planet in the sky." He looked at her. "Before it was a name it was a description."

  "Good!" Gallows cheered.

  "But what does that have to do with Lucifer? Other than it literally being the Morning Star?" Eli asked.

  "Quite a bit," Gallows smiled. He pushed the celestial globe slightly toward them. "Can you think of any ways in which the tale of Lucifer Morningstar might share something with the planet Venus?"

  Both their faces contorted.

  "What?" Isla said. "What does that even mean? Those two things are completely different."

  "Just try," Gallows said. "See if you can make it work."

  Isla went quiet. She pulled at a loose thread on her sleeve. Then: "I suppose in some sense it's a beautiful rebel of the heavens."

  "How can a planet be beautiful and rebellious?" Eli breathed.

  "I'm not even going to dignify that first question," Isla said without heat. "But it's one of only two planets that appear to change direction in the sky mid-year."

  Eli's eyes went wide.

  "I prefer Mercury," Gallows said, and gestured to the women. "And what is this motion called?"

  "Retrograde," Lilith and Isla said simultaneously. Gallows nodded.

  "Additionally," Isla said, sitting forward now, warming to it "it's a kind of inversion of the mortal world. It's so hot that everything we've sent there has melted within hours. It rains sulfuric acid." She paused. "And it's the only planet that spins backwards." Her face went pale. "Some people hypothesize that happened because Venus was struck by something enormous, a very long time ago."

  "And because of that impact," Eli picked up carefully, "the relationship between days and years there is strange. Distorted compared to here." He looked at her. "Just like Hell."

  Isla beamed at him.

  "Uranus spins on its side," Gallows acknowledged, tipping his head. "But the point stands." He looked at Eli and the stone in his hand. "This Stone is both a piece of Venus — the Morning Star, herald of dusk and dawn — and a literal piece of beautiful, rebellious Lucifer, fallen from the heavens."

  Silence settled over the room. The central fire popped once.

  "Okay but," Eli said. "How has this not happened before? We have rocks from the Moon. Even Mars."

  "Venus has roughly the same gravity as Earth but a much thicker atmosphere," Isla said, slipping into the tone when she teetered on rant. "To be travelling fast enough to escape it you'd almost certainly just vaporize on the way out. It would have to be something so large there simply wasn't enough time for the ejecta to superheat." She spread her hands. "The odds against it are extraordinary."

  Eli turned the stone over in his fingers, feeling its warmth. "Doesn't that sort of mean it belongs to—"

  "Boy." Lilith's voice was very quiet and very sharp.

  "But you said Planet—"

  "Context," Isla said, softer, and she put her hand briefly over his. "We know Venus isn't her true name. So it's probably fine." Her eyes flicked upward. "But given that she might be watching us right now, we should try to keep a lower profile."

  Emerald met turquoise.

  He nodded. She squeezed his hand once and let go.

  "I would not give the Stone to her," Lilith said. She drew breath to continue but Gallows raised a hand.

  "Her past is more complicated than most give her credit for," he said carefully. "The Lady of the Dawn was a powerful Goddess of Passion — love and war."

  Eli raised an eyebrow at Isla, who shrugged.

  "Which she has since diminished to mere Beauty and Romance." Lilith's iron hair swayed slightly as she shook her head. "Her most famous suitor is perhaps the most infamous God of War. Giving her the Stone is tantamount to global suicide. You may as well set off the Rapture yourself."

  Eli's eyes went very wide.

  "Seems like a lazy choice for a Horseman," Isla said.

  "I thought they had to be demons?" Eli asked.

  "They don't have to be," Gallows said. "Anyone can ride a horse and pick up a sword. You have to be selected, trained, given a stratagem."

  "Who chooses?"

  "The Accuser."

  Eli stared at him. "But you just said he isn't the Devil." Gallows raised an eyebrow and nodded, very slowly.

  "There is no Devil." The wizard's voice was even. "If the Accuser is a prosecutor, the Horsemen are detectives and the clean-up crew. Who the Accuser chooses, and why, is that entity's sole discretion. They are entirely independent of the Damned Legions."

  "But I heard the Proud Scapegoat gave the horse to Conquest."

  Gallows nodded and pointed a gentle finger. "The Scapegoat was the original choice but passed over the reins." He smiled at his own joke. Nobody else did.

  Eli put his head in his hands. From there he asked, muffled: "Why is that name okay?"

  "He's the Proud Scapegoat," Gallows said simply. "He wants you to blame him."

  Eli raised his head. "So what are we supposed to do?"

  "What do you want to do with it?" Gallows asked.

  "What?"

  "What do you want to do with it?" He nodded at the stone. "As far as I am concerned, it is yours by the ancient law of finders-keepers."

  Eli stared at him for a long moment. The fire shifted behind Gallows. The shadows in the room moved with it and settled again.

  "Will you take up the power of Lucifer?" Gallows asked serenely.

  "No." Eli said it without hesitation. "Of course not."

  "Why not?"

  "It would be wrong."

  "Why?" the wizard asked.

  Silence. The fire again. Eli looked at the stone in his hand for a moment, then closed his fingers around it.

  "Can we destroy it?"

  "You could, physically. At least to some extent." Gallows tilted his head. "But that would be a bad idea."

  "Why?"

  Isla answered. "Matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed. Even if you somehow managed to atomize the Stone, its pieces would still be here on Earth. If we destroy it, we make it easier for everything else to gather the fragments and harder for us to keep it from the Horseman." She exhaled. "Unless you happen to have a spare black hole."

  Eli glanced at Gallows. The wizard returned the look with a perfectly blank smile.

  Another silence.

  "Is there anyone," Isla asked slowly, "we can be absolutely certain is not the Horseman?"

  Gallows considered. "There is one entity I would be confident in," he said. "Goat-Horn."

  Something electric moved down Eli's spine. He thought of his seminary, its clean white walls, the particular expression on the face of his theology professor. He thought of how that man would look at him right now.

  He turned the name over. Something clicked.

  "Pan—" he started, and both Lilith and Isla sucked breath sharply through their teeth. Gallows did not. "—da," Eli finished lamely.

  "More like —gea," Gallows said.

  "Or —daemonium," Isla offered. She looked at the wizard. "Why do you trust him?"

  "For precisely that reason," Gallows said.

  Isla frowned. "What reason?"

  "A lot of the imagery we have for the Devil," Eli said quietly, working it out, "came from Goat-Horn. After he was demonized."

  "He was not demonized, boy." Lilith's voice had an edge to it now. Eli raised an eyebrow at her. "The Scapegoat stole his face," she said. "Very different."

  Eli and Isla looked at each other.

  "In any case," Gallows said, "I suspect the attempt may be fruitless. He has been in exile for some time and his feelings toward mortal kind might be — mixed." He folded his hands again. "The simplest course of action is to give the Stone to the Scapegoat and call it a day."

  "No." Eli said it the moment the sentence ended.

  Gallows smiled. It reached his eye.

  "I have to try," Eli said. "Do we summon him?"

  Three sets of eyebrows rose.

  "No," Gallows said.

  "Why not?"

  "It's rather rude to blip someone into another plane of existence without asking, don't you think?" A small laugh. "You should be polite. Ring the doorbell."

  "Okay," Isla said. "Where?"

  "Ideally," Lilith said, "a place of natural liminality."

  "Stop." Isla held up a hand. "What does that mean exactly?"

  "What does it mean to you?" Gallows asked.

  She thought about it. "Somewhere creepy. Woods, maybe."

  "That will work," he said. "Can you think of somewhere like that nearby?"

  Silence.

  "The Pine Barrens," Eli said. "In New Jersey. There's all kinds of things out there. It was a nightmare during the exodus."

  "An excellent choice." Gallows nodded once, with finality.

  "Are you coming with us?" Eli asked.

  "No."

  "Why not?" Isla said. "We need your help."

  "I don't want to," Gallows said simply.

  "You could solve this right now," she pressed. "Shimmer the cabin there, be done with it."

  "I could." He extended his open hand toward Eli and the Stone. "Do you trust me with the power to define evil?"

  Eli did not give him the stone.

  "Very smart," the wizard said. He turned to Lilith, “Would you mind accompanying these children? Perhaps give them a lesson or too.” He smiled. “Just like the gold old days.”

  “Fine. But only because they are going to Goat-Horn.”