Chapter Twenty Five

Hep met Nubbins for the first time in 1098 AD. Hep had been playing cards with a group of travelling merchants in a dark tavern. Nubbins, at the time, had been following one of the younger ones around. None of the merchants, including the one Nubbins kept whispering to, noticed the little demon.

Nubbins, however, noticed that Hep had spotted him. He winked at Hep, put a finger to his lips and said, “Shhhh.”

The youngest merchant had several winning hands in a row, and he had taken most of the other merchants’ cash.

After losing yet another hand to the young man, one of the merchants slammed his hand down on the table, stood and pointed an accusing finger at the winner.

“You’re cheating!” he shouted.

Hep noticed one of the other merchants had drawn a knife from his boot, and the other merchants around the table all had one hand hidden as well. He had just backed away from the table a little bit when one of the others leapt to his feet and lunged at the young merchant, knife in hand.

The young man remained seated, and the man who had attacked him made a pained gasp and fell to the floor clutching the inside of his leg, which was rapidly growing bright red from a deep wound. The young man stood then, casually holding a dagger in each hand.

Two of the other merchants then attempted to grab the younger man, with similarly messy results. The man to the right fell over clutching at his stomach, while the man to the left fell back with a puzzled look on his face, blood gushing from his neck. The last remaining merchant, showing some good sense, turned and bolted.

Unfortunately for him, the young man threw one of his daggers, which sunk deeply into the fleeing man’s back.

Hep, who had thus far only scooted his chair back a little bit, said, “Whoa.” The young man turned to look at him then. Hep said, “Hey, I didn’t accuse you of cheating.”

The young man smirked, rifled through the pockets of the other men looking for any cash he hadn’t won, and left the tavern.

Hep was not there to witness it, but he heard the young merchant was killed later that night just outside another tavern, when a pair of thugs decided to relieve the drunken man of his heavy coin purse. They’d quietly crept up behind him, and one stuck him with a knife while the other grabbed his money.

Hep made a note to himself to avoid getting mixed up with the little demon, should he see him again.

Three hundred and seventy four years later, he did see the little demon again, just outside a small farming village Hep had passed through. This time he rode on the back of a General’s horse, and again, no one seemed to notice him except for Hep. And, once again, the little demon noticed Hep and winked at him. He whispered in the General’s ear, and shortly after that the General gave the command to kill everyone in the village, and burn the buildings. His army swarmed into the village then. The men of the town were all gone, apart from the very old and very young, off fighting far away. The soldiers killed the old men, the women and the children, and razed the village, leaving behind only smouldering ruins.

He heard, a few years later, that the general had been killed by his own men, who could not bear the atrocities of war any longer and simply wanted to go home again.

He saw the little demon again fifty four years later, standing next to a banker forcing a family to leave their home because they could not pay their debt. No one noticed the demon at the side of the banker.

This time, however, the demon walked over to Hep, who very much did not want to talk to him. The demon looked up at him and said, “Greek, huh?”

Hephaestus blinked, and said, “Yes. And you?”

“Well, who could say for sure? Maybe Zoroastrian,” the demon trailed off, then said, “I am known as,” here the demon paused and took a breath, “Nubbins.”

Hep blinked, stifled a giggle, and said, “I am Hephaestus.”

“Well, Hephaestus, the pleasure is mine. I assume I’ll see you around,” the little demon said, and disappeared.

I hope not, Hephaestus thought. He wasn’t overly fond of the mortals, but he didn’t enjoy watching the destruction this little devil wrought either.

The last time Hep had seen Nubbins was in Salem, Massachusetts. He’d been on his way to Boston. From what he later learned about the events in Salem, Hep knew Nubbins had been a busy little son of a bitch.

And now, here he was again, following around an old bar buddy. This did not bode well for Cyrus, even apart from the eternal damnation. After all, with Nubbins around it was likely Cyrus would reach the pit of Hell well before he would have had he simply been left to live out his life. Plus, Nubbins had made himself known to the Reverend, which could only mean he intended to torment Cyrus along the way.

Hephaestus was unaware of Hell’s corporate politics, and assumed Nubbins was following Cyrus around because Hell wanted to be sure Cyrus was in capable hands. He hoped they’d be able to find a way to distract the little demon and help Cyrus redeem himself before the little bugger got bored and killed him off.