<span style="font-family: 'Verdana'">The towering spires of stone and iron pierced the cloudless red sunned sky of her lofty domain casting their eerie shadows along the black barren ground that offered no purchase for the life that skittered across its surface. It had always been this way and would always remain so. Creatures hide from the sun's touch in caves, burrows and under rocks not that doing so would ever provide them sanctuary from its wrath. Those of little power and of nearly non-existent souls lingered in this plane which was the barrier between the mortal realm and the hellish landscape once depicted in "Dante's Inferno". This was where all souls came to be judged before granted passage to any of the other realms. <br/>
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The Judge, Jury, and Executioner were one in the same in such a place. A daunting task for those who couldn't understand the simple act of what made one guilty of a crime and not of another. Millions of factors were looked at all in the blink of an eye. Such a being didn't have a heart to persuade with words of woe and mastery of a silver tongue. They didn't have the hesitancy of someone who held empathy nor the desire to be unfair. That was the sole job of the white haired beauty that glared down at the van that pulled up to the gate from the safety of her study that overlooked the main yards of her upper fingers of her domain. Pale grey eyes watched its careful approach to the main doors. Running a through her hair she turned away from the windows and moved deeper into the palace. Her black boots clipped the dark grey stone floor as she made her way from the study to her throne room. Not that she used it as such these days. <br/>
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Before her birth there were seven entities that tended to the seven levels of Hell but now there was only her those other palaces locked themselves up tight for sometime seeming to have minds of their own. It was a common thing in Hell it would seem. They opened themselves up sometime after her mother handed the regent crown to her. Or rather to Eva but it still fell to her as Eva decided the pearly gates were more to her liking that the process of punishing those who needed it. After that was an ever growing number at this point. Pausing she stared at her own throne the large grey stone structure that was embellished by none other than the twin trees that started the whole damn mess of sins in the first place. The tree of life stretched high and lofty to the ceiling while the tree of knowledge spread out like a bush around the other's trunk. Most who passed though never knew what they were looking at. <br/>
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The sound of footsteps headed her way caused the woman to turn her gaze to her unwilling guest and much more unwilling man servant. A slight smile crossed her pale red lips not parting enough yet to show that her teeth were indeed not human in nature. She was dressed rather simply. A long sleeveless black coat made of a light cotton fabric while the tank top under it was a surprising pastel pink with none other than a grumpy looking white unicorn with popped balloons surrounding it. One who knew her status might have been a little taken aback by such a place item on none other than the Devil. She lazily blinked at the pair, "A new toy or a sinner here to pay his debts? Or worse yet, a clean soul ready for the golden conga line to the pearly gates?" <br/>
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It would be hard to miss those needle like teeth that flashed as she spoke softly as if she couldn't really care what this scrap of flesh was doing before her. She tilted her head to the side sending her long white hair dancing across her lithe back  the bangs that framed her face slid in front of her eyes that now focused on the man more so than the butler she couldn't remember the name of. Slowly she stepped closer. While not threatening in appearance alone something seemed to change in the air that gave one the notion that they should fear that which they held the attention of. Like prey trapped in the gaze of the predator that would bring their very end about. She looked not just at him but into his soul. She would know what stained it but would never tell another of the sins she saw. That was always for the sinner to confess to. <br/>
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The problems with torture was that a soul that had never experienced pain broke easily and confessed to everything before it with ease of merely speaking the words but often wouldn't confess to the actual sin they did as they say that as justified. The truth of the matter was that in her eyes there wasn't a grey margin. There never was in her opinion. It is merely a human's desire for their actions to be justified that brings their actions of stretching the line of right and wrong into obscurity. <br/>
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"Do you know your sins, Spike?" </span>