(http://cdn02.cdn.justjared.com/wp-content/uploads/headlines/2009/03/robert-downey-jr-mens-vogue.jpg)<br/><br/><em>"So... if you'll forgive me, I'm just not getting... you know... what I can do about it."</em>The discussion between Callisto and Lucifer continued. She had a suspicion, but it was absolutely ridiculous to give it a voice. Lucifer sat at his desk, his palms hovering over a series of sheets in a binder before taking out the top 3 and closing it to reveal the binder's label of Military Contract proposals.<br/><br/><strong><em>"Well I've been a little too busy to drop by lately."</em></strong>Lucifer stated, his eyes not really returning to Callisto by this point. Instead, multi-tasking, he engaged in his conversation with her while studying the contents of the proposal in his hand.<br/><br/><em>"I would imagine."</em>Callisto stated glancing to the left, two empty chairs began to call to her but in all honesty, she felt it would be a little presumptuous just to begin sitting down. Anyone else... and she certainly would... but this was Lucifer.<br/><br/>Silence... Lucifer's eyes continued to gaze at the sheet, shifting from left to right time and time again reading further down the page.<br/><br/><strong><em>"Mm-hmm..."</em></strong>As he mumbled quietly, Callisto's eyes were brought back to him, having been drawn to the right by the book shelf in his office. His mumbled sound could have been to her commentary or could have been to something he was reading, she couldn't know.<br/><br/><em>"-... I guess all you can do is deal with it when you have time to drop in... hey?"</em>More silence, a small huff as Lucifer's response was a casual nod.<br/><br/><strong><em>"You're certainly right. It's not that it's a hard problem to deal with. It's just... being there to deal with it."</em></strong><br/><br/><em>"I see... right place at the right time sorta thing?"</em>Callisto's weight now constantly began shifting from one leg to the other, her feet gradually supporting her shifting centre.<br/><br/><strong><em>"Exactly."</em></strong><br/><br/>And then there was silence for what had to be another dozen seconds, but Callisto couldn't help but feel those seconds passing so slowly. She had been on horseback earlier today, but for the past while she had been on foot fighting, traversing over rocky regions not necessarily catering to horses and now... she felt teased, truly teased by the vacant chairs in the office. The fact that Lucifer was settled in nicely to his own seat didn't help her much.<br/><br/><em>"Well... you don't really have a hard time finding someone when you put your mind to it, I'm sure everything'll be fine."</em>a small throbbing pain could be felt shooting up her calves and the result was her need to bend the right leg almost instantly. It was more of an ache than any real long lasting pain and as soon as it came, it was gone. Soon she looked like a runner stretching just before a race in his office. Her right leg bent slightly, relieving the pressure on it as her left leg supported her body weight and her cringe went, seemingly unnoticed by the comfortably seated devil who continued scanning the sheet in his hands.<br/><br/><strong><em>"Finding them isn't the problem."</em></strong>For the first time, Callisto was a little slow catching onto the fact that Lucifer's remark was hinting at another problem. A small burning sensation had gradually built up on her left foot and realizing that something as simple as standing on it while flexing her right leg was causing that foot to hurt too. There was a temporary relief of pain as she shifted her weight once more onto her right foot, a small ache bringing a reminder of the brief shooting pain she had just felt seconds ago.<br/><br/>(http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/eralupus/callisto_16.jpg)<br/><br/><em>It was the feeling you got when taking a step immediately after settling down a pulled muscle. There's an uncontrollable tiny shake that always seems to threaten to release another shooting pain through that muscle.</em><br/><br/>She took a few steps towards one of the vacant seats, her left hand resting on the top of the chair as her pace brought her close to sitting into it.<br/><br/><em>So close, and yet...</em><br/><br/><strong><em>"-... On the bookshelf, 3rd row, 7th book from the left; should be titled 'Geronimo Guantanamo'.</em></strong>He looked up this time...<em>finally</em>... but not to her. No... he glanced up at the book shelf as though to confirm his best guess at where the book should be. Everything else about his tone and body language... merged with the absolute<em>lack</em>of movement to get it himself indicated he wanted her to hand it to him. This was almost too harsh to be a coincidence.<br/><br/><em>"I... sure."</em>she uttered, voice still somewhat chipper. After all... she couldn't exactly prove that he had anything to do with this feeling in her legs and feet. She did move to the book shelf, finding the work he had quite accurately labelled and turned around bringing herself back to the front of his desk.<br/><br/>Her angle of approach now designed to make it so much easier to simply step back and take a seat after she'd place the book on the desk. As she tried however... his voice interrupted her again. Casual... matter-of-factual...<br/><br/><em><strong>"Italian leather... the chairs."</strong></em>he uttered, his eyes again roaming the paper in front of him before placing it on the desk to the left of the folder. She froze in her tracks, looking to make a read on the remark. What an odd thing to say.<br/><br/><em>"They must be... comfortable."</em>her wording came out slow... a lone eyebrow risen herself, eyes darting left to right with the awkward silence that followed as though she was trying to guage whether or not he was inviting her to sit down or telling her not to.<br/><br/><strong><em>"Well... I like to think so."</em></strong>he quipped, his eyes meeting hers again for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. A snide grin representing the stating of the obvious.<br/><br/>She slowly let her hand caress the fabric, letting the implication linger quite vividly that she was curious as to how sitting in it would feel. It wasn't that she'd never sat in a chair before but by now, she'd have been invited to take a seat. What's more... something had been nagging at her legs almost ever since she'd been summoned in here.<br/><br/>Before she could take a seat, once again, she was interrupted by another of Lucifer's remarks.<br/><br/><strong><em>"They have a nasty habit of retaining a smell... I find."</em></strong>It was an honest remark, really just an implication of his own. He wasn't exactly denying her the right to sit down... still... somehow it just didn't feel right.<br/><br/><em>Oh-... this was ridiculous!</em><br/><br/>If she wasn't suspecting it before, she certainly was now. He had a way of pranking people himself and one of those ways included simply letting one of his sentences be interrupted, silence hanging while he watched you. Everything coming to a halt making you wonder if you did something wrong. In this case, the silence immediately after his latest remark froze her from sitting in the chair came with a great degree of awkwardness. If she sat down anyway, she could feel the presumptuous nature of her own action drawing that gaze from Lucifer.<br/><br/>If she didn't sit down... she had to step away from the chair, lest she garner that anticipated gaze for being frozen in mid-action. Somehow... Lucifer had created an environment in the office where she felt like she was walking on egg shells. And that was almost meant literally, her feet burned no small bit, her legs ached from small shooting pains, Lucifer was talking to her consistently, but not constantly. It almost seemed like her being here while Lucifer went over his documents was a small punishment.<br/><br/><em>... and the empty chairs beckoning to her to take a load off were the final touch.</em><br/><br/>It was as though you were a first time guest at someone's house, not 'your' friend, but a friend of a friend. You couldn't just bring yourself to sit down anywhere on their furniture without an invitation to do so and quite often, in turn... it was socially expected that they would offer you said invitation.<br/><br/><em>"So... what... uh... what is the problem then?"</em>She settled on taking a knee, her fingers going to work adjusting her armoured sandal footwear.<br/><br/><strong><em>"Problem?"</em></strong>Lucifer's voice finished in just enough uptone that the lone word was sounded as a question and not a mere repetition of something he understood from her communication.<br/><br/><em>"Yeah, finding them isn't the problem..."</em>Callisto repeated briefly, realizing now how much it was taking to keep decorum. Almost spitefully she just wanted to flop down into the chair, failing that, she looked for a way to be excused from the office... and her best hope of that seemed to be to finish this meeting with Lucifer.<br/><br/><em>Sadly... he seemed to be in no rush to end it. This was just far too strange to be coincidental.</em><br/><br/><strong><em>"Oh... right. Of course. Well, as you pointed out, I can find anyone. It's a matter of getting to them."</em></strong><br/><br/><em>"You can't..."</em>a small silent inhale longer than the others was absorbed as Callisto made her way back to her feet, her lips tightening with the occasional flinch as another small throbbing sensation ached in her left leg.<em>"... get to them?"</em><br/><br/><strong><em>"Well... they've made a small mess of the place and there are rules."</em></strong><br/><br/><em>"Rules?"</em><br/><br/><strong><em>"I'm sure you've been in a scenario where you could see something you wanted... smell it, feel it, approach it... and yet somehow, it just seems out of reach?"</em></strong><br/><br/>Callisto's head nodded,<em>"I totally know what that feels like..."</em>she said with a small cringe as she hissed an inhale at another shooting pain. For a moment, she was worried that she might be more of a distraction to Lucifer than anything else right now, an annoyance to him, but his absolute disregard for her cringing hiss made it all the harder to avoid the thought that he was behind this pain she was feeling.<br/><br/><em>Even if he was... what could she do about i?</em><br/><br/><strong><em>"Callisto you... look awful."</em></strong>he uttered finally, his eyes falling on her again, this time with the very same gaze she had come to expect from his playful antagonizing. He looked at her as though asking if she intended on being an inconvenience much longer. He summoned her... and she was fairly certain he was behind this pain she felt... but deniability was his game. It was something she was intimately familiar since she herself was a bit of a prankster. His eyes... his tone... the tilting of his head and his specific wording did everything to avoid admitting guilt and most importantly, he was in a position where she could never question him anyway.<br/><br/>This seemed like a rigged test. There was nothing she could do even though she was right about this suspicion. She was there... to be abused by him... and he didn't laugh about it, taunt her... nothing.<br/><br/><em><strong>"Why don't you have a seat."</strong></em><br/><br/><em>Why don't you have a seat.</em><br/><br/>...<em>Why don't you have a seat.</em><br/><br/>... ... ...<em>Why don't you have a seat.</em><br/><br/>The words seemed to echo in her mind for a brief moment. Pride didn't allow her to flounder into it like some fish that had been out of water for a lethal amount of time, no... she approached it, thanking him silently. It was as though it was not necessary to thank him if she interpreted his request as an order and not an 'offer'. Still... her acceptance was literally a thank you in and of itself as she could refuse it if she didn't want to.<br/><br/>Callisto's body sank into the comfortable large chair, it was as though heaven showered her body with comfort. Something so simple... so seemingly unimportant as the cool chair provided a dynamic contrast against the uncomfortable ache and heat she was feeling against her legs and feet. Now, as though all she needed was to take a load off all along, she couldn't feel the ache or pain whatsoever.<br/><br/><em>It removed any thought whatsoever that Lucifer wasn't behind the feelings she had been suffering. There was no way sitting down could make such a big difference within a few seconds.</em><br/><br/>Demons and other Hell Dwellers knew that Lucifer had a gift for illusions and deception, but sometimes he was all too theatrical. At the time of being engaged in his illusions, often varying in intensity... an illusion was enough to make you suffer your own personal hell. To you... an illusion generated by Lucifer could seem very real. In fact... the smaller the illusion, the more intense the feelings were.<br/><br/>It's one thing to generate a horribly large illusion where the mind immediately interprets it as some kind of dream. The best illusions... Lucifer found... were the ones that fed on what you were already used to. Illusions catering to what your mind was not on the 'defensive' in regards to. Making small changes in a scenario, tweaking your sense of touch, smell, sight, hearing, equilibrium and taste.<br/><br/><strong><em>"... An invitation makes all the difference in the world, doesn't it?"</em></strong>Lucifer didn't grin, but a warm smile caused Callisto's breathing to hitch in a silent chuckle. It was as though the chair she sat in did more to relax and sooth her aching body than she ever thought. It wasn't just relief from the pain, it was as though there was a cooling reversal.<br/><br/><em>Lucifer had been making a point.</em><br/><br/><em>"So it <span class="bbc_u">is</span> true. You need an invitation to be down there?"</em><br/><br/><strong><em>"To be fully present... yes."</em></strong><br/><br/><em>"... I guess that would explain a few things. There were always rumours about that but since people see you there anyway, I guess we just assumed..."</em><br/><br/><strong><em>"Well... the more demons that are present, the less vital an invitation is. Obviously..."</em></strong><br/><br/><em>"-... Obviously."</em>He could have been saying anything right now and Callisto would be agreeing, He could have had someone selling their soul to sit in this chair after the pain she had been feeling, yet unable to do anything about.<em>Damn was he ever good at what he did.</em><br/><br/><em>"And ... we're..."</em><br/><br/>It hit her just then and there... why this was a problem now that wouldn't have been one before.<br/><br/><em>"... a little light at the moment."</em>It was treading lightly, there was no way Callisto could speak ill of her queen, even instinctively, the words formulating the problem came out that they were 'light in the demon category' rather than 'and our queen sent most of our layer away'. It just wasn't in Callisto to blame the Queen for anything...<br/><br/><strong><em>"That... you are."</em></strong>Lucifer responded with a casual nod.<br/><br/><em>"So... if I can be so blunt as to ask... how can I help?"</em>Callisto stated, her neck twitching to the side, her eyes focusing by proxy, on the desk between them.<br/><br/><strong><em>"You can't begin to imagine the headache generated by this mess. Other demons have noticed... authorities in other levels have concerns. This isn't something that could stay secret for long. Whatever my Wi-... The Queen was thinking... emptying her level of that many demons is very short sighted."</em></strong><br/><br/>A pause as Callisto felt prodded to say something, but whereas focus had turned to the negative attribute's of the Queen's decision, she seemed to respectfully decline to speak on that matter. She couldn't argue with him, she couldn't state that he was wrong, but she also didn't hear what<span class="bbc_u">she</span>could do to help him.<br/><br/><strong><em>"... I mean, all those demons have to go somewhere!"</em></strong>Lucifer uttered with a chuckle, his hands spreading to the ceiling with an<em>"I-don't-know'</em>posture.<strong><em>"... It's not like nobody's going to notice a layer so greatly reduced. Much less notice that their own layers are being flooded by more demons than they've ever expected to have to handle. It's a headache for the other authorities and their... headaches become..."</em></strong><br/><br/>His wording came out sporadically, chuckling with a small shake of his head as he confided in Callisto.<br/><br/><em>"-... your headaches."</em>She finished his thought. The ruler of Hell wouldn't spend this long talking to her unless he was trying to guage a read or elicit a reaction and for her to not respond could be interpreted rather negatively.<br/><br/><strong><em>"Right... she's the Queen of that layer, everyone's watching it... but they can't march in and make her reverse it. And I've been ... as I said..."</em></strong><br/><br/><em>"Busy."</em>Callisto again finished his remark. Her understanding of his dilemma was much better now.<br/><br/><strong><em>"To reverse this mess, I need to be there. Really... be there. To be seen approaching the area and not able to enter the layer with enough power to fix it, well... it's just giving the head demons of the council ideas."</em></strong><br/><br/><em>"You can't..."</em>Callisto began again, taking a small second to analyze the best way to word her understanding of his problem.<br/><br/><em>"There aren't enough demons present that you can arrive uninvited... and you can't be seen trying to get in because then everyone will ask why you were unable to do it?"</em><br/><br/><strong><em>"Exactly..."</em></strong><br/><br/><em>"Hence... busy... with other things?"</em><br/><br/><strong><em>"Just so."</em></strong><br/><br/><em>"... But you can't be busy with other things forever. Eventually you'll have to be able to tell your generals that you've dealt with the problem."</em><br/><br/><strong><em>"... Which means actually <span class="bbc_u">dealing with the problem.</span></em></strong><br/><br/>A momentary pause.<br/><br/><em>"Dealing with the problem means being there fully... And in the absence of a satisfactory number of demons... being there fully means being invited by enough of us that are in there."</em><br/><br/><strong><em>"Right. The invitations of a majority of demons present, or... an invitation from the Queen herself."</em></strong><br/><br/>So this was where Callisto came in.<br/><br/><em>"And you want me to talk to her..."</em><br/><br/><strong><em>"Absolutely."</em></strong><br/><br/><em>"What am I supposed to say?"</em><br/><br/><strong><em>"You'll think of something. We can do this an easy way... or we can do it the hard way. The Queen... ambitious, fiery, and passionate as she is... cannot keep me out of there indefinitely. On some level, she has to know this. When I do come down there, I am going to turn this layer on it's head. I'm sure she'll make the right decision..."</em></strong><br/><br/>Callisto's eyes darted to the side, unable to really look at him as she interpreted the request as a desire to turn her into a Trojan horse. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad... all she was going to do was be a messenger right? Wouldn't the Queen be offended anyway if Callisto knew about this and didn't say anything to her at all.<br/><br/><em>"Okay... I'll pass along the message."</em>she uttered with a nod before heat again piled around her feet. She glanced down... dancing flames nipping at her ankles, climbing her legs as she huffed, not angry or in shock, more annoyance than anything else.<br/><br/><em>Really? He was dismissing her forcibly himself?</em><br/><br/>The lights of the office blurred and darkness invaded her vision, small creaking light began to replace it as the scent of the second layer again filled her nostrils. She hated the fact that she was getting used to Lucifer summoning her at will and then sending her elsewhere on a whim. Teleportation was one thing when you were ready for it... and when she implemented it, it was very easy. It was another thing to feel that growing pang of nervousness when you had no idea where you were being sent because Lucifer himself was commandeering your ability and sending you somewhere he wanted you.<br/><br/>She took to her feet, brushing her legs off and patting down her armour as she glanced around taking a few seconds to recognize the area she was in. Voices could be heard in the distance and she could tell there was some kind of gathering. One foot in front of the other, she gradually approached the throne room, it was as though pain-free-walking were a gift from Lucifer himself after the feeling she had suffered in his office.<br/><br/>As she approached the entrance she noticed...<em>new faces.</em><br/><br/><em>Oh... just great. As if Lucifer wasn't irritated enough already.</em>