Lucifer and Lilith led Rachel, Maisy, and the others off. Leviathan and Astaroth withdrew to join Death, giving Lucifer's guests some privacy. The dinner party came to a table shaded by one of the ghoulish trees of the garden. Several humans dressed in dapper white suits were busy setting the table. One of them, a stern-looking man with a bushy goatee, nodded to Lucifer. "Everything's in place, Your Infernal Majesty," he said in a distinguished Southern accent. "I hope you enjoy your dinner." Beneath his polite words, the man sounded like he was dying inside to be waiting on people.
"The servants are all deceased slave owners," Lilith whispered to Rachel. "The one who just talked is Nathan Bedford Forrest, infamous Confederate general and founder of the Ku Klux Klan."
"Having the 'natural order' flipped on them and being forced to serve punishes them worse than any conventional torture ever could," Maisy added.
"It might even teach the ones who have a shot at getting released someday some humility," Remeila observed. "It's a pity that evil can take root in a human's heart and grow so monstrous." Nathan Bedford Forrest looked for a second like he was going to say something snippy to this chocolate-skinned angel who dared pity him, but he wisely thought better of it.
Everyone took a seat. Remeila's and Charon's little daughter instantly began piling food onto her plate with her bare hands. "Sariel," Remeila sighed, "don't just grab things without asking. We've talked about this."
"Sariel?" Rachel asked. "I thought your daughter's name was Sarah."
"We were undercover when you met her," said Charon. "An exotic name like 'Sariel' would attract attention while trying to pass her off as a human. It's like how I introduced myself to you as Chris and Remeila as Mariana."
"Oh, that makes sense," Rachel said as she filled her plate (albeit in a much more orderly fashion than Sariel). There were strange fruits and vegetables that grew in Lucifer's gardens, and the centerpiece was some kind of meat from an animal that resembled a spiny version of a pig. Rachel smiled as she tasted the meat, finding it to have a sweet, smoky taste.
"So, I'd like you to tell me about yourself, Rachel," Lucifer said at last, giving Rachel an appraising stare. "For example, what did you study in college?"
"I... I got a degree in communication..." Rachel mumbled, nervously fiddling with her tail as she tried and failed to look Lucifer in the eye.
Lucifer smiled as he stroked his neatly trimmed beard. "Ah, that sounds like the kind of skill set that will serve you well in court! I was worried that you might have wasted your education on something absurd and pointless."
"Lucifer, don't be rude," Lilith chided.
"I'm not being rude," Lucifer maintained. "You know humans get degrees in all sorts of silly subjects. One of Archduke Beelzebub's sons was dating a human girl from Denmark for a while who was getting a degree in Beyoncé studies from the University of Copenhagen! Beyoncé studies!"
Lucifer turned back to Rachel. "And what about your family? What are they like?"
Rachel cringed. She hated this topic. "I... don't see them much these days. My father's a fundamentalist pastor who expects me to perfectly live up to his ultra-strict standards at all times. If I don't, then I'm a wicked sinner in his eyes. He especially hated me dating another woman. The only reason he ever visited when he learned I'd moved in with Maisy was to try to punch her."
"He tried to WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?!!" Lucifer thundered, the whole garden echoing with his primordial shout. "Who is this man who would DARE strike the daughter of the Devil?! What is the wretch's name?!"
"Rev. Joshua Church," Rachel answered, deciding she wouldn't mind much if her father was paid a visit by some very irate demons in the near future.
"Rev. Joshua Church?" Lucifer repeated in shock. "Was your mother named Rebecca Shepherd?"
"Yeah, before she married my dad," Rachel answered. "Why?"
Lucifer turned to Lilith. "Didn't Rebecca Shepherd used to date...?"
"She certainly did," Lilith answered, a stunned expression on her face.
"Date who?" asked Rachel. "What do you know about my mother."
"Rebecca Shepherd is Princess Astaroth's old girlfriend," Lilith explained. "My sister-in-law held off courting for many thousands of years, figuring that nobody could could be worthy of her majestic beauty. She was always a highly vain demon, so proud to have held on to most of her old angelic form. In the end, though, she got lonely. She finally came down here in search of a bride in the late Nineties. She enrolled in a human college and met a young woman who was studying for a Performing Arts degree."
"My mom always did love singing..." Rachel mused.
"Astaroth and Rebecca dated for two years before Astaroth revealed her true self to her lover. She was careful not to precisely ask for marriage, of course, so as to avoid putting Rebecca's life on the line. Unfortunately, Rebecca got cold feet. She came from a rather religious household, and she was already nervous enough about dating a girl. The revelation that Astaroth was also a demon was the least straw. She reluctantly ended the relationship and began dating the young seminary graduate her parents had been hoping she would marry. Her mother and father thanked God for their daughter's 'redemption' that night." Lilith grimaced in disgust.
"Astaroth never really got over Rebecca," Lucifer said. "She never dated again, preferring to sate her physical needs with the courtesans of the Hellish palaces. Nonetheless, she continued to check in on Rebecca."
"Come to think of it," Rachel said, "Astaroth does look a lot like Ashley, an old friend of my mother's who used to drop by a lot. I remember Dad was always complaining to Mom that Ashley's clothes were too skimpy and that she wore too much makeup and jewelry. By the time I was twelve, he'd managed to bully Mom into telling her to quit visiting."
"Astaroth will be very interested to hear that you're Rebecca's daughter," said Lucifer. "She has sorely missed Rebecca. Her heart broke when she discovered that your father had been abusing her onetime girlfriend and even asked me to destroy him. Unfortunately, he is a Knight of the Iron Cross."
"A what?" Rachel asked, baffled.
"A secret society of demon-slayers," Maisy explained. "They've spent a thousand years honing the art of killing demons, and they're VERY good at it. Sometimes, squads of them even conduct small raids on Hell itself like the angels did before the treaty was signed."
"How do they get to Hell?" Rachel asked.
"How does anybody get to Hell?" Charon shrugged. "By conjuring portals with magic."
"But my dad always told me that magic was a sin!" Rachel fumed. "And he's using it himself?! Of all the rank hypocrisy!"
"All Knights of the Iron Cross are," said Lucifer. "But enough of them. Do you have any other family?"
"Well, you seem to know all about my mom," said Rachel. "I also have an fraternal twin brother, Joshua Church Jr. He looks just like our dad, but he's a lot more chill. He still believes in God, but he sees God as a lot more kind and loving than the stern judge Dad thinks God is."
"I hope you'll feel at home in my family," said Lucifer. "I had my doubts about you, but I can see that you're exactly what my youngest daughter needs. I'm sorry if I come off as intense or frightening, but I am very careful who I allow to get close to my daughter."
"No worries," Rachel said, trying to sound braver than she felt. "I really like your family. Incidentally, who are your parents? Is God your father?"
"Not by blood," Lucifer answered. "My birth parents were angels named Enlil and Ninlil, but they died trying to slay Tiamat and Apsu, the primordial beasts that lived in the waters of Chaos before creation. After their deaths, God took me, my brothers Michael and Leviathan, and my sister Astaroth in and raised us alongside His own children. I swiftly climbed the ranks in the Heavenly Host and soon became God's second-in-command. Things started going wrong at the time of the creation of humanity. I had wanted humans to be given free will, but God and the other angels feared that humans would use that gift to bring evil into the world. As you know, I went behind God's back and arranged for humans to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, giving them free will. Unfortunately, this act set off a war in Heaven. My own family was torn apart. Leviathan and Astaroth sided with me, while Michael sided with God. In the end, my allies and I were forced to flee. We eventually found Hell and set up a kingdom here."
"It's a shame things had to go so wrong between you and your loved ones," Rachel said, suddenly feeling bad for her soon-to-be father-in-law.
"At least peace reigns again," Remeila said with a flutter of her pinkish lavender wings. "My father even conceded that you were right about free will when He signed the treaty."
"And we owe this peace all to you and my son," Lilith smiled at her daughter-in-law.
"And may Miasma and Rachel's union bring just as much happiness," Lucifer said, raising a glass of blood-seasoned wine to drink a toast to the brides. "To Princess Miasma and Princess Tenebra!"
Rachel took Maisy's hand in her own, blushing as everyone at the table toasted her entry into the family. It was true. She was becoming a Morningstar.