Dear Diary,

I'm trying to process all of what Diavolo told me about Joshua and the alternate realities and everything. It is still a lot for me to process. I don't know if my brain can realistically take all of this in.

~~*\FLASHBACK/*~~

I furrow my eyebrows and start biting my lower lip. Should I risk telling them about my device, or hold off for now? What about the thing about the first male of Dad's line always being named Zagreus? I honestly don't know how that could have any bearing on anything.

I'll keep my device secret for now; wait, do they already know about it? Did Barbatos have to actually go into the new reality or just kind of... steer... Joshua? Nevermind. I'm not worrying about it right now. I'll deal with it when the time comes.

I must have been staring off into space for a while; I felt a hand on my knee, jolted back in my chair, and startled I looked up. Lucifer is looking at me with a slight frown on his face. "You zoned out for quite some time," and in a whisper he added "and I'm not certain what will happen to you if you keep biting your lip like that"

I look at Lucifer, not comprehending what he is saying. Then for the nth time today I feel a rush of blood to my face and I remove my lip from between my teeth. I sigh. "So, what happens to me now?" I ask the two men in front of me, not realizing how open I left myself until the words were out of my mouth, praying that nothing is made of them.

"Well, ideally, I would like you to step in and fill Joshua's spot in the exchange program. He was 3 months into it, so you would essentially be at the beginning of it and because this is the inaugural year I would prefer to have it go as smoothly as possible from here on out," Diavolo said, and then paused. "Because you seem to have a hesitation about being the only woman in a room of high-powered men, I'll give you a choice of living quarters. You can stay at the palace here with Barbatos and I, or you can go to the House of Lamentation, where you arrived, with Lucifer and his brothers to the room where Joshua stayed. I would offer you a room in Purgatory hall but it is at full occupancy with the angels Simeon, whom you've already met, and Luke, as well as a fellow... well, mostly human, Soloman."

I bite my lip again, hear a quiet cough coming from my left, and stop biting my lip. "Um, as lovely as your palace is, Lord Diavolo, I believe that some of these hallways must lead to dangerous places and, well, being as klutzy as I am, I will most likely end up lost for all eternity or eaten by a statue or sucked into a painting despite your best efforts to protect me from myself. That being said, I must politely decline your generous offer." I take another steadying breath. "I realize that there are more men at the House of Lamentation, however, I did see that the room I arrived in has a lock and if I am allowed to make use of it when I feel the need, I think I will feel perfectly fine." I look to Lucifer and he gives me a slight nod with a look I don't quite recognize in his eyes. 

I look back to Diavolo "I don't remember meeting anyone named Simeon?" Confusion evident in my voice.

Diavolo has a sad smile on his face, "It's alright Eudoxia, it's not important. You'll meet him again soon. You'll take the next five days until the beginning of the week to get yourself settled and then you'll begin RAD, that is, the Royal Academy of Diavolo, at the beginning of next week. You'll be tested to see what courses suit you best on your first day, receive your textbooks, and have orientation. We will make sure that one of Lucifer's brothers is in each of your classes so that you have some method of protection at all time. The higher caste demons such as myself, Lucifer, and his brothers have much higher control over their baser urges, but many of the lower caste demons do not and would be more than happy to devour that pure, glowing soul of yours. Either that or see how far they can tempt you into sin, as each demon falls under the purvey of either Lucifer or one of his brothers, but all that can be explained at a later time."

Diavolo looks to Lucifer. "Now, I will have Barbatos deliver Miss Sideras's things to the House of Lamentation, if you would be so kind as to escort her home with you. I believe we've covered all topics that were on our agenda for today." Diavolo looks back to me, "Not only is Lucifer my right hand man, quite literally, but he is also a very dear and old friend of mine. I don't know how I would manage to run things without him."

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Lord Diavolo. Yes, we have covered everything we had scheduled to do today regarding both Miss Sideras and RAD, and any small details can be tabled for a later date. I would be more than pleased to escort Miss Sideras home."

With that, Diavolo and I exchanged our farewells. Lucifer held out his hand, which I politely ignored, and I rose from my chair on my own. Lucifer then took my hand and firmly placed it on his arm and escorted me out of the palace.

Once we were out of the palace gates and down the road a slight bit, Lucifer dragged me into a copse of trees. He released my hand and took me by my shoulders and backed me into a tree where he promptly leaned one arm just above my head and slowly walked into me, his body getting closer and closer to mine until I couldn't move any further back. His lower body held me in place. Firmly in place. I could have sworn his eyes were a mix of red and black earlier, but right now they were flashing sapphire blue.

"You have some nerve, human, to tell me that I will never be in your bed. You mustn't know about my brothers and I. We are the seven lords of the Devildom. We are the living embodiment of what you humans call the seven deadly sins. What you did back in the palace is a direct challenge to who I am at the very core, and I will not let it stand." With this, he presses his pelvis even closer to me, and I can feel exactly who he is at his core, extending what must surely be full length just above my pelvis, resting on my belly. When I look down in shock, he takes this moment to gather both of my hands in one of his and starts to lift me so that he and I are eye to eye, and to my chagrin the rest of our body parts matched up perfectly as well and I have a traitorous body.

"No, I will not let it stand, not when you go prancing around in a ridiculously sheer blouse that is practically begging any man with eyes to tear it off of you. And those ludicrous excuses of trousers? You realize they are practically translucent and had I or Diavolo been any other demon than who we are, you would be in a much different situation than you are now, because I know exactly what you are wearing under those trousers and it is the equivalent of my patience. Then, then! You have the temerity to throw a pithy little 'the three of us will never congregate on a bed' right in my face. Diavolo may be able to stand for that, but he does not have the pride that I do. You will submit to me, and what's more you will be begging me for whatever I will give you."

I jerked my arms hard in an attempt to free myself. It was mostly like trying to move a Mac truck with a feather. He just laughed at my attempt, his eyes flashing that odd blue again, and I felt a surge of an emotion I didn't understand; I felt extremely insulted and infuriated that he would have the gall to speak to me in such a manner; the fact that he seemed to have a problem with anything I had said earlier incensed me. I was enraged and intended to let him know in no uncertain terms.

"Lucifer. I thought that you were a MAN who could actually show some self control, yet here you are throwing a hissy fit over things I had no control over. Whatever you and Diavolo did to my clothes last night rendered them useless and you sent one of your brothers to get me new ones, didn't you. Obviously you weren't terribly brilliant in choosing who, because Asmo got this shit show of an outfit. I don't feel comfortable in this shirt, and if I knew the freaking leggings were translucent, I would have worn the underwear except I prefer a doctor to be giving me a rectal exam, thank you very much" I bring my knees up and brace them on the tree to give him a swift knee to the balls, unfortunately I only managed to get his inner thigh with little to no effect.

"Furthermore, what you're doing to me is a lot like victim shaming, and I've had more than enough of that in my life. I don't need it. And I especially don't need it from somebody I'm going to be living with. You will stop it immediately." I glared at him. "Boo hoo! I said I didn't want to be in bed with you. I don't even know you, why would I spread my legs for the first man in this realm who looks at me favourably? I have PRIDE too, you know. AND IT DOES NOT INVOLVE SALVING THE WOUNDED PRIDE OF SOME GUY WHO THINKS THAT A FEW COMPLEMENTS EARNS HIM A TICKET TO MY BED."

At my outburst, Lucifer leans back from me, raises me higher and simply drops me, probably in hopes that I would get hurt. Little does he know, I don't get hurt that easily; I fall enough all on my own to know how to land from any reasonable height. He has a weird purple aura surrounding him and a look of anger mars his face. My mumma and dad did not raise a stupid child. I think that something demony is about to happen and he's probably going to eat me or rip my throat out. I get to a crouch, crab crawl sideways, stand and then begin running with a speed that I'm sure Usain Bolt would be impressed with. I didn't even trip over anything in the little wooded area, which fleetingly impressed me. I'm not sure which way I should go, but I'm not going back to the palace; Diavolo is Lucifer's bestie and will probably help him eat me if asked- like they said, there are plenty of mes in other realities to replace me with.

I turn and go the other way, and in what seems like seconds I see this creepy looking mansion. It's most likely a haunted house and full of vampires who will also eat me, but at least Lucifer won't get a chance to. I arrive at the front door and start banging on it as hard as I can, looking behind me and seeing someone who looks like Lucifer but with horns... and a double set of wings walking up the road as if he has all the time in the world. He's radiating a dark purple miasma around him. I redouble my effort at pounding on the door and start yelling as loud as I can for someone to help me.

~~*\END/*~~

Then the door opened, and Satan was standing there. I can't believe I didn't recognize the 'mansion'. It's the house of Lamentation! I push past Satan and begin crying in relief. I try my hardest to shut the door, but Satan is holding it open. He is looking at me in part curiosity, and part annoyance. I slide to my knees at his feet, "Please, please, please shut the door! I think he's going to eat me or kill me or hurt me or something. I don't know why I did that! I don't ever talk to people like that! Just, please please please please!" Despite my best efforts, the crying turned to sobbing, pure ugly crying.

As always,

Clarissima sidera lucent ex nihilo