[Sarah]

It had been months since Annabelle had pulled her forces from the slums. Her forces had not been spread thin, but there was a shift in power and Annabelle would be ready for it. She did not yet know where the power was going or where it had come from, but she would not let Hell be caught unawares. It would be just their luck that this new surge of power would be lent to her foes.

[Sarah]

Hell was not impenetrable, at least her Hell was not. There were doorways throughout Evelon that led into Hell. Most were not her creation, and instead a souvenir left behind by the old powers. If she had been able to run Hell from the beginning – be alive for as long as Hell had been – the place would look much different.

[Sarah]

As Hell stood now, it was a wasteland. Her population was rising yet most of the Demons lived far apart from each other. She knew they could coexist, but they purposefully chose not to settle together. In part this was because Hell had no living species beyond the Demons that inhabited it. There was no reason for the Demons to settle together for they did not need the protection or steady food supply.

[Sarah]

Their sustenance was an intrinsic part of Hell or acquired some other way on the other planes. No natural predators of topographical challenges forced her Demons to work together in Hell. In the outer worlds? All of her Demons lived in close quarters in the outer worlds and fared just fine. She had taken a splintered and volatile species and honed it to a loyal and disciplined people.

[Sarah]

Annabelle had recalled her Demons from the Slums and those that had been stationed back in Hell were living separate from each other as if they hadn’t spent years together. It was like the life debts they owed meant nothing, nor did the bonds they must have forged. Annabelle almost wondered if they had not forged bonds at all.

[Sarah]

The slums still contained spies and fronts. Annabelle would never fully pull her forces from anywhere. They reported the vacuum left by the relative order her Demons brought had filled quickly. Many small names had become big ones. The order, however twisted, had not stuck around for long. Despite the power that had replaced her, the slums were in chaos. Cruelty and misfortune and poverty struck the slums harder than ever before.

[Sarah]

Annabelle was content to let the slums fester and die. The territory had been good to her, but her loyalty was fleeting if it existed at all. She held no love for the place, and if she put her forces back it would not be for the good of Evelon.

Her general had found himself a good home in Hell with his wife. Her working forces had been stationed to other cities. Any Demon of high standing had been brought back to Hell. Her administration was hand picked and cohesive. Annabelle was not going to send in high ranks anywhere she’d already established.

[Sarah]

She noted that the reports spoke lowly of the powers that had replaced her. They were powerful sure, but they would not be difficult to root out should she ever want to retake the slums. A few piqued her interest in the means they used to gain their power. She found most of them earned their place with excessive use of funds and dark forbidden magics. Boring. But some were working their way up from the ground, uniting the people with trust and loyalty. When the powers settled finally, she would be interested to note who had won and who had lost.