Part 1. Gavent Stranger.
The first thing Forlie discovered was opening the doors in the morning to the high priest Gavent, who was knocking his fist against the wall. She trembled humbly under the pressure of the warrior of light. The clergyman smelled heavily of alcohol.
- To what do we owe this? - asked the magician without any interest.
This innocent question, it seems, has broken some internal balance: Gavent Michigan and fell to the ground, as if someone turned off the power.
From a minute on Forlie was standing there thinking about what to do. He knew exactly what to do, but wasn't sure if he wanted to do it. Finally, after giving the high priest a sizzling look, he dragged him inside and sat him down on the "truth chair". It looked like an ordinary stool: slightly skewed, curtly painted, in short, unsightly. But it was impossible to get up from it without telling the truth out loud. Usually it was used by Steve, who confessed to such shocking facts of his biography as: "I'm human", "I woke up in the morning" or "I have a brother". The magic of the stool, alas, did not distinguish between the scale of recognition.
After making sure that the God's Chargé d'affairs temporarily wouldn't fall, Forlie sat down at the cashier's desk and waited. The buyers had been frankly tight lately. The autumn and the soonest winter were affecting the heels - people preferred to buy a pair of fur gloves rather than a cockroach whistle or a lucky fishing hook.
Steve and Sofia have been openly shirking their work lately. Not so long ago they had fun, which they almost daily turned. It all began with a letter from his father, in which he advised to make succubus documents and not to glow at all. It was connected with the fact that, as it turned out from the words of Sarrug himself, they were ready to give crazy money for a living demon in the Crossroads. And if there was a rumor that there was such a thing, there would be a huge number of people willing to earn money.
In response, Steve buckled and took his wife to City Hall early in the morning to register. They returned in three hours. Happy spouse couldn't connect two words and laughed all the time. Soliphileset did not explain anything. With a mysterious smile, she invited Forlie to go with them.
He joined their delegation the next day. At first, everything was as usual: they sat in line, waited for lunch, sat in line again, and finally got to the tortured clerk. It all started innocently:
- Will you only tell the truth, the truth and nothing but the truth? - A business-like question was asked by the employee.
This question was the beginning of the theater of absurdity. Sofia answered all the questions asked with utmost honesty:
- Your full name and surname?
- Soliphileset Goft.
- Maiden name?
Succubus thought, she answered with a little uncertainty:
- No, but usually my name was either Soliphileset of the Hand of Darkness, or Soliphileset of the Death of the Living One...
Steve was quietly choking with laughter, red as cancer. The exhausted clerk, gradually realizing that he was being bullied, wrote everything down diligently in his countless papers, and continued to ask questions:
- What do you do for a living?
- A demon," the Succubus shrugged her shoulders innocently. - Recently I have been specializing in human passions, lust and debauchery. I can give a business card.
- How long have you been working?
- Several thousand years.
Finally, the clerk threw them out, sending them on a journey through the endless bureaucratic chain. And Steve and Sophia were happy to go to another office the next day, where the scene was repeated. They even started to be recognized as "their" local grandmothers.
And now the spouses have returned in a hurry, telling each other the memorable moments.
- Imagine, I was asked the name of the organization where I work! - I boasted of a Succubus magician.
- And what did you say? - Slowly asked Forlie. His jokes were pretty tiring.
- Satan's Limited Liability Company, the customer service department," Steve laughed.
Without warning, a weighty book fell on him.
- Hey, that hurt! - Steve exclaimed, rubbing his bruise.
- It wasn't me! - began to justify himself to Forlie.
Somewhere on top of it there was a noise - someone was smashing furniture. The three of them rushed upstairs. There was noise in Steve's office. More precisely, what was left of him. Most of the room was occupied by a huge translucent Sarrug's head. Despite the transparency, there was little left of the office. Hearing them, the head turned abruptly and miraculously flattened the table that had survived until then.
- Ah, there you are! - He said joyfully, almost dropping their noses.