My Dear Nyct,
It has come to my attention, through various unmentionable sources, that you’ve begun to question my great power and authority in the Enemy’s shabby world. Really? How could you be so stupid?
I mean, haven’t you been working in that country that likes me more than the Enemy ever since I told you to suggest that your patient should disobey that varmint who gave birth to him? Well, look at how that suggestion turned out? Your patient got sold off as a slave, didn’t He? Of course, he did. That alone should be proof of my great effectiveness. Without me, you’d probably be languishing in the Enemy’s chosen country while your patient learned more and more about Him. That would be awful, wouldn’t it? Of course, it would.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I completely understand that you were a young, rash, and, of course, really stupid little cretin when you were sent off into the field just after your graduation from Temptation University, but how could you ever question my greatness? Who signed your diploma? Who gave you an assignment in the field instead of sending you straight to my dinner table? Who fed you all those awesome suggestions so that I could eventually eat your patient instead of you?
I mean really, how could you doubt that I’m as powerful as I say I am? Don’t you know that I hold your measly existence in my talons? Just because your patient has recently joined the Enemy’s ranks, it doesn’t mean that I’m not in control of the situation. It just means that you’re completely worthless.
Now let me reiterate, until recently, I thought you were doing a fair job of enacting the suggestions that I gave you to use on your patient. You did, after all, keep the Enemy’s identity to a foggy minimum in his mind, even though He showed up quite regularly on this journey that your patient, unfortunately, took.
I’m telling you, I couldn’t help but worry about how you would handle His continual presence in the background of your patient’s story. You’re such a bumbling idiot that I was sure you’d mess up. The only thing that kept fireballs from exploding from my mouth was that I know you’re a smart little demon so I figured that you’d be able to think on the run.
Oh well, I guess I was right. You’re a stupid idiot.
I mean really, can you imagine how things shook down here when I exploded with rage after the Enemy revealed Himself to your patient and spoke to him in the fur? Can you imagine it? Can you?
Well anyway, back to what I was saying. I’m going to pause right here and take credit where credit is due. My suggestion that you give the Enemy a nice grandiose, but really very vague, reputation in your patient’s mind was an excellent one, wasn’t it? No one but me could have dreamed up such a suggestion to keep a varmint blind to Enemy’s presence and motives. It’s just unfortunate that you had to ruin all my hard work by not administering my suggestions correctly.
Didn’t you know that vermin always find what they truly seek? If you had suggested that your patient worry more about whether rolling in the grass was acceptable in the Enemy’s chosen country or his silly idea about himself being the fastest, bravest, smartest thing around, then he wouldn’t have mentioned the Enemy as much as he did and, with any luck, He would not have shown Himself to your patient.
Oh, if only your patient still had his previously foggy notion about who the Enemy is and how He behaves. Vermin who don’t understand who the Enemy is and how He works tend to attach their own expectations and desires to Him and then, when He doesn’t perform, it’s pretty easy to encourage them to think that He doesn’t care about them.
Then, of course, you can follow up that suggestion with another one: that is that they shouldn’t waste their valuable time in the camp of such an uncaring Leader.
I mean really, I can’t tell you how satisfying my work is when a varmint stops following Him because He didn’t do just exactly what they want, when they want, and how they want. Always remember, it’s very easy to get them to forget that He knows far more than they do and that He is untame.
I’m telling you, it’s not me who has lost influence over your patient. It’s you. You wasted all my well-timed and awesome suggestions and now, unfortunately, the Enemy has revealed Himself to your patient and his crude travelling companions. That’s the real problem here. It’s not me. It’s you. It’s your worthless colleagues. It’s the Enemy.
I mean really, it’s always and forever, the Enemy. I have the hardest time whenever He intervenes.
Oh my me, I would prefer to return to the days when, not so long ago, your patient,was delightfully talking about the Enemy in great high-minded terms but really had no idea about who He says He is, what He has done against me, and what He claims will happen in the future.
You know, I always enjoyed hearing your patient talk about himself and his idea that he was destined for greatness because of how he looked and what he had achieved in comparison to those dumb equines that live in that country that likes me and hates the Enemy. I mean really, I always enjoy it when vermin compare apples and oranges, so to speak, which is what your patient does when he compares himself with the dumb equines.
Now, how do you suppose I’m going to show off how awesome I am when you keep making mistakes that throw all my hard work out the window? Don’t you get it? This is all your fault.
Why, I’m beginning to suspect that you have a foggy memory of all the lessons that you learned at Temptation University. I think that you’ve fallen into the same trap that you’ve so effectively ensnared you’re patient with. Now, don’t get me wrong, your patient’s vague impression of the Enemy is a very pleasing thing to me, but I expect you to have a clear-eyed lucid knowledge of both me—your employer—and the Enemy.
After all, how will you help me defeat Him if you don’t know Him?
But, I digress. Let me get back to your very inadequate recent performance. What with all the great demons who work in the land that likes me more than the Enemy, how could you be so stupid as to be travelling with three of my biggest imbeciles?
Why weren’t you more careful with your patient’s thoughts when he was weighing the pros and cons of revealing his true identity to your colleague, Schizo’s patient? How is it that he came to believe that any risks he might take—and believe you me, there were tremendous risks for him—was worth the reward that he thought awaited him in the Enemy’s chosen country?
How is it that you were unable to convince him to be more afraid of the repercussions of failure than the rewards of success? Did I not tell you to suggest that Schizo’s patient might reveal your patient’s true identity to that marvelous Male who owned your patient until he ran away? With any luck, that suggestion would have kept your patient from speaking up. Undoubtedly, my table would have something on it if that great Male still owned your patient.
And what about Schizo’s patient not being skilled in the art of riding equines? Surely a smart little idiot like you can see what sort of liability your patient would run if he was seen with a little whelp of Schizo’s patient’s caliber—or at least the caliber that he thought he had before your colleague ruined his own assignment. Anyway,why didn’t you suggest that your patient’s plans would be ruined if someone found him with that little brat?
And what about when your patient heard, your colleague, Orp’s patient talk? Wouldn’t it have been simple for you to suggest that he was hearing things? Wasn’t he running in terror and out of breath? Of course, he was. So how could he have been lucid enough to hear correctly? I mean really, these simple suggestions could have prevented your patient from hooking up with those loathsome vermin that he traveled with and then he wouldn’t have met those awful vermin from the southern country that the Enemy loves or those terrible vermin who came from another world and now rule His chosen country.
Of course, the fact that your patient, until recently, ran from the Enemy every time He was around might be slightly amusing if He hadn’t been so bent on pursuing a relationship with your varmint and those vermin that he was traveling with.
Oh my me, it’s His pursuit of the vermin that is the most terrible thing. Now that they know about His claims to love them and that He claims to have plans for them, your job will be that much harder and my table will likely be that much more bare.
But let me get back to those vermin who your patient met along his journey. They are part of the problem that I have with your shoddy recent performance. Don’t you know that snobby punks like your patient are more likely to change their ways if other vermin call them out? I saw that happen several times while your patient travelled back to the Enemy’s chosen country and now that he has completed his journey this calling out business will, unfortunately, happen again and again because he will live among other vermin from the Enemy’s camp.
This sort of peer pressure is very harmful for my side, so you’re really going to have to stay on your talons. Don’t you remember the disadvantages that come to my side when a varmint is coerced by vermin in the Enemy’s camp? Oh yes, that’s right, you skipped class the day your Human Relations professor went over that lesson.
Oh my me, if only the vermin in the Enemy’s camp would just learn to live and let live? That would be so much better for me.
I’m telling you, if this doesn’t reek of the Enemy’s doing, then I’m completely blind. After all, hasn’t He showed up multiple times during this terrible little episode?
So, let me ask you, what shall I do with you? By all rights, I should haul you out of the field and prepare you as tonight’s main course, but I’m a forgiving Devil so that’s not the way that I’ll handle this unfortunate circumstance. After all, a smart little cretin like you should be able to clean this mess up.
I mean, be reassured, your patient only just met the Enemy so he may still be easily persuaded to follow my wider slippery slope.
Here are some suggestions that I want you to whisper in his ear.
First, I would like it if your patient were to get paranoid about how the other Talking Equines in the Enemy’s chosen country feel about him. Whisper in his ear that they don’t actually roll around on their backs and only allow him to do so because they pity him or because they think that he is not very intelligent because he lived among dumb equines for so long.
I’m telling you, that suggestion will drive your self-righteous arrogant patient nuts. I’m just positive that he would hate the idea that the other vermin are only tolerating his uncouth behavior or simply flattering him because they pity him for one reason or another.
And, of course, while it is still possible, before your patient’s tail grows thick again, you must use his rough unsavory appearance to suggest that his new found relations think he must have been used in a less fashionable way than being a war Equine. Wouldn’t it be funny if he thought that they thought he’d been used as a plow Equine?
With any luck, these suggestions will keep your patient preoccupied and bitter and he’ll forget all about the Enemy’s quotes about not worrying.
Unfortunately though, any Talking vermin in the Enemy’s chosen country will likely be just as shocked that your patient was enslaved as a war Equine as to think that he was forced to do any other type of labor in that country that likes me more than the Enemy. Unfortunately, they have, since the very first day of this terrible world, lived under the Enemy’s covenant which proclaims that they are free.
This is a very serious problem for you because all those varmints will, undoubtedly, be very keen to tell your patient that he is an heir to that same covenant and thus he may partake in it’s blessings even when things seem to be going better for my side.
That being said, you must be very careful to watch out for this and, when it occurs, have a suggestion ready. The suggestion that I think would be most effective for you to use would be that your patient’s previous attitudes and lifestyle preclude him from sharing in this long standing covenant.
I mean really, why in the world would the Enemy include your disobedient arrogant patient in his ranks? Why should He? Didn’t your patient choose to leave in the first place? Oh course, he did. So you, in turn, must be very diligent and persistent to make sure that your patient keeps his mind on things that hinder his maturation in the Enemy’s camp.
It’s just unfortunate that that’s what the Enemy is in the business of doing: saving worthless vermin from me. Need I remind you of that hideous thing that happened not all that long ago? I really hope that I don’t need to remind you about what the Enemy did to save His awful world from my side.
I mean really, I’m just so sick of reminding my inept employees about what He did, why He did it, and the implications of His actions forever after. Seriously, you should have learned about what He did while you were a student at Temptation University.
Didn’t you get the emergency memo that I sent out during your senior year? Didn’t you get it? Oh yes, I remember, you tossed your memo into the fire and brimstone in the lobby of your dormitory because you thought you were such hot stuff that you didn’t need any advice anymore.
Now, that’s the type of conceited pride that I can really appreciate in my graduates, but haven’t I proven you wrong? See there, I have all the smarts and power down here.
And since I see that you are still too arrogant and stupid to take my advice, why should I waste my time writing to you now? I mean really, I’m sure that you’re just going to toss this letter out like the last one. I’m telling you, woe is me who has such terrible employees that don’t give me all the credit I deserve. I’m sure that, once I’m sitting on the Enemy’s throne, I’ll have everything I want.
But, of course, since I’m such a kind and forgiving Devil—and also on the off chance that you’ve come around to recognizing my overwhelming power and authority—I just want you to know that I have your back.
I’m sure that your assignment will be much harder for you now that your patient has seen the Enemy in the fur so don’t be the moron that I know you are and write to me if you have any questions. I’m still full of awe-inspiring advice, especially for stupid little goons like you.
The Splendid, Merciless, Murderous, One and Only,
Tash
(all honor and glory to me)
Author’s Note: Nyct is named Nyctaeus, a mythological horse who draws Hades chariot. In the story,” The Rape of Proserpine” he is described as the proud glory of Hell’s steeds. I thought it fit a bad manifestation of Bree perfectly.
Also, Nyctaeus’ teammate, Aethon, is who I named Fledge’s demon for. I did this to show the connection between Bree and Fledge.
Bible verses: Matt. 7:7-8: Job: 3:1-26, 6:1-4, 38:1-41:34; Isa. 55:8-11; 1 Cor. 2:9; John 1:1-4,14; Phil. 2:6-11; Col. 2:9-15; Isa. 53:4:12; John 3:14-18; Matt. 28:18-20; John 14:2-3, 16-18; Rom. 8:31-39, 12:3-8; 1 Cor. 4:7; Phil. 2:3-5; 1 John 4:10-11, 19; Jere. 29: 11; Eph: 2:4-10; Prov. 13:20, 27:6; Ecc. 4:9-12; Matt. 7:13-14, 13:7, 22; Mark 4:7,18-19; Luke 8:7,14; Matt: 6:25-34; Phil. 4:6-7; Acts 3:25; Rom. 5:1-5, 8:12-17; Gal. 4:22-23, 28, 31-5:1; Eph. 2:12-13; James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 3:14; Luke 15:11-32; Heb.12:1-3: Rom. 5:8-11