The Lust Ring's upper district far above the slums but far below the grandeur of Pride glowed with soft pink lantern light. Predatory elegance clung to every tile of polished obsidian. Towers shaped like spires of bone stretched into the velvet sky. This was the domain of the Lesser Goetia minor aristocracy, caretakers, administrators, political parasites who lived by one rule:
Avoid drawing attention from the great houses above.
Tonight, they had failed.
Inside a private hall carved from rose marble, five sigils glowed faintly atop a round table. Each sigil belonged to a lesser Goetia house families old enough to be respected, but weak enough to be terrified.
House Velkyn.
House Marroth.
House Ulcior.
House Seralinn.
House Ferrinos.
Five bloodlines. Five trembling shadows.
Lady Velkyn spoke first. Her feathers were immaculate, but her hands trembled behind her folded sleeves.
"He came into the slums," she hissed. "A Corvus prince. A Corvus. Does no one else understand the gravity?"
Lord Ferrinos banged a fist against the tableloud enough to crack the marble.
"Of course we understand! House Corvus does not wander. House Corvus does not explore. A prince does not step into filth unless he is sent."
The room filled with uneasy murmurs.
Lord Ulcior leaned forward, beak sharp, eyes narrow.
"And what did we do? Nothing."
He spat the word as if it burned his tongue.
"We let him walk freely through our territory. Through our slums. We allowed him to inspect whatever he wished."
Lady Seralinn's voice trembled.
"What if he detected something? What if he saw something he shouldn't? If the Corvus family thinks we are mismanaging"
Lord Marroth snapped,
"They will purge us."
Silence.
Even breathing stopped.
Everyone in the room understood what that meant.
House Corvus belonged to the upper echelon of Goetia, a family with blood stretching back to the earliest rituals of Hell. Pride Ring royalty treated them as allies, not servants.
Lesser Goetia like them?
Dust beneath a boot.
Lady Velkyn glanced around the table.
"I am not concerned with why he came," she whispered.
"I am concerned with who he met."
Lord Ulcior's feathers bristled.
"You think he visited that… district by coincidence?"
"No," she said slowly.
"I think he felt something."
"A shift."
"A disturbance."
Lord Ferrinos murmured, "The Sin Rouge territory…"
A ripple of dread spread around the table.
Lord Marroth snarled,
"That district has changed. Too organized. Too quiet. Too stable. Whoever runs it has altered the flow of Lust Ring energies."
Lady Seralinn trembled.
"And if the prince sensed that"
Lord Ulcior finished:
"he will report it."
Panic sharpened.
Only Lady Velkyn maintained enough composure to speak clearly.
"We have already notified the Seven District Lords."
"We pressured them to send the letter."
Lord Ferrinos hissed,
"It wasn't enough."
"Of course it wasn't!" Marroth shot back. "If he returns and he will the Lords cannot protect us from House Corvus's scrutiny."
Seralinn swallowed.
"So what do you propose?"
Silence fell.
No one wished to say it.
Until Velkyn raised a single feathered finger.
"We remove the anomaly."
A cold wind seemed to pass through the room.
Lord Ferrinos narrowed his eyes.
"You mean… the group he visited."
Lady Velkyn nodded.
"The district. The bar. The man he spoke to."
"Malerion," Lord Ulcior whispered the name like a curse.
Lady Seralinn shook her head.
"But he is just a demon. A nobody."
"No normal demon can attracts a Goetia prince," Velkyn snapped.
"He has done something. Built something. Changed something. Whatever it is if it draws attention, it must vanish."
The table erupted into whispers, fear, and frantic muttering.
Until Lord Ferrinos slammed his fist down again.
"If House Corvus thinks we are hiding threats…"
"We will be erased."
The room fell still.
In the silence, Lady Velkyn whispered the truth they all feared:
"We must strike before the prince returns."
Everyone nodded slowly, reluctantly, desperately.
Not out of hatred.
Not out of cruelty.
Out of survival.
The minor Goetia houses were cornered animals small predators terrified of a larger one.
And one by one, they agreed:
"Sin Rouge cannot be allowed to grow."
"Malerion must be silenced."
"Before the Corvus line looks our way again."
When the meeting ended, the shadows around the hall stretched longer.
Because for the first time in decades…
The lesser Goetia of the Lust Ring had found a common enemy.
And they were willing to kill for their fear.