Rudolph Yerbler slowly nudged the girl Charlie towards discovering her witchy powers. She merely thought of herself as a psychic but he knew better and found a good opportunity to place his own tome on her path.
The Cults of the Forbidden Gods was a treatise he had penned a few centuries ago but even then, before he uncovered his full potential, the yellow haired demon invested great amounts of magical energy in it. And because of his elegant spell work, the tome was not only preserved, but started changing with each century, molding itself to the particular tastes of each time period.
Now as he pored over Charlie's shoulder, utterly invisible to her, carefully protected against her scrying devices and the possibility of her acquiring a familiar further along, he saw that his book changed one more time.
If he did not intend on remaining utterly hidden he would have allowed himself a small laugh. The tome of his making opened onto a face he well knew, but did not belong there originally. His Salome may have been many things, a clever woman, a strong witch but never a goddess.
As far as Rudolph remembered, both her and her mentor and protector Messalina, made a simple bargain that was honored and turned them into demons. In return, they gained protection from those insatiable mortal men who had accosted them.
But, magic, being an evolving entity, that shaped itself along with perception and Hellish trends, now turned Salome into the goddess of hidden treasures, the guide through the arcane terrains, the light within the unfathomable utter dark.
It was probably not true, but it was in his book, and so, through popular imagination, could possibly become part of the known realities, as more and more human witches began reading the volume and using its occult wisdom.
And yet, and yet, he could not ignore the sign so clearly dropped on his own path. His dream girl, written into his own tome that started him onto his own journey, he had to obey the implied meaning of it all.
With Judas running around, Lilith seemingly kidnapped, and Father Lucifer glaringly absent from his throne of Fire, it was too late to wonder, have seconds thoughts, or dare waiting for a better time that may never come now.
Yerbler abandoned Charlie, all of his other mortal charges as well, and plunged down onto the lower region of Hell. He decided to arrive in style, commanding one of the smaller winged demons to create some fireworks in the Hellish skies that spelled out the few simple words. "Salome, will you accompany me on a night out of Hell?" Rudolph noticed with some surprise that for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, his heart began furiously pounding once again, which let him know, his dire attempt was well worth any risk.
"Thank you, boss, I finally get it," Rudolph wrote out a note for Crowley's benefit, with the warmest smile, he did not even remember from his mortal existence. Sending a smallish, but remarkably fast imp, to carry out his message. That was another thing about him, he knew. He was getting increasingly more confident. No more just some shy good for nothing demon, he now began to appreciate what he could do, and the lesser demons seemed to have sensed the change in him as well. He would make both Crowley and Salome proud yet, Rudolph happily decided.
Ishamael Moridin