Dytja and the Demons

Dytja and the Demons

                Fearlessly she strode into the deepest darkest depths, far below the surface. She had come to slay the creatures lurking there – strange ‘demons’ that traded small favours for the souls of the humans who lived above. The souls they gained they used to increase their powers – their reach above; and their dominance below.

                They had often though of making the journey to the surface, but it was incredibly far. Several hundred kilometres of unstable caves, dead ends, noxious gases and mindless horrors (though these were relatives of the demons themselves, and only found near their homes). Without a source of food, with so much danger and inhospitable terrain, who could make the journey?

                Dytja could, and did. Far above, the deals the demons were making were tearing the lands apart; countries locked in a decades-long war, forever making more and more deals, dooming more and more to eternal slavery… Dytja had studied the demons and their nature for several months before beginning her journey. None had asked her to, but she had understood the chaos, and its cause. And she would end it

                At first, the demons could not believe it – a human (at least in appearance) had entered their lands! Not only that, she was killing them by the dozen – demons with a thousand mouthed hands and impossibly sharp teeth, tentacled monstrosities with acid breath and even those almost human in appearance, who wielded dread and strange magics from ten thousand enslaved souls.

                She hacked off their limbs, broke their teeth, weathered their breath and shook off their most terrible spells. Her skill at arms and abilities beyond any human the demons knew of took them by surprise; and even when they no longer underestimated her they were no match. Their strongest champions – demons who revelled in combat against their own kind, instead of sending dark dreams of deals – took her on all at once. They wounded her terribly, but she defeated them all.

                They thought she would stop, or pause, after such a battle. But she fought on regardless, and was soon completely healed. They collapsed tunnels on her; they left her without air to breath; they filled her path with acid, or lava. Nothing stopped her. In the end, they surrendered, and offered her anything.

                They were lucky, for she accepted their surrender. She laid down laws – never to be broken, else she would return. No demon was to make more than one deal a year. No demon was to trick a human into handing over their soul. Should the nations above break into war again – and, until the current war ended – no demon was to make any deals. No soul was to be bound forever (including those already bound); each deal must have only a certain number of years of servitude, and it must not be excessive.

                When questioned about what ‘excessive’ was, Dytja wrote a tome, that she required all demons to know by heart. Each possible gift the demons could then bestow was listed, and for new gifts a fair cost was to be devised according to the advantage the gift gave – and with the input of humans above. And if it was ‘excessive’ despite these, Dytja would return to set it right.

                After returning to the surface, Dytja continued her wandering. As for the warring nations, with so many demons dead, many of the ‘gifts’ their armies possessed had failed. Unable to forge new deals, the war stopped escalating and ended three years later. Dytja had stopped the war – and none but the demons knew.