Ivy returned to her little apartment and brought her summoning supplies out of a drawer. Mats with blasphemous symbols painted on them, black robes and a golden snake pendant, and a black candle for her blood offering. It wasn't her magical specialty by any means, so it took her quite a while, but she managed to get the candle lit with Hellfire. Melting the pendant in the flames, she called out, "Dominus invidiae! Magna colubrum! Est sicut vermis qui te quaerit vestra praesentia! Leviathan dominus glacie freta devorantem exercituum corruptor aether veni foras! Ego te rogamus!" A quick slash of her palm, and a few drops of oily, corrupted blood fell into the fire- just enough for the summoning. Ivy could feel a massive presence everywhere and nowhere, an entity that could only be described as... [i]wrong.[/i]

"Hello little morsel- I mean mortal."

Ivy rolled her eyes at the comment. "Dad, that wasn't funny years ago, and it's not funny now. You need some new material."

"That will [i]never[/i] stop being funny," Invidiel responded. "But I take it you did not ask me up from the pit to critique my sense of humor. What would you ask of me?"

"It's about Lyra. She was delving today, and came across some sort of spirit. She doesn't know what it was, only that it was vast and unfathomable. From her description, it sounds like it was on a par with you, at least. I need to know- are the other Lords stirring, or could it be something else? Something that makes even the Seven quake in fear?"

"Ah, Ivy, I'd love to tell you, but I'm still figuring things out myself. Hell is more active than I've seen in centuries, true, but I don't have the details yet. When I do, I'll let you know."

That in itself was disturbing news for Ivy. Invidiel was known to have the best spies among the Lords of Hell. If [i]he[/i] didn't know what was happening, then nobody did. She waved a hand and cut the connection to the Inferno, shivering as she did. [i]It's only the autumn chill,[/i] she lied to herself.