Greetings, Asylum Seekers.
I am fascinated with this thing you call social media. I recently viewed an adorable Insta Story about a little girl named Emily that can recite all of the states and capitals in the United States without taking a breath. Seriously, the performance was worthy of America’s Got Talent (another one of my guilty pleasures).
Funny thing about Instagram... Story goes that it was conceived in The Pit and that the Malifecium supplanted the idea in the mind of a mortal, though I can’t confirm this story’s legitimacy because those dark celestials take credit for anything popular in your world.
Regardless, let’s examine the wonderful explosion of shared information and how young Emily brought joy to hundreds of thousands reciting all of the states and capitals in under 60 seconds. So many souls connected by a little girl’s limited human talent. So many smiles spread around the world. How is this not a victory for The Light?
While the Authority celebrates your expansive mortal connection through social media, The Malifecium recognizes such platforms as Instagram, Facebook, Snap, and Twitter as an ego-feeding dumpster of mortal dependence – a victory for The Pit. Human ego and greed are powerful forces, and the demon horde has always had an influence over you mortals. It’s too enticing, the glamour of power and wealth that those cretins from The Pit so readily offer.
Which brings me to today’s cautionary tale…
The Deal of Coyopa and Ferize
You are not the first mortals to enter the Asylum. There has been one other, about 480 mortal years ago.
His name is Coyopa. The difference between you and Coyopa is that you were granted permission to enter.
Let me elaborate…
Chocolate was first introduced to Europe after Spain brutally conquered the Mayans in your Latin America. Chocolate brought a delightful new treat to the Spanish courts, but it was the result of a greed-fueled slaughter and the theft of a weaker culture’s identity.
Leaves a bittersweet taste in your mouth, doesn’t it? Your kind, I still have faith, will one day learn from your mistakes.
Bearing that in mind, in mortal year 1539 the Spanish laid siege to the city of Uspantan (located in what you now call Guatemala). The Malifecium, at this time, had a particular interest in the slaughter and suffering that went along with the Spanish conquest of the Maya.
In hate, they saw opportunity.
This resulted in a number of lesser demons, itching to soak their hands in blood, negotiate their way out of The Pit and take possession of a group of Spanish soldiers to feel the thrill of battle.
To KILL.
Here is the issue with possession (a larger discussion we’ll have at a later time): When a demon steals a human’s physical form, it is not as powerful and must succumb to a mortal’s physical limitations. That said, heightened strength and improved physical fortitude in the host are common. It’s a demon in the shell of a human, after all.
That brings me to Ferize. This particular demon was once a fledgling prosecutor here in the Asylum and is now a name cursed on the lips of the Malifecium -- and the Authority. Looking to have some fun on Earth, like so many Malifecium were doing at the time, Ferize entered a Spanish soldier’s body just outside the city of Uspantan and went to battle.
At the same time, a young Mayan warrior named Coyopa received orders to defend his home city of Uspantan. He had helped dig the pits and set the spikes that would impale so many Conquistadors in the first wave of attack. All of the dozens of Spanish soldiers in that first wave had dropped to their painful deaths. All but the soldier inhabited by Ferize, who was impaled with a spike through his gut and one through his thigh, but alive nonetheless.
Tasked with collecting armaments off the dead Spaniards, the warrior Coyopa climbed down into that hole and found the demon Ferize staring at him with inky black eyes. The immobile demon demanded the young Mayan warrior finish the job – kill the host body so Ferize could return to the Asylum.
But Coyopa knew Ferize was a demon and took advantage of an opportunity. He demanded Ferize grant him power from beyond. Ferize refused, as any demon would, but quickly reconsidered after weighing his options – he could either make a deal with this overzealous mortal or remain trapped in the rotting host body of a Spanish soldier stuck on a wooden spike.
Demons are master manipulators, and Ferize knew he had an opportunity to royally screw over the young Mayan. He was also desperate. So he offered Coyopa entrance to the Asylum with the promise that Coyopa would find the celestial power he desired.
No such luck.
A pact was made, and Coyopa beheaded Ferize’s host, freeing the demon. Coyopa found himself in the same rotunda you, my Seekers, are standing, Ferize’s clawed hands wrapped around the young warrior’s throat. Ferize claimed the Mayan’s mortal’s soul for the Malifecium, insisting that a pact with a demon is absolute grounds for sentencing to The Pit.
Because Coyopa was of physical form – a flesh-and-bone living mortal in the Asylum – we were left with a conundrum: We could not send him back to the mortal plane after what he had seen. And he hadn’t completed his destiny on Earth, so we could not properly weigh his soul.
After an endless debate between the Authority and the Malifecium, the Light demanded that Coyopa’s mind be erased of all he’d seen (yes, we can do that) and sent back to Earth, but the Malifecium held to their stance that the foolish Mayan belonged to The Pit. As word spread that there was the potential for this human to be sent back to the mortal plane, a riot of souls within the Asylum, desperate to possess Coyopa’s body and escape, forced us to spend resources on security and infrastructure.
Soon after, the High-Horde ordered a walkout of all Malifecium from the Asylum, which backlogged millions of unfiltered souls for close to a century. And then a rogue Seraphim used the voice of our mother, the Source, to wipe out the beloved Lakes of Lava region of The Pit, which threatened all out war and almost threw us into complete Armageddon. All because of a foolish deal between a curious mortal and a subpar Malifecium paper-pusher.
To this day, Coyopa sits in an unconstructed cell here in the Asylum. White walls, shadowed floors and ceilings. Unattended, he is as confused as he was when he entered through the Asylum dwarf star door. He is the only mortal prisoner of our facility.
Tragic? Yes. Avoidable? For certain. Does it make you want to find joy in little Emily’s Insta Story again? Most definitely.
Next time, we’ll discuss something brighter, if not as exciting: My birth and upbringing as a warrior for the Authority.
‘Til then, Seekers, don’t make any deals with demons.
- MAGGIE