.. Do you..." She trailed off, looking helpless."Do you want me to open it for you?"She looked startled. "Would you?"I nodded. "I would, though I don'... need to, honestly. Want me to tell you what it says?"She thought about it for a minute. "Yes. Please." It says that he still loves you, and that he wants a chance to explain. There were circumstances you aren't aware of, things that happened before you met, that drove his behaviour; and rather than explain it, he tried to protect you from. My bloodno doubt. There had been times when he would strike me with force enough todraw my blood, but it was in those moments when I felt we had our most intimateconnection - something primal, beyond words. I waited for the burning fire of pain to illuminate my body. I already beganto crave the exacting delicacy of his work. If I took my punishment well, myMaster would be pleased. He would reward my behavior. But no scourge fell,no exquisite pain coursed across my skin. "On your feet," he said,. Maybe it was somehow due to the inexplicable tie everything seemed to have with those humans, but things definitely were changing in Hell. Their powers were in flux, to say the least, even as their dominion over all that is "unholy" grew.Not that there was much distinction nowadays. Sure, Heaven was a bit more stuck up. More prudish, even, but there's only so much you can do for an eternity. Lucifer had learned that firsthand, but by now all his power fantasies had faded. Well, at the very. It soon spread to all the world in a full and true world war. I guess luckily, standard nuclear bombs had been eliminated many years before. The new bombs were neutron bombs that killed people but did not destroy property or technology or cause a kind of radiation that lingered and caused harm to those who were not killed. In the three years of the war about 80% of all the men and about 55% of all the women, worldwide, were killed. Finally people came to their senses before all humankind.