To further his Word, Alaemon is always willing to try new methods of
surveillance to gather secrets from humans as well as his fellow
Princes. He is rather successful in this pursuit; he had invented
cameras as small as a human palm long before they were used on Earth.
But every so often, something goes wrong with his creations.
To this day, he refuses to discuss the failure of sock spies.
You see, the idea behind it was rather creative. Take Forces from a
Demonling or human and bind them into the Vessel of a sock. The result
is a semi intelligent sock that binds itself to the wearer and records
anything that Alaemon wants to know. Then while its Vessel goes through
the dryer, it returns to Hell long enough to report what it has seen
before being sent back to Earth.
The idea was simple and brilliant. But Alaemon didn't count on one
of Litheroy's Servitors uncovering this.
It was a Mercurian of Revelations who discovered the unusual
creation. After all, socks are not supposed to move under their own
power (Even if they haven't been washed in a few days). He seized the
sock before it could escape to Hell and brought it to a local Tether to
Litheroy for examination. The pitiful creature was terrified beyond
belief, and it told everything to the angel.
The Mercurian smiled as an idea took hold. The creature itself
wasn't to blame. It was simply a tool of the Prince of Secrets. It
would not necessarily be right to kill it over that. But he saw no need
to send it back the way it was. He called in a favor from a friend in
Lightning's service and the two set to work.
The sock was released with no memory of its capture and its
nature... changed. Not only could it return to Hell and tell of the
things it had learned, it could now breed with others of its kind as
well as normal socks. They bred true, which meant that the offspring
could also be used as spies and could return to Hell to report any of
their findings.
But without explicit instructions on what to listen for, the socks
simply recorded everything they learned. As a result, Alaemon found one
section of his domain buried in socks within two months. To make things
worse, the damnable creatures reported on every trivial little thing
that they saw. It would be a horrendous task to sort through a mountain
of footwear to gain one piece of useful knowledge.
To this day, being put on laundry duty is a sure sign that a demon
has offended the Prince of Secrets. And humanity dismisses the idea
that socks disappear from the dryer as merely amusing.
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