Dear CJ:
Good points all of them. Yes, the thrones are a weakness. You need a truck to transport them somehow, maybe in the back of a van, but then it should be a large one. It could have been folding chairs, but then part of the solemnity would have been lost. This is not a cub-scout meeting.
You're right about The Brotherhood. Their intentions are not good and the people belonging to the group are held together more by fear than by camaraderie. Somehow, the low level chaps (the higher the number the lower the level) are constantly being fooled by the high level leaders who have their own agenda. While the Brotherhood is actually after the demons, the reason why they want to seize them is not to free humanity from evil but in order to channel the demons' power for their own purposes. Ultimately, The Brotherhood wants to rule the world, etc., etc., etc., the usual.
Imagine The Brotherhood as an organisation with ramifications all agents all around the world. Currently, their headquarters are in America but in the past they were in Europe and before than in Ancient Egypt. While at first The Brotherhood was loyal to their objectives, given enough time they had degenerated and now it's difficult to tell The Brotherhood leaders from the demons they chase.
Patrick's dad motivations are not explained and it's not my intention to study them because he's not a main character. Let's say he is one those who believe The Brotherhood is good natured and their intentions are legitimate. He introduced Patrick to the group because he truly believes in it.
The Brotherhood minions are indeed expandable, as will be shown afterwards. Buchanan, in particular, has his own agenda, and it's like Frank Herbert indicated in Dune: plans within the plans.
Helga & Athens... From the comments poured by the reviewers I gather it's evident Helga is "possessing" Athens. In the revision I'm doing now I'm trying to clarify that. More than a typical possession, Helga is trapped in Athens's body and cannot leave it, at least for the time being. According to the explanations given in the story, if a demon gets trapped in human body the way Helga just got trapped, he cannot leave the said body. In itself this is a risk because, as it is also explained, if the demon remains in trapped in a human after the person owner of the body dies, the demons remains in the dead body. Given enough time, the body would decompose and the demon would end-up scattered and unable to be one single entity again. For practical purposes, the demon would have died.
The above is different from the typical possession where the demon can enter and leave a human body at will. I will make sure this last statement is properly explained. Kindly notice that, while I borrowed some ideas from the demonology cannon, I'm also creating my own. Rhiannon pointed at a coupla facts not in line with the cannon. It's on purpose and not because of my lack of knowledge (my demonology on demonology is certainly little), and I do not pretend to be in line with other stories. Think of Twilight vampires who can walk on daylight without evaporation, or whatever vampires do under direct sunlight. According to the regular cannon, vampires cannot stand sunlight, not even if the day is cloudy, that's not enough. They can only be outside at night. In the same way, I walked away from the demonology cannon according to my story requirements.
Helga is not a demon. It is mentioned that demons are all male, even though Rhiannon was so kind to point angels, and thus demos who derailed angels, are neither boys nor girls. Once again I walk away from the cannon, and maybe from what Christianity believes, for the sake of my story. Helga is a human girl. A Mycenaean princess who is actually sister to Agamenón, the famous king who directed the war of Troy. At some point in the past, both Mephisto--the bloke we know as the devil--and Senneferi--another of the angels who rebelled against God--had a crush on Helga when she was 16. Of course it's not true love. Demons cannot love. It's lust and both of them wanted to rape her. None of them could because she was able to control them for reasons not explained in this book (this intends to be a trilogy). Because they could not force her, i.e., rape her, they offered her power in exchange. She accepted the power but ultimately fooled them because she has not had sex with either of them.
So far, she has been ambitious and greedy, and has lived for 3000 years. She can be a spirit but also has a body, hers. She has not aged in 3000 and still looks like a 16 year-old girl.
