by Joe Jackson
“I will come to your office if that is where you want to meet,” Amastri said, the calm demeanor returned in an instant. “However, I will not set foot in your deity’s temple. Call it…professional courtesy.”
She smiled again, and this time it made Kari laugh. Amastri was something else; Kari imagined Aeligos could learn a trick or two from the woman. Kari bid Amastri farewell, but she wasn’t really surprised when Eli and Danilynn declined to ask Amastri any questions or bid her farewell. Kari invited them to return to the campus with her before they headed to her home for dinner, and both agreed.
Chapter III – The War At Home
Kari didn’t stay long at the Order’s campus. Since Amastri hadn’t told her anything right away, there wasn’t much to discuss with the Council. She went over her suspicions about an agent of Sekassus passing along information to the demon king, and the bounty she wanted placed on their capture or death. Kari was completely open about her actions with the Council, explaining that the Blood Order would be able to accomplish what they needed quickly and quietly. The Council wasn't happy with being tied to the Guild, even just financially through a bounty, but they went along with Kari's wishes on the condition that it was kept out of the public eye. Though she wasn't sure it would turn out to be true, she told the Council that involving the Guild would be a one-time thing.
With the Council updated on her orders, and the syrinthians still unwilling to talk, Kari invited her new friends to dinner at her home. Danilynn and Eli accepted the invitation, and the group returned to Kyrie’s home in northern DarkWind. Kyrie’s home was large, but with several guests for dinner, it was a tight squeeze around the dinner table. Grakin had prepared the meal in his mother’s absence, and Kari saw that all of her in-laws were seated around the table waiting. Aeligos and even Eryn had come for dinner as well, apparently both interested in finding out just what it was Kari was planning. Erik, Sonja, and Typhonix were there, and Sonja had Little Gray in her lap. Of greatest interest to Kari, though, was her eldest brother-in-law Serenjols and the woman seated beside him.
Damansha turned around when Kari entered the dining area, and she rose from her seat to approach. Damansha was a half-elite: a cross-breed of the elite variety of serilis-rir – or serilian demon, as many still called them – and some other sort of rir; Kari assumed a terra-rir. She was large and burly, near to six and a half feet tall and muscular. She was dressed in casual attire, meaning the captain of the guard either wasn’t scheduled for the night watch that evening or she had already worked earlier in the day. The clothing didn’t cover her neck, and so Kari could see the thick creases of scar tissue that showed she’d nearly been killed just weeks before.
Kari remembered the incident in frightening detail: it had been the first time they saw the half-syrinthian, half-succubus assassin named Turillia. She’d come out of the shadows – or perhaps just out of thin air – and nearly decapitated Damansha. Kari had fended the assassin off until help arrived and Turillia fled, and Aeligos and Kari had worked to keep the woman alive and stable until proper doctors and healers could see to her wounds. Damansha had only narrowly avoided a date with Kaelariel, the god of death, and in light of her relationship with Serenjols, Kari couldn’t have been more glad for it.
“Lady Vanador,” Damansha began, but Kari held up her hand to cut her off.
“Just call me Kari,” she said lightly.
The half-elite woman bowed her head. She took Kari’s offered hand, but instead of shaking it, she pulled the shorter woman in for a bear hug. “I didn’t get the chance to thank you for saving my life,” she said. “I feel I’ll be indebted to you for the rest of it.”
They split apart and Kari waved off the comment. “I was the one who put you into that situation, knowingly or not,” she said. “So you’re not indebted to me at all.”
Kari took off her weapons and laid them against the wall, but didn’t bother going upstairs to get changed before supper. She introduced Eli and Danilynn to her in-laws, who greeted the guests warmly. Kyrie clearly remembered the two and welcomed them to her home. Sonja rose and gave Kari a big hug when she reached the table. Kari hadn’t seen her sister-in-law since before her trip to Barcon several weeks before. Sonja handed Little Gray off to his mother, and Kari sat at the table between Serenjols and Sonja with her son in her lap. Little Gray turned so he could cling to Kari, and she hugged him just tightly enough that her armor wouldn’t chafe against him. Grakin began putting dishes in the center of the table, but no one reached for the food while they waited for everyone to be seated.
Kari suddenly realized that Damansha and Eryn were sitting across from each other. It was definitely an odd situation, and she wondered if there was tension between the two. The Blood Order’s existence and activities were a sore point with the city watch and particularly its officers, and Kari was sure Damansha wasn’t exactly fond of Eryn. Still, if Damansha held any hatred for Eryn, she was covering it up quite well. Kari knew she wasn’t anywhere near familiar enough with the Blood Order or its ties to the political structure of DarkWind to really know the finer details, but she was surprised that a watch captain and an assassin could sit and be civil to each other at the dinner table.
“So, I’m told you killed the assassin who attacked me,” Damansha said to Kari.
“Well, I captured her; someone that was helping me killed her,” Kari said. She glanced across to Eli, who had taken a seat next to Aeligos, and he half-smiled. “Her name was Turillia. She was a hell of a fighter; gave me this nice scar to remember her by.”
“What scar?” Erik asked.
Kari rubbed her finger up her chin where the succubus had nearly cut her snout in two. She could barely feel the thickened scar tissue where the cut had been; had it managed to heal over somehow in the weeks since the battle? Her in-laws and friends looked at her curiously, all except for Eli, who’d seen the wound first-hand. Kari was a little confused; she remembered Grakin looking at it when she'd first returned to DarkWind. “Maybe you just can’t see it in this light,” Kari said. “She cut through my lower jaw; I’m not even sure how I kept going after that. Must have been because of the Blood Oath.”
Grakin regarded her with a worried look as he set down the last of the dinner plates and took his own seat, squeezing in between Kyrie and Damansha. Normally he sat beside Kari, but with two extra guests, the table was crowded and they had to make due. Kari could understand his worries, and she wondered how badly he’d react to the idea of her going to the underworld. On that note, Kari wondered if the subject was one that would be wise to bring up while Eryn and Damansha were present. Kari knew she could trust her in-laws to keep quiet on the subject, but a captain of the city watch and an assassin might be more likely to accidentally spread rumors on such a matter. Damansha came into contact with so many people of different stations that a slip of the tongue might be unavoidable. Eryn, by contrast, quite possibly dealt with many people like herself or Aeligos, who could get information even when it was closely guarded.
The meal was passed around the table like a bucket brigade, and once everyone had a suitable plate of hot food, Kyrie said a prayer to Kaelariel. Though Kari served a different deity and she knew Danilynn did as well, everyone was satisfied with the prayer: Kaelariel was the head of the pantheon since his father’s death, so a prayer to him was now effectively a prayer to the entire pantheon. Even Eryn, who Kari doubted served any deity at all, waited patiently while the prayer was said and even intoned Amen at its conclusion. That struck Kari as odd, but then she reminded herself that she didn’t know enough about Eryn to conclude the woman didn’t serve a deity. Kari just had to wonder which one accepted an assassin as a follower. Famished, Kari dug into her roast beef and helped her son nibble on some of it as well.
Conversation around the dinner table was light, and the subjects of Kari’s hunt in Barcon and everything since were kept quiet while everyone ate. After dinner was finished, Kari helped Grakin and Kyrie clean up and wash the dishes. K
yrie and Grakin brought a number of fancy drink glasses over for an after-dinner drink, and Kari looked quizzically at the bottle her mother-in-law placed in the center of the table. Its label was in a language Kari had never seen before and could scarcely make heads or tails of.
“What’s this?” Kari asked.
“A gift Erik brought back from Ceritopolonis,” Kyrie said. “It’s called ouzo. Be careful, it’s got quite a kick.”
Kari chuckled; she’d been drinking double-godhammers for most of her adult life, and those were by far the most potent drinks she’d ever heard of. She graciously accepted a glass of ouzo from Kyrie, but had to tell Little Gray that he was not getting to try a sip. Her son pouted in her lap and the others laughed. Kari tasted it, and she looked at the glass with raised brows and swirled the liquor around within it. Kyrie hadn’t been kidding: it definitely had a kick to it, but Kari was sure she could drink it down in one swig if she wanted to. Instead, she enjoyed it slowly as a dessert, as was intended.
“So, I spoke with Kaelariel, but he wasn’t able to tell me much more than the Council already knew,” Kyrie said, surprising Kari only a little as she began discussing business with relative strangers present at the table. “He assured me, however, that it’s not because he can’t tell us, but rather because he doesn’t know. He’s told me that his father told him only that the mystery of the Temple would resolve itself in due time without the pantheon’s involvement. Kaelariel is quite dissatisfied with this himself, but there is little he can do about it.”
“Gori Sensullu sure liked his secrets,” Kari said, referring to the creator and lord of the pantheon, who had died at the conclusion of the Apocalypse. The world was still getting used to that fact even three years later: their creator was dead. It was hard to understand, and for many it was difficult to live with. Many of the rir people had fallen into depression after their maker’s death, but most had taken up following Kaelariel or his brethren among the pantheon. Kari had felt the sting of the loss, but her commitment to Zalkar and his ideals helped to keep her focused.
“Aye. So this Amastri, she wasn’t able to tell you anything specific yet?” Kyrie prodded.
Kari shook her head. “Apparently she has to ask her king for permission before she can tell us anything,” she said.
“Her king? Who and what are you talking about?” Erik interrupted.
“A…woman named Amastri living here in DarkWind,” Kari explained. “She’s been here since Jason Bosimar was the head of the Order. She serves Koursturaux, but apparently Jason knew that and let her stay so he could use her for information. Eli and Danilynn have dealt with her before; she’s not really a threat, but she’s basically a spy.”
Kari could already see the confusion and concern on the faces of everyone present. She wasn't really comfortable talking about these things in front of Damansha, but Kari decided to trust that the captain of the guard would use discretion and keep things quiet.
“So what were you talking to her about? This Turillia you killed, or the syrinthians on the campus?” Erik prodded.
Kari waved her hand dismissively, started to speak, but stopped. She took in a deep breath and let it forth in a long sigh, and she took a sip of her drink before she spoke. “Turillia was only a part of what happened down in Barcon. I don’t want to get into messy details, but I ran into Emma down there: the same Emma that was behind the Tsalbrin incident.”
“Mallasti, reddish-brown fur, glowing orange eyes…?” Aeligos prompted, referring to one of the hyena demons. Eryn regarded him only briefly; Kari remembered Eryn had seen the mallasti female a few times on Tsalbrin.
Kari nodded. “Yes. She’s found Salvation’s Dawn,” she said, letting that declaration hang in the air for a few moments. “But so have we…because it’s me.”
“Son of a bitch,” Typhonix blurted, and he hardly noticed when his mother slapped him on the end of his snout.
Aeligos and Eryn exchanged a glance, and Kari wondered if the two of them had figured that out a while before. “Is that why Turillia drew you down to Barcon?” Aeligos asked, but in his expression and the sound of his voice, Kari could tell he already knew the answer.
“Not exactly,” she replied. “She needed me to flush out Emma. Emma was Turillia’s actual target, for reasons I won’t get into now. Emma came to protect me, because she knows I’m Salvation’s Dawn, and she needs me for whatever she’s up to with the Temple.”
“So why did you talk to Amastri?” Erik asked, his arms folded across his chest. “Surely you didn’t ask a demon about Salvation’s Dawn or the Temple…?”
Kari glanced at Damansha. The woman was clearly interested in the conversation, but she looked as confused as anything. “No, my conversation with her had nothing to do with that. It was about…ugh, there's no easy way to tell you all this. I’m going to need your help,” Kari said, looking around at her in-laws. “You are not going to like what I’m about to suggest, but at least hear me out before you tie me up and lock me in Little Gray’s bedroom.”
There were chuckles around the table, but Grakin’s was conspicuously absent. Kari had her in-laws’ full attention, so she began to tell them Eli and Danilynn’s tale. She filled them in on Se’ceria’s sacrifice, the implications surrounding Koursturaux’ involvement – though she left out the demon king’s actual arrival on Citaria for the time being – and the unfulfilled promise to rescue Se’sasha from the depths of the underworld. From the expressions on her mate’s and her in-laws’ faces, Kari could see they understood just what was coming. Still, that didn’t make it any easier to say aloud.
“Assuming the information Amastri gives us is reliable, and rescuing Se'sasha is actually possible, we’re looking at a short, subtle trip to the underworld to see if we can free this girl,” Kari said.
Surprisingly, it was Typhonix who got in the first word. “How subtle? Who did you plan to take with you if you actually go through with it?”
“As many as are willing to come,” Kari said, glancing around at each of her friends, her mate, and her in-laws. “And I stress willing. I don’t want anyone coming if they really, truly don’t want to go. I know what I’m asking of you, and I know what’s at stake, so don’t bother telling me it’s crazy or suicide or that I don’t know what I’m walking into. I’m well aware of that already.”
“No,” Grakin said with a shake of his head, pretty much the reaction Kari was waiting for. “Whatever this Se’sasha can tell you, it is not worth the risk. There are other ways to get this information, and other people who can get it. Certainly there are other hunters equally as capable who do not have a family to consider.”
“Like Erik and Typhonix?” Kari countered. “Or maybe I should send someone who has no mate, no children, no parents, no family at all? That describes me three years ago, Grakin. I won’t drop this in someone else’s lap. I may not be the Avatar of Vengeance, but I’m the head of the Order now, and something this important would only be entrusted to someone of my rank if we did have an Avatar.”
“You’re the head of the Order now?” Ty interjected. “Son of a…” Kyrie slapped the end of his snout before he could finish this time. The others laughed, but it was uneasy, the weight of Kari’s intentions hanging over them. “What did the Council have to say about this?”
Kari shrugged and took another sip of her drink. “They don’t like it, but they also don’t want to, uh, contradict my first decision as head of the Order,” she said. “I think on one hand, they’re happy to see me take the…initiative, trying to get some information so we know what we’re dealing with when these underworld demons come here. On the other hand, though, they’re just as afraid as all of you that walking into the underworld is a suicide mission.”
“Kari, you cannot seriously be considering this,” Grakin said, making an obvious effort to not grow too upset in front of the others. Kari and Grakin rarely disagreed, let alone fought, in front of the rest of the family. “It would be foolish enough to walk into the underwo
rld, but to do so at the advice and direction of demons…is madness.”
“None of the people I’m getting our information from are actually demons. As Eli and Danilynn explained, syrinthians aren’t demons…they’re mortals native to the underworld that are stuck there serving Sekassus. And whatever Amastri is, she’s part elf and part something else, but it’s not demon. She said angel, but my gut tells me that’s not true,” Kari explained.
Erik picked up his drink and swirled it around in his glass, and the others waited for him to speak his mind. Erik was Kari’s subordinate among the Order, but among his siblings and friends – collectively called The Silver Blades – he was the leader. Kari respected his opinion and his insights, for even though he could be headstrong and was usually resistant to change, Erik was probably the most objective of all of the siblings. If there was reason that overrode sentiment or desire, Erik would point it out. “Well, we obviously have to consider that Kari’s learned a lot since she left for Barcon, and the rest of us haven’t been briefed on that by her or the Order,” he said at last. “I don’t think we should jump to any conclusions until she’s had time to actually get some information from Amastri.”
“Well, I’ll go with you,” Aeligos said. “If you’re going for subtlety, you’ll want to only bring a few people with you, and it seems there’s already three of you going. I don’t know what we’ll be dealing with down there, but if there’s a chance we can talk our way through situations, then I should be able to help you with that.”