by J. Langland
She took his hand hesitantly and slowly stood. She shook her head. “I am sorry. I am Karis Crooked Stick, Battle Priestess of Tiernon. I am the one who sent word to the Isle of Doom this morning. I was awaiting a response. This is far beyond anything anyone expected!”
The priestess—not a knight, after all—was fairly gushing with excitement. While Tom had not been around orcs or D’Orcs very long, this was a level of enthusiasm he had never seen. “Well, the Citadel has stood by Doom’s side through thick and thin, and we shall stand by yours,” he said, smiling. “Allow me to introduce my colleagues. We have come to evaluate the situation and strategize on how best to deploy our forces. Behind me is—”
“Targh Bowelsplitter!” Karis burst in, nodding happily. “We have a statue of the Oracle of Doom. Everyone will recognize him!”
Targh chuckled.
“Okay, well, this is Sir Stainsberry, Knight Magus of the El Ohîm,” Tom said.
Stainsberry nodded politely to Karis. “A pleasure to meet you.”
“Mine as well. Oh, I am so happy to meet you, all of you,” Karis said, beaming.
“And this—this is Sir Talarius, Knight Rampant of Tiernon!” Tom told her.
Karis’s eyes grew wide. “Sir Talarius? Of Astlan?” the battle priestess asked in surprise.
Now it was the Doom delegation’s turn to be surprised.
Talarius took his helmet off. “You know of me?” he asked.
“Well, of course! That’s how we ended up having so many avatars here! They came looking for you!” Karis said.
“They what?” Talarius asked again in shock. Tom wasn’t sure if the knight’s eyes could get any wider. Talarius’s brow furrowed. “Is one of the avatars Saint Hilda of Rivenrock?” Talarius asked, sounding almost puzzled by his own pronouncement.
“Yes! She is here, along with Stevos, Teragdor and Beragamos!” Karis said, clapping her hands together.
Now Tom was the one who was puzzled. So, the avatars that Tamarin had told him were investigating the Freehold incident were here? That was not a good thing. But how did Talarius know their names?
Talarius furrowed his brow again and shook his head a couple of times, his mouth moving slightly as if he was talking to himself.
“Are you okay?” Tom asked, concerned.
After a moment, Talarius looked at him. “I’m sorry. I’m talking to Ruiden in my mind.” He then noticed Karis’s odd look. “My sword—we communicate mind to mind.” Karis nodded.
Tom had momentarily forgotten that Talarius and Ruiden talked that way. Talarius had told him this, as had Tamarin. In fact, that would be how Talarius knew of the avatars. Tamarin had told him that Ruiden had been traveling with Tiernon’s avatars, which is how he had ended up in Murgatory. Things were starting to add up, and come together. It was just getting very difficult to keep all of the insanity straight in his head. Who knew who, and what and when did they know it? It could really make one’s head spin.
“Ruiden has worked with Hilda and Beragamos before,” Talarius said.
“Well, excellent! What a happy coincidence,” Karis exclaimed. “Oh! Before I forget, your horse is here, along with her barding.”
Talarius shook his head. “War Arrow is here? How?”
“Arch-Diocate Iskerus brought her. I believe they were going to use her to somehow help you escape the demon that kidnapped you!” Karis said and burst out laughing. “Little did anyone suspect that Lord Orcus would beat them to the punch and rescue you first!”
“Uhm, yeah…” Talarius said.
Tom smiled slightly at Talarius’s discomfort. It was not very nice of Tom, but it was rather fun, nonetheless.
“So! Shall I take you to the Command Center?” Karis asked hopefully.
“We need to try something first, rather quickly. We need to test this plane-blocking thing.” Tom said, motioning Targh to step around him. Tom then reached out and closed the runic gateway.
“How does closing the runic gateway do that?” Karis asked.
“I will open it again in a moment, but I need to see if Targh can follow my link to the Nysegard Doom and then back to the Abyss,” Tom explained. He nodded to Targh, who promptly took a deep breath as if preparing to relax. He then faded from view, even as a normal demon returning to the Abyss would do.
Tom nodded. “Excellent!” he turned and moved the table with the communication stone out of the way. “Targh Bowelsplitter, I summon thee from the depths of the Abyss!” Given his link to Targh, he didn’t need to use a true name or any real spell.
Within moments Targh reappeared in the room, fading in even as he had faded out. Tom grinned.
Karis gasped. “How did you overcome the dimensional blockage?” the battle priestess asked in surprise.
“I am linked to the Doom of Nysegard, which in turn is linked to Mount Doom. While I cannot go directly to Mount Doom from here, I can get to Mount Doom through the Doom of Nysegard,” Tom explained.
“Excellent!” Karis said. “So Mount Doom and the Doom of Nysegard are both once more fully operational?”
“They are indeed,” Tom smiled, raising the Rod of Tommus slightly.
Karis shook her head in sudden realization. “The Wand of Orcus, of course! I guess I was expecting something a bit smaller.”
Tom chuckled. “I understand. When I am in this form it’s a staff; however, when I change into other forms of different sizes, it stays the same size. So in battle, for example, it looks like a wand.”
“Of course!” Karis said. “Should we head to the Command Center?”
“Sure,” Tom said. Might as well confront these avatars before getting any deeper into this mess, he thought to himself. At least he had his full power, unlike them.
“I just want to open the runic gateway and update everyone there. We’ll have a few more people come through to start preparations,” Tom told the battle priestess. “I am also going to have Darg-Krallnom join us.”
Citadel Command Center: Late Fourth Period
Teragdor, taking a break from the battlements and working on preparations for things he and Rasmeth could do when darkness came this evening, nearly jumped out of his chair as the main doors to the Command Center were slammed open by the guards that had been just outside. They were both smiling brightly. Karis entered the room, yelling at the top of her lungs.
“Citadel! We are Doomed! Lord Orcus has returned to fight by our side; the Forces of Doom have come to our rescue!” she shouted joyfully.
The entire room went silent for a moment, and then turned to see a completely unexpected sight. Behind Karis came two knights in armor, one with a large cloak; behind them was some sort of young wizard with curly black hair and a seriously magical metal staff with a demon’s skull on top. Flanking the wizard were two of the scariest-looking D’Orcs Teragdor had ever seen—although, given that he had only seen about a dozen D’Orcs in his life, that was not as strong of a statement as it might have been.
“What the…?” Grob Darkness Slayer spluttered, moving towards Karis before stopping dead in his tracks and staring at the wizard. Grob shook his head, even as Diocate Aeris came to his side. “Prince Orcus?” the vicar general said in shock before his eyes moved on to the two D’Orcs. Grob fell to his knees. “Praise be to Tiernon! He has delivered us the Lord Orcus reborn!” he shouted. Aeris rested her right hand on his shoulder to steady herself. She seemed in shock.
Teragdor quickly glanced to the avatars. Those of Krinna, Namora and Hendel remained oblivious, but Tiernon’s avatars, along with Timbly and the avatars of Torean, stood to get a better view.
Suddenly, Arch-Diocate Iskerus surged forward. “Talarius!” he shouted in surprise, rushing over towards the party.
The knight without the cloak, the one with the giant sword on his back, took off his helmet to reveal a man who appeared to be about thirty, wearing a broad grin. He quickly moved forward to embrace the arch-diocate.
How could a man so young be the greatest Knight Rampant in As
tlan? Such a reputation would take decades, Teragdor wondered.
“Iskerus! I would never in a million years have expected to find you in Nysegard!” the Knight Rampant proclaimed.
“And I cannot believe you were able to escape your demon captor!” Iskerus exclaimed as the two embraced in greeting.
Teragdor shook his head. He had personally told Iskerus that they suspected that the demon that took Talarius was Orcus. So that’s a little awkward, Teragdor thought to himself. However, to be fair, he did not see the demon that had captured Talarius. There were two D’Orcs, a second knight and the wizard. Wizard? Or Animage? Teragdor wondered, suddenly recognizing some of the symbols on the robes the young man was wearing. Wasn’t there an animage involved in this? The one who had burnt the Oorstemothian ship? He didn’t remember exactly what he’d heard, but it seemed like at some point, the demon the Rod was chasing had been caught up with an animage.
“Well, Arch-Diocate, I did not exactly escape,” Talarius said, pulling back from the embrace.
“What do you mean?” Iskerus asked, frowning in puzzlement.
“I am here under an Oath of Hostage. I have come to fight at the Citadel’s side along with Lord Tommus here—sorry, Lord Orcus. It’s a rather long and confusing story.”
Iskerus looked to the animage and then back to Talarius again, not understanding. “But what about the demon that you battled and that dragged you to the Abyss?”
The animage tilted his head in a small nod. “Good to see you again, Arch-Diocate Iskerus, although I do not believe we were properly introduced before you had your priests attack me. I trust that Verigas and his compatriots suffered no long-term damage from my possession of them?”
Teragdor could not see the arch-diocate’s eyes, but he suspected they were extremely wide. Yep, he thought, confirming it as Iskerus reached out to the priest beside him for his balance.
“You?” Iskerus shook his head. “You are the demon?”
“I am,” Lord Orcus replied.
Or was it Lord Tommus? Lord Tommus Orcus? Teragdor was not at all sure about the names.
“You!” Beragamos said, standing with his hand resting on the arm of his chair. He was clearly multi-tasking at the moment. “You claim to be the demon prince Orcus?”
The animage looked at Beragamos. Teragdor could not be sure due to the distance, but it almost seemed if Lord Orcus’s eyes lost their focus. He did not respond for several moments, as if thinking about what to say. “Beragamos Nesferalem# Antidellas,” he finally said with a gentle smile and a slight nod of recognition. Teragdor had not known that the archon had a middle name. “It has been quite some time since we last worked together.”
Teragdor shook his head and looked towards Beragamos. What did that mean? Why would Tiernon’s right hand work with a demon prince? This made very little sense. However, sense or not, Beragamos was looking quite pale. Apparently the strain of processing mana was getting to him.
Lord Orcus suddenly looked around the room. “Yes, we all know that Tiernon and I have unfinished business. However, that business is not here. The Citadel has always been a loyal ally of Doom and Doom shall always be a loyal ally to the Citadel. We have sworn oaths, and unlike some, neither the Citadel nor Doom broke their oaths.” He was looking back at Beragamos, clearly sending the archon a message.
“So?” Orcus said, coming towards Beragamos. “Are you a man of your word, archon? Are these other avatars men and women of their word? Do we all agree to put our past disagreement aside for the purpose of defeating the Storm Lords and driving them back to their graves?” he asked. “Do we all swear to be brothers and sisters at arms and to allow the others to depart unharmed to their own homes after we achieve victory?”
Beragamos was silent, thinking for some time. “We will keep our word. We will honor such an agreement, if you do the same,” Beragamos finally said.
“Come now, my old colleague, have you ever even so much as heard of me breaking my oath, let alone known me to break my oath?” Orcus said.
Teragdor felt a chill run down his spine. There was something different about this Orcus than the one who had first entered the room. He could not put a finger on it, but this person seemed much older, more confident. Of course, one would have to be extremely confident to stare down the Supreme Archon of Tiernon, he reflected.
“I have not,” Beragamos admitted, finally shaking his head.
Teragdor glanced to Hilda and Stevos; both were staring at Beragamos in shock. Shock not that different from what Teragdor himself was feeling.
“So?” Orcus asked. “Shall we get to work? I assume some of you recognize Targh Bowelsplitter from the Isle of Doom.” He gestured to one of the two D’Orcs.
“I am also accompanied by my senior commander, Darg-Krallnom.” He gestured to the other, even bigger D’Orc. The large D’Orc chuckled and stared directly at Beragamos.
“We work together once more, Øverst-archon,” Darg-Krallnom said somewhat ominously.
“This is Sir Stainsberry, Knight Magus of the El Ohîm.” Orcus gestured to the cloaked knight. “And, as Arch-Diocate Iskerus noted, Sir Talarius, Knight Rampant of Tiernon will be fighting at my side, even as he did against the forces of Lilith, Co-factor of the Abyss and her Knights of Chaos.”
The last claim stirred more than a few murmurs around the room. A Knight Rampant of Tiernon fighting side by side with Prince Orcus against Lilith, Empress of the Abyss. Talarius must be quite the knight. Teragdor had no idea what a Knight of Chaos was, but it sounded rather bad.
“So, now you know who we are. Perhaps a few more introductions from your side and then we get down to planning the Storm Lords’ defeat?” Lord Orcus suggested.
~
Tom looked on as Darg-Krallnom, Targh and Grob Darkness Slayer discussed the large battle board, as they called the table before them. The battle board looked very much like the miniature boards he and his friends had used to play war games. The only real difference was the fact that, here, they were planning a real battle involving real lives.
Apparently through the daylight hours, the Storm Lords had mostly been testing the Citadel’s defenses. Beragamos and the Apostle Teragdor had given them a show of force that had kept them from escalating their attacks in the afternoon. However, all bets were thought to be off once Atun set.
Tom glanced at Beragamos. Earlier, when the archon had called him out, Tom had had another vision from Orcus’s life. This one had been of himself, Beragamos, Vosh An-Non and Tiernon strategizing on some issue that he could not quite recall. The only thing he truly remembered from that was Beragamos’s name and the fact that at some point in time, Orcus and Doom had worked closely with Tiernon and his avatars. Being stepbrothers, that probably made sense. He already knew that they had conspired to lock their mutual parents in Tartarus. Talk about a dysfunctional family!
“So, you have rerouted all your priests’ connections to the Outer Planes to the avatars in this room?” Sir Stainsberry asked. Tom was actually rather impressed with Talarius’s half-elven friend. He truly understood not only military issues and wizardly issues, as one might expect of someone with the title of Knight Magus, but he also understood the multiverse and how the gods and their avatars worked. He was very happy Talarius had convinced him to bring Stainsberry along.
“Yes,” Teragdor said. “We, Tiernon’s people, have the most avatars and thus the best capacity, as you can see, whereas when there are only two avatars, they are fully occupied by handling the illumination streams.”
“And this blockade started a few hours before atunrise?” Stainsberry asked.
“Yes. We were taken completely by surprise. I had no clue that such a thing could even be done,” Beragamos said from his chair.
Tom snorted, causing everyone to look at him in surprise. He shook his head and looked at Beragamos. “Perhaps you should consider checking with Sentir Fallon, in that case.”
Bergamos’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
Tom waved his arms around, indicating the interdiction around them. “I have seen this before. It is nearly identical to what Sentir Fallon did to—me—on Etterdam.” Tom had nearly said Orcus. He needed to remember that he was pretending to actually be Orcus. “I and my people were suddenly completely cut off from not only the Abyss and Mount Doom, but to other planes as well. Tom raised the Rod of Tommus as an example. “I lost our connection to Mount Doom. It should have auto-rerouted through the Etterdam Doom, but I was unable to keep that connection up.” He frowned, hating to go over this memory again. “We now know this was because Lilith’s forces, along with Nét’s, had seized the Doom of Etterdam and broken its link to Mount Doom in the Abyss. I then tried to reach other Dooms in Midgard, but was not able to make any off-plane connections. I and my forces were trapped on the battlefield on Etterdam with no outside mana streams and no way to return to the Abyss upon death.”
“Sound familiar?” Darg-Krallnom asked.
Everyone around the table was looking stunned. This would, of course, be the first time any of them had heard of what had actually happened. Of course, Tom himself had only learned of it this morning, so it was truly new information.
“And you think that was Sentir Fallon’s doing?” Beragamos asked.
“He was leading the attack against me, at Aodh’s side. He, Aodh and Lilith worked as a team to defeat me,” Tom said.
Darg-Krallnom nodded in agreement; they had spent quite a bit of time discussing this as part of their plans on how to avoid a repeat.
“These are serious charges,” Beragamos said sternly.
“We are in a truce, Beragamos. These are not charges; they are facts that are immediately relevant to the situation at hand,” Darg-Krallnom said. “Orcus has dealt with this sort of thing before. We intend to fight it differently this time.”
“But saying that Sentir Fallon was in league with Lilith?” Beragamos asked skeptically.
“Well, you admit that he was working with Nét’s minion, Aodh, and you know what happened,” Darg-Krallnom said, and Beragamos nodded. “We, the D’Orcs at Doom, have always known that Lilith took down Orcus’s connection to the Abyss. We know this because her troops came marching into Doom from Etterdam. You think this was a coincidence?”