by Langland, J.
"Damien summons me after a fixed time interval. Why?" Antefalken asked.
"I need to find Rupert; hopefully he was transported to my cave. I have no guarantee of that though, no guarantee that he's even alive. If he's in my cave, I can just keep a gate open and pull him through. If I have to search for him though, I'll need an easy way back. Last time I came blind, I got stuck with the Rod. I'd prefer to have a surer way back. If Damien creates a link to you, and I'm with you, then I can use that link to bring Rupert and myself back."
Antefalken nodded, "Makes sense. Actually, while my visit to the Courts, I kind of need to handle on my own, if I'm flying near Ramses' place it might not be bad to have some protection. You could help be of assistance there. Just in case there is a demonic horde and they don't like my spying."
Edwyrd wasn't sure how much help he'd be against a demonic horde, but if there was trouble, the more demons the better Antefalken's chances. "That's fine with me then. When are you planning on leaving?"
"As soon as we're done here?" Antefalken suggested.
~
Rupert groaned. Groaning hurt, so he stopped. Actually, groaning shouldn’t hurt, Rupert thought semi-deliriously; he didn't have any lungs to groan with anymore. How was he groaning then? He opened his eyes. It was dark. He waited a few seconds as his eyes adjusted, bringing the perceived light level up to day-like strength. He was in a cave.
Rupert reached a hand up to rub at his throat. "Ouch!" he winced. His neck seemed a bit tender. That was, however, better than he remembered it. The last he remembered was his head bouncing off the cot. He blinked, carefully turning his head to view his surroundings.
Somehow or the other, he appeared to have wound up in Tom's cave. He had no idea how, but he wasn't complaining. He was very happy to be alive. He rubbed his head, catching his claws on his horns. Apparently, he was in his demonic form. That made sense; he'd ended up that way last time after he'd nearly died.
Well, now he had an inkling of how that little demon he'd dismembered yesterday must have felt afterwards. At least only Rupert's head had been chopped off this time. That little fellow had a lot worse to overcome. Rupert felt tired. Not sleepy, but rather a restless sort of exhaustion. He had no idea how long he'd been out. How long it had been since his head had been chopped off.
He hoped no one was overly worried about him. Actually, maybe he did hope they worried. He had no way of letting them know where he was. He wasn't at all sure how he'd get back. Eventually, Tom would return to his cave, but that could take a long time. A real long time if Tom didn't figure out what happened to him. That wasn't good. He'd probably get real hungry in the meantime. Not that he was hungry now, but...it could be a long time.
Rupert sat up slowly, being careful not to move his neck too much. He explored it gently, apparently his head was fairly firmly attached, just a big tender scar ring around his neck. Actually, if his whole body had regenerated here in the Abyss, after being destroyed in Astlan, then why was his neck like this? This regeneration thing really wasn't too clear. He climbed to his feet and went over to sit in Tom's chair.
The chair was a bit big for him, but the hole in the back was just right for his tail. It was also a lot better than crouching on the floor. Rupert still hadn't had enough time in this form to figure out the most comfortable positions, but it was looking like he'd have time now.
Rupert just sort of relaxed in the chair for some time, resting. He didn't feel like sleeping, but he was tired. After quite some time, however, he began to get restless. Eventually he got up to pace the room. When this got boring, he tried moving his head around to see if his neck was any better. A few twinges here and there, but overall, serviceable.
This might be a good time to practice flying, Rupert decided. He'd certainly have enough time to get good. Maybe he could get good enough to dodge those light beams. Having nothing better to do, Rupert proceeded up the mouth of the tunnel. Time to stretch his wings.
~
"So, that's everything for now?" Edwyrd asked the others. The others nodded. Damien stood. Gastropé was also nodding. He seemed more sure of himself now; while they'd talked, he'd had more time to get used to the idea of Edwyrd being a demon. Tom hoped he'd gotten enough used to it to not freak out when he changed.
"Ready to go?" Antefalken asked.
"I think so." Edwyrd told him.
"You want me to summon you in the morning then? Usual time?" Damien asked Antefalken. Antefalken looked to Edwyrd.
"Hopefully that will be enough time for me to find Rupert and to get the rest done. If needed, we can split up while you do things in the Courts. We can then join up to investigate Ramses' place. If I still haven't found Rupert, we can make other arrangements." Antefalken nodded at Edwyrd's suggestion.
"So, time to go then?" Damien asked them.
Edwyrd smiled at Gastropé who was looking at him. "Care to come along?" he asked, grinning.
"Uh, thanks, but I've been there enough in the last month or so." Gastropé grinned back, rather uncomfortably though.
"It ain't exactly Pismo Beach." Edwyrd said, referencing some line from a childhood memory. The others just looked at him curiously. "Never mind." He looked to Damien.
"Mind if I just leave my clothes here, since I'd guess we'll leave from here and arrive here again?" He asked the wizard.
Damien gestured with his hand, "Fine with me."
"Clothes?" Gastropé asked.
"I kind of get tired of having to buy new ones all the time, so I take off my old ones before changing." Edwyrd told him.
"Kind of a pain, I guess?" Gastropé said, trying to be casual.
"Only when I rip them." Edwyrd said with a smile. He'd do this quickly so as not to give Gastropé time to think. He decided to try something he'd thought practiced in the storeroom.
Edwyrd grasped the flame in his mind. He carefully adjusted it so as not to burn anything and then assumed the form of fire. Before Gastropé could even blink, Edwyrd's entire body was made of flame. His robe and clothes fell through the insubstantial fire to the ground. He was careful not burn them as they fell. As he stepped away from them, he let his form change.
The Edwyrd-shaped flame suddenly grew to touch the ceiling. As suddenly as the flame had appeared, it was gone. In its place stood Tom, the demon. All in all, it had taken about five to ten seconds. Definitely faster than the old way, and a very fast undressing.
Gastropé was staring in open mouth surprise. Tom hoped not having time to contemplate things would make it easier for the wizard. Damien just shook his head in surprise. Antefalken was just smiling, obviously somewhat impressed by the demonstration. Tom reached down and carefully picked up his clothes. He gingerly began to fold them.
As he did so, he commented on it, as casually as he could, trying to put Gastropé at ease. "You never think, but it's the simple tasks, like folding your clothes without shredding them, that are a real pain when you let your nails grow too long." He waved his hand slowly and minutely to punctuate his point. He was staring at Gastropé the entire time. He was also smiling, although with his mouth closed so as not to show any fangs.
Gastropé, looking his typically pale self in Tom's presence, smiled weakly. Obviously trying to relax under the circumstances. Tom looked to Antefalken. "How about my cave first?" Antefalken simply nodded.
"Fine with me," the bard told Tom.
Placing his clothes on a small table, Edwyrd visualized his cave and a thin wall in the air between him and it. Having done so, he proceeded to produce a flame at the thinnest point. The flame ate away at the membranous layer. Eating a circle in the air. To observers it appeared that Tom had produced a ball of fire that had spread into a ring shape. The flaming ring looked like a window into Tom's cave.
As it got wider, Tom sighed in frustration. He didn't see any Rupert on the other side. He'd hoped this would be easy. He hoped the boy was still alive, even if it wasn't going to be easy. "After you," he gestured to Antefalken. Antefalken steppe
d through the ring. Tom nodded to the two wizards and followed. The ring contracted behind him and closed off the hole between worlds.
Chapter 73
Gastropé breathed a sigh of relief as the hole closed behind the demons. Tom was gone. He'd tried to maintain his calm as best he could, but it had been difficult. It had been really hard to accept what Edwyrd had told him and do so in a way that he could rationalize intellectually. When Edwyrd had suddenly became Tom though, that had brought the whole thing home. That had made it real, not just a theoretical exercise.
"Had you any idea?" Gastropé asked Damien.
"What? That Edwyrd and the demon Tom were the same person?" Gastropé nodded. "No, actually I didn't. I hadn't heard enough of your adventure to put it together. And this demons changing shape is new to me."
Gastropé shrugged at the implicit mild reprimand. "Well, I was there for most of it, and I didn't get it. It all makes sense now: how Edwyrd just showed up. That had seemed strange at the time. But who knew demons could shape change?” Gastropé looked at his hands.
"I don't know," Gastropé continued, "like I said, Edwyrd was just such a reasonable person; it's hard to imagine him and Tom as the same being."
"Well," Damien said, "just because he is a demon, doesn't mean he's a bad person." Gastropé looked at him rather askance. "Oh, I know that's the story. Mostly it seems to be true too. Most demons can't be trusted further than you can contain them. However, it has been my experience that some demons are reliable, and reasonable. Antefalken for one." Gastropé just looked at him, waiting for him to continue.
"Antefalken is my chief agent. In point of fact, my major confidant and assistant. I trust him with my life. He's certainly saved it a time or two." Damien sat back down. "The thing you have to judge is the individual demon, and their actions. Certainly, only a fool would trust one automatically, but ,after time, if it proves true to its word, both the spirit and the letter, you can generally trust them. At least as much as you can trust a human."
"I don't know." Gastrope' remained uncertain.
"The fact is, being immortal and spending a considerable part of that time being bound to wizards gives demons a very different perspective from us. Separately, both would make a difference; together one gets a very interesting combination. Then add in the fact that they are a completely different species." Damien told him.
"You talk like they were just a different race. Like elves or dwarves." Gastropé said.
"Well they are. A race from the Abyss. They certainly aren't human, although sometimes certain individuals can come so close that you might not know the difference. I am sure, growing up in the Abyss, or wherever exactly demons grow up, gives them a very different background."
"Do demons grow up? I mean I'd never really thought of demons having children before." Gastrope' said.
"I'm not really sure. Antefalken has never been too clear on that point. Most of our talk on demon children surrounds half-breeds, which do grow up. As for purebred demons? Some certainly do. Others it seems are formed somewhere off in the far regions of the Astral Plane. Some have even claimed to come from far distant parts of the planes of men. However, what 'normal' plane of existence other than the Abyss could produce demons is beyond me.
"If what Antefalken has learned is true, then Tom is a demon that comes from the far regions of the Astral Plane. Or so he claims. However, he can't be as recent to Astlan as Lenamare seems to believe, nor as Tom claims. If he was, how could he already have a son? You told us that Rupert was his son, and he didn't deny it."
"That's what Tizzy said. He also seems to know a lot about human ways and culture for someone who has never been to Astlan before." Gastropé said.
"Again true. To my knowledge, he hasn't told any of us directly about his past. All we know is second hand from Antefalken's contacts and what Lenamare's people have said. Thus he hasn't lied to us about it, really hasn't said anything."
"Do you think we can trust him?" Gastropé asked, uncertain.
"From what I've been told he hasn't done anything to harm any of those that he considers on his side. Specifically I mean Jenn, Maelen, Rupert and you. In fact, it sounds like he's gone to a great deal of trouble to aid you. For one thing, if this Tizzy is his colleague, well then, without them, we still wouldn't know of the demon infestation."
"True. If they were in league with the others, I doubt they'd tell us about the demons." Gastropé admitted. Damien nodded.
"Thus on face value, all he's been guilty of is withholding information. If that qualified an individual as automatically untrustworthy then we'd all be a really shiftless lot." Gastropé had to smile at this. "Since he is a demon that none of us knows well, he does bear watching. I do believe that we can trust him not to do anything out of hand in the short term. What his long term goals are is still very unclear and bears observing. He may be playing a very complicated game with us and the others. Even so, that still doesn't mean he's untrustworthy. If we can trust his word, or rather the spirit of his word, then he won't directly harm us or act against us."
"If we can trust his word." Gastropé restated the problem.
"Yes. As a group, demons tend to be very literal and take their own interpretation of their word very seriously. On average, this can lead to some problems in communication. On an individual basis, I'd have to say we can trust Tom's word about as much as any mortal we'd recently met under similar circumstances. At least, until he does something to disprove it, or indicate that his interpretation is different from ours. From what I've seen and heard, he's done just the opposite."
"True." Gastropé admitted. "But you admitted it could be part of some even bigger plot."
"It might be; it might not be. What is clear is that both Lenamare and Exador are involved in bigger plots than they'll let us in on. We know this. Both of them are human. Are you going to tell me that you trust either of them more than you'd trust Tom?" Gastropé shrugged slightly. Damien certainly had a point on that.
~
"Do you think he trusts us?" Bess asked Ramses' back. She lazily stretched her paws outward towards the back of the man who was climbing out of her bed. Ramses shrugged slightly as he began to don his elaborate black leather costume. He always insisted on dressing manually, at least with this costume.
He looked over his shoulder at her, smiling and arching one eyebrow. "Does it matter?" Bess stretched again, arching her back slightly, as she lay on her side, half covered by the silk sheets. "He hasn't got too much choice. He's been out of Court politics so long now, he needs an inside."
Bess smiled, her pointed cat's teeth seeming to glisten in the soft red light coming through the windows. "Just like we need an inside into Astlan politics. For now."
Ramses nodded his head in agreement, fastening the shoulder pads in place. "For now. Eventually his usefulness will end."
"I'm sure he's thinking the same. I suppose we should be prepared for his eventual backstabbing." Bess said, idly drawing circles on the bed with her claws.
"I suppose, I don't consider him too much a threat. His forces here aren't particularly impressive. His Astlanian forces aren't that much anymore either, for that matter." Ramses strapped the gold belts over his shoulders.
Bess reclined on her sheets, stretching one leg into the air above her. Arching it just enough to be seductive, all with her characteristic feline grace. Ramses just raised an eyebrow at her. "You think I put all this on, just to take it off again?"
Bess grinned wickedly, flexing her claws, "I could help you remove it. It could be, most entertaining." Ramses smiled back.
"I'm sure it would. Your talents along those lines far outstrip anyone I've ever met. Unfortunately, I have a meeting with our ally in Freehold. He tends to get miffed if people are late."
"Well then," Bess replied, mock pouting, "better run. Hate to miff the great Exador."
~
Antefalken hovered in the air off to one side. He hated to intrude on family reunions. He'd been slightly
concerned they'd have a bit of a search for the boy, but fortunately that hadn't proven to be the case. They'd taken the tunnel to the mouth of the cave and surveyed the valley below. Within moments, Tom had spotted a large bird flying high overhead. Naturally, since there were no birds in the Abyss, it had to be a demon. Antefalken couldn't quite resolve the demon, but Tom had no trouble in identifying his son.
Up like an arrow he'd shot, on a direct intercept course for the boy. Antefalken had moved at a more sedate pace to gain altitude. He wanted to lag behind to give the two some time alone. Obviously, it was the boy's first death. Such deaths were always a slightly worrisome time for parents. Or, it was for parents who actually bothered to care about their children.
Antefalken tried to care about his various offspring. Unfortunately, over the years he had produced so many, that after the first generation or two, he tended to lose track. Especially among the more human ones. He hadn't much in the way of truly demonic offspring. A few children with cat like eyes or some other demonic oddity. A number with some real bardic ability and a couple fine wizards.
Otherwise the children seemed to take more after their mortal mothers. Antefalken twisted his head, watching the two demons above. It might be nice to have a demon child for a change. However, it seemed unlikely that he'd ever produce one with mortals. He'd need to bed a demon wench for that. Not too many of those he was interested in. Except, of course, for Lilith, but she was just a fling. Having a child with her was not even a question. She’d had children, as everyone knew, and then that rather unpleasant breakup with Adam and…well everyone knew where that led.
Still, it would be nice, Antefalken mused watching the reunion. He shook his head. Here he was thinking about family things when the whole world seemed to be going to pieces, or at least Astlan. Unfortunately, trouble in Astlan invariably seemed to mean trouble in the Abyss, eventually. In this case, it was probably even simultaneous.
Eventually, the reunion ended and the two demons flew down to join him. Once again, he had to marvel at how identical the two were, except for size. Almost definitely some funny genetic stuff going on. Either that or a highly inbred family. However, the boy didn't seem addlepated.