The Heavenly Host (Demons of Astlan Book 2) (6 page)

Trevin could not shake her head in this form. “They did not See that.”

“We have orcs versus alvar, and Hephaestus involved.” Elraith sighed.

“That may mean a bit of tension between the alvar and the dwarves,” Trevin said.

“It is a peace that is not easy to keep,” Elraith said.

“This is why I want to keep this quiet. I want to take the Nimbus near to Jotungard and see if the orcs are rising, see if there is any sign of these visions, or if we can trigger more visions. We will head to Murgandy and Ferundy and see what the situation is.”

“A sizeable portion of your crew is alvaren,” Elraith noted.

“Hence I intend to say we are hunting Bastet,” Trevin explained. “Our visit to the border regions will be but to survey the territory around Najaar; our first stop in looking for signs of Bastet. We have had no major ventures in that region for nearly a century or more. It has been very quiet.”

“Too quiet.” Elraith shook his head. “I don’t know. It seems rather risky. You will have both dwarves and alvar on the ship with you.”

“I know, but can you think of a better plan? The sorcerer and seer are confident that their visions are imminent.”

“You will be bringing the sorcerer and seer with you?” Elraith asked.

“Unquestionably. I will also discreetly ask them to not mention the orc or alvaren armies,” Trevin said.

Elraith snorted, shaking his head. “I think that may get taken from your hands by fate.”

DOF +1

Predawn 15-18-440

Hilda was running late, but she figured it was worth it. There was a meeting scheduled two Etonian hours before local dawn in Freehold.  She’d spent so much time with Master Trisfelt that she barely had time to get home and take a nice long bath, get into some clean clothes and whip up a sugar-and-cinnamon breakfast cake and stick it in the oven for a slow bake before the meeting. It had been worth it, though, in so many ways.

First, the Old Vine Meryst had been exquisite, and when that was gone, Master Trisfelt speedily pulled out a bottle of House Zyrkoft Kabdorgh PV 407, which was really one of the most underappreciated years the house had ever produced. She herself had never previously tried that year, but she’d read about it, of course. The meats and cheeses were both excellent accompaniments; the man was clearly a gourmand after her own heart. He was also witty and a lively conversationalist. It really had to have been one of the most enjoyable evenings she had had in the last century; possibly since her canonization even. Oh, sure, a feast in the Great Hall of Tierhallon was a spectacle most would die to attend, and in fact, she had done just that—but that was beside the point. It was great spectacle, but really not that relaxing and enjoyable on any level.

Hilda was not much for politics. The official dinners were always crammed with people trying to get a witty word in edgewise with one of the higher-ups, honored guests or someone at the political heights of Tiernon himself. It was really too much pressure. Not to mention the effort in terms of wardrobe and makeup, the fear of the wrong word or slip of the tongue. Some of the Host were terribly catty; one small faux pas and they would hold it against you for decades.

Hilda shook her head as she took a seat at the back of the briefing room. Archon Moradel had just finished consulting with a few of his lieutenants and had stepped up to the podium.

“First order of business: the Pool monitors report that the net draw down yesterday morning was equivalent to about two and half miracles, nearly on par with a greater miracle in terms of overall withdrawal,” Moradel stated. There were gasps around the room.

Someone asked, “Clearly not authorized?”

Moradel nodded. “Definitely not. However, the true oddity is that it wasn’t from a single illuminary. The drain was spread out over several illuminaries.” There was a lot of mumbling. “Five in total,” Moradel added and looked around the room. “The Holy Ciphers guarding the illumination streams were hacked. Someone, or something, pierced the illumination streams and first diverted mana intended for the Pool, and then a bit later pulled mana from our avatars, masquerading as legitimate illuminaries. Once the cyphers were broken, they had the authority of the high priests whose illumination streams were intercepted. While none of these high priests would have been able to withdraw a greater miracle’s worth of mana without explicit permission, the individual stream requests were within the limits allowed to the infiltrated high priests. In all, a very complex and sophisticated effort that took us completely by surprise.”

The room was abuzz with amazed chatter among the other members of the advance party, but also among the assembled Host and the various other bureaucrats in the room. This was old news to Hilda. Of course, finding an inebriated wizard who had actually helped conjure the culprit was something of a small coup on her part. She suppressed a grin of triumph. Hubris was a sin, after all.

“Now, further,” Moradel continued, “we’ve been investigating prayer reports for the senior Rod leadership and we believe they were in Freehold investigating demonic activity.” Some of the beings present, who had not been in the advance party and were hearing this for the first time, made shocked noises. Moradel nodded. “So, in addition to standard checks, we had the advance team check for the presence of demons in the vicinity.” Numerous individuals nodded in agreement with this decision.

“So, advance party?” Moradel glanced around the room, momentarily locking eyes with each of the advanced team, including Hilda. “Any signs of significant demonic presence?” the archon asked.

“None detected by Team Alpha,” Seralina stood and stated.
Team
Alpha
? Really, is that what Seralina was calling her coterie of hens? She had managed to wrangle her four “minions” into the advance party. Meaning everyone except Hilda.

“There is some evidence of demon mana in the area, but we observed no demons currently in or around the city,” Seralina stated with military smugness.

“No demons in the city?” An older archon leaning against a sidewall asked, sounding puzzled. “This is Freehold, a city with more wizards per square foot than anywhere else on the plane.” He shook his head in disbelief. “And you are telling me you found no demons in the city? There have always been demons in that cursed city. Wizards really can’t stop themselves from summoning and trying to foolishly control demons. It’s a genetic abnormality or something.” Several people in the room laughed at this.

Seralina looked a bit taken off guard. Apparently, she really hadn’t known much about the city. “Uhm, yes, we flew over the city and scanned it for demons. There were none in the city. We could detect the residue of demon summoning, and various protective spells, but there were no demons in or around the city.” She looked to her clique, who all nodded in agreement.

“I have to admit, that sounds very odd,” Moradel added, looking suspicious.

“How could there not be demons in Freehold? We were simply wanting to check the area around the Rod and the Oorstemothians. We expected demons in the city,” another avatar sitting in the room stated.

“Yes, and why are the Oorstemothians camped right near the Rod? While we have no current hostilities with them, this seems a bit odd,” Beragamos Antidelles stated. Everyone looked towards the archon. Beragamos was one of the oldest still active archons. He had been with Tiernon even before the Etonians’ arrival in Astlan.

“We haven’t ascertained that yet, either, I fear,” Moradel answered, shaking his head. “It is another mystery, along with the missing demons.”

Hilda hunched her shoulders a little. It all made sense to her, thanks to Master Trisfelt. She tried to suppress another grin. Her face muscles wanted to smile so much, she had to fake a small cough to hide her grin. “Uhhm hem,” she coughed into her hand. Hilda suddenly went cold, realizing that the room had been completely silent, taking in Moradel’s response. Everyone had heard her cough and were now turning to look at her.

“Hilda?” Moradel asked her in surprise. “Do you know something?”

Hilda closed her eyes for a moment; now she had done it. Slowly she stood; she had not done any real public speaking since her death, so was not really comfortable doing so. “Uhm, yes, I did discover a fair amount of information in my explorations.” She heard Katassa, one of Seralina’s minions, snort in disbelief.

Moradel seemed pleasantly surprised. “Proceed, if you will.”

“Uhm, certainly.” Hilda was not really sure how to proceed, but glancing over at “Team Alpha,” she decided to take a terse, more military style than her normal style. She would leave out how she knew until someone asked. She did not want to go into that. She cleared her throat and looked around. “I can confirm the findings of Seralina and her team,” she began. This seemed to please “Team Alpha.” “However,” Hilda continued, “I can also confirm that up until yesterday morning there were well over a thousand demons in Freehold.” There were gasps, and she decided to speed up to get the big news out before she lost them to excited gossiping. “The thousand demons also included at least three, perhaps four archdemons and multiple greater demons who were directing the thousand demons.” Now there were multiple gasps of disbelief.

“Further, both the Rod and the Oorstemothians were drawn to Freehold following the trail of at least one of the archdemons and his entourage. Apparently, the Oorstemothians had experienced numerous casualties from this archdemon. The Rod had detected him in Gizzor Dell and followed him here. Sir Talarius was called on site and had discovered Freehold to be completely infested with more archdemons and a thousand lesser demons.”

People were suddenly talking back and forth in amazement. Moradel brought down a gavel on the podium to silence people. “So where are they now?” he asked sternly.

“Well, as I understand it, the wizards in the city hadn’t been aware of the demon infestations—”

“Likely story,” someone snorted.

Hilda shrugged, and Moradel motioned her to continue. “Be that as it may, the Council devised a scheme to expel all the demons from the city. To drive them out.”

“Ludicrous!” “Impossible!” and “Suspicious” were some of the words Hilda heard from around the room.

Hilda cleared her throat and continued. “In any event, they arranged with the Rod and the Oorstemothians to slay the demons as they came fleeing over the city walls.”

“This worked?” Moradel asked incredulously.

“Apparently,” said Hilda, nodding. “That’s why there is still a strong demonic residue; most of the demons were killed.”

“Including the archdemons?” Beragamos asked.

“No, apparently three of the archdemons escaped using a flying carpet.” More gasps from around the room. Why would archdemons use a flying carpet?

“And…” Hilda said, waiting for the crowd to quiet. Moradel motioned for her to continue.

“And in this process, apparently Sir Talarius encountered a greater demon he’d dispatched previously, and was about to do so again, when what everyone believed to be a
greater
greater demon showed up and challenged Talarius to a duel.”

“Talarius killed a greater greater demon?” someone asked, sounding awed.

“Not exactly,” Hilda said. The room fell silent.

“So what happened? Surely the Rod helped?” Moradel asked.

“Yes, well, apparently—and I am getting this secondhand—the two fought and the Rod helped with lots of rituals and archers. It was tough fight, and Talarius succeeded in dismembering the demon and was preparing to perform a Ritual of True Death on the greater greater demon and several of his minions, when—pardon the expression—all hell broke loose.” The room lit up again with chatter and Moradel slammed his gavel to quiet people.

“All hell?” the archon asked Hilda.

“Yes, well, apparently the demon didn’t really die; it simply dissipated and then possessed a number of high priests and Rod members.” People were gasping in shock and horror. It took Moradel five minutes to quiet the room.

“Possessed? Are you sure?” Moradel asked her.

“That is what is being reported by observers and the Rod itself. Apparently, several high priests suddenly collapsed and then one began acting strangely and claimed to be the fallen greater demon. The high priest then collapsed, whereupon the previously dismembered demon re-formed out of fire and ordered the Rod to attack Talarius. From the reports I have, somewhat under a third of the Rod members obeyed the demon and attacked Talarius.” There were more gasps and another minute for Moradel to quiet the room.

“I don’t want to ask, but continue.”

Hilda nodded. “Well, the demon then proceeded to beat Talarius nearly to death before Talarius surrendered.” There were more gasps at the thought of the Knight Rampant surrendering. Hilda continued, “Talarius pleaded for mercy, and oddly, the demon granted it.” This caused another huge stir and more gavel thumps.

“A demon granting mercy?” Moradel sounded incredulous.

Hilda had been as well, but Trisfelt had had a logical explanation, so she used it. “Well, the demon
tried
to grant Talarius mercy; it allowed him to surrender, whereupon the demon shape-changed into a human male.” This evoked some discussion, but not as much as she would have expected. “He then walked over and was apparently accepting the knight’s surrender when Talarius pulled Excrathadorus Mortis on the demon and stabbed him.” The room broke into a loud round of cheers. They were all, of course, familiar with the ancient Excrathadorus Mortis dagger. It was legendary and over four thousand years old.

Hilda coughed again, loudly. The room went silent, realizing she was not done. Hilda grimaced. “Okay, this is where the Pool drain comes in…” The room was deathly silent. “Apparently, at this point, the human-shaped demon began pulling mana from the priests he’d compromised and used divine mana to cleanse the wound and heal himself.” Pandemonium broke out as people began arguing about the obvious impossibility of this.

Moradel had to let this rage on for ten minutes before he got them to quiet down. “Anything more, Hilda? Where did the demon go?”

Hilda grimaced, preparing to give more bad news. “Well, that wasn’t the totality of the mana drain…” The room stayed silent. “Apparently, the demon then used the divine mana to reverse Excrathadorus Mortis.” People began yelling at this point, since this was beyond impossible.

“Enough!” Moradel shouted at the room after another ten minutes. “Hilda, we all find this hard to believe, but fine for now… Please explain why things seem so calm on the battlefield now.”

“Well, apparently after doing this, the demon opened a portal to the Abyss under Talarius and dropped him through it.” People gasped and Hilda continued quickly, “The demon then sent his minions through before leaping through himself and sealing it behind him.” She gestured that she was finished, then added, “Which is why I say the demon tried to grant Talarius mercy; Talarius refused it.” The room once again became pandemonium.