Apostles of Doom

Vaselle nodded. “Yeah. Being demons, none were permanently killed during the battle, just severely wounded and not allowed to regenerate at the end. He permitted those who wished to return to Lilith or run away completely to do so; those who wanted to swear allegiance to him could stay and move in.”

Vaselle grinned rather wickedly. “He also gave them the option to stand and be killed permanently, but surprisingly, none chose that.”

“So how many fled?” Farsooth asked.

Vaselle shrugged. “Lord Tommus didn’t count, but roughly three or four hundred. There were 1,732 new recruits; we don’t have an exact count of how many there were to begin with.”

“You know the exact number of new recruits?” Damien asked.

Vaselle nodded. “He has a link to each and every one of them, just as he does to all the D’Orcs. Actually, it is more like a binding than a link. It is most similar to a conjuror and demon slave. The link I have and the ones the shamans have is more of a two-way. I suspect in the case of the shamans it’s most similar to a priest’s link to the Upstairs, whatever that is.”

“And in your case?” Tal Gor asked.

Vaselle shrugged. “To be completely honest, that is more like a familiar link.”

Beya frowned. “That seems a bit invasive.”

Vaselle grinned and shook his head. “Not at all! It’s fantastic!”

Damien smiled tightly. It certainly did not sound fantastic to him. He would go one further and say it sounded downright creepy. There is no way he would want that sort of binding with anyone. He did not even like the use of animal familiars.

He had always wondered what made a warlock a warlock, and now he guessed he knew. He supposed it made sense; there were conjurors who used imps as familiars. That was, in his opinion, insane. Sharing that much with a demon would have to eventually taint the wizard and corrupt him. He could only imagine how much more intense it would be with someone like Tom.

That thought made Damien pause. If he paid attention to Vaselle to see signs of obvious corruption, evil or untrustworthy behavior, he could get a gauge on Tom’s true nature. Unless, of course, Vaselle was that way by default; however, that did not seem to be the case. Vaselle actually seemed like a rather naïve and overly trusting wizard.

“So what’s the plan in the interim?” Estrebrius asked.

Vaselle shrugged. “I suppose the shamans could work on their dream walking or whatever it is they do to contact their colleagues on other planes.”

Beya nodded. “That would save time when Lord Tommus returns. However, I am not sure how receptive our counterparts might be at this time of day. It does not hurt to try though.”

Ragala-nargoloth nodded in agreement.

“I think I will go looking in the town for signs of any of my horde’s clans,” Farsooth said. “I do think we need to work on getting portals set up to coordinate our work.”

Damien would not have minded exploring more of the town, particularly for anything useful in getting him back to Freehold, but he had realized after the first trip that he had taken too great a risk of running into Trevin and some others that he knew from Freehold. He and Gastropé already had their shared secrets; he did not want to have to explain to the others how he had gotten here.

On the other hand, he had no idea how he was going to get back to Freehold in a reasonable timeframe. He could not teleport that far. Vaselle would have the same issues, but Damien suspected the warlock had fewer commitments than a Councilor of Wizardry. Damien needed to get back for Exador’s proof that he and his colleagues were not demons.

He had had to miss the meeting to define the criteria, but as Chief Inquisitor of the Council, he could not miss a meeting on a major issue of inquisition. Further, if it turned out that Exador and his colleagues actually were archdemons, they would need all hands on deck. Actually, he knew Ramses was an archdemon, and was pretty sure Exador was; however, the problem was revealing it as a fact. Pulling back the curtain would force a confrontation. He shook his head, not even wanting to consider what might happen in that circumstance.

Chapter 120

Mount Doom: DOA + 2, Early Fourth Period, Early Fifth Period Murgatroy

Edwyrd knocked on the door to the suite where Antefalken was living. “Come in!” came Antefalken’s voice. Edwyrd opened the door to find Antefalken perched on a chair in the living room, busily scribbling on paper. The bard looked up and smiled as Edwyrd and Tamarin entered.

“What are you up to?” Edwyrd asked.

“Trying to get my ballad of yesterday’s battle down,” Antefalken said, gesturing to the crystal ball on the table on which he had recorded the event.

“I love ballads!” Tamarin clapped her hands.

Edwyrd grinned. “Enshrining our glory for posterity?”