Apostles of Doom

Orcus does not trust us. Lilith sabotaged his Etterdam Doom, which is what kept him from relaying his links last time, Beragamos explained. So he’s asked Hephaestus, Sekhmekt and their avatars to guard the Isle of Doom. If we bring in too many avatars, they may see that as a threat and bring in the rest of the Nyjyr Ennead.

The Nyjyr Ennead? Tiernon asked in shock. They are allied with Orcus? Aside from Hilda’s suspicions, he had not seen or heard anything from them in the last several hundred years. Ever since Sentir Fallon’s last screw-up.

They are; and as you might expect, they are also very angry with us, Beragamos said.

Tiernon sighed. He really did not need this, but at least things were coming out into the open. Perhaps it was the Nyjyr Ennead who had convinced Orcus to call in the Tribunal’s agents? He shook his head. Better the threats you knew than the ones you did not. Is there anything else you need? he asked.

Only the obvious. We do not want to marshal our avatars for Nysegard through Sentir Fallon. I think it best to keep him in the dark about what is going on until we can sort things out, Beragamos said.

Agreed, Tiernon replied. At the moment, all we have is the word of those we have wronged under his oversight. We need further inquiry, but at the same time, I cannot risk Sentir Fallon making the situation worse.

Isle of Doom

Beragamos shook his head as he disconnected from Tiernon. How could I have been so stupid? he thought to himself. This relay link thing should have been obvious to anyone with a clear head. In hindsight, he now realized they could have used their links to other priests on Nysegard, in other cities, to make connections and teleport to those priests, thus getting outside the Citadel.

I panicked — we panicked. People as old and supposedly as experienced as Beragamos should not panic. Dealing in the mortal realms led one to think like a mortal, react like a mortal. Although perhaps not only a mortal fault; any avatar suddenly cut off from their god would panic.

However, they had just been dealing with a similar situation with the Inferno. They should have learned from that, developed scenarios for that and similar situations. Not that anyone, other than Orcus and perhaps Sentir Fallon, could have anticipated such a situation.

This business with Sentir Fallon was bad. Sentir Fallon was a longtime friend and colleague. Beragamos knew Tiernon had been suspicious, and for very good reasons frustrated with the archon; however, at no point had Beragamos actually suspected Sentir Fallon of any complicity. It was just not in the archon’s nature, or so Beragamos had thought. He had been Sentir’s strongest backer before Tiernon and Torean.

Now, today, not only had he panicked and been unable to figure out a way to deal with the interdiction — something that should have been obvious to him — he had heard credible testimony that Sentir Fallon was in league with Lilith as well as Nét. Perhaps even the Storm Lords, given that they somehow had the same magineering.

He closed his eyes. Perhaps it was time to retire, or take a break. He had been at this for so very long now and he was making mistakes. He shook his head. Look at how much he had enjoyed working with Hilda, though. Up until now, their adventures had been the most enjoyable experiences he’d had in centuries, if not millennia. Was that a subconscious recognition that he was getting too old for his job?

Chapter 146

Citadel of Light, Shrine of Doom: Shortly Before Atunset