The Heavenly Host

Hilda gulped. Had she uncovered something worthy of Tiernon’s own attention? That thought made her stomach twist in knots. Old proverbs made it very clear that one did not one to draw a god’s interest; it was never healthy. While that was officially for mortals, she suspected it would not be that much better for a minor saint.

“And so the mana theft? The reversal of Excrathadorus Mortis?” Hilda asked.

“Which brings us to the central question of this demon. I have no idea who it actually is, unless it’s one of the princes in disguise, which I think seems to be most likely,” Beragamos said.

“Not some demon prince who has been hiding in the deep backwaters of the Abyss? That place is so big, there is no telling who or what is hiding in the backwaters,” Moradel said.

Beragamos shrugged. “Certainly a possibility. The only other one, in fact. This being is obviously a demon prince; I cannot imagine an archdemon capable of what we have seen. In fact, I refuse to imagine such a thing due to the sheer terror of all the archdemons learning to do this.”

“There is one other possibility,” Sentir Fallon said softly.

Beragamos looked at him. “What am I missing?”

“The business with reversing Excrathadorus Mortis — that would require considerable knowledge of the blade, millennia of planning, and the sort of power we’ve witnessed. What just happened could only be done with Tiernon’s own power. A demon seeking specifically to destroy this blade might spend centuries or even millennia researching how to do what we’ve seen, should they wish to ensure the blade’s destruction,” Sentir Fallon told the others.

“But who would go to so much trouble to destroy this blade? And then locate it and set this up?” Beragamos asked.

Sentir Fallon sighed. “Someone who had very real reasons to fear it as the one known thing that could stop him.”

Moradel started coughing. Hilda turned pale.

Beragamos said softly, “You can’t possibly mean...”

Sentir Fallon sat up. “I can’t mean a resurrected demon? Or one that we thought was dead, but isn’t?”

“Hell,” Beragamos said.

Moradel put his head in his arms on the table. “So, should we have Hilda be on the lookout for a sudden uptick in the number of warlocks running around?” he asked.

“Not a bad idea,” Beragamos replied.

Chapter 96

“So okay, Vaselle wants another day. He thinks he’s close,” Tom said to the group in the cave. “I told him to take whatever time he needed to do it right. I am hoping he will come to his senses and back out. I’m still a bit nervous about this business, even though I see the points several of you have made.” He and Estrebrius had just returned from Astlan through the gateway. Tom glanced over and saw Reggie paying more attention to his privates than to what Tom was saying.

Tom looked down at his own crotch, now covered by a stretchable loincloth that had come as part of his new belt. With a small loan from Antefalken, Tom had purchased a dragon skin belt that came with an attached loincloth/adjustable kilt yesterday at Hellsprings Eternal.

The belt was pretty cool-looking to Tom’s eyes. It had a large skull buckle and a very stretchy curtain of dragon wing skin that could be unfurled to act as either a loin cloth or a wraparound kilt. He had been pleasantly surprised to see that they had one in his size. The best part was that it had several sealable pouches and some loops for hanging or attaching various things, like a utility belt. He had been somewhat nervous leaving the arrowheads in the cave; now he did not have to, he could take them with him.

“So then, where are we going today?” Rupert asked excitedly.

“Well, per our agreement today is Tizzy’s choice, since the spa was mine,” Boggy said. “He’ll have trouble beating it but...”

Tizzy snorted. “You have to admit the best part of yesterday was thanks to my accursed master!”

“Yes, but not everyone got to go kill liches and dragons. And thanks to my idea, we were able to get a nice relaxing soak afterwards,” Boggy replied.

“I wish I could have gone with you. It would have been great to see Gastropé again, and lich killing sounds like fun.”

“Someone is going to need to explain where those ice dragons came from and how they are related to the dragons here in the Abyss,” Tom said.

“That’s actually a good question,” Boggy said. “They seemed to be all ice — frozen water. They weren’t biological or demonic as far as I could tell.”

“They were fun to chip away at though,” Estrebrius said.

“So where are we going, Tizzy?” Rupert asked, changing the subject.

Tizzy beamed. “Well, I’m not sure there is a formal name for the place, but I call it crystallus cavernis infra montem fata. Or sometimes just fata cavernis for short. It’s beautiful.”

Rupert was looking puzzled. “Is that wizard tongue? It sort of sounds like it, but not quite.”

Tizzy shook his head. “No, it’s a language called romanus vulgaris.”

Boggy shook his head. “Okay, so what is this place? I’ve never heard of it. Have you, Antefalken?”