The Heavenly Host

Hilda nodded. “I would agree. While I don’t know Lenamare that well, what I do know gives me pause before accusing him of allowing a third or lesser fourth-order demon to sleep under his roof undetected.”

Trisfelt chuckled darkly. “Then you know him as well as any. That is exactly my concern.”

A knock came at the door. “Valet service, My Lord,” a voice from the hall called.

“Come in, come in!” Trisfelt called as he stood and moved towards the door. He glanced back to Hilda. “I hope you brought your appetite; I can smell it already!”

∼

“Tizzy, dear chap... you might have mentioned that this place is on the other side of the Abyss!” Boggy complained to Tizzy. “My wings are still regenerating from yesterday’s revelry!”

“What are you complaining about? I’m the one carrying the giant canned meat!” Tizzy retorted.

“It is a bit out there,” Antefalken noted.

“I’m getting more than a little tired, I have to admit. This flying business is still pretty new to me,” Reggie agreed.

Tom was fine, surprisingly; the prolonged flight was helping him keep his fidgetiness and even his indigestion in check. Sort of like a good workout. He kept thinking that his symptoms of mana overindulgence would subside at some point, but they had not yet. The massage at the spa had helped, as did today’s exercise.

“I’m good. It’s very scenic; I don’t generally venture this far out on my own,” Estrebrius put in happily.

The party had flown to the nearby boom tunnel, and Tizzy had set the coordinates and they had gone through. Tom had assumed a half hour or so of flying, but it ended up being nearly two hours, and then they ended up at another boom tunnel.

“It’s been nearly two hours since the last boom tunnel. I don’t think I’ve had to use two boom tunnels in more than two centuries,” Antefalken complained. “I know the tunnels all have maximum ranges; were you hitting the max on those two tunnels?”

Tizzy shrugged. “Probably. There’s another boom tunnel up ahead, but it’s been turned off for quite some time.”

“Turned off?” Boggy asked. “Why would anyone turn off a boom tunnel?”

“Save power?” Tizzy asked, shrugging.

“Save power?” Antefalken asked. “Who in the Abyss cares about conservation of anything?”

Tizzy just shrugged.

“So that’s the one we would have gone to if it had been on?” Tom asked.

“Nah, that’s the one we are going to try and turn on to get where we are going,” Tizzy answered. Talarius jostled in Tizzy’s hands, obviously perturbed.

“What do you mean try?” Boggy asked. “Are you saying that after all this flying and tunneling, we might not get where we want to go because we can’t turn it on?”

Tizzy tilted his head for a moment. “No, I’m pretty sure I can turn this one on.”

“Well that’s a relief,” Talarius said sarcastically.

“It’s the one that we are going to that’s likely to be the problem. Turning on a boom tunnel remotely is kind of tricky. Sometimes they are so drained that they don’t get the activation signal to wake up,” Tizzy said.

“Ah, fargsbottles!” Boggy cursed.

Antefalken looked over to Tizzy as they flew. “What do you mean, wake-up signal? Boom tunnels are always on.”

Tizzy shook his head. “Not if no one uses them. They go to sleep after about a decade or so, to save power.”

“So the one we are heading to now has been off for over a decade?” Rupert asked. “Why didn’t we just do the remote activation thing for it?”

“Range is too far for the remote activation signal. The one we just came through gets used every few months or years, I think. This next one, not very often.”

“At least a decade, I guess,” Tom said.

Tizzy shook his head from side to side. “I can tell once we turn it on, but my guess is over a hundred.”

“So this place really is in the boonies!” Estrebrius exclaimed.

“So I’m guessing these caves don’t get many tourists?” Tom asked.

Tizzy shrugged. “Just me in the last thousand years, I would bet. Not a lot of people would remember them.”

Boggy looked at him closely. “You know you always avoid this question, mate, but exactly how old are you? You were here when I got here.”

Tizzy shrugged. “No longer counting. Too long.”

Estrebrius nodded. “You were the first person I ever met.”

Antefalken was looking around at the others strangely. “You know, you were also there when I showed up. Apparently you’ve been doing the welcome committee thing for some time?”

Rupert was nodding excitedly. “Yeah, Tizzy was the first demon I met after Tom!”

“That seems a bit odd, doesn’t it, Tizzy?” Tom asked, looking back at the octopod.

Tizzy shrugged. “What can I say? “I smell buttah!” Tizzy said in a sort of mock version of his yenta voice. He cleared his throat and looked a bit sheepish. “Sorry, can’t really do that unless I actually smell buttah.”

“So you can smell new arrivals?” Reggie asked.

Tizzy shrugged again.

“Would you stop doing that?” Talarius asked. “It makes me start swaying uncomfortably.”