The Heavenly Host

Tom tilted his head; Anselm’s god sort of sounded like the one he was familiar with. “I’m not sure I’m going that far. I am really just looking at good vs. evil and stereotypes. I’m not trying to define what a god is or isn’t. I think people are entitled to their own beliefs as long as they don’t try to impose them on others. I see Talarius as trying to impose his beliefs on me and other demons.”

Antefalken shrugged. “They do tend to evangelize via the sword.”

Tom smiled. “Even so, I want to try, however futilely, to change a few of his crazy beliefs. Who knows, maybe he can then help convince others in his religion.”

Antefalken turned to look at him strangely. “Hmm, you are from one of those monotheistic deist type cultures then?”

“What do you mean?”

“A world with a single god, one who is all powerful and stays above the fray?”

“I guess. I mean, there is no proof that God exists. People just have to have faith. If they choose.” Tom said.

“Yeah, well... that’s why your plan might work in your world, but not here,” the bard told Tom. “The gods are not hands-off in Astlan. In fact, they tend to be very hands-on. They are egotistical, power hungry, vain people who bicker and fight among each other and who stir up considerable trouble in the worlds of men.”

Tom felt the other sick feeling in his stomach return from this morning. The one he had felt when he had first seen the umbilical cords to the sky. “Yeah, those links went somewhere. The gods, so to speak, aren’t real in my world. But apparently they are very real here?” Antefalken nodded; Tom was getting his point. Tom continued his observation. “The mana stream coming from the heavens, or wherever, was extremely purified; possibly flavored, you might even say.” Tom paused for a moment, thinking. “So then Tiernon is an actual person that you can, at least in theory, talk to?” Tom asked.

Antefalken grinned grimly. “Yeah, Tiernon is very real, as are his avatars; we are probably going to find that out soon enough.”

Tom got an even worse feeling. “What exactly do you mean?” His stomach was now a total mess. Actually, he wasn’t even sure he had a stomach, but something inside him was upset. He was getting a very sick feeling from this conversation, beyond the feeling of indigestion and of being too wired he had been dealing with.

Antefalken snorted. “Are you telling me you don’t understand what you did?”

“Apparently not. At least not completely.”

Antefalken sighed. “Well, you stole mana dedicated to and destined for Tiernon; and then you actually started using his already collected mana in a way that only very powerful priests are permitted to do.” Tom grimaced. “He is not going to be happy and he’ll most likely send some avatars to investigate.”

“What are avatars?”

“Saints, angels, lesser divine beings. Sort of counterparts to demons, I guess. I’m not an expert, but from what I understand, they are sort of like demons in the service of the gods.”

“Oh. I’m thinking that’s not good,” Tom said. “I suppose they aren’t going to be happy about me abducting their champion either?”

Antefalken simply flashed him a grin.

Tom belched, his indigestion starting to turn to nausea.

∼

Hilda was close to completing her circumference of the city and the two encampments. She was tired, dirty and sweaty. Her feet were killing her. She could have done a cleaning ritual, but that would have only lasted so long before the forest soiled it again; it simply did not seem worth the bother.

White silk was just a ridiculous fabric for marching through a forest; Hilda far preferred wool or cotton fleece, but no... avatars of Tiernon had to maintain an appropriate level of graceful appearance. Which, considering she was under the aspects of an invisibility ritual and a silence ritual made no sense whatsoever. Who was going to see it? No one. Who was going to have to clean or repair it? Her, that was who. Argh.

Hilda was distracted by a rather curious light ahead and to her right, a bit further away from the Rod’s camp. There was the typical sort of flickering of a fire, but also a strange, pale glow. Moreover, there was something else seeming to distort both lights. Clearly something to investigate. Hilda moved cautiously up on the small clearing.

Okay, that is a bit odd, Hilda thought. As she got closer, the first thing she realized was that there was some sort of light refraction spell around the lights. An invisibility shield, apparently. She’d been using her divine sight and so had not been tricked by the spell. Clearly, something worth investigating. It felt like something a bit beyond the typical sort of spell, something more complex, most likely harder for an ordinary practitioner to see through. Being an avatar, however lowly, did provide some benefits.