The Heavenly Host

“Well, it was an alvaren wedding party and as I’m sure you know, those can go on for weeks!” She shook her head, still smiling brightly. “I think it has something to do with them living for thousands of years. Time doesn’t seem to move the same for them as it does for the rest of us.

“So anyway, not knowing who the army was, and why they seem to have brought a bunch of ships and parked them on the ground hundreds of leagues from the sea, well... it just seemed a bit odd and so I was out scouting around the city to try and figure out what was going on.”

“Ah, yes.” Trisfelt was at a bit of a loss for words. “Sensible. Yes, sensible indeed. I myself have been keeping an eye on them as well. Very curious.”

Hilda shook her head smiling. Her eyes moved to his left and widened. “Is that a bottle of Old Vine Meryst? If I’m not mistaken, the label is House Darryne?” Trisfelt blinked. Given the distance to the table, she either had very good eyesight or was very familiar with the house and label.

“Uhm, yes,” Trisfelt confirmed. “A 405, in fact.”

“A 405 you say?” Hilda’s mouth twitched in an appreciating manner. “An excellent year. The next three years were much too wet and the wine was a bit mineral-heavy. Not bad, mind you, but nothing like the 405 or the 402. The 396 was possibly the best, but the 405 does give it a good run for the money.”

Trisfelt felt a strange, indescribable feeling in his gut. A woman who knew her wine as well as he did? He smiled back at her brightly. “My dear... where are my manners? You’ve been trudging through this dark nasty forest all night. Perhaps you would like to have a rest and enjoy a glass with me? I have a few snacks as well...”

Hilda grinned even more brightly than before. “Master Trisfelt, aren’t you the gentleman? I would be most grateful to sit for a bit and share your company.”

∼

A knock came on Elrose’s door, as he had been expecting. The sorcerer rose from his chair and went to answer it. The seer Maelen was there, arriving per his request. “Thank you for joining me,” Elrose said. He stepped back and gestured for Maelen to enter.

Maelen smiled. “My pleasure. After all, before things went crazy, it was you I was coming to see. We finally get to confer.”

Elrose shook his head and smiled grimly as he shut the door. “I apologize; I haven’t had much time since I finally made it into the city, with your assistance.”

“No need, no need. I’ve been here the whole time and have seen the very... er... I have no words to describe what it is that’s been going on.” Maelen threw up his hands.

Elrose chuckled. “Can I get you some wine?” he asked. “Normally, I don’t drink alcohol, but I started again after today’s screening, and I’m not quite ready to stop.”

Now it was Maelen’s turn to chuckle. “I could certainly use a glass for my nerves,” he replied.

Elrose smiled and gestured the seer to an overstuffed chair next to a small table, adjacent to the sorcerer’s own overstuffed chair, where a glass of wine had been already poured. Elrose retrieved another wine glass and the wine bottle from a small cart.

Maelen sat down as Elrose began to speak while pouring the seer a glass of wine. “Well, it appears that the visions of battle I had, which I wanted to discuss with you, are already upon us.” Maelen nodded in agreement with the obvious. “I also noted,” the sorcerer continued, setting the wine bottle down on the table between their chairs, “that your reaction to the name of the third occupant of the magic carpet was similar to my own.”

Maelen shook his head in consternation, remembering his reaction. Elrose sat down in his chair. “I had never heard that name before, but as soon as I did, I was struck by a series of very intense visions,” Maelen said.

Elrose raised an eyebrow. “Really? My shock was that I had heard the name, and seen her face... or at least her aspect with the head of a cat, in my prior scrying.”

Maelen moved his head from side to side, thinking. “Clearly she is critical. Apparently more critical than Ramses the Damned. Which, in and of itself, is disturbing. I was shocked when I first heard the name Ramses mentioned in the hallway with Exador for us, but I received no strong sense of dread or prescient visions with his name. With her name, though...” the seer trailed off uncertainly.

“What exactly did you see?” Elrose asked.

Maelen shook his head. “I’m not sure yet. It was extremely intense. There was a rapid series of images — her face, a sphinx, incredibly verdant valleys, blood everywhere, and massacres. People dying, murdered perhaps, I would say. I saw the Rod, although with very different uniforms than they wear today. It didn’t make a lot of sense.”

Elrose stared at the seer, intent on his words. Maelen continued, “I don’t know, the uniforms may indicate the Rod some time ago. I can’t imagine they’d be changing their uniforms in the same time frame your visions seem to be occurring in.”

“What about demons?” Elrose asked.