The Heavenly Host

Moradel nodded. “Definitely not. However, the true oddity is that it wasn’t from a single illuminary. The drain was spread out over several illuminaries.” There was a lot of mumbling. “Five in total,” Moradel added and looked around the room. “The Holy Ciphers guarding the illumination streams were hacked. Someone, or something, pierced the illumination streams and first diverted mana intended for the Pool, and then a bit later pulled mana from our avatars, masquerading as legitimate illuminaries. Once the cyphers were broken, they had the authority of the high priests whose illumination streams were intercepted. While none of these high priests would have been able to withdraw a greater miracle’s worth of mana without explicit permission, the individual stream requests were within the limits allowed to the infiltrated high priests. In all, a very complex and sophisticated effort that took us completely by surprise.”

The room was abuzz with amazed chatter among the other members of the advance party, but also among the assembled Host and the various other bureaucrats in the room. This was old news to Hilda. Of course, finding an inebriated wizard who had actually helped conjure the culprit was something of a small coup on her part. She suppressed a grin of triumph. Hubris was a sin, after all.

“Now, further,” Moradel continued, “we’ve been investigating prayer reports for the senior Rod leadership and we believe they were in Freehold investigating demonic activity.” Some of the beings present, who had not been in the advance party and were hearing this for the first time, made shocked noises. Moradel nodded. “So, in addition to standard checks, we had the advance team check for the presence of demons in the vicinity.” Numerous individuals nodded in agreement with this decision.

“So, advance party?” Moradel glanced around the room, momentarily locking eyes with each of the advanced team, including Hilda. “Any signs of significant demonic presence?” the archon asked.

“None detected by Team Alpha,” Seralina stood and stated. Team Alpha? Really, is that what Seralina was calling her coterie of hens? She had managed to wrangle her four “minions” into the advance party. Meaning everyone except Hilda.

“There is some evidence of demon mana in the area, but we observed no demons currently in or around the city,” Seralina stated with military smugness.

“No demons in the city?” An older archon leaning against a sidewall asked, sounding puzzled. “This is Freehold, a city with more wizards per square foot than anywhere else on the plane.” He shook his head in disbelief. “And you are telling me you found no demons in the city? There have always been demons in that cursed city. Wizards really can’t stop themselves from summoning and trying to foolishly control demons. It’s a genetic abnormality or something.” Several people in the room laughed at this.

Seralina looked a bit taken off guard. Apparently, she really hadn’t known much about the city. “Uhm, yes, we flew over the city and scanned it for demons. There were none in the city. We could detect the residue of demon summoning, and various protective spells, but there were no demons in or around the city.” She looked to her clique, who all nodded in agreement.

“I have to admit, that sounds very odd,” Moradel added, looking suspicious.

“How could there not be demons in Freehold? We were simply wanting to check the area around the Rod and the Oorstemothians. We expected demons in the city,” another avatar sitting in the room stated.

“Yes, and why are the Oorstemothians camped right near the Rod? While we have no current hostilities with them, this seems a bit odd,” Beragamos Antidelles stated. Everyone looked towards the archon. Beragamos was one of the oldest still active archons. He had been with Tiernon even before the Etonians’ arrival in Astlan.

“We haven’t ascertained that yet, either, I fear,” Moradel answered, shaking his head. “It is another mystery, along with the missing demons.”

Hilda hunched her shoulders a little. It all made sense to her, thanks to Master Trisfelt. She tried to suppress another grin. Her face muscles wanted to smile so much, she had to fake a small cough to hide her grin. “Uhhm hem,” she coughed into her hand. Hilda suddenly went cold, realizing that the room had been completely silent, taking in Moradel’s response. Everyone had heard her cough and were now turning to look at her.

“Hilda?” Moradel asked her in surprise. “Do you know something?”

Hilda closed her eyes for a moment; now she had done it. Slowly she stood; she had not done any real public speaking since her death, so was not really comfortable doing so. “Uhm, yes, I did discover a fair amount of information in my explorations.” She heard Katassa, one of Seralina’s minions, snort in disbelief.

Moradel seemed pleasantly surprised. “Proceed, if you will.”