The Heavenly Host

Jehenna sighed. Putting the letter down on her lap, she stared directly at Lenamare. “You cannot tell me that you, Lenamare the Great, do not know when someone is flattering you?”

Lenamare’s mouth opened in a stunned O. He finally shook his head. “What possible reason could that woman have for flattering me? What end would that serve?”

Jehenna sighed heavily. “Men! You are all so dense. I don’t know why we women put up with you.” Lenamare was completely baffled at this point. Jehenna just stared at him. Finally she said, “She obviously has a crush on you!” She raised her hands in hopelessness. “She’s like any senior student infatuated with a famous professor!”

“No...” Lenamare denied. “That cannot be.” Now he was shaking his head. He paused and looked thoughtful.

“Men are always the last to realize when a woman is flirting with them,” Jehenna noted archly.

“But I thought she and Trisfelt were courting?” Lenamare said.

Jehenna gave her head a small shake. “Clearly, she’s simply using him to get access to you.”

Lenamare grimaced. “Ah, poor Trisfelt. Here I had been hoping he might have finally found himself a companion.”

“It is a shame, particularly since the woman is clearly working a lost cause,” Jehenna stated firmly.

“What do you mean, ‘lost cause’?” Lenamare asked, looking slightly insulted.

Jehenna closed her eyes briefly, and then reopened them. “It is a lost cause because you are with me, and that is not going to be changing. Is it?” Jehenna asked sternly. There could clearly be only one correct answer.

“Oh. Of course not.” Lenamare replied, startled and slightly embarrassed at having missed her meaning.

∼

“I just want to stop by my suite to check on everyone before we launch the next hunting party,” Tom said. “I assume, since we are calling on Ragala-nargoloth, that you will be commanding the hunting party, Arg-nargoloth?”

“It would be my honor, Great One,” Arg-nargoloth said, clearly trying not to sound too pleased.

“I too would check on Fer-Rog, who I believe is with Rupert,” Zelda said.

“We shall meet the rest of you back here in the assembly area before long.” Tom nodded to the commanders. He and Zelda headed off towards Tom’s suite.

As they made their way through the corridors Tom asked Zelda, “Do you wish you were going?”

Zelda snorted slightly. “It would be a great experience. However, as steward, my duty is here in the mountain.”

Tom nodded. “But at some point, perhaps it would be good for you to go on a hunting party. After all, as the Steward of the Mount, you must intimately understand all details of the Mount and its provisioning.” He glanced at her.

Zelda nodded, “You are quite wise, My Lord, and when appropriate, I shall be honored to add to my skillset in order to serve the Mount.” Tom was not sure, but he thought he detected a bit of extra brightness in her eyes and the subtlest whisper of a miniscule grin of pleasure on her face.

“Excellent!” Tom smiled.

They entered his suite to find Reggie, Antefalken, Boggy, Tizzy and Talarius all there. Estrebrius was presumably still with Vaselle; Rupert and Fer-Rog were off someplace.

“You two are back!” Tom smiled at Reggie and Antefalken. He looked over to Talarius, who seemed a bit different. It took Tom a minute to register the difference in the knight’s posture. “Got a good night’s sleep, I take it?” Tom smiled at the knight, who immediately seemed to get agitated.

“I did rest for a bit,” Talarius admitted.

Tom grinned. “I see no one roasted you in the night.”

“No. They did not.” Talarius said tersely.

“Talarius, for the last time, I will not roast you or kill you down here. At some point, I will see to your safe return to Astlan. You have my word on it. Provided, of course, that you don’t try to or succeed in killing any of the others under my protection while you are here.”

Talarius made a harrumphing noise.

Zelda shook her head. “Knight, why do you doubt the word of Lord Tommus? Surely you know that in his previous existence, Lord Orcus was known as the God of Oaths and the Punisher of Perjurers. There was no greater crime that one could commit before Lord Orcus than to break one’s oath or to be foresworn.”

Hmm, do not remember that from the Monster Manual, Tom thought to himself. Not a bad thing; he really did get sort of bent out of shape when people broke their word. He shook his head. He needed to keep his own head pulled back into reality, or whatever passed for reality around here. He was not Orcus reincarnated.

“Speaking of oaths,” Antefalken said, breaking into the conversation, “as you might imagine, I managed to freak Damien out a little with our adventures. It might not be a bad idea for you to pay him a visit and reassure him that nothing has changed.”

Antefalken chuckled. “I think Vaselle and I, between the two of us, may have been a bit much.”

“So the two of you double teamed him? Great!” Tom shook his head.