The Heavenly Host

“Yeah, and by the way...” Antefalken paused; Tom nodded. “... one thing I suggested to reassure him was that perhaps he could come for a visit. Gastropé and Jenn have both been to the Abyss and lived. Talarius is here now, and seeing the knight safe might reassure him.”

Tom shrugged. “I have no real problem with that. He would need to know how to do the Cool spell that Gastropé and Jenn use. I am sure they could teach him.” Tom paused. “Or Jenn could — Gastropé is flying around killing liches.”

Antefalken grimaced. “Jenn is with Gastropé.”

Tom looked at the bard, puzzled. “Really? That seems odd. I didn’t think she cared that much for him.”

Antefalken shrugged. “The short answer is that the Council needed everyone who was being hunted by the Rod or Oorstemoth to be gone from the city, so they sent them on a quest. I am guessing that’s how they ended up flying around in the clouds fighting liches on dragonback.”

“A quest? A quest to rid the world of liches?” Tom asked.

“Well, the Council and many others have now seen a crystal ball recording of your battle, and apparently the Council noticed the flying carpet that we spotted before the battle. And they pretty much reached the same conclusion we did.”

Tom nodded, remembering the flying carpet with Bess, Exador and Ramses on it. Tom, Antefalken and Tizzy had assumed they were the three archdemons.

“By the way, I was thinking about Exador being an archdemon. It just seems bizarre. He’s a wizard known for enslaving demons,” Tom said.

“Slave, minimum wage employee — hard to tell the difference.” Tizzy shrugged.

“So you are saying he wasn’t conjuring and enslaving demons, but paying them money?” Tom asked incredulously.

Tizzy and Boggy both shrugged. “Yeah, most of the soldier demons are employed by higher-level demons,” Boggy said. “Not a life I would want, but to each his own. It pays for the Denubian Choco-Coffee^TM.”

Tom twisted his mouth and tilted his head with a small shrug. “I guess that makes sense; seems a lot easier than pure compulsion.” He shook his head. “But back to what you were saying: how is this related to a quest?” he asked Antefalken.

“Well, it seems that Trevin D’Vils...” Antefalken began.

“Pagan whore!” Talarius interrupted. Tom rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying not to poke his eyes out with his claws. As much as he wanted to ask about this Trevin D’Vils and why she was a pagan whore, he needed to keep this conversation on track.

“Continue,” Tom told Antefalken, raising his hand to hold Talarius off.

“Anyway, Trevin recognized her as possibly being Bastet or Bestat, Defender of House and Home,” Antefalken continued.

“That’s a rather odd title for an archdemon,” Boggy noted.

Antefalken shook his head. “No, Trevin says that Bastet was a goddess of the Nyjyr Ennead, a pantheon of deities previously worshiped in Natoor and Najaar.”

“Heretics, false deities, thankfully long gone!” Talarius stated proudly.

“Wiped out by the Etonians,” Antefalken said, nodding to Talarius.

“Heretics?” Reggie asked. “You mean like my accursed mistress?”

Antefalken turned to stare at Reggie, as did Talarius. Tom looked back and forth between the three, not having any idea of what they are talking about.

“Same heretics. Memphis was one of their holiest cities. Fortunately, your heretic mistress worships gods that are long dead,” Talarius said, nodding emphatically.

“Or maybe not.” Antefalken countered.

The knight swiveled to look at the bard. Again, it was really hard to read the knight’s expressions inside his giant helmet. Tom thought about lowering the temperature of the entire mountain, except it might interfere with mana generation. There was too much he still did not understand about this fortress.

“The Council, and in particular Trevin, think that the third archdemon might not have been an archdemon at all, but the goddess Bastet. They are on a quest to discover the truth,” Antefalken said.

Tom shook his head. “I’m rather new to Astlan, but isn’t goddess hunting a bit dangerous?”

“Sounds like it to me,” Boggy said.

Antefalken raised his hands. “Don’t ask me, I’m just relaying what I was told. I am not sure they seriously expect to find a goddess.”

“But why would a goddess be slumming as an archdemon?” Reggie asked.

Tizzy released a large cloud of smoke. “I’ve been asking myself that same question ever since she and her avatars popped up in the Abyss about a hundred and fifty years ago. Built themselves a scary fortress and all started pretending to be demons.” Tizzy shook his head. “Always seemed a bit déclassé to me.”

“Well, I should think the real estate down here would be cheaper,” Boggy noted.

“Tizzy, are you saying that this Bess, the archdemon ally of Exador and Ramses, really is a goddess?” Tom asked.