The Heavenly Host

“Excellent; let’s go.” Tom joined her in the hallway. “Maybe we’ll pick up the guys who are here.” He gestured to the other suites in the hall.

Zelda squinted in thought. “Boggy and Tizzy are in a lower kitchen, cleaning it up and organizing.”

“What for?” Tom asked, puzzled.

“The cookies!” Zelda grinned.

“He’s going to make them? And here?” Tom shook his head. “Where is he getting the ingredients?”

Zelda shrugged. “He’s got a stream of type I and II demons hauling in supplies from the closest boom tunnel. Including Estrebrius.”

Tom shook his head in wonder. “Well, he does seem to know almost everyone in the Abyss; I wonder how he got them to haul all this stuff for him?”

Zelda chuckled. “I have a sneaking suspicion he’s offering them room and board in your house.”

Tom chuckled too. “Would you be okay with that?”

Zelda shrugged. “We have the room. We used to have demon servants and even some warriors back in the old days. As long as they swear allegiance to you, it would not be unprecedented. I am sure several of my senior staff would appreciate having more hands to do work. As you can imagine, D’Orcs aren’t much for doing routine chores.”

“And we will need to maximize our combat readiness. If the D’Orcs are free to train and prepare, that could be useful,” Tom said.

Zelda nodded with a smile. “Exactly my thinking, My Lord.”

“Okay, so Reggie is with his accursed mistress; Rupert and Fer-Rog are in Ithgar.”

“Talarius is with Antefalken, working on the x-glargh,” Zelda noted.

“Really?” Tom looked at her as they walked down the corridor. “Talarius is actively involved?”

“I heard Antefalken tell him the Astlan hunting party had brought in some barrels of wine for the mortal guests, so I suspect he wanted to try that out,” Zelda commented.

Tom chuckled. “So do you have the basics for the ceremony worked out?” That was what they were going to the command center to work on with the various leaders.

“Yes, we are thinking to do the swearing in, in pairs, if that will work for you. Each will swear an oath, but they will come up in pairs. I think that will save some time,” Zelda said.

Tom nodded. “Do you have a good time estimate?”

“At least a full day. If we put in some breaks and adjust for the rotation of people working on preparing the party, I am thinking about a day and a quarter,” Zelda said.

“And we start...?” Tom asked.

“The last of the parties will be back by noon tomorrow, or shortly thereafter. So we are thinking to start early fifth period.” She paused, then added, “Oh, and before I forget, can you have the Ithgar crowd purchase some tanning supplies? I have a list somewhere.”

“Tanning supplies?” Tom looked her askance. Why would D’Orcs want to tan? There was not even a sun, or rather Fierd, in the Abyss. Normal demons could not tan; a good number were red already.

“Yes.” Zelda looked at him, surprised by his surprise. “We have all these kills, and we have a lot of D’Orcs who could use some new clothes. The hides, bones and ligaments of the kills are going to be more useful in the long run than the meat!” She seemed surprised he had not considered this.

“Oh yes, of course. I was thinking of a different type of tanning.” Tom shook his head. Tanning like tanning a hide, making leather. Clearly, he was a city demon.

“Another type of tanning?” Zelda asked.

“It’s not important. Humans like to lie out in the sun, I mean Fierd, to darken their skin; they call that tanning.”

Zelda blinked. “That doesn’t make much sense. Why would you want to dry out and age your skin like that? From what I’ve read, nobles and rich people like pale, soft, supple skin, not the leathery skin of a field worker!” She shook her head. “I do know that Morok and his tribe, who have very pale skin, have to use special ointments when on planets to avoid starburn.”

“Same idea, but on some worlds people of light complexion sometimes try to do a little bit of starburning — more like starbaking, I guess. In that sense the ‘tanning supplies’ I was thinking of were ointments to control the amount of darkening of the skin,” Tom said, realizing as he said it how stupid and pointless such an act would seem to a D’Orc, or an orc.

“Wow, you’ve had to deal with some really strange cultures and people on your journey home!” Zelda shook her head, marveling at the strange lands he had seen.

Tom smiled. He liked the idea of this place being home.

∼

“Excellent! I think that covers everything for now. Are there any other issues?” Tom asked the leadership team in the command center. They had just finished a long discussion of the ceremony and the party afterwards, as well as discussions on guard duty rotation during the party. They needed to ensure there were some at least some semi-sober sentinels on duty. That meant that they had to rotate people in and ensure that no one scheduled to go on duty drank too much. On-duty soldiers would have food and traditional glargh or ale, which would not get them drunk.