The Heavenly Host

“...and know, my fellow colleagues, friends, associates, subordinates, assistants, admirers, articulate adversaries and all those others so assembled here in this gloriously, yet in no way garishly decorated reception hall at this hallowed, historic and honorable happening, that we seek not only to enable and enervate this experimental endeavor that seeks to engender an edifying and equitably egalitarian enterprise to extend the existence of law into the ersatz empire of evil; an expedition that emboldens so many earnest, and certainly not erstwhile exhibitions of emotions of trust and facilitation and goodwill between our organizations...” continued this most recent chancellor or councilor, or something with a title.

Arch-Vicar General Barabus surreptitiously pulled out his pocket watch and glanced at it. He rubbed his eyes. They were only two and a half hours into the dinner. It was scheduled for eight hours. Fortunately, servants kept the food and wine coming. There were also nearby facilities to relieve oneself. It was apparent from both the setup and the behavior of the Oorstemothians at the party that such long dinners were not uncommon occurrences.

He reached for his water glass, glancing next to him as he did so and noting that his dining companion to his left, Wing Master Heron, had his eyes closed. That was actually reassuring to the arch-vicar general; Heron’s reaction showed that at least the Oorstemothian armed forces were human.

He glanced down the table to see Gadius and Gaius staring in rapt attention at the speaker. How could those two manage that? The knights did have to go through insane levels of courtly training, but he found it hard to imagine that even the best Church instructors could have prepared them for this particular ordeal.

He had been relieved when he had arrived in Keeper’s City to see that Gaius had joined Gadius here. Back in Freehold, Gadius had told him that Gaius was occupied on another Holy Mission. Apparently, that had ended. The knights were generally quite autonomous once they got to the Rampant level. Fortunately, when the chips were down, they always came through. Rescuing Talarius would obviously be something the knights would give a high priority.

As his gaze traveled idly down the table, noting Sir Lady Serah, he wondered where the knights were stabling their unique steeds. Very few stables would take a hippogriff, since that would obviously cause a panic among the horses. The two unicorns, one midnight black — War Bringer — and the other opalescent white — Peace Bringer — would probably not bother the horses much. However, their odd, all-knowing gazes would surely discomfort the grooms.

Actually, as Barabus thought about it, he wondered if mythological creatures were even legal in Keeper’s City. As far as he could tell, one needed the proper permit to vacate one’s bowels! He was not sure how long he could deal with the Oorstemothians.

Tomorrow they would see this project of Chancellor Alighieri’s, the one the chancellor had assured them had been specifically designed for just such a mission as the one they faced now. How that could be, he had no idea, but he saw very few options other than just giving up for now.

Sir Lady Serah’s head nodded downward before jerking back up. Barabus grinned in triumph, very pleased to see that even his own knights had some limits of endurance! Yes, an odd thing to be relieved about, but dinners like this were not what warriors like himself, or Heron apparently, were trained for.

∼

Dinner had been extraordinary, Gastropé thought, suppressing a loud belch. He shook his head slightly at the pain of choking back a belch. He was sure, however, that their alvaren hosts would have thought him crude.

He had never had pure alvaren cooking before. There had been some alvaren dishes at that crazy feast in the Grove, although his memory was not completely clear on that point. This, however, had been an entire meal of alvaren dishes. The flavors were sublime.

The conversation had been quite interesting as well. He and Jenn had confined themselves to smaller questions. The level of historical knowledge and world geography required to add anything relevant to the discussion was a bit beyond him. He grinned to himself; it was very difficult to sound knowledgeable when discussing history with a table full of people well over a thousand years old.

Oddly, Maelen managed to keep up his part of the conversation, even though he was an admitted babe by comparison. Trevin was also incredibly knowledgeable. While she obviously looked to be well over a hundred, that too would be but a toddler to the elves. However, she talked about events from a thousand years ago as if she had witnessed them herself.