The Heavenly Host

A clock in the courtyard gonged that the afternoon was halfway done. “Oh, dear lord!” Trisfelt exclaimed in dismay. “I need to meet with Elrose! He needed to meet with me privately and in person!”

Gastropé nodded. “Yeah, he’s going to tell you about the expedition.”

“And,” Jenn hiccupped, “that since both he and I are going, Lenamare and Jehenna need you inside the city for their project.”

“Project?” Hilda asked. “Surely the wards are stable and the city secure?”

“No,” Jenn shook her head, “the other project, the one that got Exador to attack the castle.”

Hilda thought back for a moment. “I don’t recall what you said that was — some dispute about an artifact of some sort?”

“A stupid magic spell book they can’t figure out how to open,” Jenn said. Gastropé was nodding up and down in rather excessive agreement.

“Okay, yes, I remember now. I’d sort of forgotten that in all the other crazy adventures you’ve been through.” Hilda shook her head in sympathy at Jenn.

“I fear I must take my leave to go and see Master Elrose then, before he leaves.” Trisfelt stood.

Hilda nodded. “Danyel and I should be getting home. I am pretty clear on our route in, so we should be able to get ourselves back to the stables.” She glanced a bit skeptically over at Danyel, who was also inexperienced when it came to libations. She shook her head and gave Trisfelt a glance, as she noted that he had noticed her look to Danyel.

“Youth,” he said and chuckled softly, shaking his head in agreement as well. He seemed quite fine. Hilda was not surprised; the man had true fortitude when it came to libations. She briefly wondered if he had a similar fortitude in the romance department. Hilda blushed; clearly, the wine and headache were getting to her, for that thought to pop up!

Mana Pools and Anima Jars[12]

Chapter 86

Estrebrius handed the waiter demon another coin for his second mug of Denubian Choco-Coffee^TM. This was really a crapper of a day — actually, the last two days. He had been hanging out in his penta-cage at his accursed master’s laboratory when that damned crazy expulsion spell had hit him. He had nearly puked out his non-existent guts and released his non-existent bowels. He had headed out of the city as fast as possible and seen the last half of the fateful battle before being dispatched by those bastards in the flying boat after the battle.

Then, still recovering, his accursed master had summoned him! That had been very painful, although the magic of the summoning did help accelerate his healing. However, his accursed master had apparently become completely unhinged. This stunk! Master Vaselle was the best accursed master he had ever had. He never wantonly tortured and only did modest and appropriate punishments when warranted. Plus he let Estrebrius hang out in Freehold with him, which was a much more interesting place than the outlands of the Abyss, and safer than the Courts.

He was not a huge fan of the Courts, but when you needed a drink there weren’t a lot of other options. Estrebrius sighed; he wished he could cry. He felt so despondent! How would he ever find this new demon lord? Everyone in the Abyss was trying to figure out who he was and what he was up to, and no one knew anything! In addition, there were plenty of others trying to find the demon lord. What chance did he have?

Even if he did find the demon lord, what then? Assuming the demon lord did not eat him for lunch, he would never agree to see Vaselle. He was going to fail in his task and likely die in it. The only thing worse would probably be to succeed. Well, maybe that would not be worse than dying, unless he died in that option too. The point was, if the demon lord did agree to meet with Vaselle, he would surely kill the wizard and then he would be out a particularly good master. Not that it was such a bad thing, but he had never had much luck staying free, so it was better to be bound to a decent master.

“Hoy, Estrebrius! Why so glum, dear chap?” Estrebrius looked up to see Boggy joining him at the table. He was happy to see that Boggy had recovered from his post-master-slaying drinking binge. Estrebrius had checked out early from that party. He had not wanted a hangover when Vaselle summoned him to work the next day.

“I am up the Styx without a paddle,” Estrebrius whined despondently.

“Why, what happened?” Boggy asked.

“You know that big demon that kidnapped the knight of Tiernon?”

Boggy beamed extremely brightly. “I certainly do!”

Estrebrius shook his head, not understanding why Boggy was so enthusiastic about it; but of course, if he had been in the Courts he could not not know about the demon. “Anyway, my master, Vaselle — ”

“The one you keep telling me is a decent fellow? The one I insist can’t be?” Boggy interrupted.

“Yes, him. He has gone over the edge. Bonkers! And he’s set me to an impossible task!” Estrebrius ground his eyes into the palms of his hands.

“Ahh, finally tortured you. I told you, they all do it eventually!” Boggy patted his arm.