The Heavenly Host

Jenn shuddered. She did not like where this was going; she needed to change gears. She had nothing remotely like any interest whatsoever in Jehenna’s and Lenamare’s personal lives. So why should she care about Gastropé? Yes, he was clearly much more handsome, and much more pleasant — actually quite agreeable. Or at least he was after he stopped trying to kill her. Of course, she had easily beaten him on that front. That was satisfying, from a competitive point of view. Not that he was a slouch in the magic department; he had been really good on the ship fighting the Oorstemothians, and to be honest she had learned some good tricks of combat magic from him.

Oddly, he had turned out to be a decent friend. Really one of her better ones, other than Rex and Alvea. Of course, Rex was dead and Alvea was now being harangued by Jehenna. Maybe that was it: Trevin’s advances on Gastropé bothered her because they were friends and she recognized that involvement with Trevin was not in his best interests. Yes, that made a lot of sense, Jenn realized.

“Don’t you think, Jenn?” Gastropé asked her.

“What?” Jenn replied, realizing she had zoned out the conversation around her. She had no idea what he had asked her. “Sorry, I got lost in my own thoughts staring out this... what exactly is it?” She turned her head to Trevin.

Trevin grinned. “It’s a sympathetic lens. We have lenses stationed at multiple points around the ship and we can tune this big lens to any of those lenses and see what we would see through them. Not completely different from mirrors. Actually simpler, in fact.”

“Neat!” Gastropé said.

“Indeed,” Maelen seconded. “I have seen an amazing number of new things on this short adventure so far. It’s always nice to find new things at my age.”

Trevin chuckled. “Wait until you get to be my age. I’m almost hoping we actually find this goddess.”

“There are some new things I’m not so sure I need,” Elrose replied drily.

Chapter 94

“Neat!” Rupert exclaimed.

“What the hell are they doing?” Reggie asked.

The group had just come over a ridge after a brief walk from the boom tunnel. Boggy and Tizzy had decided that the first stop on their tour of the Abyss would be some place called “Hellsprings Eternal.” Tom had noticed the smell of sulfur immediately upon exiting the boom tunnel. Reggie and Talarius both took a few extra moments to notice it because they were reeling from the boom of the boom tunnel.

They had trudged up a well-worn path in long-ago-solidified lava rock to gaze into a valley with wide molten lava streams flowing out of a large crater about a thousand feet upstream of them. There were numerous shanties and other odd buildings lining the valley. However, what had gotten Reggie’s attention was the fact that the valley was populated with quite a few demons of various shapes and sizes engaged in strange behavior.

There were quite a few that seemed to be wading, albeit slowly, in the molten lava streams. Others were lying on glowing red rocks near the lava flows as if they were sunning on a beach. About four hundred feet away, there was a group of demons apparently submerged to their necks in a pool of glowing hot, molten lava, just chatting away.

“Welcome to Hellsprings Eternal!” Boggy said, waving his hands broadly to announce the place.

“I haven’t been here in at least a century,” Antefalken said. “I have to admit, after the panic of that stupid spell and our near-permanent death experience at the hands of our new colleague” — he gestured towards Talarius — “a day at the spa sounds wonderful.” He patted his pocket. “The day is on me! If anyone wants a massage or other spa treatment, or just some refreshing blood wine or Denubian Choco-Coffee^TM, just let me know!”

Boggy grinned. “That’s mighty demonly of you, Anty!” He gestured to the lava streams. “There’s no charge for dunking in the lava flows or just lying on the shores. The services are all at the various huts in the valley and they all list their prices. And all prices include tax.”

“Tax?” Reggie asked. “Who is charging tax?”

“Moloch,” Antefalken replied. “He’s the demon prince that owns this part of the Abyss. He charges the vendors a tax on all sales and services. It’s actually not that bad of a tax, as such things go, only fifteen percent.”

“That’s mighty reasonable,” Tizzy said. “I don’t remember him being all that reasonable, though.”

Boggy shook his head. “That’s because you were sleeping with his daughter.”

“Oh, right. Forgot about that.” Tizzy shrugged. “But technically, neither of us was sleeping...” Tizzy grinned lecherously. “If you know what I mean.” He winked very broadly.

“What do you mean?” Rupert asked.

Boggy slapped his head. “Now see what you’ve done — you’ve opened Pandora’s box with the boy.”

“That’s right! I had forgotten. Her name was Pandora, and I certainly opened her box... that was why Moloch was so mad at me. The young thing was only a couple centuries old when we ‘slept’ together.”