“So,” Jenn asked, “you’re in charge of making the ruling as to who is in the wrong or right?”
“No,” Damien shook his head, “I am simply in charge of finding out all the facts of the situation and presenting them to the council. Obviously, Lenamare and Exador both have stories, but they do contain several contradictions. Thus someone must determine where fiction ends, and reality begins.”
“Exador has been here? Explaining his side?” Gastropé asked worriedly.
Damien looked over to him and smiled. “Yes, in fact, he is still here.” Gastropé turned one of his more subtle shades of pale white. “However, since Freehold is neutral ground, the palace in particular, neither Lenamare nor Exador are free to continue their struggles here.” Damien assured Gastropé. “At least not directly or overtly, they can still plan and scheme and direct things elsewhere, of course.” Damien added with a sad frown.
At this point servants had arrived and begun pouring water and wine into glasses already set on the table. Others brought out plates of some form of vegetable salad. Edwyrd supposed it was the local version of a tossed salad. Damien seemed to note that Gastropé was not appearing to relax despite his assurances. “You are worried about Exador continuing his war on Lenamare?”
“No,” Gastropé said nervously, “uhm, actually, you see, I am a former employee of Exador’s and we didn’t part on such good terms. In fact, he’s out to remove me from the painting all together.”
“Really?” Damien asked intrigued. “Did you part some time ago? Before the current situation began?”
“No, actually, afterwards. It must have been just before Exador arrived here.” Gastropé’ told him.
“Ahh, and now you work for Lenamare. I can see why Exador would want you out of the way. Did you by any chance work for Lenamare at the same time you were working for Exador?”
Gastropé appeared shocked. “No! No, nothing like that! Although our falling out was over the handling of the whole situation.” Gastropé hedged. “And really, I’m not so much working for Lenamare as I’m with Jenn and the others here.” Damien just nodded his head.
“Perhaps what would be best, is if you told me your version of what happened. First up until the siege, then the siege and then what happened afterward.” Jenn nodded as she took a bite of the salad. The others were doing likewise. Edwyrd reluctantly ate his.
It had been so long, it felt a little strange. He’d tried eating again on the road from Hoggensforth. He’d eaten an apple. Everything had seemed to work fine. Just as he’d remembered it. The apple seemed to pass through in the normal manner. Thus he guessed anything would. Rupert certainly had no trouble.
Jenn began to tell the story leading up to the attack. She avoided, however, any mention of Tom at this point. Damien interrupted a few times with questions, but then urged her to continue. When she got to the point where Exador’s army arrived, the main course, some form of venison, Edwyrd guessed, Damien had Jenn break and began quizzing Gastropé.
Gastropé’s story went back a bit further then Jenn’s, essentially a month earlier. Mainly it consisted of the standard things needed to get an army ready to move. When he got to the part about Abyssal Switching, Damien hardly blinked an eye. Edwyrd thought this was a little strange that the wizard was so familiar with the spell, but maybe it wasn’t that uncommon. After Gastropé reached the point of arrival at Lenamare’s castle, Damien did go back and ask a few questions about the movement through the Abyss. More it seemed, to verify the fact that it had been done and that Gastropé had been there, rather than to question the fact.
At this point Jenn and Gastropé took turns describing the siege of the castle, each giving their own perspective. Damien seemed particularly interested in Tom’s attack on the wards. Edwyrd just sat there silent and uncomfortable during this part. When Jenn described it as just spiteful action on the part of the demon, Edwyrd almost said something to defend himself. He held his words though. There was nothing he could say that wouldn’t give him away.
Damien also probed quite a bit at Lenamare’s escape plans and his explosive spell. Unfortunately, Jenn could only tell him what she knew. When Jenn got to the part about the ambush, Damien looked at Gastropé with a raised eyebrow. The young wizard just shrugged, embarrassed.
“So why,” Damien asked Jenn, “do you think the demon stayed around?”
“I’m not sure. It may have been some former instruction of Lenamare’s or its own evil machinations.”
“He stayed,” Rupert interjected, “because we, or I, asked him too. We needed protection from Exador’s people, so I asked him to stay and he did.”
“Really?” Damien turned his attention to Rupert. “You just asked it like you would some soldier or something?”
Rupert shrugged, uncomfortable now. “Yes, essentially.” Jenn was shaking her head.
“Yes, he asked, but that only gave the demon a pretext. It obviously had hidden plans of its own. I’m pretty sure it wanted the book. It might even be in league with that archdemon Lenamare was talking about.” Damien sat up as Jenn said this.
“Book? Archdemon? I think you haven’t mentioned this before.” Jenn looked embarrassed. She’d said too much, now there wasn’t much she could do but go on. She explained the mix-up with her diary and Jehenna’s book and how they’d finally brought it back to Lenamare and Jehenna.
“OK, that’s the book. I don’t know what it is, but what archdemon?”
“You mean you don’t know?” Gastropé’ asked, surprised.
“No, this is the first time I’ve heard archdemon mentioned does that come later in your story?” Damien asked.
“No,” Jenn said, “It’s what Lenamare told us this morning. He told us an archdemon was after the book, in addition to Exador. I would have thought you knew. He said the archdemon and his horde were on their way to Freehold now to claim the book.”
Damien smiled sickly, rubbing his head. “No. Curse them. If that’s true, then no one has bothered to tell us. Although it would explain why the Rod is marching on us.” The five travelers looked uncomfortably around at each other. It didn’t seem to be a good point to bring up the real reason the Rod was marching toward Freehold at this point.
“We’ll have to investigate this and prepare accordingly. I’ll also have to ask Lenamare and Exador both, a few more questions. Did Lenamare happen to mention which archdemon?” Jenn just shook her head. “Very well, continue with your story.” Damien told her as the servants began replacing the now empty dinner plates with desert bowls. Ice cream, it appeared to Edwyrd.
Jenn continued from there. Detailing her capture and subsequent rescue by Rupert and the demon. She passed rather quickly over their trip through the Abyss, and essentially neglected to mention Verigas at all. She simply told the wizard that the demon’s gateway was a bit off and that they’d ended up in Gizzor Del.
Edwyrd was relieved when Damien didn’t ask about the coincidence of just finding Rupert’s cousin there by happenstance. He did appear curious about where Tom went, but no one could provide him with any answers. Jenn told the story of the pirates from her perspective, and neither Edwyrd nor Maelen contradicted her interpretation of events. After she’d passed out, it was mainly the story that Edwyrd had told her. When asked by Damien about these events, Edwyrd basically reiterated the same story. Maelen simply looking at him in his usual inscrutable fashion. Jenn simply stated that from Hoggensforth they’d made their way directly to Freehold.
“You didn’t encounter the Rod along the way?” Damien asked.
“No,” Gastropé told him, semi-truthfully. “They must have been behind us the entire time.”