“You made remarkable progress then.” Damien said thoughtfully, apparently trying to add up days.
“Well we were in a hurry to get to Freehold. We knew that Lenamare would be wanting his book back, even if we didn’t know what was in it.” Edwyrd told Damien.
Damien just nodded thoughtfully. “This other demon, the little one, it is still waiting with you for the return of the big demon?” Damien asked.
“Yes,” Jenn said sourly. “Whenever that is. Apparently it claims it can’t get back to the Abyss on its own.”
Damien looked puzzled over this. “But demons can always return to the Abyss on their own, if they aren’t constrained from doing so.” While they can’t make their way here without help, return is never a problem.”
Jenn looked surprised. Mainly surprised she hadn’t thought of this. Edwyrd hadn’t thought of it because it was a non-issue to him. He’d assumed Tizzy had wanted to stay around and would just leave when he felt like it. It really didn’t seem fair for Edwyrd to insist on him returning. It was, after all, a free world. Free for those without masters, Edwyrd corrected himself.
“You’re right!” Jenn told Damien, looking around at the others. “Why didn’t we think of this?” Gastropé just shrugged, Maelen shrugged, apparently feeling like Edwyrd, that it wasn’t his business what the demon did. “It must be acting as an agent for the big demon!”
“Don’t you think you’re being just a little over-paranoid here?” Edwyrd asked her. “Must everything have an ulterior motive?” He was getting tired of being blamed for being more devious and evil than he was.
Before Jenn could angrily retort, Damien spoke up on her behalf. ‘We don’t know for sure what the little demon is doing. While it may just be hanging around for its own enjoyment, we can’t be sure. We have to at least consider all possibilities. Mortal politics can be complicated, demonic politics are often even more so. If there is an archdemon after this book, this Tom demon could be working for that demon... or... nevermind that.” Damien had obviously been going to say more but changed his mind. Now, Edwyrd was getting paranoid, and he was the point of the paranoid discussion.
Eventually, Damien ushered his guests out with a servant to lead them back to their rooms. He had continued to question them for about another hour after desert. He finally decided he had as much information as he was going to get from them.
“What do you think?” Antefalken asked as he shut the door. The bard had been hiding in a nearby room listening to the entire conversation with his demonic hearing.
“I don’t know,” Damien answered as he moved to sit on a couch. “Their story of traveling through the Abyss to get to Gizzor Del certainly coincides with what you smelled in Tom’s cave. Most of the rest sounds more or less like what either Exador or Lenamare have said, without so much frosting.”
“The trip from Gizzor Del seemed a bit strange.” Antefalken commented.
“Yes, they weren’t telling us everything. They certainly arrived amazingly fast. However, since that’s where the Rod is and presumably the archdemon, maybe they’d become hesitant. I know they hadn’t meant to give away the part about the archdemon. They’d just assumed I’d known.”
“Yes. That’s an interesting piece.” Antefalken flew up to the back of a nearby chair to take his usual position. “I wasn’t aware of any archdemon’s definitely involved. However it fits in well with what we’re starting to learn of this Tom.”
“Even on the time part of it. It may just be the way they learned of it, but I’m reasonably certain the involvement of this archdemon is pretty recent. It could coincide with the disappearance of Tom in Gizzor Del. He could have gone to report to his superior, or if he is the archdemon himself, to muster his forces.”
“Well, since it was only last night I talked to Tom, we at least have some idea of what he’s doing. He’s training and dealing with at least one other demon in the Abyss right now. I don’t know of any armies mustering though. I’d have thought to hear something in the Courts.”
“Things aren’t getting any clearer. That is certain. What about this book? Any ideas what book an archdemon and two powerful conjurers would want?” Antefalken just shook his head, as puzzled as Damien.
Damien shifted on the couch. “At any point did you get a good luck at our guests?”
Antefalken shrugged, “somewhat.”
“Anything?”
“Well,” Antefalken mused for a moment, “Jenn and Gastropé seem to be what they claim. Edwyrd and Maelen are both big time players though. Maelen is probably what he modestly says he is a Seer and a Healer. Probably pretty good at both. Edwyrd didn’t claim to be anything. I would guess however, from looking at his aura and listening to him, he’s a world class player. What part he plays, I don’t know. The little kid is also probably what he says; kids are hard to read. Whatever the case, he’s got an awful big aura for what they claim. He could just be a prodigy of some sort. Further, his aura is in the same range as Edwyrd’s. Edwyrd’s shares a few similarities to Maelen. Knowing what Maelen does, I’d have to guess that Edwyrd is in a similar line of work. At least in terms of how he handles mana.”
“An animage then?” Damien asked. While Maelen had claimed to be a Seer and Healer, usually only Animages were both. The man hadn’t said he was an Animage though.
“I guess, I haven’t read the auras of that many Animages.” Antefalken said. “Rupert on the other hand had similarities to different parts of Edwyrd’s aura, and other things that I’ve taken to indicate a wizard in the past.”
Damien just shook his head, not knowing what to make of the information. “The problem, as you know,” Antefalken continued, “is that while demonic sight is a little bit better than wizard sight, it still isn’t very exact. I’d suspect that a Seer like Maelen could be a lot more precise. That’s part of what Seers do for a living after all.”
“The question,” Damien said, “is where do we go from here in our little jigsaw puzzle. We now have more of the pieces, but none of them seem to fit.”
“I suppose, you’ll want to tell your buddies on the highly-esteemed Council of Wizards, that in addition to having two warring wizards and a marching Rod on their hands, they’ve also got an archdemon coming for dinner?” Antefalken suggested with a smile.
“Don’t,” Damien groaned, “remind me. This is not going to be pleasant. I fear I’ll be trapped all afternoon and evening.”
Animages and Animagic
Maelen’s Note: This information, which I have uncovered in the Council’s Private Library here in Freehold (apparently the doors are not locked, ahem). Seems to have been pirated from documents from an Animagic School. It is too similar to some of own introductory texts and we should, at some point look into how this information was attained.
Animages are individuals who use their minds to manipulate their own personal animus. Using their animus, they can manipulate mana, and hence the elements and the physical world around them. For all practical purposes, animages are individuals who simply need concentrate in the proper manner to achieve magic or spell-like effects. Consequently, the manipulations of animages are far more basic and simplistic than clerics or wizards, yet also much more flexible. Using their power in a building-block manner, animages can achieve almost any effect imaginable. The cost and difficulty, however, is often higher than that for wizards or clerics to do the same thing.
People actually calling themselves animages are actually relatively rare. This does not, however, imply that there are not very many animages. While there are probably both more clerics and wizards than animages, animages are not as uncommon as the general populace believes. The reason is not exactly that animages are in hiding, although in some regions this is the case. The real reason is that animages often specialize in particular disciplines and the most common of these specializations have names associated with them that many people mistake as a profession.