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“Well, when I tried to use the ring to command it, the demon pried the ring from my finger and crushed it between its own fingers.” Jenn demonstrated with her thumb and index finger. Jehenna and Lenamare both looked stunned, simultaneously leaning back in their chairs.

“Well, I told you it didn’t feel right.” Jehenna reminded Lenamare, looking at him. Lenamare was sitting at the head of the table, Jehenna to his left and Jenn to his right.

“Even so,” Lenamare stated, “how could it do that? That would only be possible if we got the binding on the ring completely wrong, or the demon was really a lot more powerful than we thought. I can’t believe either.” Jehenna was shaking her head in agreement.

“I don’t understand it either, I am sure I spelled the name correctly on the ring. Tomasedwardperkinje just like it sounds.” Edwyrd wasn’t sure how she was spelling it, but her pronunciation wasn’t quite right, she said it strangely as if it were one word, and his first name wasn’t spelled just like it sounded. Jehenna looked at Jenn, “So why didn’t it crush you next?”

“I... I’m not really sure, I’ve been trying to figure that one out.” Jenn stammered. Obviously, the girl was a bit intimidated by these two. If Edwyrd didn’t already consider the two wizards to be a couple of egomaniac assholes, he might have been tempted to feel the same way.

“Do you expect us to believe that? Demons don’t just NOT destroy things for no reason. It must have had an ulterior motive.” Jehenna said. Gastropé looked Edwyrd in the eye, reminding him of the conversation with Damien this afternoon.

“So then you say-it guarded you part-way on your trip?” Lenamare asked. “Why did it do that, and then why did it leave you?”

“Because we asked it to.” Rupert spoke up. Edwyrd decided the kid had to be brave to be willing to enter this battle.

“You what?” Jehenna glared at Rupert in annoyance.

“We spoke to him and asked him to come with us. Since it was a reasonable request, he did so.” Lenamare and Jehenna both were looking at Rupert as if he were a dog who had suddenly started to speak English.

“Child, you have no clue as to what you’re babbling about. Demons do not work that way, and someday you’ll learn that. At least if you ever want to be a live wizard, you’ll learn that.” Jehenna told Rupert, turning her attention back to Jenn.

“You said it left you after a point?” Lenamare asked. “Why did it do that?”

“Again, I’m not sure...”

“You’re not sure? How can you not be sure? You were running around with it. Didn’t it say something? Give you any clues as to its plans.” Jehenna demanded.

At this point Maelen spoke up. He hadn’t said a word all through dinner. “May I ask,” the two wizards turned their cold stares on him, “how you expect a young wizard of Jenn’s years and experience, to determine the motives of a greater demon, when you yourselves are unable to do so? These creatures are not exactly the most openhanded beings in the planes of existence. Surely if individuals of such obvious learning and knowledge, as yourselves, have difficulties, a young girl such as Jenn would have even more. I think asking her such questions is rather pointless. Don’t you?”

If possible, the stares of the two wizards got even chillier. Maelen didn’t so much as blink, he simply stared Lenamare in the eyes until he got a response. Lenamare coughed. “You are, probably, correct. Jehenna and I have spent many a night trying to understand the machinations of this fourth order demon. While we have had many insights, I must admit they have not been easily achieved, or for that matter, terribly useful.” Jehenna frowned at this point. “This nightmare of the Abyss is obviously up to something more than it first appeared. What that is, is unclear. Almost certainly, however, it revolves around the book. Of that there can be no question.”

“Why no question?” Edwyrd asked, meeting Lenamare’s stare head on. “What exactly is in that book that a greater demon ‘obviously’ wants and that an archdemon would march on Freehold for? And for that matter, that Exador would waste the majority of his army on to have?”

“That,” Jehenna said with a trace more than her usual coldness, “is none of your business. Leave that to your betters.”

Edwyrd was mad now. Not that it particularly took much from either of these two beings to make him mad, but if their grilling Jenn hadn’t, this had. Thus, he was a little more forceful and blunt than he would have been under calmer circumstance. “I have yet,” he said equally coldly, “to see proof that you are my betters. Until such is shown, I would suggest you keep such derogatory comments to yourself. Where I come from, a certain amount of respect is given to people whom you’ve only recently met. Not to mention one’s assistants and employees. I treat others that way, and I expect you to as well.”

Everyone at the table was staring at Edwyrd as if he’d just stood up and pissed in the wine bottle. Gastropé and Jenn were looking on in open-mouthed shock. Maelen was startled but not upset. Rupert was grinning. Lenamare and Jehenna looked incredibly affronted by his nerve.

“Young man. Do you have any idea to whom you are speaking?” Lenamare asked.

“I’m speaking to a couple of wizards who lost the battle for this stupid book on their home territory. Who are, once again, going to have to fight the same battle with the same opponent on a different field, with the Rod of Tiernon and an archdemon’s horde on the battlefield as well.

“Not to mention the Council of Wizards, who I am sure would be interested in the book. All trying to grab what these two wizards have already lost once.” He exaggerated about the Rod, he knew they weren’t after the book, but Lenamare and Jehenna didn’t have to know that. “Two wizards who are going to need all the help they can get, and who had best realize it soon, before they are deserted by every possible ally.”

Rupert was squirming madly in his seat, trying bravely not to start cheering. Jenn was staring completely aghast, and Gastropé was shaking his head. Maelen was simply grinning a small tight grin. Jehenna looked as if he’d slapped her. Lenamare was blinking. “You have, a hell of a lot of nerve, young man. More so than is obvious by your appearance. Since you think,” Lenamare smiled condescendingly, “you know who you are dealing with, may I ask who we are dealing with?”

Edwyrd smiled a grim smile. “I would have thought you’d ask that sooner. However, better late than never I suppose. I am Edwyrd. I am” Edwyrd paused recalling the term Maelen had used for him, “a pyromaster as well as the practitioner of several other disciplines.” He was making this up by the seat of his pants. One thing Tom had learned growing up in New York was, if you’re going to bluff, don’t do it halfway and make the bluff worth doing. Actually it wasn’t all bluff, he’d faced Lenamare before, taken the man’s measure. He was almost ready for a rematch.

“You mean pyromancer, don’t you, boy?” Lenamare corrected, Jehenna covered her mouth with one hand, apparently thinking hard about something. It seemed she knew what he was talking about.

“No,” Edwyrd said gently, but forcefully, “I mean pyromaster. As in, I am an animage. I am not a wizard. There is a difference. I do by force of will and by my knowledge of that which I command, what you must do through carefully contrived spells.” He was looking out the corner of his eye at Maelen on this one. It was a leap of faith that this was correct, but that was what it seemed animages did. Maelen simply nodded his head slightly in approval. “Unlike you, I don’t need props.” The wizards at the table all looked horribly shocked. Maelen just chuckled softly.

“I think,” Jehenna broke in, “that for now we should simply accept Edwyrd’s word. He will have ample opportunity to prove himself in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, as we are allies, as our young animage here is wont to point out, we should be civil to each other. I am willing to do that.” That seemed about the closest thing to an apology, as he’d get from her.