It was hard to tell because of the close proximity of all of them, two especially, but there really could be no question. There was one light blue light with a slight turquoise tinge and two rather dark blues. There might be more, but there were at least three. Three Archaedemons! In one place! At one time! Talarius prayed. He prayed deeply and sincerely. He prayed that this test might not fall upon his shoulders. A challenge of one Archaedemon he’d foolishly looked forward to. But three at once! Talarius had never known fear, at least not of anything physical or tangible, and he didn’t believe that was what he felt now. Trepidation might be the word. Whatever it was, Talarius did not enjoy it.
“You’re sure?” Barabus asked Talarius. The knight had awakened the general as soon as he’d returned. At first, Barabus had been annoyed, thinking the report could wait until dawn. When he’d put on his robe and had Talarius shown in, he’d intended to reprimand the man. However, one look at the pale, drawn face of the knight, and the words had died on his lips. He’d sat down preparing for the worst. What the knight proceeded to tell him certainly qualified on that score. He couldn’t believe it. Except that Talarius would never lie about anything, much less this.
“Absolutely,” was all the man standing in armor, helmet under arm said. Barabus gestured for Talarius to sit. The man did, for once, actually seeming to need to sit. Barabus looked at the floor; Talarius simply stared at Barabus.
“Well,” Barabus said weakly, “it’s not quite the end of the world. You saw no indigo or violet.”
“Not tonight.” Barabus glanced up at the knight, who was completely serious.
“Three Archaedemons in the very stronghold of wizardry. There is no way such beings could be undetected. They must have overthrown the Council of Wizards, or at least corrupted and subsumed them. This is unquestionably bad. We outnumber the demons still, even so, given demonic ability that outnumbering only seems to even the playing field. Add to that the three Archaedemons and who knows what else and we are overpowered. Even you can’t defeat three Archaedemons.”
“Not in concert, separately, Tiernon willing, I can. If they act together, we have an uphill battle on our hands.”
“I need to speak to Iskerus, this will have to go directly to the Portant. There is no other choice. We will have to have reinforcements if we are to prevail. We will also need them here as fast as possible.”
“How fast can you get them here?” Talarius asked.
“I’m going to ask the Portant for all of the Rod stationed on Eton. I will also urge that we create a Runic Gateway to bring them through as fast as possible.”
“Every member on the continent, that’s one-half of the entire Rod. Will it be enough?”
“I only pray. Given such short notice though, abandoning our other interests elsewhere to bring more would only bring ruin on our head. If we had time for proper withdrawal and reorganization, then we could probably spare three-fourths of our forces. I will of course, request a Holy Synod to help battle the demons’ magical influences. I’m not sure what else I can do.”
Talarius nodded his head. “I will also call on Sirs Gadius, Etrias and Soral. They’ve had some demon fighting experience. They can, I am sure, be of assistance.”
“Does Etrias know of his brother’s fate?” Barabus asked.
“Given the short time since I submitted my report; I doubt Etrias has been informed of Etrian’s failure.” Talarius stated.
“Will it compromise his ability?” Barabus asked.
Sir Talarius closed his eyes and took a deep breath; “I pray it shall not.”
“You can oathfully state that the testimony you have given is accurate to the best of your ability to determine?” Wylan asked young Raspunon. The young soldier nodded solemnly before Wylan and Fiernon.
Raspunon swore, “On my Honor as a Loyal Citizen of Oorstemoth, I do solemnly swear that my report is accurate to the best of my knowledge and ability.” Raspunon wore the uniform of a Rod member. He had arrived at Wylan’s camp shortly before dawn with the information he had dutifully obtained as an inside surveillance agent among the Rod.
“Very well, you are dismissed. Return to your assignment.” Wylan told him. The young constabulary officer departed as dutifully instructed. When he was out of earshot, Wylan looked to Fiernon. “Such testimony as thus given is coincident with the nefarious behavior of our feral fugitives.”
“Perhaps we now have evidence of why they illegally transported themselves over jurisdictional lines.” Fiernon agreed.
“While the primary evidence is incomplete and thus far circumstantial, it would appear that the insidious individuals who have so blatantly and callously shown disrespect for the laws of sovereign Oorstemoth are also in league with a large body of Abyssal representatives currently seeking to subvert, pervert, and overthrow another sovereign government.”
“With, I fear, potential illicit and highly illegal ramifications for the safety and defense of Oorstemoth.” Fiernon added.
“Observant as always, Fiernon. Yes, while willful and malicious subversion of a foreign power in and of itself is not an implicitly illegal activity, overthrowing said government and posing serious or severe threat to the security of the Oorstemothian borders most certainly is. And it seems fairly self-evident that a Council States government that is nothing more than a pawn of the Abyss must be construed as a serious threat to Oorstemoth.”
“Thus at this point we may add Willful and Malign Machinations to Endanger Oorstemoth to the list of capital offenses already accrued by our impudently irresponsible ill-intentioned quarry? Plus Willful Intent to Engender Future Illicit Intrigues, including but not limited to, Treasonous National Criminal Trespass by Foreign Power with the Intent to Overthrow the Oorstemothian Government?” Fiernon asked, writing in his notebook as fast as he could.
“Certainly, at the very least, there may also be more serious and severe subliminally surreptitious schemes afoot as well.” Wylan stated.
“More serious than the overthrow of the legally appointed judicial government of Oorstemoth?” Fiernon asked incredulously.
“We shall have to consider this evidence most carefully. It could include the Intent and/or Attempt to Dominate and/or Eradicate the World by a Power Not Oorstemoth.” Wylan looked at his assistant somberly. These were essentially the most heinous and noxious crimes imaginable that they were currently contemplating the perpetration of by demonic entities. “In the meantime,” he continued, “I will be alerting the military arm of the constabulary. I believe this would be the prudent and in fact legally requisite action at this juncture.” Fiernon simply nodded, too aghast at the enormity of the situation to say more.
Chapter 68
Edwyrd found the palace to be a welcome change from the outdoors, the Abyss and the cramped crew quarters. Their room was decently sized, not huge, but good-sized, and there was an incredible amount of space in the palace. Since he didn’t sleep, once Rupert was asleep he’d headed out to do some exploring. He eventually found a suitable unused store room down deep in the palace bowels and shut the door behind him.
He was very paranoid of anyone seeing him so; particularly with all the wizards around so the first thing he did was to try and concentrate on shifting just his eyes so he could look for auras in the room. He wanted to make sure there were not magic scrying spells or whatever spying on him. He didn’t know how to detect this, but demon vision certainly saw more than normal vision, so he tried simply shifting his eyes. It was surprisingly tricky, but he eventually got it to work, sort of.