Gastropé shrugged uncertain. Edwyrd continued, “I don’t want to blow my own horn, but I don’t think of myself as evil. Have I done anything to harm you? Or anyone that wasn’t attacking us? Have I done anything more than a normal human might do? One with the same powers and abilities?” He hoped he wasn’t pushing it too far on this one.
Gastropé frowned. “I seem to recall you nearly killing me in the mountain pass.”
Tom snorted softly. “And I seem to recall you being part of an ambush on Jenn and Rupert and a bunch of other children and students.”
“I didn’t actually kill anyone, though!” Gastropé protested, “Besides, I was working for Exador then; I didn’t have a choice!”
“You’re right. You were working for Exador, and you didn’t have a lot of choices. Although to be honest, I seem to recall you mentioning that your ability to kill anyone in the pass was rather hampered by Jenn.”
“Well, yes, but that was then, this is now. She and I are on the same side now. And you did kill a lot of people!”
“Yes, and you and I are on the same side now. And I didn’t have a lot of choice. I am, after all, on retainer, so to speak, to Lenamare and Jehenna. I was ordered to kill the attackers; you know how stringent a demon’s orders can be. Further, if I hadn’t killed them, what do you think they might have done to Jenn or Rupert?” Gastropé shrugged uncomfortably.
“Finally, I did kill those who attacked the wagon train. You didn’t attack them, and I didn’t kill you. In that instance, since you were technically an attacker, I certainly could have interpreted my orders to kill you, too. In fact, that would be the logical interpretation. I chose not to, however. I let you go. Even though, you’d clearly stated your intention to try and enslave me and do me harm.”
Gastropé looked quite uncomfortable at this. “Well, it’s not like I could have hurt you. You ignored my strongest wards!”
“True, but when you started, did you know you couldn’t harm me? Wasn’t it your intention to control me?” Tom asked.
Gastropé shrugged, not having an easy answer. “Look, I don’t want to argue with you.” Tom said, “I would like to be your friend. I am the demon that you encountered during the ambush, the one that could have killed you, but let you get away. I am also the demon, who with the assistance of another demon, Rupert, helped you escape a rather unpleasant fate at the hands of Exador. I am also the human being you’ve known as Edwyrd for the past few weeks. I am all of these things. What you see is what you get.”
Gastropé sat with his head in his hands. “I don’t know. Maybe you’re right. I just have to think about this. I don’t like it at all.”
“Think about it then. I know it will take some getting used to the idea.” Hopefully, the journeyman wizard would come to the right decision. He turned his attention back to Damien and Antefalken.
Damien smiled at him. “Well, I guess you’ve answered the question about where Lenamare’s big demon went to. You also raised some good points that I want to think about. Is there anything else I should know?”
Edwyrd laughed. “Anything else you should know? I know some things that would really turn your world upside down, wizard. However, given the circumstances, I think that experience can wait until we’ve dealt with the problems at hand.”
“So, that explains why you suspect Ramses the Damned. It’s not certain, but it’s better than anything else we have to go on.” Damien said to Edwyrd.
Edwyrd proceeded to detail Maelen’s experience and the interpretation the two had made of it. They discussed Ramses and the likelihood of it being him for some time. Gastropé had been essentially silent throughout. Still trying to come to grips with the Edwyrd-Tom duality, it appeared. “We need a little more confirmation though. A little more to go on.”
Damien turned to look at Antefalken. “You were going back to the Courts to see if you could dig up some more information anyway, perhaps you could fly by this Ramses estate? Note anything suspicious, like a demonic horde waiting to invade Astlan?” Antefalken smiled and nodded.
“You’re going back to the Abyss soon?” Edwyrd asked Antefalken. The demon nodded. “How do you return here? To the same place?”
“Damien summons me after a fixed time interval. Why?” Antefalken asked.
“I need to find Rupert; hopefully he was transported to my cave. I have no guarantee of that though, no guarantee that he’s even alive. If he’s in my cave, I can just keep a gate open and pull him through. If I have to search for him though, I’ll need an easy way back. Last time I came blind, I got stuck with the Rod. I’d prefer to have a surer way back. If Damien creates a link to you, and I’m with you, then I can use that link to bring Rupert and myself back.”
Antefalken nodded, “Makes sense. Actually, while my visit to the Courts, I kind of need to handle on my own, if I’m flying near Ramses’ place it might not be bad to have some protection. You could help be of assistance there. Just in case there is a demonic horde and they don’t like my spying.”
Edwyrd wasn’t sure how much help he’d be against a demonic horde, but if there was trouble, the more demons the better Antefalken’s chances. “That’s fine with me then. When are you planning on leaving?”
“As soon as we’re done here?” Antefalken suggested.
Rupert groaned. Groaning hurt, so he stopped. Actually, groaning shouldn’t hurt, Rupert thought semi-deliriously; he didn’t have any lungs to groan with anymore. How was he groaning then? He opened his eyes. It was dark. He waited a few seconds as his eyes adjusted, bringing the perceived light level up to day-like strength. He was in a cave.
Rupert reached a hand up to rub at his throat. “Ouch!” he winced. His neck seemed a bit tender. That was, however, better than he remembered it. The last he remembered was his head bouncing off the cot. He blinked, carefully turning his head to view his surroundings.
Somehow or the other, he appeared to have wound up in Tom’s cave. He had no idea how, but he wasn’t complaining. He was very happy to be alive. He rubbed his head, catching his claws on his horns. Apparently, he was in his demonic form. That made sense; he’d ended up that way last time after he’d nearly died.
Well, now he had an inkling of how that little demon he’d dismembered yesterday must have felt afterwards. At least only Rupert’s head had been chopped off this time. That little fellow had a lot worse to overcome. Rupert felt tired. Not sleepy, but rather a restless sort of exhaustion. He had no idea how long he’d been out. How long it had been since his head had been chopped off.
He hoped no one was overly worried about him. Actually, maybe he did hope they worried. He had no way of letting them know where he was. He wasn’t at all sure how he’d get back. Eventually, Tom would return to his cave, but that could take a long time. A real long time if Tom didn’t figure out what happened to him. That wasn’t good. He’d probably get real hungry in the meantime. Not that he was hungry now, but... it could be a long time.
Rupert sat up slowly, being careful not to move his neck too much. He explored it gently, apparently his head was fairly firmly attached, just a big tender scar ring around his neck. Actually, if his whole body had regenerated here in the Abyss, after being destroyed in Astlan, then why was his neck like this? This regeneration thing really wasn’t too clear. He climbed to his feet and went over to sit in Tom’s chair.