“Do demons grow up? I mean I’d never really thought of demons having children before.” Gastropé’ said.
“I’m not really sure. Antefalken has never been too clear on that point. Most of our talk on demon children surrounds half-breeds, which do grow up. As for purebred demons? Some certainly do. Others it seems are formed somewhere off in the far regions of the Astral Plane. Some have even claimed to come from far distant parts of the planes of men. However, what ‘normal’ plane of existence other than the Abyss could produce demons is beyond me.
“If what Antefalken has learned is true, then Tom is a demon that comes from the far regions of the Astral Plane. Or so he claims. However, he can’t be as recent to Astlan as Lenamare seems to believe, nor as Tom claims. If he was, how could he already have a son? You told us that Rupert was his son, and he didn’t deny it.”
“That’s what Tizzy said. He also seems to know a lot about human ways and culture for someone who has never been to Astlan before.” Gastropé said.
“Again true. To my knowledge, he hasn’t told any of us directly about his past. All we know is second hand from Antefalken’s contacts and what Lenamare’s people have said. Thus he hasn’t lied to us about it, really hasn’t said anything.”
“Do you think we can trust him?” Gastropé asked, uncertain.
“From what I’ve been told he hasn’t done anything to harm any of those that he considers on his side. Specifically I mean Jenn, Maelen, Rupert and you. In fact, it sounds like he’s gone to a great deal of trouble to aid you. For one thing, if this Tizzy is his colleague, well then, without them, we still wouldn’t know of the demon infestation.”
“True. If they were in league with the others, I doubt they’d tell us about the demons.” Gastropé admitted. Damien nodded.
“Thus on face value, all he’s been guilty of is withholding information. If that qualified an individual as automatically untrustworthy then we’d all be a really shiftless lot.” Gastropé had to smile at this. “Since he is a demon that none of us knows well, he does bear watching. I do believe that we can trust him not to do anything out of hand in the short term. What his long term goals are is still very unclear and bears observing. He may be playing a very complicated game with us and the others. Even so, that still doesn’t mean he’s untrustworthy. If we can trust his word, or rather the spirit of his word, then he won’t directly harm us or act against us.”
“If we can trust his word.” Gastropé restated the problem.
“Yes. As a group, demons tend to be very literal and take their own interpretation of their word very seriously. On average, this can lead to some problems in communication. On an individual basis, I’d have to say we can trust Tom’s word about as much as any mortal we’d recently met under similar circumstances. At least, until he does something to disprove it, or indicate that his interpretation is different from ours. From what I’ve seen and heard, he’s done just the opposite.”
“True.” Gastropé admitted. “But you admitted it could be part of some even bigger plot.”
“It might be; it might not be. What is clear is that both Lenamare and Exador are involved in bigger plots than they’ll let us in on. We know this. Both of them are human. Are you going to tell me that you trust either of them more than you’d trust Tom?” Gastropé shrugged slightly. Damien certainly had a point on that.
“Do you think he trusts us?” Bess asked Ramses’ back. She lazily stretched her paws outward towards the back of the man who was climbing out of her bed. Ramses shrugged slightly as he began to don his elaborate black leather costume. He always insisted on dressing manually, at least with this costume.
He looked over his shoulder at her, smiling and arching one eyebrow. “Does it matter?” Bess stretched again, arching her back slightly, as she lay on her side, half covered by the silk sheets. “He hasn’t got too much choice. He’s been out of Court politics so long now, he needs an inside.”
Bess smiled, her pointed cat’s teeth seeming to glisten in the soft red light coming through the windows. “Just like we need an inside into Astlan politics. For now.”
Ramses nodded his head in agreement, fastening the shoulder pads in place. “For now. Eventually his usefulness will end.”
“I’m sure he’s thinking the same. I suppose we should be prepared for his eventual backstabbing.” Bess said, idly drawing circles on the bed with her claws.
“I suppose, I don’t consider him too much a threat. His forces here aren’t particularly impressive. His Astlanian forces aren’t that much anymore either, for that matter.” Ramses strapped the gold belts over his shoulders.
Bess reclined on her sheets, stretching one leg into the air above her. Arching it just enough to be seductive, all with her characteristic feline grace. Ramses just raised an eyebrow at her. “You think I put all this on, just to take it off again?”
Bess grinned wickedly, flexing her claws, “I could help you remove it. It could be, most entertaining.” Ramses smiled back.
“I’m sure it would. Your talents along those lines far outstrip anyone I’ve ever met. Unfortunately, I have a meeting with our ally in Freehold. He tends to get miffed if people are late.”
“Well then,” Bess replied, mock pouting, “better run. Hate to miff the great Exador.”
Antefalken hovered in the air off to one side. He hated to intrude on family reunions. He’d been slightly concerned they’d have a bit of a search for the boy, but fortunately that hadn’t proven to be the case. They’d taken the tunnel to the mouth of the cave and surveyed the valley below. Within moments, Tom had spotted a large bird flying high overhead. Naturally, since there were no birds in the Abyss, it had to be a demon. Antefalken couldn’t quite resolve the demon, but Tom had no trouble in identifying his son.
Up like an arrow he’d shot, on a direct intercept course for the boy. Antefalken had moved at a more sedate pace to gain altitude. He wanted to lag behind to give the two some time alone. Obviously, it was the boy’s first death. Such deaths were always a slightly worrisome time for parents. Or, it was for parents who actually bothered to care about their children.
Antefalken tried to care about his various offspring. Unfortunately, over the years he had produced so many, that after the first generation or two, he tended to lose track. Especially among the more human ones. He hadn’t much in the way of truly demonic offspring. A few children with cat like eyes or some other demonic oddity. A number with some real bardic ability and a couple fine wizards.
Otherwise the children seemed to take more after their mortal mothers. Antefalken twisted his head, watching the two demons above. It might be nice to have a demon child for a change. However, it seemed unlikely that he’d ever produce one with mortals. He’d need to bed a demon wench for that. Not too many of those he was interested in. Except, of course, for Lilith, but she was just a fling. Having a child with her was not even a question. She’d had children, as everyone knew, and then that rather unpleasant breakup with Adam and... well everyone knew where that led.
Still, it would be nice, Antefalken mused watching the reunion. He shook his head. Here he was thinking about family things when the whole world seemed to be going to pieces, or at least Astlan. Unfortunately, trouble in Astlan invariably seemed to mean trouble in the Abyss, eventually. In this case, it was probably even simultaneous.
Eventually, the reunion ended and the two demons flew down to join him. Once again, he had to marvel at how identical the two were, except for size. Almost definitely some funny genetic stuff going on. Either that or a highly inbred family. However, the boy didn’t seem addlepated.