Fer-Rog sighed. “There are multiple reasons. In some cases, the individual’s body requires so much repair that the individual cannot summon the mana to bring everything back together, or at least do so in a reasonable number of years; they then give up and let themselves go. In other cases, the demons do have a few weapons capable of ending a demon or D’Orc permanently.”
“That’s horrible.” Rupert shook his head in horror at the thought.
Fer-Rog nodded. “I am told that the frequency of such happenings has increased in the last thousand years or so.” He shrugged. “That should end now with your father’s return.”
“I hope so,” Rupert said. “But unfortunately, that won’t bring your father back. Again, I am sorry. I lost my mother a few years ago, so I know what it feels like.” Fer-Rog looked at him again and sort of nodded in acknowledgement of the pain. “So, where were you going?”
“I have combat training with the others in my age cohort,” Fer-Rog said.
“That’s a coincidence! I was just thinking how much I needed some combat training. May I come and watch?” Rupert asked.
Fer-Rog shrugged. “I do not believe Xaroth can say no. However, even if he could I would seriously doubt he would. He is a firm believer in everyone being at his or her best. So, I am sure if you ask, he will evaluate you and place you in an appropriate class.”
“Greetings, master and fellow servant of Tommus!” Estrebrius shouted excitedly as he appeared in his summoning pentagram in Vaselle’s lab.
“Greetings, Estrebrius. They’ve taken down the city’s wards against demons and pretty much everything else,” Vaselle said. “I’ve summoned you because I’m going to need help hauling all of these supplies back here so we can send them to Lord Tommus.”
“I think he said you could call him Tom. He really seems to prefer that for some reason,” Estrebrius said.
“It just seems a bit too familiar,” Vaselle said, frowning.
“Well, you did cast a ‘familiar’ spell on yourself.” Estrebrius grinned. “Besides, as demon princes go, he’s really extremely nice.”
Vaselle’s eyes widened. “So he is a demon prince? Official rumor was greater demon, but everyone figured he was one of the archdemons. No one suspected a demon prince in the city!”
Estrebrius rocked his head from side to side. “Well, Tom denies he’s a demon prince. In fact, he says he’s only a greater demon.” Vaselle looked at him, not understanding what Estrebrius meant. The little demon continued, “But, while you were working on your spell, we all went treasure hunting in these caverns that turned out to be under Mount Doom. After a few battles with hydra hounds and fleeing a bunch of D’Orcs, Tom managed to destroy a bunch of Etonian runes and then seized control of the Wand of Orcus and renamed it the Rod of Tommus. He then restarted Mount Doom and is now considered to be the reincarnation of Orcus by something like 2,000 plus D’Orcs!”
Estrebrius stopped for a moment to catch his breath. “And that would make him a demon prince and according to the D’Orcs, the archrival of Lilith, the Empress of the Abyss!”
Vaselle collapsed into a nearby chair. He only understood about half of what Estrebrius was saying, but what he did understand was overwhelming enough. After a moment, he asked Estrebrius, “What is a dork?”
Estrebrius shook his head, “No, a D’Orc. Like ‘demon orc.’ They are the demon equivalent of an orc. Tom has an army of about 2,000 demon orcs at his command, or at least he will shortly. That’s what the supplies are for.”
“Huh?” Vaselle asked, not understanding.
“Well, technically not for that. There is going to be an allegiance-swearing ceremony and then a party afterward. We are trying to get booze for the party, but demons need something stronger than mortals to get drunk. So we are hoping to get a lot of barrels of glargh. We then take these supplies you are getting and mix them into the glargh to make x-glargh, which is a favorite of D’Orcs.”
“So my first task is getting party supplies?” Vaselle was feeling a bit of a letdown. Here he had been certain all the nasty things he was buying were for some horribly evil scheme.
“Welcome to indentured service,” said Estrebrius with a grin.
Vaselle shook his head. He had just summoned Estrebrius to lug supplies around. Fair is fair, he supposed.
“I wish I could see the master’s new fortress,” Vaselle said sadly.
Estrebrius shrugged. “I’m sure Tom will be okay with you coming to the party. There is just the problem of your staying alive there. The Abyss is very hot. Mount Doom is actually quite a bit cooler, especially since it started raining, but it’s still going to be like one of those saunas they have in the northern regions.”
“Dang,” Vaselle said.
“You know,” Estrebrius said after a moment. “Rupert once mentioned that Tom had brought several wizard friends through the Abyss and that the wizards had a way of staying cool. Maybe I can find out what that is. It sounded like it was a spell or something.”
“That would be great!” Vaselle clapped his hands, jumping up. “Okay, so we should get started. We have some of the supplies ready to be picked up. The rest will be ready tomorrow. Let’s go get what we can.”
“The wards are down!” Antefalken exclaimed as he materialized in Damien’s chamber.
“Yes, finally!” Damien said, grinning. “I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed your company. Things are insane here, wards or no wards.” He shook his head and sat down, gesturing for Antefalken to hop on his favorite chair perch.
Antefalken laughed. “You only think things are insane here. It’s much crazier in the Abyss.”
“I don’t know, the Oorstemothians recorded the battle between Talarius and Edwyrd and there are tons of crappy mirrorings from the wall as well. So everyone is pretty freaked out.”
“Well, there were hundreds of demons watching, and they all ran back to the Courts to tell everyone. But it gets wilder.”
“Really? Wilder than the fact that Alexandros Mien noticed something odd and drew the Council’s attention to a flying carpet upon which Exador, Ramses the Damned and an unknown woman were all having breakfast while watching the battle?”
That caused Antefalken to pause as he digested the sentence. “Well, I think I can beat that, but a) who is the woman, and b) why are the three of them outside the wards when everyone else is inside?”
Damien twisted his head in something like a shrug. “We aren’t certain, but as you recall, we suspected that the Ramses the Damned character might have been an archdemon; the woman is clearly something equally unusual; and then add Exador on the rug, outside? We think he may be the third archdemon.”
Antefalken blinked a few times. “So you are saying that Lenamare, a mortal, has been going toe-to-toe with an archdemon for the last few decades and that the two kept ending up in a draw?”
Damien pursed his lips. “Well, when you put it like that, I like the theory a bit less. It gives Lenamare way too much of an ego boost, which he certainly doesn’t need.”
“Well, he did apparently kick three archdemons out on their asses; he deserves some credit for that,” Antefalken noted.
“Trust me; he’s been soaking it up like a sponge. He’s actually been both pleasant and helpful lately.”
“Now you are scaring me.” Antefalken gave a mock shudder. “So how’s your buddy Randolf taking the news that his faithful servant-slash-boss is an archdemon?”