It really felt good to be able to mentor young people and show them new experiences. Teaching and mentoring had been one of her favorite duties in the Sisterhood. It was not something she was able to do in her current job, or even her previous job. Maybe she could convince the powers that be to reassign her as sort Tierhalloc envoy, or more accurately, a spy, on a permanent basis. She had to chuckle. Would that not be true heaven!
“Ahh...” Trisfelt sighed as he sat down on the sofa. “I must say, tonight you have been an absolutely heavenly hostess!” He shook his head. “I fear I shall never dine or drink so well again in my life!”
“You flatter me, Master Trisfelt.” Hilda smiled brightly, not least at the unintended reference.
“So, My Lady, shall we all watch the balling now?” Trisfelt asked.
“Excellent idea!” Hilda exclaimed. “However, before we start, shouldn’t we open another bottle of wine?” Danyel made a gulping noise in his chair behind her, apparently not feeling the need for more wine. Youth.
Trisfelt chuckled. “I swear, my dear Hilda, it is as if someone dropped you from heaven into my camp that night!”
Hilda laughed. “Oh, my. What a lovely and poetic, if slightly preposterous thought!” Hilda replied, while admitting to herself that technically it was a fairly accurate statement. “What variety shall we have?” She looked over to the wine chest. The chest had two compartments: one for reds, the other with ice in it to nestle the bottles of white wine. “If we don’t have it, then I can have Bowker, Chef Jerod’s wine steward, retrieve it for us.”
“No need for that, my dear. I must admit, I am so full and sufficiently tipsy that I think we should stick with something tasty, yet mundane. I am not prepared to savor something like we had with dinner.”
“Hmm, perhaps a drier white? A hint of citrus, perhaps?” Hilda asked while shuffling through the cold half of the chest.
“Excellent. I await your choice.”
Hilda selected a bottle and took it to the glass cart that the wait staff had brought in with dinner. She selected three appropriate glasses and then took screw to bottle. “Danyel, it was you who wanted to see this. Get your hind end over to a proper chair or the sofa!” she called to her servant good-naturedly. “On second thought, take a stuffed chair. Should you decide to relinquish your dinner, I don’t want you doing so on Master Trisfelt!” She poured the three glasses of wine as Danyel slowly made his way to one of the two stuffed chairs flanking the sofa.
Hilda brought a glass to Trisfelt and set it on the coffee table in front of him where he was setting up the crystal ball on its portable viewing stand. She set Danyel’s down on the end table beside him and went back for her own glass, along with the bottle, which she also sat on a coaster on the coffee table. Trisfelt finished his preparations and sat back to take a sip of the wine.
“Now, I’m not terribly familiar with using these in portable display mode,” Hilda said. “Should we turn the lights down?”
“I think that’s best; even when doing a single viewing in the ball, low lights are better. This will be projecting the image above the ball and coffee table,” Trisfelt said.
“Excellent, then.” Hilda swept her arm around the room; all of the lamps went out except for a small lamp that she left on to keep the room from being completely dark.
“If you have any questions, feel free to stop me. We can pause, freeze, go back, go slow, whatever is needed,” Trisfelt told the other two.
“Excellent!” Hilda said, taking a sip of her wine.
Trisfelt gestured and muttered something, and a three-dimensional scene of Talarius and a human-sized demon appeared in the air above the table.
Danyel sat up straighter. “That’s impressive!” He shook his head. “Other than the much-better angle and unobstructed view, it’s just like I remember! I can’t wait to see the part I missed.”
Hilda smiled, but not completely comfortably. She was slightly concerned about what might happen if the lad saw himself assisting the demon; that could be traumatic for him. Trisfelt was looking at Danyel oddly. Hilda suddenly realized Danyel’s slip. She hoped it would not mean too much to Trisfelt.
“And here we go,” Trisfelt said as he waved his hand, and the scene began to unfold.
The scene played out for a short time and then Hilda interrupted, “Could you pause, please?” In the light of the projected scene, Trisfelt could see that she was quite puzzled. “Did that big demon just say the smaller demon was a child?” she asked.
“Yes, the big one said it was a child, and that it has a human form — which it did. Everyone in the camp was talking about the child that had been found in the nearby forest that had turned into a demon. Apparently, its human form was that of a child. He called himself Rupert,” Danyel answered.
Trisfelt choked on his wine and started coughing. He took a second sip of wine to try and quell his throat.
Hilda turned to look at Trisfelt, who was looking extremely pale and seemed rather shaky. “What’s the matter? I have to admit to some surprise about this claim of a child demon; that’s why I stopped it.”
Trisfelt looked intently at Danyel. “You said the boy was named Rupert? How do you know this?”
“Well, many people heard him tell Talarius.” Hilda coughed slightly, gave Danyel a quick stare and then took a sip of wine. Danyel got a puzzled expression on his face and then suddenly remembered he was not supposed to be a Rod member. “When I was doing recon for my lady, shortly after the events, the camp was buzzing with talk about it. The story is fairly well known among the Rod members I talked to.”
Trisfelt was shaking his head as if in disbelief. “It can’t be coincidence. About what age was this boy?”
Danyel frowned, uncertain as to what to say. “Well, a boy — not a young man. Apparently, the story he told was that he had been abducted by a demon that had been flying over camp and was shot down by the Rod. They recovered the boy from the nearby woods and he spent the night, only to be recognized the next day by one of the high priests who said he was from the larger demon’s entourage. When unmasked, he turned into a demon and attacked Talarius and the priest. Talarius slew him.”
“Impossible!” Trisfelt muttered, looking positively ill.
“What is?” Hilda asked.
“There is a boy — or was a boy, a rather odd boy, about ten years old. An orphan who came to the school with lots of talent and was accepted on scholarship. He was a very nice boy, very kind, gentle, even shy. He was also something of a loner and introverted. His name was also Rupert.”
“And this so-called child demon” — Hilda gestured to the scene before them — “came into the Rod’s camp in human form, calling itself Rupert?”
Trisfelt looked to Danyel.
Danyel was on edge now, having come close to slipping up. “Well, that’s what I gather from my questioning of people...”
“And Talarius recognized him as this demon, and it also appears the child demon recognized Talarius.” Hilda paused to think. “Surely it must be coincidence. Surely, Lenamare would have detected that he was a demon?”
Trisfelt spread his hands palm up on his knees. “One would surely think so. We go through a large battery of tests during the entrance exams. I cannot see how something like that could possibly have been missed. Every master in the school interviewed him!”
Trisfelt shook his head, staring at the small demon’s image before him. He blinked suddenly. “On the road to Freehold, before Exador’s people attacked...” Trisfelt thought for a few moments. “I asked Rupert to help with the horses as we set up camp. He did not want to; he was quite panicked, in fact. Jenn and I brushed it off as childish fear, but he proved to have good reason. The horses were scared to death of him and went into a panic when he approached. I never thought much about it until now, but...”