Apostles of Doom

Sentir closed his eyes even as Aodh locked his on Lilith and stated emphatically, “There is no way he could know. The Dark Apostle blocked off access to Doom for Orcus and his army. You cut the link to the Nysegard Doom, so they could neither use mana, nor return upon death.” He shook his head and continued. “Sentir slew Orcus permanently and infected the D’Orcs with the Blackness before I even opened the gateway to Nysegard outside the Dark Apostle’s wards. No one other than our own servants were left alive. There is no way he could know that we used the forces of the Storm Lords to destroy his mortal army.”

“Aside, perhaps, from your forces who were cordoning off the area so none could escape?” Sentir asked.

“As I said, other than our own people. I note that your people were there on the field as well, both mortal and immortal,” Aodh snapped.

“I am not sure it matters how he knew at this point,” Lilith interrupted. “What does matter is that he is clearly aware of everything we did and is moving rapidly with his vengeance. Do the Storm Lords even have any idea that he is back in Nysegard?”

“I don’t see how they could. The only way we know is because Talarius is with him,” Sentir replied.

“Why?” Aodh asked.

“Why what?”

“Why is your knight with him? Why would Orcus allow this knight back onto the material planes, where he could contact Tierhallon?” Aodh clarified. “It seems rather risky.”

Sentir shrugged. “The place is extremely hostile. Between Orcus’s own forces, the Unlife, and the limited resources the Five Siblings have on that world, where is he going to go?”

“Yes, but why let him contact Tierhallon?” Aodh reiterated.

Sentir shook his head slightly. “We see it as one of two things: a trap to draw our forces to him so the demon can steal more mana, or he wants us to deploy more resources to the world.”

“Why would he want more forces of Tiernon on Nysegard?” Lilith asked.

Sentir sighed. “On Nysegard, the Church and the Isle of Doom are on the same side against the Unlife.”

“Oh, yes,” Aodh said with a slight malicious grin. “I forgot, you and your people are morally opposed to the Unlife.” Sentir glared at him. “I forget, given your own propensity for using them.”

“Enough,” Lilith silenced the other two. Aodh and Sentir both turned to her, now silent. “There is one other possibility,” she said.

“And that is?” Aodh asked.

“Tiernon is on to you.” Lilith stared directly at Sentir, who blanched. “Despite your assurance at the time, how confident are you that he bought your entire story? You were not supposed to permanently kill Orcus.”

“It has been four thousand years,” Sentir protested. “I have been promoted a couple of times since then. And I don’t see how this connects to Talarius?”

“What if Talarius was a plant all along?” Lilith asked.

The other two stared at her in silence.

“I am not sure I follow,” Sentir said. “How could Tiernon have known this so-called “fourth order” was going to come and kidnap Talarius? The entire episode took us all off guard.”

“Perhaps,” Aodh said introspectively.

Lilith smiled and nodded, allowing Aodh to come to his own conclusions.

“You are saying that perhaps this demon, who Sentir is now almost certain is Orcus, was in contact with Tiernon beforehand, that the battle and mana theft were planned, and that Talarius was used as a liaison? That the two are somehow working together to expose us?”

Lilith grinned seductively, or perhaps mischievously, or maliciously, or something in between, as growing looks of comprehension and horror crept across the faces of her companions.

Outside of Freehold: Mid Fifth Period

Vaselle had finally decided on a secure location for this device. He’d spent the last few hours tramping around the woods outside of Freehold, looking for an appropriately secure, weatherproof and flame-proof location for his portable gateway. He grinned at the name he had devised for it.

It wasn’t a gateway in the classical sense; in fact, it was very specialized and could only be used by certain people. It was also very purposefully unidirectional. It had no intrinsic gateway capability, so only people who understood what it was, and were appropriately linked, could use it. It was quite ingeniously simple, and thus safe. The most complicated spells he’d needed had nothing to do with its purpose; they were to keep it immobile and locked where he put it down, so no one could easily walk off with it. At least, not without him or his beloved dark master noticing. It also had a fairly simple, if potent, short-range Spell of Unnoticing on it, so most people would ignore it if they were within a few feet of it. The spell was short range so that from a distance, it would not be noticeable to someone with any sort of Sight.