Apostles of Doom

Hilda set the large picnic basket down on the table. “I hope you don’t mind, but I brought some wine and cheese for the deposition, the thought being that we would all be much more comfortable and relaxed with a glass of wine and a tasty snack!” she informed Iskerus as she began to open the basket.

Saint Stevos entered; behind him came a very large bearded fellow in well-worn leather armor.

Stevos gestured to the large man. “Iskerus, may I introduce Saint Timbly of Cossembly.” The large saint nodded politely and made a gesture of greeting. Their current positions in the room made a handshake awkward — not that Iskerus would consider himself worthy of shaking the hand of a saint.

“Ah, Hilda, you’ve brought some of your legendary wine? Stevos has sung the praises of your palate,” Timbly said to Hilda, who laughed pleasantly.

“I hope he has not sung them too high; I would hate to disappoint,” she replied.

“I doubt that would be the case,” another voice from the hallway remarked. Iskerus looked past the nearby saints to the door; his legs suddenly felt weak as he recognized Baysir Tomgren, the Prophet of Tiernon upon Astlan.

“Your Holiness!” Iskerus said in awe as he dropped to his knees.

Saint Baysir nodded in recognition of his obeisance and gestured for him to rise. “That should be all of us,” he said to the others. “We don’t want to overwhelm the Arch-Diocate in this small space.”

Hilda looked around the room and nodded. “It is a bit tight, but we have enough chairs, and the window has shutters we can close for the balling.”

Stevos placed his velvet bag on the table, and Iskerus suddenly realized they had a crystal ball for scrying, most likely the one made by the Oorstemothians. He gulped. That was extremely unusual and unheard of, as well as being unsettling.

“Everyone take a seat and let’s get comfortable; I suspect we shall be here a while.” Hilda smiled and gestured to the chairs.

Chapter 132

The Abyss, Nearing the Outpost: DOA + 9, Late Fifth Period

Tom tried to calm his nerves. It was finally hitting him that he was about to have dinner with several of the gods of Ancient Egypt. The level of surreality encroaching upon his personal reality was quickly becoming troubling. Although he was pretty sure he’d had this same exact thought several times recently; each time, the ante was upped and he was saying it again a day later. Something totally surreal would happen and he would have these thoughts, yet somehow accept the surreal event and move on, only to have a new level of insanity occur the next day, only to be absorbed as normal. He had a real fear that this was how Tizzy ended up being Tizzy.

When he had first met Phaestus, he had not realized that the man was actually the Greek god Hephaestus as well as the Egyptian god pêTah. He had started getting a bit suspicious as to who he really was when they had talked, but he had been so busy with the oath taking and celebration, he hadn’t had time to really process his observations. However, once the Knights of Chaos showed up and Phaestus brought his wife, Sekhmekt, to the battle, his suspicions became impossible to ignore.

He wasn’t quite sure he remembered exactly who Sekhmekt was, but her gigantic lioness-headed form was very clearly that of an Eygptian goddess; plus she had had those giant sphinxes. However, in the fog of battle, with a rapidly approaching enemy and everyone in a panic, one sort of took such things in stride, and since at that point things had been moving pretty fast, he had put the issue to the back of his mind. At least until he’d discovered Tartarus. That had, of course, forced him to acknowledge his new reality. At that point, all pretense was off and Phaestus had declared who he was.

In any case, the surreal banality of him, Tom, going to a dinner party hosted by Egyptian gods was mind-boggling and forced him to think more objectively about what this all meant. It seemed presumptuous, to say the least, to be an invited guest, treated as an equal by beings straight out of mythology. What would Edith Hamilton have given to be his plus one? Although, thinking on it, he wasn’t sure how much she had covered the Egyptians. Although Hephaestus would probably have been more than enough to keep her interested.

“This Outpost is really out there,” Tom remarked, wanting to strike up some conversation to escape his thoughts.

Phaestus, beside him in the large flying chariot in which they were riding, laughed as he flexed the reins of the four giant winged horses. The horses were certainly not your classic winged horses, like Talarius’s horse. These were large black stallions with black bat-like wings and glowing red eyes, who snorted fire.

“Just as with Mount Doom, we did not wish to be on the beaten paths, so to speak.” The god grinned back at Tom. “We needed it just close enough to the Courts to not be inconvenient, yet not too easy for demonic spies to try and infiltrate.”