Apostles of Doom

“Orcus’s uncle.” Phaestus nodded. “Only one of my sister’s kids I ever liked. Well, Logoi is a decent kid, most of the time. Orcus was the only one of her children to show up at her wedding — and agree to put her away when it became necessary.”

“Oh, and by the way, the rest of our family doesn’t know it was Orcus and the Five Siblings that had her locked up,” Phaestus added, almost as an afterthought.

There was a loud clunking noise as Talarius fell to his knees on the floor, shaking his head. He closed his eyes for a moment before looking up at Phaestus. “So you are saying that Tiernon and Orcus were stepbrothers?”

“Stepbrothers,” Tom repeated, trying to get that through his head.

Tamarin shook her head. “So let me be sure I understand this. The Five Siblings conspired with their stepbrother to imprison their mutual parents in Tartarus, and then later ordered their stepbrother murdered?”

Völund chuckled. “You’ve got it.”

“That is so bizarre and twisted,” Tamarin said.

Phaestus shrugged. “Nah. Actually, it’s pretty common in my family. In fact, I’d say it is simply standard family drama. The only way it could be any more routine for us would be if Tiernon had not intended for this to be the outcome. That Orcus had been killed by some horrible mistake. That would have been what my family refers to as a tragedy. Something they tend to have an unhealthy obsession with. It’s why I spend most of my time with my wife’s family.”

Tom sat back on his bed in shock. This was way too insane! He shook his head, and looked again at the mirroring, furrowing his brow.

“So who is the young man between Orcus and you?” Tom asked.

“Ah.” Phaestus nodded. “That is Dis, Dis Pater. He is Orcus’s son. He was also slain on Etterdam, along with so many others.”

Heavens’ Home

Tiernon and Torean sat silently waiting for their siblings to arrive at their meeting room on their father’s Outer Plane. Despite his “disappearance,” they had kept their father’s plane up and running for several reasons. The first was that it was a place where they could meet without the knowledge of their own avatars; the second that their father’s avatars needed somewhere to live, as did souls in their afterlife unwilling to reincarnate and get on with things. One could not legitimately advertise an eternity in heaven and then seek to cap the length of eternity before booting people back to the material planes.

Of course, given that their father and stepmother were only “missing,” there was no legitimate public reason to close the issue without even more questions arising. On the off chance they ever released their father and came to terms with him, he would also want his stuff back. Of course, Tiernon reflected, the only two reasons his father would ever be released would be if he apologized and agreed to a divorce from that nightmare wife of his, or Orcus let him go out of spite.

The door to the room opened and Krinna and Namora entered. They nodded and sat down. A few moments later, Hendel entered through the second door. No one said anything for a few moments.

Finally, Krinna started the ball rolling. “So, you managed to lose an entire world for us?” she asked sarcastically.

“As I understand it, this whole venture was your undertaking?” Hendel asked Tiernon and Torean.

Torean shook his head. “As you know, Tiernon and I had been withholding on-the-ground resources on Nysegard. We’ve discussed this many times. A situation arose where we were forced to act in good faith and allow our attending archons and prophets to directly intervene. They invited your colleagues.”

Namora pursed her lips and nodded, but not in a particularly agreeable way; it was more of an accusatory nod. She finally spoke. “And what was this situation that changed your minds? After centuries of trying to persuade us to your point of view?”

Tiernon grimaced. “As you may have known, I had a Knight Rampant abducted by a demon.”

Hendel made a questioning gesture with both hands. “It happens. It’s not the end of the multiverse. Besides, what does that have to do with Nysegard?”

“The knight and his demon abductor showed up on Nysegard,” Torean said. “Our agents were trying to retrieve the knight and investigate the demon.”

“Who also happened to break into your god pool and steal your mana?” Krinna noted, again sarcastically. “Someone is feeling vengeful.”

Tiernon closed his eyes. “It has gotten a bit more complicated than that.”

“In any event,” Torean explained, “our avatars needed to go through the Citadel, as that is the closest location we have to where the knight is being held. The Citadel was preparing for siege and essentially guilted our avatars into helping.”

Krinna looked at him sharply. “It was my understanding that it was the god and his or her avatars to use guilt against their worshipers, not the other way around?”

Torean sighed. “When you talk the talk, you have to walk the walk, or you lose credibility. You know this very well. Father taught us all together.”