Into the Abyss

Therefore, now, they had to mediate their competing claims of justice and arrive at a mutually satisfactory arrangement. He really did not need this. However, if that were not enough, they informed him on good authority that the entire city of Freehold had been overrun by demons. Freehold had apparently had been invaded by half the Abyss!

Clearly, that complicated the issues. He had sent back to Keeper City a request for the various relevant treatise regarding such invasions. He had no idea of the appropriate legal response: did they have mutual aid agreements? Would the Sky Fleet be required to remove the demonic horde? How would they determine and restore a legitimate government?

This presented a lack of information and thus a completely unusual uncertainty that he was unaccustomed to; however, he could deal with that. A few hours after the Rod delegation had left; a delegation from Freehold arrived, led by the esteemed Alexandros Mien himself.

Alexandros was a man Heron had only met a few times prior, but he was certainly a walking legend even in Oorstemoth. His keen perceptions, understanding of legal principle and his ruthless negotiating style were much admired, and admittedly, feared, in Keeper’s City.

The Archimage had informed him that the Council was aware of the incursion, that the incursion had not in any way actually impeached the council (obviously something to be considered suspect) and that the council had determined a mechanism to purge the city of all demonic influence.

Now this all seemed a bit fanciful to Heron, but this was Alexandros Mien after all. The Archimage had assured him that the only way the Council could properly, honorably, and legally meet the terms of both the Rod and Oorstemoth was to purge the city of all possible malignant influences and judicial pervertors and preventers. This did admittedly make sense to Heron.

Unfortunately, it meant a delay in meeting the agreed-upon delivery of the requested miscreants until due process could occur in Freehold. Delays however, were not completely unexpected, given his meeting with the Rod. That was a resolution that would take some time as well.

The bigger problem however, as the Archimage informed him, is that the Council would be evicting all demons from the city, forcibly, tomorrow. Said forcible eviction from the city, ejecting all the demons onto the proverbial laps of the Rod and the Sky Fleet. They were about to be set upon by a displaced demonic horde.

Fortunately, most were lower level and relatively easy to dispatch with the Rod’s help. The bigger issue was that some of the demonic influences or suspects were likely to be released as well, and would need to be apprehended, interrogated, tried, convicted and eradicated before they could escape.

This, Heron reflected with a misruling grin, might be theoretically possibly to deal with; the problem, however, only got worse. Apparently, both the Rod and the Council had determined that there were at least — AT LEAST — three Archaedemons in the city. He’d been prepared for maybe one; and he’d thought that threat overblown — but three?

It was going to be a very long night. Heron pulled his head up as a knock came at his cabin door signally that the delegation from the Rod had returned to discuss and coordinate activities based on the new intelligence Alexandros had provided. A very long night, sighed Heron.

∼

Edwyrd had the day mostly to himself. Rupert and Tizzy had set out to do some more palace exploring. Obviously, that was perfectly safe, what could wrong with a 10 or 12 your old demon egging on an unhinged multi-centenarian demon around a palace full of wizards and invisible enemy demons? Edwyrd didn’t want to think about it, but he didn’t have any better suggestions for them. He did warn both to not cause any trouble, specifically no murder, torture or evisceration of anyone, and if they ran into anything or one important, they should try and get a hold of Edwyrd before proceeding or revealing any information. It was about a ten minute list of instructions. Tizzy obviously tuned out within 30 seconds.

Maelen and Gastropé had gone to town to check out some bookstores. Edwyrd had enough to read from Maelen so sent them on their way. Jenn was running around with Damien messing with horses and soldiers and who knows what. So that left him to his own devices.

He spent a good part of the day in the main palace entry hall sitting on a stone bench along the side wall watching people go in and out. More precisely, he was examining them with full demon sight. He was trying to determine various levels of animus and mana in them and determine if they had any of those links attached to them.

Fortunately, most the people going in and out were wizards so they were almost all heavily mana oriented and many had links and tethers. He had a couple reference books with him to help him figure out what things were.