The Heavenly Host

As a goddess associated with Air, she had no problem summoning a nice breeze, but all the air in this quite literally god-forsaken hellhole was insufferably hot. One reason she did not come down here that much. Upon reflection, she supposed the very existence of the outpost meant the place was not completely god-forsaken, but it was still a hellhole.

Bess chuckled. “Yes, it was me.” She shook her head. “Those stupid Oorstemothians! Who would expect them to record the whole thing? And capture us on the carpet?”

“Times, they are a changing.” Astet shook her head. “When we were in Astlan officially, such wizardry did not exist yet.”

“I know; it’s one of the things so many of us prefer about the magic-based worlds over the tech worlds. If there is no visual or audio recording of an event, it’s a lot easier to tell one group one thing, and another group something else,” Bess said with a smile. She had always been big on being up front wherever possible with people. Which is what made her current situation so ironic.

“Takes some of the fun out of godhood, doesn’t it? You lose plausible deniability for mysterious actions and such,” Astet remarked before taking another sip of her super-chilled iced tea.

“It does sort of put a damper on ‘working in mysterious ways,’ ” Bess agreed.

“So,” Astet said, “now you have to pretend to be a mortal wizard in Freehold?”

“It’s looking that way.” Bess shook her head. “Exador wants us all to show up and demonstrate our humanity.”

“And how do you do that?” Astet asked.

Bess shrugged. “I have no idea what Exador plans. Perhaps have them put the wards back up?”

“But didn’t that cause you all flee the city?”

Bess chuckled. “It caused them to flee the city, and it did rattle my sinuses, making me feel quite twitchy, along with a nasty headache. However, I was able to locate the source very quickly and surmised what was happening. Being the consummate actress, I simply played along with my cover story.”

Astet laughed. “That, I will grant you, is one of your skills. I would lose patience, break character and smite those two buffoons.”

“Well, I guess it’s good that I took on this task.” Bess grinned.

“So you are to be a goddess pretending to be an archdemon pretending to be a human?” Astet shook her head from side to side. “Those tangled chains of lies again.”

∼

^{DOF +7}

^{Dawn (Murgatroy Time) 16-04-440}

Tal Gor tossed restlessly on his sleeping mat. He was still a bit freaked out by his nocturnal experience. Once he had woken from dream walking last night, he had put the talisman on a small tray beside his bed and prepared to bandage his hand. However, he had quickly discovered that the cut was healed and that the palm of his hand was now scarred with what appeared to the same image as the talisman. The ridges of the scar appeared well healed, as if he had had it for years. He shook his head and looked at the talisman. The formerly worn imprint on the stone appeared new and fresh in the candlelight of his tent, rather than worn and old, as it had before his dream walking.

Tal Gor had hurriedly left his tent to tell Horrgus about his experience, but the old shaman had been passed out drunk on his cot. He had then gone to the main fire, where several warriors were still talking and drinking, and tried to tell them about his dream trip, but they had all laughed at him. They insisted he had fallen asleep and had a normal dream, and that he should go back to bed.

It was late and he had been tired, so he had gone back to bed. He needed to think about the events anyway. He supposed it made sense that none of the younger warriors would believe him; he could not really believe it himself. Tal Gor finally sat up. The light of predawn was seeping in through the loose closure of his tent flaps. He crawled over to the water bucket; the tent was so small there was no real point in standing up to get to the leather bucket’s tripod.

He grabbed his washrag and dunked it in the water to wash the sleep from his eyes and the dried sweat from his body. As he was doing this, his left hand began tingling.

“Greetings, Tal Gor El Crooked Stick!”

This was weird; Tal Gor could hear Lord Tommus in his head!

“Are you ready to hunt? You may select a total of twenty of your best hunters to join Commander Vespa Crooked Stick and her hunting party. Since the party flies, we will bring D’Wargs for your selected hunters to ride on the hunt.”

“Hunt? Ah, I had no idea it would be so soon — I need to gather hunters!” Tal Gor exclaimed in his head.