“Tortured for information?” Tizzy asked, puzzled. Antefalken chuckled, and Boggy just shook his head. Talarius’s helm turned to look between the demons, clearly not knowing what they found so humorous.
“Who in their right mind would torture someone for information?” Tizzy asked.
“Yeah,” Boggy said. “There are like a jillion reasons you might torture someone: punishment, revenge, fun and games, stress relief for either party, lots of different sexual reasons—”
“But not information!” Tizzy interjected. “You can’t get any reliable information from torturing someone! As soon as the victim determines what you want to hear, they’ll tell you that to get the pain to stop. Trust me, I’ve been on both ends of the deal.” He paused to frown. “Although mostly on the receiving end.”
Antefalken nodded. “If there is one thing we know in the Abyss, it’s torture. It is a staple here; I am pretty sure that has been widely advertised as one our favorite pastimes. If anyone would know, it would be us.
“Okay, okay, I just said that because that’s what people with Black Sites often do!” Tom said, trying to drag the conversation back. “Besides, I don’t think we torture.” He looked to Tizzy. “Not in the basement, at least.” Tizzy nodded half-heartedly in agreement. “But we do make them disappear. And I’m not sure if they get a trial.”
“Gods have the power of high justice,” Tizzy stated. “So one way or the other, there was a trial.”
Talarius shook his head. “So what are you saying? You have prisoners in the basement?”
Tom shrugged. “There are prisoners there, sleeping. One of them is possibly waking up.”
Antefalken was looking puzzled. “What sort of prisoners did Orcus have?”
“Not Orcus,” Tizzy said. “Orcus was just the warden.”
“Orcus was the warden of a prison?” Talarius sounded quite skeptical.
“Tartarus,” Tizzy said.
The room went silent as several eyes widened, and Antefalken dropped his quill. There was a clinking noise as Talarius slumped in his seat.
“Are you telling me that we are sitting on a giant pile of sleeping Titans?” Antefalken asked looking, stunned.
“Ssshhh!” Tizzy made a whispering gesture with his left forefinger and lips. “You don’t want to wake them!” His eyebrows waggled with humor.
Talarius once again stayed in his bed after waking. He’d had a very sleepless night of tossing and turning after learning that they were literally sitting on top of Tartarus. The mythical prison of the gods, where the worst abominations in the multiverse were imprisoned for eternity. Then, to top it off, he finds out that his captor, and his captor’s predecessor — Orcus, one of the most diabolically evil demons known to the Five Siblings — was the warden of Tartarus. That the D’Orcs were the jailers of the gods’ most notorious prison.
He could not believe this. It flew in the face of all established reason and orthodoxy. It must be a lie. How could he interpret such a thing? However, the thought that had woken him terrified in the middle of the night was the sudden realization that if this was true, then by killing Orcus, Sentir Fallon had left Tartarus with no warden for four thousand years! The most horrifyingly destructive individuals in the multiverse had been left unguarded for all that time? What if there had been an escape attempt?
The knight ignored his sword.
It was sheer unimaginable horror! Thus it could not be true. It must not be true!
Talarius sighed, squeezed his eyes tightly shut and rolled onto his side, bringing his knees up and pulling the covers over his shoulders, trying to bring on a bit more sleep to quiet his brain’s frantic chatter.
Tom was gathering together his local contingent in his sitting room to take them down to Tartarus as Talarius exited his room for the morning in his typical full regalia. Rupert, Fer-Rog, Reggie, Estrebrius, Antefalken, Boggy and Tizzy were all going down with Tom to see the Oubliette and Tartarus for themselves.
