“Five or six days!” Tizzy exclaimed. Edwyrd made hushing motions again. “I’m gonna get a little cramped on this ship for six days! Course, I guess I could fly around the deck a bit, get exercise.” Edwyrd grimaced, he hadn’t thought of Tizzy coming along for the rest of the journey. On the other hand, he would really rather have the unbalanced demon where he could keep track of him, than running off somewhere murdering innocents.
“I don’t suppose you can shape change into a human?” Edwyrd asked.
“A human? Is that what you’re supposed to be? Why in the Dungeon of the Concordenax would I want to do something like that?”
“To blend in?” Rupert piped up.
“Why would I want to do that? I’m proud of being a demon. Aren’t you?”
“Yeah, now I am,” Rupert announced.
“Tizzy, we’re playing sort of a game here,” Edwyrd wanted to put it in terms Tizzy could understand better. He wasn’t sure what those terms might be, but he thought he should try. “You see, we’re pretending to be humans to find out what’s going on with the wizards. Therefore, to keep the game going, it would be nice if you could turn into a human.”
“Hmm,” Tizzy said. “Maybe, but since I can’t, it’s a moot point.” Edwyrd shrugged; there went that idea. “How long you gonna play this game?”
“I don’t know, as long as it takes. Until we get to Freehold, probably.”
“Freehold! What you want to go to Freehold for? There’s nothing there but wizards. Nasty lot, actually.”
“Uhm, that’s where Gastropé and Jenn, and” he looked over at Rupert, “Rupert are going.”
“Well actually, Tom.” Rupert spoke up, his gravelly voice held down to as close to a whisper as he could. “I had been going to Freehold, because that’s where everyone else was going. But really, I don’t have to. I’ll go wherever you want to go.”
“Yes, well, uhm,” Edwyrd wasn’t sure. He didn’t actually have any place else to go, except return to the Abyss. “I promised Jenn I’d get her there. So, Freehold is where I’m going for now. Besides, since Lenamare’s there, I’d eventually wind up there anyway. I’d rather go on my own terms.”
“Hmm, well... could be interesting I suppose.” Tizzy muttered to himself. “As long as none of them wizards knows my name, it could be a lot of fun. I’m sure they’ll just love having an unbound demon running around terrorizing them in the night, and the day.”
“Yeah.” Edwyrd said unenthusiastically. Such a prospect would convince Tizzy to stay with him, rather than run amuck alone; however, he really couldn’t let Tizzy terrorize Freehold either. He’d just have to deal with that problem later. It looked like more and more of his problems were getting pushed onto the back burners.
“So, what are we going to do with you?” Edwyrd asked.
“So you’re saying you don’t want your pets to see me on the ship?” Tizzy asked.
“I think that would be best.”
“But it’s ok for him to run around like that?” He pointed to Rupert.
Rupert looked down at himself. “He doesn’t go out like that.” Edwyrd answered the octopodal demon on his bed.
“Should. Really don’t understand why you want to look like that,” he looked contemptuously at Edwyrd’s body. “Puny little thing. I can take those things apart faster than they can repair ‘em. Game or no game. Doesn’t seem worth it.”
“It’s not really a lot of fun, to be honest. However, you told me you used to look similar, before you were captured.” Rupert glanced curiously over at Edwyrd.
“Well, now. No need to bring up bad memories is there?” Tizzy sounded hurt. “That was before I knew better. Don’t you know better now?”
“I’m not so sure, but maybe.” Edwyrd admitted.
Tizzy smiled. “Knew you’d get over it. You’re really much better off as a demon. Except for the damn wizards-if we could kill all of them off, things’d be a lot better. Smart lad, smart lad.”
Tizzy looked back over to Rupert, smiling. “This here’s another smart lad. Knew that the moment I met him.” Tizzy stopped and stared at Rupert for a moment. He tilted his head back and forth a couple times. “You know, Tom, he looks mighty familiar. Kinda looks identical to you, only in miniature.”
“Tom’s my father.” Rupert spoke up. Edwyrd groaned internally, he hoped Tizzy wouldn’t say anything, the octopod knew that couldn’t be possible.
Edwyrd could see the glowing embers that were Tizzy’s eyes dart back and forth between Rupert and himself several times. Finally, “You do work fast Tom, gotta give you that. Used to take longer in my day. But, I can see the family resemblance sure enough. The kid’s also got your personality too. Serious and dedicated type. Doesn’t let shit get to him.” Edwyrd sighed a sigh of relief. Tizzy certainly could have solved his dilemma for him. It would have been very awkward though.
