“It doesn’t really matter, does it? As everyone knows, demons have only one goal. Destruction. The destruction of all humankind, destruction of life, destruction of all Astlan. Destruction for the sake of destruction.”
“How do you know that? Did the demons tell you this?” Edwyrd asked.
“Hah! Like you could trust anything a demon told you. I can’t believe that you’re either this naive or that you can think to defend them.” Jenn paced back and forth a couple times. “It is taught to every child entering wizardry, as well as all children everywhere to a lesser degree, that demons are the agents of destruction. They rebelled against the gods at creation and have since done nothing but try and undo that creation.”
Edwyrd apparently came up with a different tact, “if demons are so evil, such agents of destruction, the why do wizards use them? Wouldn’t that make those who use them evil as well? People who summon or bind demons would thus be evil, people like Lenamare-or you?”
Jenn shouted indignantly, “I do not summon or bind demons!”
“Oh? Didn’t you participate in summoning and binding Tom with Lenamare?”
Jenn sputtered, it took her a moment to come up with a response to that. “That was just a learning exercise. Part of a class, I had to attend. Lenamare demanded all his students attend!”
“So you’re not evil, because you just did what you were told?”
“Look! I’m not evil, and yes I had no choice in summoning that demon; believe me, I’d rather not have.”
“So you had no choice? Lenamare forced you to do it? Sort of like how Lenamare forced the demon to go out and slay the demons, wizards and soldiers attacking the wards? Sort of like Jehenna ordering the demon to attack Gastropé’s people? The demon was ordered to do those things. Therefore, was it responsible for those evil acts? Wasn’t it just doing what it was told?”
Jenn was nearly screeching by this point. “That’s ridiculous!”
“Oh, and did Lenamare or Jehenna give the demon a choice? You know how this stuff works better than I. Do these spells leave the demon any free will?”
Jenn shook her head. “No,” she admitted angrily, “but that’s beside the point. It enjoyed doing those things. It enjoys killing and destroying things.”
“Really,” Edwyrd asked calmly, “and how do you know? Did you ask it?”
“Ask it,” she was staring at Edwyrd as if he’d just chopped his own head off and was sitting on it. “Ask it? Are you totally daft? Ask a demon if it enjoys destruction? Of course not! Ask the very archetype of Evil if it enjoys being evil?”
“Then how do you know?” Edwyrd persisted.
“Know! What’s this about know? Of course I know! It’s by definition. Demons are evil, they are anti-creation incarnate!”
“Ahh!” Edwyrd said softly, calmingly, “But Jenn? By whose definition? The demons’? The Rod’s or some ancient wizards’? Are the demons given any more choice in defining themselves as good or evil than they’re given a choice in any of their other actions dictated by wizards? Were they given any more choice in defining themselves than we were in the Rod’s definition of us?”
Jenn simply snorted. She shook her head. “You just don’t understand anything. You just don’t understand demons.”
“Maybe,” Edwyrd admitted quietly, “or maybe I just don’t understand wizards.”
Jenn looked at him, still somewhat as if he were insane, but also as if she just couldn’t understand him or where he was coming from. As if she just couldn’t fathom what drove him to such strange thoughts.
“Oh, and who’s boss vaporized a few thousand soldiers in a split second outside his former school?” Edwyrd asked, “You’re telling me that a mass murderer like Lenamare is one of the ‘good guys’ and the demon that saved your life, twice, was a ‘bad guy’?”
Jenn looked at Edwyrd in shock, her jaw moving, apparently unable to make a response. “I’m betting that your mentor,” Edwyrd continued, “killed more people in one second than most demons kill in an eternity.” Jenn sputtered, harrumphed and turned her back on the discussion.
During the entire argument both Gastropé and Maelen had looked on in shock and surprise. Both totally bemused by the sudden vehemence on both sides. Rupert had all he could do to keep from cheering Edwyrd on, even as he wondered at Jenn’s irrationality.
All his life he’d wanted to know the answers to those very same questions. He’d raged day in and day out against those who’d tried to impose such definitions on him. Here Tom, his father, was arguing the very same argument he’d so often dreamed of arguing with a wizard. Like father, like son, Rupert beamed.
