“Appearance is also a puzzle, normally demonic children resemble their children about as much as human children. For the child to be a virtual clone... well, also if we go by appearances and this child grows up to be nearly identical in looks and power... In that case this Tom must be extremely powerful. Of course this all depends on whether Tom has any nonstandard demonic abilities, and whether the child will also.”
“Non-standard demonic abilities?” Damien asked.
“Well, not really nonstandard. No more than being a wizard, priest or any other mana wielder is nonstandard for humans. Essentially, I mean if the demon has any conscious mana wielding abilities. Many demons have certain talents, if you will. Lightning bolts, shoot fire from their eyes, etc., in general however, these are limited and one trick options. As you are aware, most of the truly powerful demons have conscious control of mana. Similar to a wizard or other human.”
“All the archdemons are essentially wizards, aren’t they? I mean they study magic like any human mage.” Damien asked.
“Wizards, priests, druids, animage you name it. Anything a human can do in terms of mana wielding, some demons can too. Not as many demons as humans, elves or dwarves or such, but some few are. The strongest ones are almost always mana wielders. Everything fifth order and above does something, and most of the more powerful fourth orders as well. Remember, this ordering thing is all a made up classification scheme anyway. Demons run in a continuum of power.” Antefalken sipped on a glass of wine that had been on a small table beside him. As usual, he was perched on the back of a chair.
Damien knew most of this. He just liked to periodically have it confirmed by someone on the inside. The demonic children, though, he knew little about.
“Actually,” Antefalken continued after a moment, “about any profession you see in Astlan, and some you don’t, are done by some demon or the other. When you’re immortal, you tend to pick up hobbies, and you become very good at them.”
“So, to get back to the matter at hand. What do you think about this Tom, his power? How much of what he seems is he?”
“Again hard to say. If I guessed by his friendly nature, I’d guess Lenamare’s claims to be correct. He’s a new fourth order demon. If I guessed by the kid... overall and assuming the kid is going to grow to be a fourth order... then most likely this Tom is really an archdemon. A fourth having a fourth order child is not totally out of the question, it does happen. A fourth having a fourth order child that is nearly identical stretches the imagination. For an archdemon such a thing is certainly possible. In this event, the lowest case scenario is a fourth so close to being a fifth that it doesn’t matter.”
“This assumes a pure bred. What about as a half-breed?” Damien asked, not sure he wanted to hear the answer.
“I’m not aware of any half-breed greater than a three.” Antefalken said. “That would be about as powerful as archdemon would likely produce.” Antefalken made a sucking noise on his teeth. “I don’t want to think what it would mean to have a fourth order half-breed.”
“Particularly if it’s running around anywhere near us.” Damien observed. Antefalken simply nodded.
Damien shook his head, not sure what to think. “And naturally,” Damien looked back at the demon, “if he really is a powerful archdemon... or... more... then he could make himself appear to be a new fourth order demon with no problem.” Damien frowned at this one. He really didn’t like where this line of thought was going.
After eating a muffin, Damien asked, “What about this story about Exador and the Abyssal Switch?”
“Tom seemed to know all about it. Acted as if such things were common knowledge. I’m not aware of such a thing.” Antefalken told him.
Damien nodded. “I am, though. I’ve seen it mentioned in some really old texts. If Exador really did this, then he’s upped the power ante in this game. It’s at least as hard or harder spell than Lenamare’s little explosion. I find him doing it hard to believe. It’s one of those spells of legend. You know, supposed to exist but no one knows of anyone doing it. Used to be used, supposedly, for switching a piece of land into the Abyss and leaving it until the occupants were dead. So casual and frequent, yet well thought out, use by Exador for transporting so many men... well that indicates a lot more powerful a mage than Exador pretends to be.”
“None of what I learned from Tom seemed exactly comforting.” Antefalken commented.
“Nor the fact that your friend Tom knew so much about the Abyssal Switch spell. That would indicate he is a very powerful spell user.” Damien stated as he poured himself some hot tea.
“Really sounds like your friend Lenamare has bitten off more than he can chew. On all fronts.” Antefalken commented with a grin.
“Not my friend.” Damien corrected his bard.
