Sir Talarius closed his eyes and took a deep breath; “I pray it shall not.”
“You can oathfully state that the testimony you have given is accurate to the best of your ability to determine?” Wylan asked young Raspunon. The young soldier nodded solemnly before Wylan and Fiernon.
Raspunon swore, “On my Honor as a Loyal Citizen of Oorstemoth, I do solemnly swear that my report is accurate to the best of my knowledge and ability.” Raspunon wore the uniform of a Rod member. He had arrived at Wylan’s camp shortly before dawn with the information he had dutifully obtained as an inside surveillance agent among the Rod.
“Very well, you are dismissed. Return to your assignment.” Wylan told him. The young constabulary officer departed as dutifully instructed. When he was out of earshot, Wylan looked to Fiernon. “Such testimony as thus given is coincident with the nefarious behavior of our feral fugitives.”
“Perhaps we now have evidence of why they illegally transported themselves over jurisdictional lines.” Fiernon agreed.
“While the primary evidence is incomplete and thus far circumstantial, it would appear that the insidious individuals who have so blatantly and callously shown disrespect for the laws of sovereign Oorstemoth are also in league with a large body of Abyssal representatives currently seeking to subvert, pervert, and overthrow another sovereign government.”
“With, I fear, potential illicit and highly illegal ramifications for the safety and defense of Oorstemoth.” Fiernon added.
“Observant as always, Fiernon. Yes, while willful and malicious subversion of a foreign power in and of itself is not an implicitly illegal activity, overthrowing said government and posing serious or severe threat to the security of the Oorstemothian borders most certainly is. And it seems fairly self-evident that a Council States government that is nothing more than a pawn of the Abyss must be construed as a serious threat to Oorstemoth.”
“Thus at this point we may add Willful and Malign Machinations to Endanger Oorstemoth to the list of capital offenses already accrued by our impudently irresponsible ill-intentioned quarry? Plus Willful Intent to Engender Future Illicit Intrigues, including but not limited to, Treasonous National Criminal Trespass by Foreign Power with the Intent to Overthrow the Oorstemothian Government?” Fiernon asked, writing in his notebook as fast as he could.
“Certainly, at the very least, there may also be more serious and severe subliminally surreptitious schemes afoot as well.” Wylan stated.
“More serious than the overthrow of the legally appointed judicial government of Oorstemoth?” Fiernon asked incredulously.
“We shall have to consider this evidence most carefully. It could include the Intent and/or Attempt to Dominate and/or Eradicate the World by a Power Not Oorstemoth.” Wylan looked at his assistant somberly. These were essentially the most heinous and noxious crimes imaginable that they were currently contemplating the perpetration of by demonic entities. “In the meantime,” he continued, “I will be alerting the military arm of the constabulary. I believe this would be the prudent and in fact legally requisite action at this juncture.” Fiernon simply nodded, too aghast at the enormity of the situation to say more.
Edwyrd found the palace to be a welcome change from the outdoors, the Abyss and the cramped crew quarters. Their room was decently sized, not huge, but good-sized, and there was an incredible amount of space in the palace. Since he didn’t sleep, once Rupert was asleep he’d headed out to do some exploring. He eventually found a suitable unused store room down deep in the palace bowels and shut the door behind him.
He was very paranoid of anyone seeing him so; particularly with all the wizards around so the first thing he did was to try and concentrate on shifting just his eyes so he could look for auras in the room. He wanted to make sure there were not magic scrying spells or whatever spying on him. He didn’t know how to detect this, but demon vision certainly saw more than normal vision, so he tried simply shifting his eyes. It was surprisingly tricky, but he eventually got it to work, sort of.
The room appeared very mundane, just like it did to normal sight. It was a good sized room, most likely used for winter provisions. The ceiling was about 15 feet high, which is why he chose it. He needed room to relax and be himself.
Further, beyond just relaxation, he could actually practice the flaming body trick and other ‘pyromaster’ tricks. If he was going to go around claiming to be an Animage, he needed to figure out some tricks or ‘spells’ or whatever magic it was animages did, so he’d at least seem plausible. That seemed like as good a way to spend his nights as any other.
