“Look there. In your fellow humans, if you would see true evil. For it is at the bidding of these individuals that demons act. It is their minds and beliefs that give demons form and power.” Edwyrd noted Antefalken squirming on his seat, wanting to interject some objections, Edwyrd glared at him though. He was making a point to the wizard and he didn’t need it undermined by a complicated reality.
“Are you saying that all demons are good and wizards bad?” Gastropé said, starting to bristle as the shock wore off.
“No. I’m not. There are some very good wizards. I think Jenn is good, Damien seems to be, and I think you are too. There are also evil wizards, like Exador,” Gastropé frowned, hating to have to agree. “Lenamare doesn’t strike me as a particularly nice fellow either. There are also evil demons. Possibly the archdemons we have to face here. Ramses the Damned perhaps. However, there are also good demons. Rupert is one. You yourself called him an innocent little kid. He is. He is just a child. A demon child, but still a child. He is exactly what he appears. The Rupert you know is the real Rupert. Do you seriously think he is evil?”
Gastropé shrugged uncertain. Edwyrd continued, “I don’t want to blow my own horn, but I don’t think of myself as evil. Have I done anything to harm you? Or anyone that wasn’t attacking us? Have I done anything more than a normal human might do? One with the same powers and abilities?” He hoped he wasn’t pushing it too far on this one.
Gastropé frowned. “I seem to recall you nearly killing me in the mountain pass.”
Tom snorted softly. “And I seem to recall you being part of an ambush on Jenn and Rupert and a bunch of other children and students.”
“I didn’t actually kill anyone, though!” Gastropé protested, “Besides, I was working for Exador then; I didn’t have a choice!”
“You’re right. You were working for Exador, and you didn’t have a lot of choices. Although to be honest, I seem to recall you mentioning that your ability to kill anyone in the pass was rather hampered by Jenn.”
“Well, yes, but that was then, this is now. She and I are on the same side now. And you did kill a lot of people!”
“Yes, and you and I are on the same side now. And I didn’t have a lot of choice. I am, after all, on retainer, so to speak, to Lenamare and Jehenna. I was ordered to kill the attackers; you know how stringent a demon’s orders can be. Further, if I hadn’t killed them, what do you think they might have done to Jenn or Rupert?” Gastropé shrugged uncomfortably.
“Finally, I did kill those who attacked the wagon train. You didn’t attack them, and I didn’t kill you. In that instance, since you were technically an attacker, I certainly could have interpreted my orders to kill you, too. In fact, that would be the logical interpretation. I chose not to, however. I let you go. Even though, you’d clearly stated your intention to try and enslave me and do me harm.”
Gastropé looked quite uncomfortable at this. “Well, it’s not like I could have hurt you. You ignored my strongest wards!”
“True, but when you started, did you know you couldn’t harm me? Wasn’t it your intention to control me?” Tom asked.
Gastropé shrugged, not having an easy answer. “Look, I don’t want to argue with you.” Tom said, “I would like to be your friend. I am the demon that you encountered during the ambush, the one that could have killed you, but let you get away. I am also the demon, who with the assistance of another demon, Rupert, helped you escape a rather unpleasant fate at the hands of Exador. I am also the human being you’ve known as Edwyrd for the past few weeks. I am all of these things. What you see is what you get.”
Gastropé sat with his head in his hands. “I don’t know. Maybe you’re right. I just have to think about this. I don’t like it at all.”
“Think about it then. I know it will take some getting used to the idea.” Hopefully, the journeyman wizard would come to the right decision. He turned his attention back to Damien and Antefalken.
Damien smiled at him. “Well, I guess you’ve answered the question about where Lenamare’s big demon went to. You also raised some good points that I want to think about. Is there anything else I should know?”
Edwyrd laughed. “Anything else you should know? I know some things that would really turn your world upside down, wizard. However, given the circumstances, I think that experience can wait until we’ve dealt with the problems at hand.”
“So, that explains why you suspect Ramses the Damned. It’s not certain, but it’s better than anything else we have to go on.” Damien said to Edwyrd.
Edwyrd proceeded to detail Maelen’s experience and the interpretation the two had made of it. They discussed Ramses and the likelihood of it being him for some time. Gastropé had been essentially silent throughout. Still trying to come to grips with the Edwyrd-Tom duality, it appeared. “We need a little more confirmation though. A little more to go on.”
