“Well,” Damien said, “just because he is a demon, doesn’t mean he’s a bad person.” Gastropé looked at him rather askance. “Oh, I know that’s the story. Mostly it seems to be true too. Most demons can’t be trusted further than you can contain them. However, it has been my experience that some demons are reliable, and reasonable. Antefalken for one.” Gastropé just looked at him, waiting for him to continue.
“Antefalken is my chief agent. In point of fact, my major confidant and assistant. I trust him with my life. He’s certainly saved it a time or two.” Damien sat back down. “The thing you have to judge is the individual demon, and their actions. Certainly, only a fool would trust one automatically, but,after time, if it proves true to its word, both the spirit and the letter, you can generally trust them. At least as much as you can trust a human.”
“I don’t know.” Gastropé’ remained uncertain.
“The fact is, being immortal and spending a considerable part of that time being bound to wizards gives demons a very different perspective from us. Separately, both would make a difference; together one gets a very interesting combination. Then add in the fact that they are a completely different species.” Damien told him.
“You talk like they were just a different race. Like elves or dwarves.” Gastropé said.
“Well they are. A race from the Abyss. They certainly aren’t human, although sometimes certain individuals can come so close that you might not know the difference. I am sure, growing up in the Abyss, or wherever exactly demons grow up, gives them a very different background.”
“Do demons grow up? I mean I’d never really thought of demons having children before.” Gastropé’ said.
“I’m not really sure. Antefalken has never been too clear on that point. Most of our talk on demon children surrounds half-breeds, which do grow up. As for purebred demons? Some certainly do. Others it seems are formed somewhere off in the far regions of the Astral Plane. Some have even claimed to come from far distant parts of the planes of men. However, what ‘normal’ plane of existence other than the Abyss could produce demons is beyond me.
“If what Antefalken has learned is true, then Tom is a demon that comes from the far regions of the Astral Plane. Or so he claims. However, he can’t be as recent to Astlan as Lenamare seems to believe, nor as Tom claims. If he was, how could he already have a son? You told us that Rupert was his son, and he didn’t deny it.”
“That’s what Tizzy said. He also seems to know a lot about human ways and culture for someone who has never been to Astlan before.” Gastropé said.
“Again true. To my knowledge, he hasn’t told any of us directly about his past. All we know is second hand from Antefalken’s contacts and what Lenamare’s people have said. Thus he hasn’t lied to us about it, really hasn’t said anything.”
“Do you think we can trust him?” Gastropé asked, uncertain.
“From what I’ve been told he hasn’t done anything to harm any of those that he considers on his side. Specifically I mean Jenn, Maelen, Rupert and you. In fact, it sounds like he’s gone to a great deal of trouble to aid you. For one thing, if this Tizzy is his colleague, well then, without them, we still wouldn’t know of the demon infestation.”
“True. If they were in league with the others, I doubt they’d tell us about the demons.” Gastropé admitted. Damien nodded.
“Thus on face value, all he’s been guilty of is withholding information. If that qualified an individual as automatically untrustworthy then we’d all be a really shiftless lot.” Gastropé had to smile at this. “Since he is a demon that none of us knows well, he does bear watching. I do believe that we can trust him not to do anything out of hand in the short term. What his long term goals are is still very unclear and bears observing. He may be playing a very complicated game with us and the others. Even so, that still doesn’t mean he’s untrustworthy. If we can trust his word, or rather the spirit of his word, then he won’t directly harm us or act against us.”
“If we can trust his word.” Gastropé restated the problem.
“Yes. As a group, demons tend to be very literal and take their own interpretation of their word very seriously. On average, this can lead to some problems in communication. On an individual basis, I’d have to say we can trust Tom’s word about as much as any mortal we’d recently met under similar circumstances. At least, until he does something to disprove it, or indicate that his interpretation is different from ours. From what I’ve seen and heard, he’s done just the opposite.”
“True.” Gastropé admitted. “But you admitted it could be part of some even bigger plot.”
“It might be; it might not be. What is clear is that both Lenamare and Exador are involved in bigger plots than they’ll let us in on. We know this. Both of them are human. Are you going to tell me that you trust either of them more than you’d trust Tom?” Gastropé shrugged slightly. Damien certainly had a point on that.
