“Do you think he trusts us?” Bess asked Ramses’ back. She lazily stretched her paws outward towards the back of the man who was climbing out of her bed. Ramses shrugged slightly as he began to don his elaborate black leather costume. He always insisted on dressing manually, at least with this costume.
He looked over his shoulder at her, smiling and arching one eyebrow. “Does it matter?” Bess stretched again, arching her back slightly, as she lay on her side, half covered by the silk sheets. “He hasn’t got too much choice. He’s been out of Court politics so long now, he needs an inside.”
Bess smiled, her pointed cat’s teeth seeming to glisten in the soft red light coming through the windows. “Just like we need an inside into Astlan politics. For now.”
Ramses nodded his head in agreement, fastening the shoulder pads in place. “For now. Eventually his usefulness will end.”
“I’m sure he’s thinking the same. I suppose we should be prepared for his eventual backstabbing.” Bess said, idly drawing circles on the bed with her claws.
“I suppose, I don’t consider him too much a threat. His forces here aren’t particularly impressive. His Astlanian forces aren’t that much anymore either, for that matter.” Ramses strapped the gold belts over his shoulders.
Bess reclined on her sheets, stretching one leg into the air above her. Arching it just enough to be seductive, all with her characteristic feline grace. Ramses just raised an eyebrow at her. “You think I put all this on, just to take it off again?”
Bess grinned wickedly, flexing her claws, “I could help you remove it. It could be, most entertaining.” Ramses smiled back.
“I’m sure it would. Your talents along those lines far outstrip anyone I’ve ever met. Unfortunately, I have a meeting with our ally in Freehold. He tends to get miffed if people are late.”
“Well then,” Bess replied, mock pouting, “better run. Hate to miff the great Exador.”
Antefalken hovered in the air off to one side. He hated to intrude on family reunions. He’d been slightly concerned they’d have a bit of a search for the boy, but fortunately that hadn’t proven to be the case. They’d taken the tunnel to the mouth of the cave and surveyed the valley below. Within moments, Tom had spotted a large bird flying high overhead. Naturally, since there were no birds in the Abyss, it had to be a demon. Antefalken couldn’t quite resolve the demon, but Tom had no trouble in identifying his son.
Up like an arrow he’d shot, on a direct intercept course for the boy. Antefalken had moved at a more sedate pace to gain altitude. He wanted to lag behind to give the two some time alone. Obviously, it was the boy’s first death. Such deaths were always a slightly worrisome time for parents. Or, it was for parents who actually bothered to care about their children.
Antefalken tried to care about his various offspring. Unfortunately, over the years he had produced so many, that after the first generation or two, he tended to lose track. Especially among the more human ones. He hadn’t much in the way of truly demonic offspring. A few children with cat like eyes or some other demonic oddity. A number with some real bardic ability and a couple fine wizards.
Otherwise the children seemed to take more after their mortal mothers. Antefalken twisted his head, watching the two demons above. It might be nice to have a demon child for a change. However, it seemed unlikely that he’d ever produce one with mortals. He’d need to bed a demon wench for that. Not too many of those he was interested in. Except, of course, for Lilith, but she was just a fling. Having a child with her was not even a question. She’d had children, as everyone knew, and then that rather unpleasant breakup with Adam and... well everyone knew where that led.
Still, it would be nice, Antefalken mused watching the reunion. He shook his head. Here he was thinking about family things when the whole world seemed to be going to pieces, or at least Astlan. Unfortunately, trouble in Astlan invariably seemed to mean trouble in the Abyss, eventually. In this case, it was probably even simultaneous.
Eventually, the reunion ended and the two demons flew down to join him. Once again, he had to marvel at how identical the two were, except for size. Almost definitely some funny genetic stuff going on. Either that or a highly inbred family. However, the boy didn’t seem addlepated.
“So, ready for the Courts?” Antefalken asked.
“The Courts of Chaos? Are we really going there?” Rupert looked anxiously from Antefalken to his father. Tom apparently hadn’t filled the boy in on everything. The kid was certainly excited about the idea though.
“That’s the next stop.” Antefalken nodded. “We’ll just fly south to the nearest boom tunnel and hop on over.”
“Boom tunnel?” Rupert asked. Antefalken tisked, weren’t parents teaching their children anything these days?
