Tarrin snorted, then chuckled. "I know a Succubus. Believe me, that's a pretty good example. And it makes me understand exactly how you felt." Tarrin still remembered Shiika's strange power to enslave the will. If the Soultrap was anything like that, then he fully understood and appreciated the horror that Jegojah must have endured, the horror of having something invade his very soul and twist it to its own ends.
"Ye know a Succubus?" Jegojah asked curiously.
"Well, from what I've seen, she's not an ordinary Succubus. Not even an ordinary Demon. She's no sweet maiden, but she's nothing like the Demon's I've heard about in stories. Maybe it's a front, but maybe it's not. Maybe even Demons can have goodness in them."
"A nice Demon?" Jegojah said, then he cackled. "That would cause the universe to explode, yes."
"Maybe," Tarrin acceded with a wry smile. "She's not gentle or kind or anything like that, but she's definitely lacking that fundamental evil that I've heard is in Demonkind."
"How do ye know?"
"I'm not sure," he replied. "But I do."
"Tell Jegojah of this Demon," he asked.
Nodding, Tarrin started more or less at the beginning, and recanted a good deal of his struggle against Shiika. He left out some of the more intimate or embarassing parts, but he related a pretty much well factual accounting of the events of Dala Yar Arak. He also explained what happened when Shiika kissed him. "It did this to me," he said, motioning at himself. "It seems that a Succubus' kiss drains the life force out of people, and in a way, it ages. She couldn't kill me with her draining kiss, but it made me age. It took a while for my body to catch up, though," he remembered.
"Jegojah wondered how ye came to grow," he cackled. "Jegojah should have asked, yes. Shocked Jegojah, it did, in every sense of the word. Such power, never had Jegojah expected it, no."
"I noticed that," Tarrin said, not a little bit of satisfaction of the memory of Jegojah's shocked face washing over him. It was a very sweet memory, even if he no longer considered the Doomwalker an enemy. "Anyway, after that, I got pretty much well angry. So I decided to kill the Emperor, pin the Succubus in place, and then go looking for the Book of Ages while I had her indisposed."
Jegojah cackled loudly, stamping his boots on the ground. "Jegojah knew he liked ye, Were-cat," he said with a wide grin. "Ye really did in the Emperor of Arak?"
Tarrin nodded, but his expression was somber. "Him and a few hundred innocent bystanders. I'm not very proud of that." He shook it off. "Anyway, while the Succubus was trying to dig herself out of the rubble, I invaded her palace and found the Book."
"Do ye have it now?"
Tarrin nodded. "I can't show it to you, so don't ask. If I bring it out, its presence will tell everyone exactly where I am."
"Then don't," Jegojah said quickly. "Danger, Jegojah will not bring it to you, no. What happened next?"
"That's pretty much it," he replied. "Me and Sarraya fled Dala Yar Arak with the book, with about half the Empire of Arak hot on our heels. We're trying to get back to the West now."
"What of the Selani and the others?"
"They left by ship," he replied.
"Good. Jegojah feared ye and the Faerie were the only survivors. Their safety, it is important to Jegojah, yes."
"Why?"
"Their safety, Jegojah threatened, yes. Jegojah carries burden enough knowing Jegojah brought Faalken low. Jegojah wishes not for any more suffereing, no."
That ratcheted up Jegojah's standing in Tarrin's mind by several notches. "If you don't mind, where are you from? Originally."
"Jegojah comes from Shace," he replied. "Jegojah was born in the year 768, some fifteen hundred years ago by our calendar, yes. Jegojah died in battle during the War of Seven Swords."
That was a war between Sulasia and Shace. "What was it like back then?"
"Much different," he replied. "Almost everyone could use magic, yes. Children were forbidden to learn magic, but most adults knew at least a cantrip or two."
"Why were children forbidden to learn magic?" Tarrin asked curiously.
"Because, Were-cat, magic in a child's hands is dangerous, yes," he replied. "The rule, it was originally set forth by the Priests, to prevent Wizard magic from tainting possible future priests, but it was a rule of common sense, yes, so it was obeyed."
"The strictures concerning orders of magic," Tarrin remembered. "If a child learned Wizard's cantrips, he couldn't access any other order of magic from then on."
"Exactly," Jegojah replied. "The origins of the War of Seven Swords, they are lost on Jegojah. All Jegojah knew was that he had an enemy to battle, yes. Jegojah commanded the Silver Knights, a great army, but Jegojah's army, it was no match for katzh-dashi and their High Sorcery, no. Jegojah died in the face of Sorcerer's Fire."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Jegojah holds not a grudge against the katzh-dashi," he said calmly. "War is conflict. Their orders, they were simply obeying them, as Jegojah was his own, yes. Much is lost to Jegojah after that, until Jegojah felt his soul being ripped from its eternal rest, pulled back from the Realms Beyond and placed into that thrice-damned Soultrap." Jegojah almost seemed to bristle. "Such began Jegojah's imprisonment. Used Jegojah, they did, for their dirty work. There were two before Kravon, but Kravon, he was the worst. The others did not torture Jegojah for fun, no. Kravon often summoned Jegojah just to torment Jegojah. Jegojah had no doubt that had Jegojah defeated ye in fair combat, still Kravon would have given Jegojah's soul to his pet Demon. May she suck the marrow from his bones," he spat.
"She?" Tarrin asked curiously.
"A marilith," Jegojah answered. "They are Demons of great power, yes. They are women with the lower body of snakes, and have six arms. But their appearance and powerful magic, they are not their main advantage, no. Marilith are the most cunning and intelligent of all Demonkind. Kravon, he summoned the marilith to help plan battles, something they do very well."
"Battles?" Tarrin asked quickly. "What kind of battles?"
Jegojah cackled. "Jegojah's soul was trapped in the Soultrap, and Kravon often carried it around with him. What Kravon does not know is that Jegojah could hear what was going on, yes, hear through the Soultrap. Jegojah had been inside it for so long that Jegojah learned how to come close to the surface, close enough to hear through the prison walls. Jegojah knows many of Kravon's plans." He looked quickly at Tarrin. "Much anguish, Jegojah thinks it would cause, if all of Kravon's carefully laid plans were brought to ruin," he said with a speculative look. "Ye be a Weavespinner, a sui'kun. Know ye the art of distant communication?"
"I do," he replied immediately.
"Good. Ye can help Jegojah break the ki'zadun over his knee."
"Any way I can," Tarrin said soberly.
Listen very closely to this, kitten, the Goddess warned in his mind. Very, very closely.
If anything, that told him that he'd better pay attention. Jegojah was about to say something very important.
"Jegojah does not know all the details, but he knows enough. All the unsettled activity in the West, it is caused by the ki'zadun. Jegojah knows that they have incited Daltochan to invade Sulasia, that they have incited war between the Ungardt and the Tykarthians. This, they do, as a means to get ki'zadun forces to lay siege to Suld. They seek to destroy the Tower of Six Spires, raze it to the ground, yes. They think that if they can destroy the Tower, they can defeat ye and gain the Firestaff unopposed."