Stainsberry nodded politely to Karis. “A pleasure to meet you.”
“Mine as well. Oh, I am so happy to meet you, all of you,” Karis said, beaming.
“And this — this is Sir Talarius, Knight Rampant of Tiernon!” Tom told her.
Karis’s eyes grew wide. “Sir Talarius? Of Astlan?” the battle priestess asked in surprise.
Now it was the Doom delegation’s turn to be surprised.
Talarius took his helmet off. “You know of me?” he asked.
“Well, of course! That’s how we ended up having so many avatars here! They came looking for you!” Karis said.
“They what?” Talarius asked again in shock. Tom wasn’t sure if the knight’s eyes could get any wider. Talarius’s brow furrowed. “Is one of the avatars Saint Hilda of Rivenrock?” Talarius asked, sounding almost puzzled by his own pronouncement.
“Yes! She is here, along with Stevos, Teragdor and Beragamos!” Karis said, clapping her hands together.
Now Tom was the one who was puzzled. So, the avatars that Tamarin had told him were investigating the Freehold incident were here? That was not a good thing. But how did Talarius know their names?
Talarius furrowed his brow again and shook his head a couple of times, his mouth moving slightly as if he was talking to himself.
“Are you okay?” Tom asked, concerned.
After a moment, Talarius looked at him. “I’m sorry. I’m talking to Ruiden in my mind.” He then noticed Karis’s odd look. “My sword — we communicate mind to mind.” Karis nodded.
Tom had momentarily forgotten that Talarius and Ruiden talked that way. Talarius had told him this, as had Tamarin. In fact, that would be how Talarius knew of the avatars. Tamarin had told him that Ruiden had been traveling with Tiernon’s avatars, which is how he had ended up in Murgatory. Things were starting to add up, and come together. It was just getting very difficult to keep all of the insanity straight in his head. Who knew who, and what and when did they know it? It could really make one’s head spin.
“Ruiden has worked with Hilda and Beragamos before,” Talarius said.
“Well, excellent! What a happy coincidence,” Karis exclaimed. “Oh! Before I forget, your horse is here, along with her barding.”
Talarius shook his head. “War Arrow is here? How?”
“Arch-Diocate Iskerus brought her. I believe they were going to use her to somehow help you escape the demon that kidnapped you!” Karis said and burst out laughing. “Little did anyone suspect that Lord Orcus would beat them to the punch and rescue you first!”
“Uhm, yeah…” Talarius said.
Tom smiled slightly at Talarius’s discomfort. It was not very nice of Tom, but it was rather fun, nonetheless.
“So! Shall I take you to the Command Center?” Karis asked hopefully.
“We need to try something first, rather quickly. We need to test this plane-blocking thing.” Tom said, motioning Targh to step around him. Tom then reached out and closed the runic gateway.
“How does closing the runic gateway do that?” Karis asked.
“I will open it again in a moment, but I need to see if Targh can follow my link to the Nysegard Doom and then back to the Abyss,” Tom explained. He nodded to Targh, who promptly took a deep breath as if preparing to relax. He then faded from view, even as a normal demon returning to the Abyss would do.
Tom nodded. “Excellent!” he turned and moved the table with the communication stone out of the way. “Targh Bowelsplitter, I summon thee from the depths of the Abyss!” Given his link to Targh, he didn’t need to use a true name or any real spell.
Within moments Targh reappeared in the room, fading in even as he had faded out. Tom grinned.
Karis gasped. “How did you overcome the dimensional blockage?” the battle priestess asked in surprise.
“I am linked to the Doom of Nysegard, which in turn is linked to Mount Doom. While I cannot go directly to Mount Doom from here, I can get to Mount Doom through the Doom of Nysegard,” Tom explained.
“Excellent!” Karis said. “So Mount Doom and the Doom of Nysegard are both once more fully operational?”
“They are indeed,” Tom smiled, raising the Rod of Tommus slightly.
Karis shook her head in sudden realization. “The Wand of Orcus, of course! I guess I was expecting something a bit smaller.”
Tom chuckled. “I understand. When I am in this form it’s a staff; however, when I change into other forms of different sizes, it stays the same size. So in battle, for example, it looks like a wand.”
“Of course!” Karis said. “Should we head to the Command Center?”
“Sure,” Tom said. Might as well confront these avatars before getting any deeper into this mess, he thought to himself. At least he had his full power, unlike them.
“I just want to open the runic gateway and update everyone there. We’ll have a few more people come through to start preparations,” Tom told the battle priestess. “I am also going to have Darg-Krallnom join us.”
Teragdor, taking a break from the battlements and working on preparations for things he and Rasmeth could do when darkness came this evening, nearly jumped out of his chair as the main doors to the Command Center were slammed open by the guards that had been just outside. They were both smiling brightly. Karis entered the room, yelling at the top of her lungs.
“Citadel! We are Doomed! Lord Orcus has returned to fight by our side; the Forces of Doom have come to our rescue!” she shouted joyfully.
The entire room went silent for a moment, and then turned to see a completely unexpected sight. Behind Karis came two knights in armor, one with a large cloak; behind them was some sort of young wizard with curly black hair and a seriously magical metal staff with a demon’s skull on top. Flanking the wizard were two of the scariest-looking D’Orcs Teragdor had ever seen — although, given that he had only seen about a dozen D’Orcs in his life, that was not as strong of a statement as it might have been.
“What the…?” Grob Darkness Slayer spluttered, moving towards Karis before stopping dead in his tracks and staring at the wizard. Grob shook his head, even as Diocate Aeris came to his side. “Prince Orcus?” the vicar general said in shock before his eyes moved on to the two D’Orcs. Grob fell to his knees. “Praise be to Tiernon! He has delivered us the Lord Orcus reborn!” he shouted. Aeris rested her right hand on his shoulder to steady herself. She seemed in shock.
Teragdor quickly glanced to the avatars. Those of Krinna, Namora and Hendel remained oblivious, but Tiernon’s avatars, along with Timbly and the avatars of Torean, stood to get a better view.
Suddenly, Arch-Diocate Iskerus surged forward. “Talarius!” he shouted in surprise, rushing over towards the party.
The knight without the cloak, the one with the giant sword on his back, took off his helmet to reveal a man who appeared to be about thirty, wearing a broad grin. He quickly moved forward to embrace the arch-diocate.
How could a man so young be the greatest Knight Rampant in Astlan? Such a reputation would take decades, Teragdor wondered.
“Iskerus! I would never in a million years have expected to find you in Nysegard!” the Knight Rampant proclaimed.
“And I cannot believe you were able to escape your demon captor!” Iskerus exclaimed as the two embraced in greeting.
Teragdor shook his head. He had personally told Iskerus that they suspected that the demon that took Talarius was Orcus. So that’s a little awkward, Teragdor thought to himself. However, to be fair, he did not see the demon that had captured Talarius. There were two D’Orcs, a second knight and the wizard. Wizard? Or Animage? Teragdor wondered, suddenly recognizing some of the symbols on the robes the young man was wearing. Wasn’t there an animage involved in this? The one who had burnt the Oorstemothian ship? He didn’t remember exactly what he’d heard, but it seemed like at some point, the demon the Rod was chasing had been caught up with an animage.