P I and Magic Book II: The Gods Return
Copyright© 2005 by Volentrin
Chapter 23
The trip back too and through the Ancient's gate, was fairly quick and straight forward. I changed into dragon form, and flew back towards the demon's lines. I found Shaitan at one section of the line, and landed not far from him.
"Paul! We thought you lost!" Shaitan exclaimed, as I transformed back into my normal human self.
I quickly filled him in on what happened. He thought that it was a trick, but contacted his father. Morningstar appeared instantly. I repeated the story of my capture, what was said, and my subsequent release.
While we had been talking, the enemy had been steadily retreating. I still wondered where they had gotten these primitive people from. I had seen no evidence of them in the Ancient's world. Not even a camp!
I informed Morningstar I had to get back to my world, and tell the Gods what had happened. For a good long minute, I thought he was going to refuse. Then he nodded, and told his son to see to it. With that, Morningstar was gone.
"Well, I have come to look forward to seeing you, since you arrived here. I think I will actually miss you," Shaitan told me.
I was astonished to say the least! One of the most evil characters in modern literature would miss me? Somehow I doubted that. I had things to think over, and I had a lot to tell Vostich, Mirwanna, Fithian, and the Gods. It would be an interesting meeting to say the least.
With Shaitan doing the work, we made it back to the gate a lot more quickly than my trip in had taken. True to his word, there were five casks of the wine I had liked, at the gate.
"Will you take my hand, Paul?" Shaitan asked me, holding out his hand for a handshake.
With reservations, I took it and shook hands with the devil! I could not believe I was doing this! I walked through the gate, with five demons carrying my wine casks behind me. As soon as I came through, I felt a PRESENCE.
The demons almost dropped my casks in their haste, and ran back through the gate. When the last demon was gone, the God Pejoru sealed but did not destroy the gate. He looked at me, and I felt his mind in my mind.
He withdrew, and I shuddered. I felt awe at having been in such intimate contact with one of the Gods! I was left with a feeling of euphoria.
"Paul," Pejoru said gently, "While I applaud your wanting to set things in order, did it occur to you that the demons and the Ancients might have other things going on, and plans that you have no idea of?" Pejoru asked me curiously.
"Yes, my lord, it did. But I felt and saw nothing in the way of them trying to trick me. I am just reporting what I have been told, and have learned, nothing more," I said with a bow to him.
"Very well, I will take you back to the palace. By the way. I have canceled all the spells that were added to your cloak and rings, with one exception. I feel it will be good to keep one communication spell open with the Ancients until such time as a consensus is reached on what actions we will take," Pejoru told me.
I was stunned to find out I had brought back spells that had been placed on my personal items! How did I miss seeing it when my things had been returned to me? I mean, I had checked each and every item before I put them on!
"The Ancients were, and still are, very powerful. Each one is as strong as Vostich at a minimum. You were lucky in your dealings with them," Pejoru said to me.
I barely noticed when we went from the gate's location, back to the palace. I'll give this to the Gods, they are very smooth when they do something! One second we were at the now sealed demon gate, the next we were in the palace, including my five casks of wine!
"I think we will all meet in Queen Mirwanna's private dining room. It is large enough to comfortably seat all who will be summoned," Pejoru told me, and I felt his summons go out, but since I was with him, he didn't really include me in it.
Mirwanna was speaking. "You have all heard Paul's report. I will now open the topic for discussion," she said in a business-like tone of voice.
Vostich rose. "We have to assume that they are not telling us everything. What little I know of them, is from the Gods. They have nothing but very bad memories, concerning the Ancients. I say we do not have anything more to do with them," he stated firmly and sat.
Fithian rose. "While my father has his doubts, Paul did say that the Creator himself said they might redeem themselves. Perhaps this is the time of that redemption. I vote we open negotiations. Paul?" Fithian asked me and sat.
I rose slowly. I was worried about several things that could go wrong in this.
"First, while I might sympathize with their plight, they had brought it on themselves, and by their own actions. Second, they are in a war they admittedly did not start, but say they will fight, just to keep open the gate that now opens to their world.
"My problem and fear is, what if they reach an accommodation with the demons? If they allied themselves with someone of Lord Shaitan or Morningstar's power, even our Gods might be hard pressed to stop an invasion of this world.
"According to their history --as related to me by their own leader-- they had a God or Gods captured, and on the ropes, so to speak. Do we want something like that to happen again? In all honesty, I vote no," I said and sat.
Mirwanna stood. "As queen of Landkur, I must take in all aspects of anything before casting my vote, or committing my country to a specific course of action. I will abstain, until such a time as more information is brought to me. I do not wish to sound like a politician, but a decision on this subject is too important to make lightly," Mirwanna said and sat.
So, vote-wise, it stood at one "yes", two "no's", with one abstaining. Still I was asked to repeat again and again, several different aspects of my capture. The Gods had withdrawn, but you never knew when they might be listening. This concerned them, probably more than most.
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