Why did the Immortal of Desire help me, and more importantly, why did they help me right now? Just because I’d decided to shun these questions to the back of my mind didn’t mean I hadn’t thought about them at all. Especially because I remembered what happened the last time the Immortal decided to help us.

For now, I could only assume that intervening like this had been worth the risk. There might even be a price to pay. I certainly thought the Immortal of Madness had paid some sort of price for sending us to the future since we hadn’t heard from him for so long and the moon hadn’t acted up either. But then what had been worth the price? The last thing that happened was Alek coming out of the gates with his army of thralls, facing off against a tired Noel who could make most of them disappear with her spells. I had been sitting quietly by the side, trying to recover.

It was safe to assume that the Immortal of Desire thought that I wasn’t gonna make it. I didn’t know if the Immortal of Desire could see the future like the Immortal of Evil could, but you didn’t need to be a fortune teller to know my situation had been dire. And Noel would have eliminated a bunch of mind controlled demons, humans, and fairies, but I had a feeling she would be overwhelmed by Alek eventually. This meant the Immortal of Desire probably wanted to prevent either my death, Noel’s death, or both. The birds had taught us magic after all, back on the Plains of Serenity. We were sort of their disciples. Emotions from an Immortal or something deeper? There was no point thinking any further than this. It would only be speculation.

Kelser, Kezler, and Taoc followed behind me as I left the Senate. I had to grab Bain Rusta with magic hands to bring him along. The old demon let out an undignified scream as he flailed around in the air. Heads turned as we stormed down the main road once again, although this time there were a few children pointing at the floating demon. Some of them thought he was some sort of large, black-tailed spirit.

Back at the gate, I had Elder Kezler bring all the humans to a small tent. I went around the tent, checking every human for mind controlling magic but they were all clean. I frowned. Noel would be here tomorrow and the humans were definitely under Alek’s control by then. I had assumed he had been slowly infecting them with his magic during the day, but there was nothing here. Or if there was, it was so subtle I could not counter it. After all, the Immortal of Evil had had a long time to come up with a spell that wouldn’t be countered by mine. Then again, it didn’t feel like the Immortals’ magic worked that way. Their magic had always seemed overwhelming and powerful, but rigid and inflexible. What it could do, it did well. What it couldn’t, was a weakness for me to exploit.

By this time Bain Rusta had recovered somewhat and I asked him to bring all the demon commanders into my tent. I went through them methodically as well but none of them reacted to my magic either. I let them all go and had Taoc bring in some fairies. Still, no luck.

What did this mean? Alek had used a kind of mind control magic that was faster than the Oracle’s magic, but not fast enough for him to turn the entire city against me while I was still inside it. So far, I had only confirmed his assault on the Senate and Bain Rusta. None of them remembered meeting Alek Izlandi.

I pulled Kelser and Elder Kezler to the side. I spoke to them in the human tongue. “I want you two to investigate the city. Stick close to each other, and stay on the lookout, especially you Kelser. Start from around the Senate. Search for any hideouts or secret areas. I haven’t seen any open-air drains, which is impressive urban development by the way, but that also means there might be underground sewers. You might have to check those out too, although I doubt a prince is hiding out in a place like that. If you see any demons, or any fairies and spirits that are acting strange, come back to me right away.”

After Kelser and Elder Kezler left, I asked Taoc and Bain Rusta to come a little closer. “I am going to ask you two an important question. You must not repeat anything about this later, or even right now. I am using magic to try to make sure that we are alone, but still.”

“Of course, Great Elf, we would never betray your trust,” said Taoc.

The image of a red-eyed Taoc walking zombie-like out of the gates of the city came to mind. “Of course,” I said with a slight smile. “Okay then. I need your help finding the absconding prince, Alek Izlandi.”

“Ale—” began Taoc.

I put a hand over her tiny spirit mouth. I gave her a look. Her eyes opened wide. She nodded her understanding and I let go.

“There is another reason I do not want you to say anything. Like I mentioned before, the Immortal of Evil can see the future, but not when I’m involved. I do not know the details of this ability, so just in case this is a Laplace’s Demon situation, only I am allowed to say the most important stuff,” I said.

“I do not think I followed that, Great Elf,” said Bain Rusta with a frown. “What demon are you talking about?”

Oh right. There were real demons in this world. “Laplace’s Demon is a sort of thought exercise. Imagine if there was a demon that knew where every single object or particle in the universe was, what forces it exerted or were acting on it, and so on. Basically, this incredibly intelligent demon simply knows everything as it exists in the present. The thought goes, if the demon knows the present this well, and possesses the ability to compute things to an infinite degree, then it could tell the future simply based off of everything it knew about the present. If it knows, for example, the weakness of the branch holding up the fruit, it would know precisely when the fruit would drop. If the Immortal of Evil’s precognition is something like this, then his ability is being messed up because he cannot see me in the present and therefore cannot predict the future for anything that I interact with. I’m assuming this messes up his long term predictions too, which must be driving him insane. Wow. No wonder he wants me gone, now that I think about it.”

It didn’t look like Taoc or Bain Rusta were following what I was saying. This was why I tried to only do these sorts of explanations around Kelser or Noel. It was nice having a receptive audience.

“I can’t be sure that that is how the Immortal of Evil’s ability works,” I said, “but I don’t want to risk it. If he knows the present, he might know what the two of you are doing. I doubt he can see it when you’re talking to me, but after I leave your vicinity, perhaps he will learn a lot based off of tiny things, like the changes on the wrinkles on your face, or the way you are thinking to yourself. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Immortal sends one of his henchmen down to interrogate you and find out what I had said. In fact, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Alek Izlandi is working for the Immortal of Evil, and I need to find him. You two cannot tell me where he is. No words should come out of your mouths. But I need to know.”

Bain Rusta frowned. “It will be difficult to give you an answer without speaking.”

“That’s okay. We can walk. Do you know where he is? I understand that he is a guest of your Republic, Taoc,” I said.

“Not really. We kept him far—”

“Don’t say anything that makes it too obvious, Taoc,” I interjected.

“Er, right,” said Taoc. She stuttered a little, before doing the unthinkable for a spirit. She frowned and thought over her words quietly. “What you are looking for is not something we prize. It was stored out there in the periphery of our nation, and only came to the capital recently. I do not know where it is being kept right now, but I can take you to where it was when I last saw it. When the other spirits awake, perhaps they will know more.”

I nodded. “There might not be enough time for that. Let’s just hope he’s still there.” I walked out of the tent, surveyed the groups of exercising soldiers, and scanned their faces just in case Alek had been hiding here somehow. No. Well, it had been a long shot. Taoc and Bain Rusta followed me out. I looked back at the hovering spirit and said: “Lead the way, Taoc.”