Secheriab refused to discuss business immediately and instead he sipped at his drink and waited for the others to do likewise. ervants brought through massive platters of food, the dishes each more beautifully arranged and presented than the one before their aroma enticing, the sight and aroma stimulating their appetite. Each looked at their drinks, tasted them, and found them to be superb examples of their kind. Everyone was satisfied, except for Gyv who seemed suspicious of the drink awaiting her. She looked at the green liquid in consternation, swirling the bottle around and she examined the liquid within against the backdrop of the blazing hearth.

"What is this? I have never before seen such a liquid." Her voice was guarded, her look at Secheriab suspicious.

"You haven't? I was under the impression that you were from the outdoors and had lived within the forests. Surely you have drunk fey wine before?" Secheriab's glance at the Emissary was venom filled, but his smile returned to his face as he faced Gyv. "Try some. It is brewed by Dryads, wood spirits, from the sap of the trees they inhabit. It is most difficult to get hold of; they seldom gift it to any but their closest, most intimate friends."

Gyv looked at Secheriab in horror. "From Dryads? Those evil creatures have betrayed more cities, tortured and tormented any that have been unfortunate enough to have lost their way in their territory that we have sworn to hunt them out and destroy any of their trees that we can find!"

The shock on Secheriab's face was genuine. "Kirest has corrupted the Dryads? Truly a foul deed, for that alone I would see him brought down! They may not have been of my kind, and in their role as servants of nature, they are in many ways opposed to me. My role as a corrupter of the holy and a general for those who wield power in the nether worlds through the souls of those that seek power through them. I loved the Dryads though. There was always something so utterly focussed about them. I may laugh and mock their love of their trees, seeing it as mere self interest since being away from their tree, or allowing their tree to suffer harm, would hurt, and even kill them. But they did much else that even a fiend could admire." He stopped talking, sipping the water in front of him, contemplating the corruption of the Fey.

"You admire the Dryads? I would not have believed it of you!" Mekior's loud voice rang out, disrupting the silence of the meal.

Secehriab offered no response to Mekior but watched as Gyv poured a small measure of the liquid, brought it to her lips, and took a sip. Her face remained blank as the liquid entered, smooth, a tangy taste of peppermint mixed with honey, and the subtle aroma of lemon wafting up as she tilted the glass, which smashed against the stone floor as she convulsed and her back arched as her hands convulsively flailed about. Three massive devils dropped from the roof above, pinning her to the floor, preventing any movement, and holding her head tight and unmoving.

"What have you done to her?" Mekior stood, rising and drawing his sword at the same time. "I am going to skewer you for feeding her poison!"

More of the massive devils dropped down; twenty or more of them filled the room, fading into view as they dismissed their cloaks of invisibility. Each was the size of two men, their massive strength more akin to that of a giant than that of a man, their immense hands sporting sharp talons at the end of each finger.

“Hold your tongue and your impetuousness, boy!" Secheriab looked around at them all, especially at Sister Egrit, at how they each stood ready to fight. "There is no way for you to win this fight, and I have not poisoned her. Rather, I have cured her! Is it not true that Hiron sunk his claws into this one, rode her as his puppet and brought destruction to her people and to a city? Something I did not mention about Dryad wine, a property for which it was famous and for which many sought it out. It purges the body of toxins and of alien influences. Painfully, it is not gentle. But then I do have to have some fun as a reward for my healing of your companion."

The four looked at each other, at the massive devils facing them, and the unknown might of the Emissary and Secheriab.

"No choice but to wait and see if he is telling the truth, Mekior." Jeria looked at his friend in despair. "The Emissary was able to defeat me easily, and if the stories of fiends are true, Secheriab must be more powerful than he to rule over him."

Mekior nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Yes, Jeria, that is the truth. Grow up amongst them; watch the politicking that starts even as babes, the status children gain from humiliating and proving their superiority over their peers. The strong rule, but strength is also in intelligence and knowing who to court and who to oppose.

The convulsions did not last long. A few minutes after they started, Gyv went still and lay silent. Slowly she sat up, eyes filled with tears as she looked at Mekior and, at the rest. "I thought I had remembered. I thought when he left last time all my thoughts and memories of the time had come back to me. They hadn't, Hiron must have wanted to use me again. I don't know why he didn't."

She stood up; her body drenched in sweat, her face changed. Mekior and the others gasped as they saw her, though they tried to hide their shock. Gyv, facing them, saw their reaction and headed for her pack. From within she removed a small, silver handled mirror. She inspected her face, her fingers tracing the lines of the scars.

"I remember now how they put these there, and the other, degrading, bestial actions they used to destroy my will, to make it easier for Hiron to control me. They didn’t torture me for a week, but for months. It wasn’t the passing of one moon, but of many." Gyv turned her face to Mekior, the myriad small scars almost hidden by the massive ones where huge chunks of flesh had been carved away, peeled off her face like the unwanted skin of a fruit.

"Forgive me, Gyv. To remove the taint I also had to remove the illusion they had placed over you to make your appearance normal. I suspected there must be one but I did not know for sure. My Emissary had inspected you all with enhanced sight, and he tells me that Sister Egrit, too, inspected him in such a fashion. To escape such scrutiny the illusion must have been strong, tied to your blood, to the taint they placed within. It used the power of the taint, and siphoned off from your own power to maintain the illusion and hide Hiron's presence. Now we can truly talk, finally we can be sure that none here will carry the tale of this meeting to unwanted ears." Secheriab returned to his seat, piling a plate high as he began to talk of inconsequential things.

The group was still tense. How many times in their lives had they been warned against fiends, against trusting them? Now they sat at the table with the most powerful fiend any of them had met. One who had just proven how capable he was at deception, of arbitrary actions in the name of what he thought was best. How could they trust him? Warily they took food from the plates, returning to their seats to eat, wondering what else lay hidden in the chamber that they could not see. Gyv, just sat on her seat, her fingers playing over her scars, lost on the memory of what had happened to her.

Secheriab proved to be an entertaining host, a multitude of anecdotes trotted out for their amusement. In his endless life he had seen much, done much, met many interesting and fascinating beings. It did not surprise anyone that all his stories were coloured by casual descriptions of evil or in the glorification of one evil being over another, a mere illustration and warning to them of who, and what, they were dealing with. The companions listened to him, their moods not lightening mich as he spoke. They were on guard, how could they trust this fiend that had so casually deceived them. But they sat, they ate, and they played at being diplomats.

The meal was superb, the meat roasted to perfection, the fruit and vegetables of both common and exotic varieties. The feast finally wound down, the plates removed and Secheriab, acting as the congenial host, was finally ready to discuss business.

***

The discussions began. No one knew if Secheriab was amused or disgusted that the four representatives of the cities each had their own agenda. As they talked, he more and more often seemed to try and hurry the speaker, as if he tired of hearing the same arguments repeated,

"ENOUGH!" His voice was deafeningly loud, "can we at least agree that we are all here to see the defeat of Kirest? Can we agree that we want the removal of the taint from this world so that all of your respective kinds can return to the surface?" A quick glance at the dwarf, a wry smile, and he continued, "If they wish. Let us start there. We can work out the details as we go along."

The silence at the table encouraged him. "Good, that is a start. Now let me tell you what I can do to help. I cannot bring massive forces here. We do not have the creatures that Kirest has used to create the massive presence he has here. He hides them and seldom lets them out unless there is something, he needs that he does not want to let even his closest advisors know about. Who knows how he thinks, why he wanted them to capture Jeria. He must suspect Hiron. Who would not? Kirest did not grow to power in Hell through complacency, and I doubt that he is any different here. Hiron is an ancient being that grew to power over time. He has betrayed more than one master, and his power has been gained the hard way, through battle and experience. Kirest is playing his own game behind his general’s back. That is the first piece of good news.”

“The next piece of good news is this, I can give you is knowledge of other potential allies." He paused, his glance at the Emissary laden with meaning, a flicker of his eyes towards Mekior not noted by any but his underling.

"There are two factions of fiends we can approach for support. Both want Kirest gone, though neither is going to want to go home afterwards, they will seek a place amongst you, requiring of you a decision: Do you want fiends here, amongst you, permanently?”

“If your answer is yes, the first of these factions is the Renegades. Most of these are the children of the fiends that Kirest has caused to be brought here. They have never seen Hell, and never known the conditions or the environment that most fiends are bred in, brought up in, and accept as the normal facets of existence. This has had some interesting effects that none would have suspected. Unexpectedly, it seems that fiends are not always naturally enamoured with the infliction of pain, torture and degradation, it seems that not all of us are dishonest, deceitful and masters of lies. Perhaps there are those such as these are born in Hell, but do not survive long enough to show their difference. These anomalies have run away from Kirest's forces and hidden in the wilderness or underground. A few even hide within the cities, their powers to deceive strong enough to save them from detection. The Renegades are not many, but they are probably more trustworthy than the other faction.”

“The second faction is The Fallen. A strange concept, fiends that have Fallen. Millennia before Kirest they came here, hiding in an out of the way place, occasionally ruling tribes of lesser beings. The Fallen all follow an extremely powerful fiend called Aspith. Aspith sought to rule Hell and built an army of fiends with which he sought to assail the stronghold of the Lord of the Fifth. The power of his army was great, their magic powerful and he had more arcane power answering to him than any before, or since. His army marched with enchanted weapons, their deadly nature far worse than the claw and talon of their foes. But he was undone by a rare occurrence; the Lords of Hell working together. He faced not just the Lord of the Fifth, but all nine Lords working as a cohesive group. They summoned a storm, rains from the Celestial Heavens themselves swept across the fields, lightning bolts empowered with the holy will of the Lords of Celestia destroyed his most powerful sorcerers and generals. No doubt the Lords of Celstia were upset at the abuse of their realm, but the Lords of Hell did not care, they never have!"

Seeing how her lover’s army was decimated, Aspith's lover gave her very being to open a Portal to this world. Aspith's remaining forces passed through, hiding in a realm that they abhorred, wondering how they would ever gain power to return home. So, Aspith would be a very powerful, very useful ally. I fear him though. He is more powerful than I and rivals the powers of the Lords. Certainly, his individual power is greater than that of Kirest, but his forces are small and he will be very careful not to squander them."

The group stared at him, horror in their glances. They huddled, discussing the information they had received. Eventually D'Fir spoke for them all.

"You tell us of unlikely allies; two groups of devils that are unlikely to want to go home, but would want to remain. One group would remain because they have known no other home, the other because to return would be death. Surely you can see why we are reluctant to put our fate into their hands."

"Alone, all your cities are not enough to stand against Kirest. Even if you get the others who live in hiding to join you, they will not be enough. Sleep the night and think on it. In the morning we shall speak further." Secheriab rose from the table, sweeping out from the room as robed servitors, their features hidden by their hoods entered and led them to their rooms for the night.