A portal opened, and beings of radiant might strode forth. Nine of them, there were. One man, and eight women gathered round him. Each were armed and armored to the fullest extent. Though they were all creatures of Good, that did not mean that they were the same. Four, including the man, were Trumpet Archons. Three of the women were the type of angel known as Solars. The last two were Hound Archons.

Together, this motely crew might have seemed strange, but stranger still was how they acted. At first glance, the man was clearly in command of the group, dominating them with ease. And yet, if one looked closely, there were signs of discord in the group. The Solars and the Hound Archons were clearly competing for the man’s attention, and two of the Trumpet Archons were busy comparing their features, all while the man simply looked on in satisfaction. The only outlier was the last Trumpet Archon, who had a perpetually sad look upon her face.

The man cleared his throat as the portal closed behind them. “All right, girls. Listen up. As you heard from Lord Torm, we are to hunt down the pests that caused such damage to Izrail, and corner the rats, so that we can summon Torm, and he can give them the justice that they so rightly deserve. While we do this, we’ll also search for my son’s soul, if it is on this plane. Filthy mortals are probably keeping it, in order to make some new unholy device to advance the prophecy.”

“But how will we find them, Master?” asked one of the Solars. “They are shielded from divinations, and we don’t know where on the plane they are, if they even came back here.”

Another of the Solars laughed. “Come on, Sister. It isn’t like we have any better leads. And the prophecy centers around this plane. So, if they’re trying to advance the prophecy, then they’ll have to come back here.”

The third Solar, who was clearly related to the other two, sighed, and shook her head. “Anael, Theliel. Enough of this. Our husband and Master will decide our course, as he always has. You simply need to follow orders.”

“Yes, Mother.” The two angels sighed.

The man nodded at the Angel who spoke sense. “Thank you, Haziel. I’ll be sure to reward you later.”

“Thank you, Master.”

“Now,” he said, turning his attention to the group as a whole. “It is as Theliel said. Our best lead to finding the wretches that we seek is the prophecy. There are two stanzas yet unfulfilled, which means that, if they wish to advance the prophecy, as they have done to this point, then they will have to come back to this plane.

“However,” he cut in, before Anael could complain, “Anael is also correct. They are shielded from divinations, at least the general sort. But, as with all things magical, there are ways to work around that.”

One of the Hound Archons spoke up. “You mean by communing with the gods, Master?”

“Yes, and no. ‘Tis true, that for certain kinds of divination, gods can ignore those protections. But they have to know who and what to search for, or where to look. And that is why our Lord could not simply find the rats in his domain, before they caused so much damage.

“But those are just for direct divinations. What we need to do is gather information, and then do divinations based on our findings. That will allow us to focus our search, allowing us to trace their path, and, perhaps, figure out their ultimate destination.”

“What if they are hiding their trail, Master?” the other Hound Archon asked.

“They won’t be. They haven’t hidden their trail so far. Even in Izrail, they did nothing to hide the fact that they were acting in the midst of Torm’s own realm. They caused the Grimhold Repository to activate the failsafe, causing the entire building to descend into, and through, the Plane of Shadow, to that realm of dread and despair that the Dark Powers cut off from the rest of the worlds. It would take the direct action of a true god to retrieve souls of the faithful from that realm, much less the cursed and tainted items kept in safekeeping there.

“And after, they walked into one of the towns on the border of the realm, wearing disguises, yes, but doing nothing to hide the fact that they were not normal travelers. And they made no secret that they were headed back to the capital. It was only due to the way time flowed in the outer reaches of the realm that we could not return in time to catch them before they attacked the portal.”

“Which is something that bothers me, Master,” One of the Trumpet Archons said. She was almost identical to the one beside her, and both bore a strong resemblance to the sad one. “Where did they get the power to blow up the entire realm? That isn’t something that mortals should be able to do!”

The identical archon shook her head. “It was likely not their own power, Iahhel. They probably used the portal’s own energies to cause the explosion. I doubt greatly that they had any clue that it would be as… excessive as it was. But the troubling part is that they should not have had any idea of how to do that. Only a few people knew how the portal stabilizer worked, and fewer knew how to get past the defenses, yes?”

“That is true, Araqiel,” the Master said. “However, I know a few things that you do not. The Blade of the Inquisition is one of those that helped oversee the stabilizers, as the adjustments were made to the focusing crystals in the center of the city. She knew the defenses, as did Peliel, for that was required to better defend the gate on this side.”

“However,” he paused, the words bitter on his tongue, “it would appear that the Blade of the Inquisition may have been a traitor. Or, at the very least, someone in her circle betrayed her.”

“A traitor?” The sad archon, silent up until now, raised her head to look at the Master. “But the Blade of the Inquisition has served for decades, centuries, even! For her to be a traitor is—"

“Hard to believe. Yes, I agree, Sanvi. And I would have said the same, if not for the fact that one of the guards at the palace training ground saw the Blade come to speak with your Brother that night. They spoke in hushed whispers, and your fool brother got very excited. Whatever she said to him, it motivated him to leave the palace with her, without any accompanying guards.”

He shook his head. “The next we know, your brother is dead, his soul stolen, so that it cannot be questioned. The portal on the verge of collapse. And the Blade missing. I tried calling out to her, but even using magic to communicate across the planes, I could not forge a connection to speak with her soul. Which means that either her soul was stolen, as your brother’s was, or she was not as she seemed.

“And if her soul was taken, why did they take her body, but leave your brother’s corpse behind? Further still, we do have word from some of the souls who were cast down into the Hells, and learned that some massive magical array swept up the city and hauled it into the lower planes. Such an array could not have been done hastily. This was the end game of a stratagem long in the unfolding.”

“Which makes the former Blade look quite suspicious, given the circumstances,” Sanvi nodded. “So, what shall we do?”

“We will split up, to cover more ground, and hopefully move with better stealth, to keep from frighting our prey and sending them scurrying. You all have sending stones, so we can arrange a meeting, when we have information. Haziel, you three have your charms, yes?”

“Yes, Master. All three of us have the charmed objects you gave us, allowing us to teleport, as you and the others can.”

“Good. Then I expect regular reports. And remember, the Lord himself wishes to deal with these… vermin when we find them, so do not go rushing in and trying to fight them on their own.”

“Yes, Master!” All the women responded, before blinking out, one by one, in the light of a teleport spell. Soon, the Master and Sanvi were the only ones remaining, before he, too, blinked away.

Only when she was alone did the sad archon’s face lose its sad expression, replaced by anger, and hope. “Now is my chance,” she muttered, looking out into the distance. Then she, too, teleported away.