Chapter 42 - Let’s Dance

“You’ve been Warlock this whole time!?”

Euryale’s timid voice cried out from where she was slumped in the corner of the wagon.

Xorn had completely stopped moving to observe the pair, his mace dangling limply in his right hand as he too tried to understand what he was seeing.

“You’d be amazed how easy it is to seem to be two places at once, even three, if you can just pop back and forth.” His voice had by now completely shifted back to that he used as Witt instead of the gruff grumble of Warlock.

In a blink he was back behind Xorn, but just as the two demons found out where he had moved he was back to standing in the wagon.

“And you!” He pointed at Xorn. “I can’t thank you enough for tearing that cloak off. It just gets so stuffy! I’ll have to pick my next disguise a lot more carefully and find something comfortable.”

“You’ve been hiding in front of me this whole time Alcibiades Witt? Playing cards while plotting treason!” Xorn spat out the words.

“Can you commit treason against a country you’re not even a citizen of? Anyway, I do feel like I owe you an explanation. Well, I suppose it’s an explanation for just Eury here, but we’ll get to why that is in a minute.”

“Me?!?” Euryale watched as Warlock, no Mr. Witt she reminded herself, sat on the edge of the wagon across from her, crossed one leg over the other and seemed ready to tell a story like he was chatting in his guild hall tavern.

Xorn suppressed the urge to attack, his curiosity getting the best of him. He hung his mace on his belt and crossed his arms, waiting for Witt to continue.

“Well, first of all,” Witt began, “if you knew anything about Alcibiades you’d have known ages ago that anybody borrowing that name would be playing both sides. Then again,” he looked almost forlorn for some reason as he glanced between the two listening demons, “you’re not from my world so you’d have no idea.”

“What!?”

“Impossible!”

Shocked expressions covered both demons’ faces.

“That’s right! Believe it or not, I was summoned to this stupid world. Two years ago in fact!”

“But, if that’s true…why didn’t you fight our armies?” Euryale couldn’t help but ask.

“He must be lying!” Xorn barked.

“Why would I lie? Didn’t I tell you Euryale, I don’t care about your politics. I don’t care who rules this blasted place. All that matters to me…is a promise I made to find a way home!”

Tension mounted in his voice as his finished. It was clear to those listening that he meant it.

“But you’re not who I summoned!”

Silea’s voice rang out for the first time. She’d mostly been ignoring the proceedings, hiding in her corner of the wagon where she was tied, but she couldn’t ignore Witt’s revelation.

“You’re a summoner!” Both Xorn and Euryale cried out at the same time.

“That’s a story for another day. For now, Silea I believe your name is, do stay out of the way and let me finish up. Freeing you is the reason I’m here, after all.”

Witt gave her a surprisingly warm smile and a wink.

“As if I would ever let you leave here alive!” Xorn clasped his hand and they again glowed.

Suddenly a pillar of earth tore itself from the ground and slammed into the side of the wagon. The entire vehicle flipped onto its side.

Euryale fell hard onto the road and immediately curled herself into a fetal pose as she waited to see if the wagon would fall on her. Fortunately for her, it stayed somewhat stable on its side.

Silea wasn’t so lucky. Tied to the post on the side of the wagon high in the air she dangled precariously, feet unable to touch the ground.

“Now that wasn’t very nice.”

Witt was behind Xorn, clicking his tongue. As Xorn spun to strike him he disappeared again.

This time he reappeared next to Silea and in one smooth move cut her bindings and caught her gently in his hands. He set her down out of the way on the side of the road and patted her head like a child. “Don’t worry. We’ll get you out of here soon.” He turned to Xorn and walked towards him.

“Do you know Xorn, I always suspected you could do some kind of earth magic. In my world I heard of a creature called a Xorn that could. It was in a table top role playing game, but you get the idea.”

Xorn stared at him wondering why he was telling him this.

“And I knew Eury here could petrify with her gaze, just like the sisters I assume she has. I always say you can never discount the benefits of a classical education.” He leaned down to place his hand over Euryale’s shoulder, his other hand gesturing towards her eyes.

“How do you know I have sisters?” She croaked.

Witt ignored that question. “And do you know what I found most fascinating about that? The fact that I was right about your power, and hers, told me something important about this world. That as much as your world’s history is full of stories of people summoned from mine, maybe my world has been in contact with people from here. If that’s true, then the promise I made to someone to get home is not entirely out of my reach.”

“Bah, then go! If you really don’t care about this world, why haven’t you left?”

“I would love to, but you demons have made it so very hard. Killing mages, capturing summoners. What’s a guy to do when all he wants is a ride home? So I did what anyone would do and relied on the skills I had. Do you know what I did in my world?”

Xorn glared. He wanted desperately for Witt to shut up but recognized that he might hear something useful.

“I was actually in people management. You know, human resources, employee management. That kind of stuff. Not unlike our little seneschal here.”

He pointed at Euryale.

“But the thing is, managing employees for a spy agency…that’s what I did…well let’s just say you pick up a few things even if you aren’t out there yourself. And I realized here that my fondness for working behind the scenes could help me learn what I needed to get home.”

Losing patience, Xorn created another pillar next to Witt that blasted through the space he had just been standing, but like before Witt vanished an instant before the attack landed.

“You know, it’s funny. When I first came here I couldn’t just blip back and forth like this. The motion sickness is something else, let me tell you. But it’s amazing what a bit of practice can do. See, I wanted a power to bring me home and instead I just got this teleportation thingy. It’s handy, but not really what I need. So today…I’m going to start taking what I need.”

His jovial, conversational tone turned more tense.

“He must be lying Bookworm! If he had the power to destroy us he would have used it ages ago! Help me kill him!”

Xorn shot several more pillars of earth in quick succession. Witt dodged each easily.

“Now, now Xorn. Don’t you know? Eury works for me now. She won’t be helping you.”

Xorn turned to Euryale. “I already know you were the one who killed the envoy who came, gorgon. Help me here and we’ll say that Warlock was the attacker.”

“Oooo, now that’s a clever move I didn’t expect from you Xorn. I thought you’d just threaten to smash her head or something. But I’m sure by now Euryale knows what to do? Isn’t that right?”

He turned to look at Euryale and saw an unexpected level of terror there.

He’s a hero?! Mr. Witt is a summoned hero?!?

Euryale began to stand up. Palpable fear struck her, more than ever before. If there was one thing that had been ingrained in every demon it was that a hero would slay every one of them in their way. The man standing before her, who already frightened her, now became the very symbol of terror personified.

I can’t let him live or I’m going to die!

Gathering her courage, she raked her fingers through her hair to pull her bangs back and her eyes began to glow again.

But before anything could happen she was suddenly tackled to the ground by a blue haired elf girl.

“Dad! Watch out!”

Ariadne had suddenly appeared and thrown the demon into the dirt. She now sat straddling the woman’s back, grinding Euryale’s face into the earth.

She turned to look at Witt and seemed to be nearly vibrating with curiosity.

“Were you really a spy back home?!” She asked enthusiastically.

“Thanks for having my back, but you were supposed to be watching the others! And no, I wasn’t a spy! I was an office worker doing employee management! It’s really a lot more boring than this.”

He shook his head, realizing he was getting off track. “But seriously, you have to stop calling me dad in situations like this.” Witt sighed but had a smile on his face.

“You’re this elf’s father?” Xorn glanced back and forth between the two who didn’t look ten years apart.

“We are so having a talk about this back home girl!” Witt ignored Xorn to mildly scold his daughter, standing next to her wagging his finger as she sat on Euryale. Their behaviour made it hard to believe a fight to the death was still ongoing.

“You aren’t going anywhere!” Xorn yelled, frustrated at being ignored. “I’m going to kill you Witt. You and your daughter!”

Xorn broke into a run towards the pair.

Witt turned to look at the demon. Gone was any glib smile or playful twinkle in his eye.

“What did you just say?!”