He inclined his head slightly, smiled, and said, “Congratulations. Deserved without a doubt and I know you will excel in your new post.”

She blinked, revealing that whatever she expected him to say, that wasn’t it. Then suddenly she reached across and back-handed him across the face, knocking him to the ground.

Amirantha sat stunned for a moment, then reached up and put his hand to his now throbbing right cheek. Finally he said, “I wish you’d stop hitting me.”

Her eyes shining with emotion, she hissed, “Just be glad you’re needed; otherwise I’d have no compunction about killing you!” With that she turned and hurried off, back to the keep.

She passed Brandos coming out of the keep. He took one look at Sandreena hurrying by and then another at Amirantha sitting on the ground, and broke into a broad grin. Coming to stand over his old friend, he reached down and helped him to his feet. “You’d better do something to get that girl over you, or she’s going to kill you.”

“Any suggestions?” asked Amirantha, wiggling his jaw and hearing it pop in and out.

“Either kill her first or marry her are the only two that come to mind.”

“Marry? She’d rather marry a demon. Not to mention she’s just been promoted to Mother-Bishop.”

“No wonder she’s so cranky,” observed Brandos. “Well, I guess marriage is out of the question. Unless you think you’d like temple life…?”

Amirantha gave him a look that would wither flowers. “You wanted something?”

“Yes. Pug sent me to fetch you. Gulamendis seems to have found something in that book you stole…retrieved from Queg.”

Amirantha put aside his annoyance, hurt, and confusion over Sandreena and followed his friend into the keep. Brandos took him to the entrance to the tower, and said, “Let me know if it’s anything interesting.”

“Things have hardly been boring around here lately,” said Amirantha, moving quickly up the stairs.

Reaching the entrance to Pug’s private study, he knocked once and heard Pug say, “Come in.”

Amirantha entered and found Pug sitting at his desk with Gulamendis in a chair opposite him. Amirantha said, “You sent for me?”

“Yes,” said Pug. “Gulamendis has interpreted a few passages that seemed to have caused you some problems, and we have, if he’s correct, a very different situation than we anticipated.”

“Really?” said the Warlock, sitting in the empty chair next to the elf’s.

“Yes,” said Pug. “I’ll let him explain how he arrived at these conclusions, but in short, it seems that things in the demon realm are not what we imagined them to be.”

“I suspect we understood that when Belasco subverted the demons we held in thrall and Villa Beata was sacked.”

Pug visibly tensed at mention of the destruction of his home, where his wife had died.

“Sorry,” Amirantha said softly. “No disrespect intended. What has changed?”