She continued walking, looking ahead.

“We have a treaty,” Brother Qown confirmed gently. “More specifically, we have gaeshe. What we call the binding of the demons is in fact the gaeshing of the demons—all of them. The demons were given gaesh commands they must follow. For example, they are forbidden from manifesting in the physical world unless summoned. And they have to follow their summoner’s orders.”

Count Janel shuddered.

“Why would the demons agree to that?”

Brother Qown frowned. “I don’t think they did. I think it was imposed upon them.”

“They must have agreed. Anyone who is powerful enough to force the demons into such a pact would be powerful enough to destroy them. Which means they must have agreed to it. But why? What did they get out of it?”

“I always assumed they lost the original war between the Four Races and the demons. So the gods forced this on them.”

Janel laughed. “No. No, demons don’t work that way. They must have gotten something. They would never, ever have agreed to such a deal otherwise.”

“You may be right, but that’s not my point. You see how the demonic symbol has no intrinsic magical properties, yes? It’s powerful because we’ve agreed these symbols represent a specific result.”

“Couldn’t that be true here? A symbol agreed to have a desired, specific effect?”

Brother Qown wrinkled his nose. That was a very good question. A very good, very troubling question. He searched around the edges until he found a flaw. “Agreed upon by whom, my count? The gods? It would take divine power to create such an effect, but no priest of the Eight uses this power. Father Zajhera knows more about magic than any other person I have ever known. He’d have mentioned if this existed.”

Count Janel frowned. “What are you saying, then?”

“This Doltari woman, Senera, probably does traffic in demons, given what we saw, and thus qualifies as a ‘witch.’ Besides that, though? She has access to a magic I’ve never seen before and don’t understand. The only good side I’ve discovered is the air glyph doesn’t run out. The firebloods would have suffocated otherwise.”

She sighed. “I wonder which of them was the leader.”

“Which of whom…?”

“Senera or Relos Var.”

“We shouldn’t assume they’re connected.”

“Tamin said Relos Var brought her. I only met the man once, but he didn’t strike me as the sort to be someone else’s tool. I’d think him a mare because he’s a teacher, but…” She smiled ruefully. “I don’t think Relos Var views such matters the way a Joratese would. The real question: Did he leave because of an emergency or so he wouldn’t be present for what followed?”

“That logic suggests they could’ve planned the smoke from the beginning, rather than using it as contingency.”