Master Novice - Epilogue I

Somewhere in the Nine Hells.

Tiamat, Queen of All Evil Dragons, became aware of... something. Something had happened, and for the second time in one month, she turned her undivided attention to the insignificant plane that the inhabitants called "the Realms".

She studied it for a while. She looked at all of her priests, but none had invoked her. She considered the priests of Bahamut, King of Good Dragons, but none was actively contesting her. Just for good measure, she ordered an unoccupied red dragon to destroy the nearest temple of Bahamut.

Then she looked at the fine details. Ah, there was the disturbance! Venger had returned! She sighed. She would be able to contest with him for the Realms once again - always a favorite pastime of hers.

But then, before hardly any destruction could be wrought by the misguided child, a deva appeared and spoiled all the fun! How rude! Tiamat studied the angel. There was something not quite right about it, something decidedly un-angelic.

Looking closer, she discovered that the deva had demonic blood in it - very interesting. There were also traces of human and elf blood, too. Extremely curious - diametric opposites, mixed with mortal essence.

But most interesting of all was whom the deva was assisting - the mortals summoned by that annoying wizard some years ago. Had it not been for the fact that they had harassed one of her priests just days earlier, she might have just ignored that detail, but now she had to make a decision.

Tiamat continued to watch, observing the half-deva defeat Venger and his offspring with no effort at all. This demon-angel was far more powerful than a typical deva. Perhaps, even as powerful as Tiamat herself...

She shook off the thought. There was no angel in paradise, or in the mortal planes for that matter, that could rival her powers! But, she decided that it would be prudent not to do anything, and just wait for the mortal heroes to perish. Besides, there was always the chance that this odd half-breed would prove just as mortal as any human.

At any rate, time was always on Tiamat's side.