Chapter 3.5: The Plane In Between

A purple scaled skin covers the entirety of his floating orbicular body. He’s about eight feet in diameter and almost a quarter of his body is a big lidless eye with an amethyst-like iris around his big slit-shaped pupil. Ten tentacle-like eyestalks sprout from his back, all with a differently coloured eye staring at them.
“You spoke true, young satyr”, he growls. His mouth is monstrous and filled with rows of sharp teeth. “But you make one mistake. I am not evil.”
While Oanoa’s transformation was happening, everyone jumped out of their chairs and prepared for combat.
“This divulgation makes it hard to believe you, eye tyrant.” Dargothoth looks at him with disdain and fascination.
(Persuasion 28)
“That is why I use the transmutation spell. No one sees past my true form, but you can understand that, can’t you, Dargothoth? You know what it is like when people only trust you when you look like Alexander. I understand the pain.”
“I feel no pain”, he grunts immediately. “I have no desire to be loved. Fear and power are my tools of destruction, beholder. Emotions will not weaken my will.”
Oanoa floats towards him and his eyestalks lean forward.
“You know beholders have truesight. You can’t lie to me. Ever. I’ll know immediately. Do you understand?”
Dargothoth stays silent.
“You can believe him”, Cyrzana says. “I have been here for what feels like forever and I believe he speaks the truth. He is not evil. He just isn’t very helpful, that’s all.” She looks at him, reluctantly.
“I will not disturb the balance”, the beholders shouts. His voice echoes piercingly throughout the room. “I can’t just open a portal for an exiled demon. They’ll banish you again and they will come here to hurt me or worse. I will find a solution, Cyrzana, but you have to be patient.”
She flaps her wings and jumps towards him.
“I have been waiting for an eternity for something good to happen…”
“And so have I!” Oanoa sounds furious. “Do you think I want to just sit here and watch as I can see all kinds of misery happen? As I see how every murder in these worlds is planned? As my children disappear without..."
He stops. With a bright flash he turns back to his human form.
“Enough. Although I can’t send you to Abaddon, I can send our guests there. I know they want to go there. I know they need to.”

“And we are just supposed to go to Abaddon?”
Everyone has sat down again. Lyssa sits in a luxuruous chair with her arms crossed. She has placed her feet on a leather pouf.
“Why should we?”
Oaona shrugs as response to the siren’s question.
“The crystals told you to, didn’t they? They told you you can’t outrun your fate and you have to save Abaddon. You can’t be responsible for the destruction of an entire world, can you now?”
She slumps her shoulders and bows her head.
“That’s not what I would want, no, but you can’t try to guilt trip me into going to a demonic world.”
He laughs.
“Hadriel did so why can’t I?”
They look at the Beholder, agitated.
“I’m just kidding”, he responds. “But it is absolutely crucial to aid this demonic world, as you call it. If Abaddon is destroyed, the threat will move to the dimension closest to it. That’s your world. Besides, there’s no other way to go. You can’t go back to the Enochian Tower, because you’re trapped there, and I have no other portals to your world you can use. I do have several portals to Abaddon.”
Oslando leans forward.
“You’re telling me that you, a sorcerer with enough power to create an entire pocket plane, can’t create a portal if he wishes so? That’s hard to believe.”
Oanoa sighs and shakes his head.
“I can’t just do anything I please. There are rules!”
“But aren’t you the one creating the rules?” Oslando raises his eyebrows.
“Yes. Partially, yes. I will explain it all, but I suggest we do it over dinner. It’s been torture to see you only eat those goodberries for so long.”
“First tell us if you’re the one in control. Are we safe? Who is actually pulling the strings if you aren’t?”
Their host stares at him in silence. The half-elf can see him contemplating if he wants to answer this.
(Persuasion 20)
“Please”, Oslando says, “we have been through so much and if we are about to go to another plane, yet again, I need to know if we can safely rest here. Are you creating the rules?”
He convinces him.
“My Father created the rules. It’s His will I follow and His power that will bring you to Abaddon.”
Anything that resembled feeling safe leaves their bodies. They get up and look at each other, uneased.
“Who is your father?” Mero is the only one who dares to speak at this point.
“The Abaddonian god of magic.”