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"And disaster rewards the foolish," Abi smiled.
The pain which had no physical cause grew worse until the leader stood on his toes shrieking, breath after breath. When Abi judged that he couldn't take much more without losing consciousness, Abi held it right there.
And sent the demon to the Abyss forever.
Abi looked at them, wondering how much of their individual efforts might have been driven by the youthful charisma of the now-departed idiot. His attention was drawn by the sounds of a hell hound in the distance, baying mournfully and howling.
Just the sounds at all were unusual. Hell hounds only vocalize between themselves and that happened seldom. They can speak a form of infernal speech, but rarely do that unless they must. They can understand any human speech, but they cannot speak those languages themselves. Every one of them always look out for only themselves. They might work for someone, but only for a price. And there was one howling in grief.
Abi began to walk. He had to see this. A hell hound in grief. What next?
The mercenaries only watched, none of them foolish enough to ask what was to be done with them.
He found the beast sitting next to the body of one of his soldiers, groaning as though he was heartbroken. The beast backed away at his approach, but not far. Abi rolled the large body onto it's back.
Young, he thought, but strong. Abi's eyes looked over the soldier and he saw about everything that he'd have wanted to see in one like this as one of his soldiers. He even had well-developed and articulate-looking fingers which indicated that he could have many paths. Someone like this could have quite a path ahead of him if he had a brain in his head.
He stopped then, wondering and sensing.
The soldier was not dead.
Abi looked into the eyes and saw nothing. They almost looked like clear glass spheres, though not quite. There were no wounds.
He sat down on the ground and looked at the animal as he passed slowly around them, groaning quietly at intervals. This didn't make sense somehow.
"Friend," he said quietly, "I have never seen one of your kind like you, who mourns the loss of anyone, not even one of their own kind. Why?"
The animal looked up, "He found me when I was small and lost. I can remember no parents. He always fed me and cared for me. When I grew up, I remained at his side always." He sat down heavily and Abi felt it in the ground. The beast moaned. "I have lost everything."
Abi knew that something like this was not allowed in his ranks. Soldiers could not have pets.
"I was no pet and I am not tamed," the animal said quietly. Abi looked over and knew that the beast had heard the thought.
"Come to me, friend," he said trying to smile. "I can at least give you my touch in your sadness." When the beast stepped over, Abi laid his hand on the massive shoulder and the beast felt a little better.
"Did you see this? If you can, tell me what happened."
Over the next few minutes, Abi learned that the mercenaries had a mage among them. He wasn't surprised, since it accounted for the thoughts which came to him from the group. He got to his knees and then told the hound that he sensed no mind in the body. What was there were aspects of personality and not much more. Then he waited while the animal cried for a time. In his long life, he'd never even heard of such a thing.
The mercenaries looked up as Abi returned later, carrying the soldier over his shoulder with a hell hound at his side. He looked at them in silence for a minute and asked which one was the mage, since it wasn't apparent, though Abi already knew. There was no reply.
"This hound saw everything. If you know anything at all about them, you know that their minds cannot be confused from outside of their hard skulls. If I need to ask again, whatever you have for skill will be gone and the hound may do as he wishes to you.
A hand rose slowly and Abi nodded, "I have a task for you.
You," he said to them all, "now work for me. Questions?"
They looked at each other for a moment and one of them spoke up. "What terms do you offer?"
He disappeared screaming in a cloud of red mist. The rest stared.
"Does anyone else have questions?" Abi asked.
"Good," he smiled, "You come with me," he said to the mage, "the rest of you speak to the legate there."
He led them away.
