That is one convoluted story. The reference to Mobius strip is very cheeky. That story sound more outlandish that Alice in wWonderland but without its charmingly silly flavor.

As for Rupert, I prefer that it remains a mystery. I feel that mysteries doesn't have to be explained always. I'm quite satisfied at not knowing why Rupert is so.

This could be....

some of your hypothesis, however will get answered pretty early on in book 2, however, said answer may confuse the overall question of this topic even more.

OK,

I know you all think Exadork is an Arch Demon, but I've known that purple armored pompous over inflated gasbag nearly my entire life.
I have sat across the council table from him, argued with him, and triumphed over him on so many occasions, I can no longer count them all.

I have a hard time seriously believing he's an Arch Demon or even a demon.

Yes, he flew the coop at the same time my wards went up, but I am sure this was just a stunt on his part. The council was about to rule in my favor and he's trying to get them to second guess themselves

"Oh my, Exador's an Arch Demon, we wouldn't want to rule against him or he might get mad and bring a demon army against us!"

Of all the cheap, easy to pull off, theatrical tricks, this is so blatantly obvious, and so like him. He can't defeat me at wizardry, nor before legal courts nor the council, so he's trying scare tactics, jury intimidation, whatever you want to call it.

Believe me when I say that I have studied and analyzed this ego maniac probably more than anyone on the planet. The probability of him actually being a demon lord is very small, say 5% to 10% max.

Lenamare.

Ooh, I like that me being an Indigo idea!

Woo hoo!

Yeah.

I'm a fiend, I can't see power levels or whatnot, at least not like the mirror.

I can see auras and overall brightness of mana etc but the best way I have of knowing a demon's level is by how much it hurts when they whollap me.

And believe me, I've been whollaped by some big ones.

I don't think either of those would be pleasant.

Have you seen the size of Tom's claws? Have you seen what he did to that dragon? Nope, don't want that.

As for stealing the mirror, it's in the Rod's camp, surrounded by Rodlings, so far every demon that's gone into that camp has had problems.

Rupert was killed once, and almost killed again. He, Antefalken and I were captured and almost sent to the True Death, and Tom, I swear he was a goner...but he pulled it out, but we escaped by fleeing into the Abyss....

So, no, don't think I'm going to be doing that.

I'm starting to suspect you are trying to get me killed, or worse!

Yes, this will likely cause confusion.

But it seems to me that most of the plot revolves around people being confused and misunderstanding the situation.

Of course, that's often how a lot of wars start on Earth too.

The true danger is when most people are confused, and misunderstand each other, and then they realize that there was a simple misunderstanding and they start believing the other sides are also misunderstanding things, and that simple diplomacy might work...except...one of the multiple parties isn't really confused and is simply using the confused assumptions of others to enhance their position.

Yes, armies are on the move...just not clear where they should be moving and who the enemy actually is...

But don't worry, the confusion only gets worse...

Yes, you are correct.

They primarily think the enemy is Tom...and the other archdemons they found in the city...there is confusion as to if they are all aligned.

The big problem they have is, where to move the armies to...he jumped into the Abyss, would Oorstemoth seriously consider invading the Abyss to get him back? And what about the Rod? And the Rod's bosses on high? And what about...oh wait that's the third chapter of book ii...never mind.

I suppose, in a weird way, Lenamare should be grateful to Tom, this may distract the Rod and Oorstemoth from the book (which the Rod doesn't really know about yet)...although Oorstemoth wants its historical artifact back.

T-A-G is so so so so so so so so slow....if I knew how to type, I'd finish the stupid thing myself...sheesh..

Looks like he's missing his year end sorta deadline. If I were to guess it will be about 1 year after the first book. So slow...so slow...He needs to stop going to that stupid skyscraper downtown during the day. No idea what he's doing down there and I really don't see what he gets out of it...