Sovereign mage, p.2
Sovereign Mage, page 2
Callum exchanged glances with Lucy. She shrugged, and let Alex go run over to Chester. It seemed like it was going to be the sort of discussion that a small child didn’t need to be part of, and Chester was obscenely good with kids, mage or shifter. Callum tried to take notes, but Chester’s prowess was obviously just knowledge from being however many years old and helping to raise however many generations.
They took their seats on the couch, Taisen and the fae woman settling in across from them. Chester and Lisa stayed off to the side, clearly keeping an eye on things but mostly taking care of Alex. Callum took Lucy’s hand, looking at Taisen and the fae.
“So what is it you need The Ghost to do?”
“This is Felicia Black,” Taisen introduced the fae. “She doesn’t tend to speak in mixed company because of her particular heritage.” Lucy’s grip tightened on his at that, but she didn’t add anything. “A few days before you closed the Night Lands portal, she was looking into that video threatening your child that was leaked, along with her partner Raymond Danforth.” It seemed like lifetimes ago that Callum had seen the recording of fae threatening Alex, but just mentioning it brought it fresh into his mind once again. “Ray went missing in Faerie,” Taisen continued. “And we have reason to suspect he was abducted by one of the Courts.”
Callum frowned. That was not exactly the sort of request that he had been anticipating. He’d thought there would be more fallout from the vampire attacks, which he knew was still a looming issue as mundane governments investigated things. Not that he was going to make any moves against the poor saps trying to find out what was going on, but helping move supernaturals en masse was definitely something he could do.
“I’m not unsympathetic,” he said slowly. “But my encounters with the fae have shown me that they’re very difficult to deal with. No offense intended. It’s a kind of magic I can’t really be sure of dealing with, and I’ve never even touched Faerie itself.” He did feel he had some responsibility, if Ray and Felicia were investigating on his behalf, but he wasn’t going to stick his head in the magical blender for them.
“You have some way to remain hidden from fae senses,” Felicia wrote on her tablet, as a statement of fact rather than a question.
“Sure, but I don’t know how well that’d work in Faerie proper,” Callum said. “And even then, it’s not all-powerful. I would need something that was better proof against fae magic than one item that I can’t really even trust.” In fact, he would prefer not to engage with Faerie at all, but that ship had sailed. If he wanted to get out ahead of events, and all the people buddied up with the Houses still backing GAR, he needed the ability to operate in Faerie too.
“I’m going to need something that is definite proof against fae magic.”
***
Felicia Black regarded the man on the other side of the table. Though she had been introduced to him as Callum Wells, it was difficult to think of him as anything other than The Ghost. Even now she could feel the power gathered around him and his wife both, making them feel like they were barely there.
Part of her was surprised that he was meeting them in person at all, but she supposed they had come to him . Actually, to Alpha Chester, who well knew the power of playing host to someone like The Ghost, but they were the ones on foreign territory. Considering how he operated, it seemed likely using Chester as intermediary was a grudging compromise.
What the Ghost asked was not unreasonable. She still didn’t know how he managed all his infiltration, but the magic of humans and the magic of the fae was different enough that a powerful enough fae might be able to stymie him. Especially a fae from the Seven Lesser Courts, whose princes were indistinguishable from their holdings. Even if The Ghost was as inconspicuous as a flea, a flea of human magic would still be something they noticed. And would deal with.
“There may be something I can do,” she wrote, slowly and reluctantly.
Felicia knew that The Ghost was the only one who could get Ray out. It wasn’t just her experience as a detective but her instincts as a fae screaming at her about the sheer weight of The Ghost’s story. There were thieves and assassins from Faerie, of course, but they had their own interests and lacked the potent history of both justice and subterfuge The Ghost had. Nor would a human demand something as insidious as a fae’s idea of payment. Not that they’d even discussed remuneration yet, but it was clear he wanted something that would permanently protect him from the fae.
There was no question she had to find and rescue Ray. The worry gnawed at her gut, and showed itself in her voice. In a way it wasn’t a very fae-like thing to admit to, but that was one reason why she’d left. Her path was something closer to human, and Ray had been her constant companion through the whole thing. Their relationship was still a little ambiguous, and purposely so, but now she’d come to a critical point. Not just for them, but for her own story and sense of identity. She had to decide what she was willing to sacrifice for Ray.
“What did you have in mind?” Wells asked, his face a cold mask of life and death.
“I would ask that this does not leave this room,” she wrote, rather than answering directly.
"We all have secrets," he agreed easily, then cast a glance over to where Alpha Chester’s mate was playing with his offspring. She smiled at them and picked up the child, bouncing him lightly and distracting him from the conversation.
“We’ll go get a snack,” she said, and closed the door behind her as she left.
“I suspect I cannot cast anything on you directly,” she wrote. Most mages actually could take fae enchantment fairly well, since their magic was concentrated into their shells, but Wells was another story. Rather like Archmage Huitzilin, his power blazed inside his body, utterly rejecting anything foreign. “However, I can create a token that would shroud you as you wish.”
“You can make something that would stand up to fae kings?” Wells asked, his voice admirably neutral. She didn’t blame him for his skepticism.
“There is a reason I asked for secrecy,” she said, and put down her tablet.
She had known this moment was inevitable. Her time as a civilian on Earth couldn’t last forever, and the moment that they’d left GAR the clock had begun ticking. By nature she would be drawn to the agents of change, but she didn’t think she’d be forced into things this way. Felicia took a deep breath and then let it out. Even if the people in the room kept it secret, there was no way to take back what she was doing. No mantle, once donned, could be shed freely.
“I am Felicity Niflungr Blackblood, daughter of King Oberon and Queen Mab.” Her words hung in the air, crystallizing the magic of Faerie around her. She reached up and plucked a hair from her head, holding it up before her. “By my authority I bestow upon The Ghost the mantle of Chosen of Oberon and Agent of Mab, so that no fae magic shall find him without his choosing, nor any child of Faerie raise their hand against him without peril.”
The hair braided itself together, growing and knitting itself into a long black cloak as the weight of Faerie draped itself over Felicia’s shoulders. She didn’t have the power for something like that herself, nothing near it. But as a princess of the fae, she could ask Faerie itself to provide. It was a mantle she had shunned her whole life, both because she’d seen what easy power did to people and because she knew what responsibilities came with it. But to save Ray, she had to finally take up her birthright.
Archmage Taisen stared at her after she spoke, since she’d never breathed a word about it to him. Even Ray had only hints, and she was glad he’d never pressed since she wasn’t sure she could have avoided telling him. Though that was moot now, and he would know when he returned. And he would.
She met Wells gaze, and even through the mask of The Ghost he seemed shocked or impressed. Lucy was less restrained, and she looked absolutely gobsmacked. Chester was the one that seemed the most unflappable, but she caught a gleam in his eye — or maybe it was an intuition from the mantle she had finally acknowledged.
Felicia held out the cloak, which was embroidered with a winged black cat, facing away. It was somewhat embarrassing as a personal symbol, but it would change in time. She had turned her back on the mantle and fled; but now that she had taken it up, that would change. Eventually.
“I have never seen magic do that,” Wells said at length. “It’s not as vis-dense as I would have thought for what it does — that is to say, what it is supposed to do.” He half-asked, raising his eyebrows at her.
“It is not quite as powerful as it may seem,” she confessed, continuing to use her voice as she felt the effects of her declaration continue to settle in. “It is certainly not a completely invulnerable defense. But it should be potent enough.”
Wells still didn’t take it, looking at it intensely with his eyes narrowed. She didn’t know what he was looking for, but eventually he nodded to himself. He stood up and held out his hand. She passed the cloak over, and he nearly dropped it.
“It’s heavy,” he said with surprise.
“A mantle always is,” Felicia agreed.
“Hm.” Wells considered the cloak, examining the feline heraldry, then looked at her. “A mantle? What sort of obligations come with what you said — Chosen of Oberon and Agent of Mab?”
Both the fae and the investigator parts of her were pleased that he wasn’t accepting the offer without reservation. That was exactly the right question to ask, though she was not so crass as to try and tie The Ghost with an unwanted binding. Though she doubted she could, even if she wanted to.
“I charge you with only one: to find and retrieve Raymond Danforth,” Felicia said. That wasn’t how she normally talked, but it was required. She was not speaking as the private investigator, but the princess. “Beyond that, it will only be revoked should The Ghost refuse a direct order from Queen Mab.”
“Interesting.” He didn’t don it yet, and Taisen spoke up for the first time.
“This is as much a surprise to me as to you,” he said, looking at Felicia before turning back to Wells. “However, I can vouch that such an artifact couldn’t be created if there were any untruth to it. Or rather, that kind of magic works because it is true, or becomes truth. Not common outside of the actual royals. Which I suppose Agent Black is.” He cast her another glance.
“I see.” Wells draped the cloak over his arm. “If this works as promised, then I am willing to help. What can you tell me about Faerie, who might be holding him, and where?”
Chapter 2 – Faerie
Callum didn’t entirely trust the cloak, though he had to admit the pageantry around it was impressive. It also further established that fae magic was complete nonsense; there had not been nearly enough vis to form solid matter out of nothing, so far as he could tell. And it was real matter too, not just conjured pseudo-matter.
He knew his ability to perceive magic was better than most mage senses, barring some of the tools that the Guild of Enchantment made, but he was pretty sure that the complexities of what went into the cloak were beyond even what he could tell. Not that he’d be able to unravel it anyway, since it was all rippling faerie magic, flowing and liquid.
As Felicia had said, the magic didn’t actually affect him directly. He could see how its magic simply rolled off his vis. Exactly how it functioned was a mystery, but if it provided its protection without having to actually touch him with the faerie magic he was a lot more comfortable with using it.
One of Chester’s people brought in drinks and a new type of cheese cracker that Lisa had made, as Taisen and Felicia explained a bit about Faerie. Obviously they couldn’t get into all the complexities of the politics and local scene, any more than he could have given a full explanation of the full history and culture of the United States in a few minutes’ briefing, but they did cover the high points.
The Seven Lesser Courts were, despite their name, fairly powerful, and charged with relations between Earth and Faerie. Deeper in, the fae got stranger and reality bent more thoroughly, to the point where it wasn’t safe for humans to even exist. So the Lesser Courts had gotten fairly close to the various mage Houses, gaining power from being the gateway for fae who wanted to pass over to Earth and from dealing with the stories and goods the humans themselves brought. Not just the individual fae, Callum understood, but the entire domains benefitted from the process.
“So they’ve allied themselves with this sort of shadow council that’s taken control of what’s left of GAR,” Taisen concluded. “Probably for broader access to Earth. I suppose it’s obvious, but without people like Hargrave and myself, there isn’t much pressure to keep supernaturals limited. It’s not like they live here and have to deal with the would-be conquerors they’re sending our way.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Callum acknowledged. It was the same pattern that had happened millions of times throughout history. “But why did they target Ray, specifically? It doesn’t seem related, unless it’s just part of being anti-you.”
“Because of me ,” Felicia wrote. She’d returned to using her tablet after squaring away the issue of the cloak. “Not only am I a valuable piece if they could somehow get ahold of me, but my being on Earth is problem for any claim they would wish to stake. Faerie’s magic itself would recognize me over them. So they wish to draw me away from my chosen world.”
Callum grunted. Supernatural politics again, but it made some kind of distant sense. He preferred to avoid that kind of thing, but he could see an opportunity when it strolled up and smacked him in the face. Supporting Felicia as the global interface between fae and humans was a far-ranging move, but it was clear someone needed to be there, the way that the Fae operated.
“So I get Ray back, and they don’t have any leverage on you. That means you could stand opposed to them and it’d matter. Them being, the people who have been invading Earth these past couple years, and not playing nice with humanity.”
“I don’t have an army,” she wrote.
“No, but you have legitimacy, and an Alliance with a vested interest in keeping things from going too far,” Callum said, making a circle of the room with his finger.
“I’ll consider what I can do.” Felicia wrote slowly, her lips pressed tight. Callum was a little bit sympathetic, because he understood what it was like to have to completely discard everything and start a new life. If anything, she had his respect for being willing to sacrifice her career and identity for the sake of her lover.
It was a better reason than his.
“Well, if this cloak works as advertised than we might as well get started,” Callum concluded. "Generally I don’t have witnesses, but in this case having someone who knows Faerie and who and what we might be looking at will help a lot. Chester, do you have a space where we can set up a bunch of monitors?”
“Of course I do,” Chester said easily. “You don’t think we have movie night?”
“I know the place,” Lucy laughed. “Can you pull over the monitors and my laptop, dear?”
“Sure,” Callum said, standing up. The war room would probably have been slightly better for what they were doing, but he wasn’t ready to extend that much trust yet. True, the house would be moved at some point, but the thought of strangers in his home was just too much.
They all trooped over to another part of the sprawling not-a-mansion, where there was a large blank wall with a projector, and Callum teleported half a dozen spare monitors over along with Lucy’s laptop. She fiddled with the connections as he plugged in the electronics, watch by a bemused Taisen and Felicia. Chester was more used to it, and he helped to sort everything out. Despite all that magic could do, getting electronics cables into their proper slots was still a tedious task.
Lucy connected to their wifi through one of the portal anchors, and Callum reported on which drone he was using. They didn’t have one in Faerie itself, but he did keep one near enough to the Faerie portal that he could get there in short order. He wasn’t entirely comfortable showing people the entire process, but it was broadly known that he had surveillance capabilities. Besides, it wasn’t obvious exactly how all the moving pieces operated.
Soon enough there was an image from the camera feed up on the overhead projector, with other angles on the smaller monitors. It was kind of arbitrary which camera was the primary one, but it was easier to have a front and a back so he could orient himself when he moved it around. The image blurred and refocused in short bursts as he used his Alcubierre trick to move the drone from its post in Luxembourg to the GPS coordinates of the portal in Germany.
“So what made you go to join Archmage Taisen instead of sticking with GAR?” Callum heard Lucy ask. He doubted anyone else present realized how much courage that took, given how much her bout in GAR custody had affected her. The sound of Felicia’s stylus scrawling on her tablet sounded as he approached the Faerie portal.
It had more infrastructure around it than any of the others. In fact, it was a small town in the middle of the Black Forest, entirely shrouded in glamours of the fae sort. It looked pleasant enough, closer to normal than what he’d seen in some of the enclaves, but he knew there was some catch to it.
The portal itself was in the center, set inside an arrangement of standing stones, and despite it being in the open air there was enough structured magic in the air that he knew it wasn’t unguarded. If anything it was more thoroughly protected than the Night Lands portal had been, between the actual magic and the small fae that seemed to make the standing stones their home. Small in stature, but he could sense the density of vis inside them and knew they were heavy hitters.
This was the first test of the cloak. He felt a little silly wearing the thing but, if it worked like it was supposed to, the drone would be no more noticeable to the fae than it would have been to humans. The wording that Felicia had used was his magic was invisible, not his devices, and he wasn’t about to get overconfident.
“Alright, silent mode,” he said, cutting into Lucy’s quiet conversation with Felicia about Ray. He hadn’t been watching directly, but he’d gathered from Lucy’s half of the conversation that they’d been abused by the bureaucracy. A part of him thought that was only appropriate, but he stepped on that pretty firmly.
