Tuesday the eighth of August started like any other day.
I woke up next to Anne and we went outside for our morning workout. For me the focus was on fitness, calisthenics, and resistance work with a few martial arts forms. For Anne it was hand-to-hand training; she was getting better, though she still wasn’t as aggressive as I knew she could be. Once we were done, we headed back to change and to discuss the day’s work over breakfast. The current issue was once again the adepts—with the news of Richard’s new training program added to the existing steady trickle that had been joining him, the Council was considering various heavy-handed responses. I didn’t like any of them, but coming up with a viable alternative that I could sell the Senior Council on was tough. After that I made some calls, while Anne gave Karyos her daily checkup, and once we were both ready we gated via staging points to the War Rooms.
Morning at the War Rooms meant meetings. I delivered a report to Druss the Red, after which I had to take part in a long, frustrating interview with a task force of Keepers from the Order of the Cloak. Anne had some tricky negotiations with Lyle and Julia, the aides to Undaaris and Alma. We met up again over lunch to compare notes.
Afternoon was a full Council session. While Anne waited outside, I met with the Senior and Junior Councils in the Star Chamber. The first two hours was reports—finance, security, public relations. It was tedious, but while my position was much better these days, it wasn’t secure enough that I felt safe not showing up. Next on the agenda was long-term strategy, which devolved into an hour-long argument between Sal Sarque and Bahamus. Neither was able to sway enough members for a majority, so the decision was postponed until next week. Finally came military announcements.
“. . . and they report that the cargo was talocan filaments,” Bahamus finished.
I pricked up my ears. “Sure about that?” Druss asked.
“The German Council wasn’t able to secure a sample,” Bahamus said. “But I’ve read the report provided by their universalists, and they were quite thorough. It seems overwhelmingly probable.”
Druss frowned. “What the hell’s Drakh up to with those?”
“Not exactly a mystery,” Sal Sarque said. “Some ritual.”
“Bloody expensive way to do a ritual.”
I listened closely. Talocan filaments are a type of infused component with some unusual properties that make them valuable for high-power magical rituals. They don’t get much use since they’re so awkward and time-consuming to make, which, as Druss had pointed out, made them expensive. Richard would have needed to put in a lot of work to get so many.
“Do we have any indication that Drakh’s cabal are planning any rituals that would benefit?” Alma asked.
Bahamus shook his head. “They’ve been quiet for almost a month.”
“Yeah, and I don’t like it,” Druss said. “We were expecting retaliations over that facility, but we haven’t had a peep. Why?”
“Council intelligence thinks he may be suffering a manpower shortage.”
“What bloody manpower shortage? We haven’t taken down anyone from his inner circle all year.”
There were five members of the Senior Council present today: Bahamus, Druss the Red, Alma, Sal Sarque, and Levistus. The first two were more or less my allies, the last two were definitely my enemies, and Alma was somewhere in between but closer to the latter. Druss, the one who’d been speaking, was a big, powerfully built man with a thick beard.
“We’ve had multiple reports that Drakh’s forces are having issues with morale and momentum,” Bahamus said. His manner was steady; in all the time I’d known him, I’d never seen him lose his cool. “Remember, the pressure is on him in this war. He needs a constant stream of victories. A stalemate serves our interest, not his.”
“I’m afraid I can’t share your optimism, Bahamus,” Alma said. “In case you’ve forgotten, we are supposed to hold authority over all of magical Britain. A stalemate does not help our image at all.”
“That ship sailed a long time ago,” Druss said. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Right now we’ve got a breather and we should be using it to go on the attack.”
“You’re the one who’s been telling us how dangerous Drakh’s forces are.”
“Which is why I don’t want to sit around while he lines up a punch.”
“We’ve discussed this,” Bahamus said. “Our offensive operations have consistently played into Drakh’s strengths. If we can hold out long enough, the Dark mages of Drakh’s coalition will fall to infighting as they always do.”
“That’ll only happen if Drakh shows weakness.”
The argument between Bahamus and Druss started up again, and I sat quietly and listened. Nowadays much of my time was spent on these disagreements, figuring out who to support and why. It wasn’t fun, but I’d come to learn that politics, at least in the Light world, mostly came down to having enough people on your side.
“Enough,” Alma said at last. “This is getting nowhere.”
“We can’t just keep sitting on our arses,” Druss said.
“Without knowledge of Drakh’s base of operations, there’s no way for us to launch an attack,” Alma said. “Have you made any progress on that?”
Druss was silent for a moment. “No.”
“Then as far as I can see, we’re going to have to table this,” Alma said. “I think we’ll adjourn.”
The meeting broke up. Sal Sarque moved to speak with Druss, the two of them talking quietly in one corner, while Alma met two other Junior Council members. I rose and stepped to one side as Bahamus approached me.
“I’ve spoken to the others regarding your proposal for the adepts,” Bahamus said. “They’re leaning towards supporting it.”
“Including the amnesty?” I said.
“Alma isn’t keen on that part.”
“It doesn’t matter if she’s keen, it’s essential! There’s no way we can possibly convince the adept community to be neutral unless it comes with a promise that we aren’t going to come after them as soon as we’re done with Drakh. She has to see that.”
The adepts had been one of the thorniest problems in this war. In the run-up to hostilities, Richard had worked hard to sway the adept community to his side, and unfortunately for the Council, he’d had a fair bit of success at it. Adepts are both less powerful and less organised than mages, but one thing they have on their side is numbers—depending on how you count them, there are between ten times and a hundred times as many adepts in Britain as there are Dark mages and Light mages put together. Even if only a few percent of them were fighting for Richard, that was a huge pool of manpower and resources that he could draw upon. I’d been doing what I could to win hearts and minds, but it was hard work, especially with mages like Alma, whose idea of diplomacy was to give someone a warning before crushing them.
“Well, I’ll try to convince her.” Bahamus paused. “On another note, don’t spread this around, but we’ve completed the timesight analysis of that facility.”
“Finally. What took them so long?”
“Overstretched. Sonder has been busy on some other project. In any case, it seems as though it was a more important base than we realised. Drakh himself had visited it more than once. It looks as though its destruction may have significantly set them back.” Bahamus paused. “You’ve been doing good work, Verus. Keep it up.”
I smiled slightly. “Glad to know you feel that way.”
“Once we’re done with this, I’ll see if we can get your membership on the Junior Council made official. I know you’ve become a de facto member with everything that’s happened, but an announcement would help solidify things.”
“It . . . would, actually. It would help a lot. Do you think—?”