‘A little,’ I admitted. ‘But if I’m right, Richard’s going to be there too. He’d never do anything like that if he thought there was the slightest risk to himself. And he’s a very good diviner. So I’m going to take his word for it, so to speak.’
‘Ah, the optimism of youth,’ Landis said. ‘Clearly you haven’t spent long enough in politics. Well, well, I suppose I’ll look into it. Oh, Verus? One other thing?’
‘What is it?’
‘I understand that Variam is likely to be on the opposing force,’ Landis said. ‘I’d very much like to do something about it, but I’m afraid I’m going to be rather tied up with command responsibilities. I would take it as a personal favour if you and Miss Vesta could do what you can to get him out of there alive.’
‘We were going to do that anyway.’
‘Excellent!’ Landis clapped me on the shoulder. ‘Nose to the grindstone, eh?’
Luna reappeared five minutes later, leading Sonder behind her. I’d withdrawn to the entrance of the Cathedral and met him in the corridor. ‘Alex, I’m a bit busy,’ Sonder said. He was wearing combat armour similar to Luna’s; like her, he didn’t look comfortable. ‘I need to—’
‘This won’t take long,’ I interrupted. ‘That anti-jinn weapon that Richard stole? I need to know its mechanics.’
Sonder hesitated.
‘No, I’m not officially cleared for the information; yes, Talisid knows; yes, the Council will clear me if you ask, but only after a lot of time that no one wants to spare.’
Sonder sighed. ‘Fine. Off the record?’
I nodded.
‘It’s a low-level sub-sentient imbued item that uses mind magic,’ Sonder said. ‘You know how jinn possessions work, how the human acts like a focusing lens for the jinn? Well, the item’s designed to attack the lens, sort of like a much more finely targeted mind blast. Ideally it’d destroy the lens and the feedback would break the possession bond completely.’
‘And banish the jinn,’ I said. ‘Would it work on Anne?’
‘More powerful jinn have stronger bonds. It’d work on a shaitan. Maybe an ifrit. But a marid?’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t think there’s any way.’
‘So against a marid, what would it do?’
‘Well, it’d still destroy the active component of the bond,’ Sonder said. ‘Force the jinn to rebuild it before it could use its wish magic again. And it’d cause neural shock. Disorientate the host, maybe knock them out.’
‘And because it’s a new weapon, she might not have a counter,’ I said. ‘I can see why the Council wants it back. Any drawbacks?’
‘The active spell needs a very particular power source. It can’t work off a wielder’s magical energy the way a focus item can. So it has to rely on its own fuel source, and that’s quite limited.’
‘Wait, it’s an imbued item with a finite energy source?’ I said. ‘That doesn’t make sense. Unless it’s powered by captured souls or something.’
Sonder hesitated.
I stared at him. ‘Seriously?’
‘They were only able to fuel it with the essence from very specific magical creatures.’
‘Jesus,’ I said. ‘Which creatures? No, on second thought, don’t tell me, I don’t want to know. At least tell me they aren’t planning to mass-produce these things.’
‘Well, not now that the prototype’s been stolen,’ Sonder said. ‘Anyway, the point is it’s only going to have a few shots.’
I struggled to think of what to say. ‘I think we’re done,’ I said at last.
‘Okay,’ Sonder said. ‘I suppose I’ll see you at zero hour.’
Sonder disappeared back down the corridor. ‘So,’ Luna said. She’d been unobtrusively listening in. ‘It won’t work on Anne, but it might work on Vari?’
‘It’s not like they’ve field-tested it on an actual ifrit,’ I said. ‘But yeah. If those Council researchers did their job and didn’t just sacrifice a bunch of magical creatures for nothing, it’s a way to get a jinn out of Vari without killing him.’
‘Which just leaves getting it off Richard,’ Luna said. ‘What do you think? Pick his pocket?’
‘Probably not the best idea.’
‘Yeah, I didn’t think so either. I guess we could wait for the Council to kill him first.’
‘This thing with Vari has brought out your ruthless side, hasn’t it?’ I checked my watch. ‘Two hours. I need to find Nimbus, then we’re getting out of here.’
My talk with Nimbus was a lot less friendly than my one with Landis. Nimbus stood at a distance, arms folded and his body turned away as I made my pitch. Several other Keepers hovered nearby, watching me with expressions that made it clear I was in enemy territory. Nimbus heard me out but wouldn’t make any promises. Instead he kept probing for information. I couldn’t answer his questions without giving away more than I could afford, and that just made Nimbus even more suspicious. In the end, he told me that he’d keep his comm open and would listen to what I had to say. I wasn’t happy but it was all I was going to get.
I was on my way out when I heard someone shouting my name. ‘Verus! Mage Verus!’
I turned, and Luna did too. Jogging across the floor towards us was Ji-yeong.
Ji-yeong came to a stop in front of us. She looked quite different from the stressed and battle-scarred young woman I’d met yesterday – her hair was styled, she was wearing make-up, and she was wearing a new set of clothes with no claw marks or bloodstains. ‘Finally,’ she said. Despite the run, she wasn’t out of breath. ‘They wouldn’t tell me where you were.’
‘What are you doing here?’ I asked.
‘Getting questioned by your Council police,’ Ji-yeong said. ‘You’re going back, right? To our shadow realm?’
‘Alex?’ Luna said questioningly.
‘Oh, right, you haven’t met,’ I said. ‘Luna, this is Ji-yeong. Ji-yeong, this is Mage Vesta, my former apprentice.’
Ji-yeong gave Luna a very brief nod, then turned back to me. ‘So are you?’
‘Yes.’
‘I want to come with you.’
‘Why?’
‘Because your Council’s been trying to wring me out like a wet mop,’ Ji-yeong said, and pointed off to the side. ‘They’ve been asking the same questions all day! And once they were done, they made me write the answers down on paper three times! And then they were saying something about verification tests! The only way I got out was by telling them I had to go to the bathroom. They’re probably still waiting outside the door.’
‘Weren’t you one of the ones who kidnapped Anne four years ago?’ Luna said.
‘No, that was Sam and Darren. I just helped recapture her afterwards.’
Luna did not look friendly. ‘And then you tried to stab Alex.’
‘I stab lots of people,’ Ji-yeong said with a shrug, and looked at me. ‘Well?’
When I’d left Ji-yeong last night, I hadn’t expected ever to see her again. Apparently between then and now, something had happened to make her change her mind, and I didn’t think it was the Council asking her a lot of annoying questions. I remembered her last words: ‘I don’t understand you.’
I met Ji-yeong’s eyes. ‘You follow orders, and you don’t make trouble,’ I said. ‘Understand?’
Ji-yeong nodded.
‘All right,’ I said. ‘Let’s go.’
Ji-yeong fell in behind us as we started walking. I saw Luna make a small hand movement and I opened up a mental link. Go ahead.