by T J Kelly
"I appreciate the interns," I said. Since new contracts were not allowed either, Jonathon arranged for his family to work on my side-projects as a part of their apprenticeships. It wasn't exactly breaking the rules, and the Council looked the other way. If they tried to enforce the ban on new work for me, they would have had to change a lot of things for everyone else, too. Because magic needed to be balanced no matter who the key players were.
Come after me, go after them.
"No problem." Jonathon gave me a nod and drifted down the table to finish filling his plate. I glanced at Peter, who nodded at me too. I laughed.
After a glance around to see who was already in attendance, I hooked my arm in Peter's and walked a short distance from the tables. "You know," I said idly. "I haven't been doing a good job."
"Are you crazy?" He eyed me, half with exasperation, half concern.
"I'm not freaking out here. I'm being real. There are a ton of close allies of the Rectors, but I haven't been all that good about keeping up with them."
"Good thing Peony is hosting such a huge number of guests," Peter drawled. I pinched his arm playfully.
"Yeah, okay. This is the perfect time to pay attention to somebody besides myself." A global corporation had global problems, and the more people on my side, the better.
We wandered from group to group, chatting with the early arrivals. I exchanged business cards with several clans, ensuring they had my personal contact information. Not like they couldn't send me a message as per usual. But sometimes a magician didn't have the time to write a note and cast a spell.
Sometimes using a phone was the safer bet, even if it was bugged.
I was about to head off when another carriage arrived and several men exited the vehicle near the door of the castle.
"More agents," Peter answered my silent question. He gazed at them for a moment. "Okay, you see that tall, thin man on the left?"
I studied the three new arrivals. I had yet to meet any of them. One was a red-head, another with closely shaved brown hair. The third, on the left as Peter said, was a man of native American descent, his black hair in warrior braids typical of his culture. I had heard their styles were even specific to tribe, although I didn't know enough about that to identify his bloodline. I guess world-class educations still didn't cover everything. "I've never met him," I said.
"I know. His name is Joseph, and he rarely comes to the castle. He's pretty high up and runs agents in half the country. He looked exactly like that when I first met him."
"Okay," I said, but it sounded more like a question.
"I met him when I was six."
"So you're saying he hasn't changed in fourteen years?" I asked. "Like, at all?"
"Exactly. Not one bit. And I've seen some of Ged's mission journals. He's been an agent for about as long as Ged and Mort have."
"That's insane." I watched as Joseph and the others disappeared into the castle. He looked like he was in his late-twenties. "So he doesn't get any older?"
"Not that I can tell." Peter grinned as he took in my reaction. This was beyond weird - and I had seen some incredible things.
Oh. He was trying to distract me. And it worked, too. I wasn't feeling nervous at all. I was too busy gaping at the empty castle entryway. There were so many things I still needed to learn.
With a shake of my head, I turned away and looked around at the crowd. Something about a man who didn't age tickled the back of my mind. I had seen it in one of the books I was studying. A spell, or a history lesson. I had the sense that something bad happened long ago, and it had to do with the forbidden experiments.
Space, patterns, time. So many things magicians spent their lives using as tools to change reality. The Council cast a prohibition against certain time spells and areas of study over a hundred years ago. Sometimes I bumped up against it while I was working and set aside those books and moved on. My brain felt the same now as it did then - as if there was a full stop in the direction of my thoughts. I guess Joseph would have to remain a mystery.
A small figure playing on the lawn drew my attention. An adorable little girl and her companions. I smiled as I waved at Cephalaea and her wife Jessalinda. Cephalaea had married a mundane, shocking the entire magical world, but my uncle didn't care about that. She was great at her job and loyal to a fault, the only things that truly mattered. My heart filled as when I saw her three-month-old son was with her, too. He was so cute.
Sera ran to us and leaped into my arms. I gave her a kiss on her cheek, and then set her back on her little white sandals, identical to my own. So was her outfit. She informed Peony that she wanted to dress like me, and none of us would ever consider telling her no.
"You look so pretty," I said. "Are you having fun?"
She nodded and then grabbed Peter's hand. We walked back to Cephalaea, listening to her excited chatter. My aunt had arranged an egg hunt for the little ones, most of them children of the servants and alchemists on staff. Sera had made an excellent catch, her basket overflowing.
A coach came into view, heading to the castle proper. The door was emblazoned with the Laurus coat of arms. My eyes met Peter's. We said our goodbyes and headed back. There wasn't any time to find my aunt. No need, either. I knew exactly where she would be.
Her sons were finally home.
◆◆◆
We slipped into my uncle's study, closing the door behind us for privacy. My eyes darted around the room, taking it in with a quick glance.
Peony was hugging a rugged-looking man who towered over her, at least several inches above six feet. His hair was dark, but eyes a startling blue, taking after his mother. I wasn't sure if he was James or Richard, but he was definitely her son. There was a kind and clever look on his face that also reminded me of Peony.
Armageddon stood beside the other stranger, this one was just as tall but more slender, although an obvious strength practically poured off of him. His hair was as dark as his brother's, but his eyes were the same silver as Armageddon's. In fact, he looked like a clone of my uncle.
"Is that little Peter?" the young man beside Armageddon said. "I can't believe it. You're almost as tall as me."
"Welcome back, James," Peter said. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that Armageddon's carbon-copy was the oldest son. It happened that way a lot in families with strong bloodlines. Although Peony's family was just as powerful. Which was why Richard, who I now could identify as the brother with blue eyes, looked so much like her. Their bloodline magic probably followed suit.
James and Peter embraced. My boyfriend had looked at the Laurus boys as brothers for most of his life. He had been adopted as Close Family when he was five, and they watched out for him ever since. My cousins had been deep undercover for over three years. A long time to be away from such a close-knit family.
"And this must be Lia," James said. Then, surprising me, gave me a bear hug. "Welcome to the family, cuz."
I was bombarded with emotion, touched to receive such a warm welcome. And I had been worried? James contained his magic, but I sensed his strength and suspected he rivaled my uncle. Magic grew stronger over the centuries. The stronger the magic, the more likely to pass on to the next generation and grow. There were some mighty and terrible magicians in the past, some stronger than most even in the present, but none could hold a candle to the men of the Irregulars.
Conversely, that meant there would be nearly unstoppable dark magicians in the present, as well.
Richard released Peony and strode over to us, knocking his brother out of the way to give me a hug, too. It made me laugh.
"Always wanted a kid sister," he said. As I suspected, there was the slightest trace deep inside his magic that proved he took after his mother.
James had the Laurus magic, and Richard inherited Peony's bloodline. The Caorthann clan had all the necessary elements to do the spells for the Laurus clan, but when it came time to inherit, James had the better claim as Laurus bloodline heir. There was no need to make a choice, t
hough - the two of them could be co-heirs and the same with their future children. Generations from now, there would be a split, and James's bloodline would be the ones in the main clan.
Some dark clans fought among themselves to be the ruling family when that happened. The Council set in place laws to stop major clan wars, but there was still a lot of infighting and resentment. Families on the side of light still had their problems, but they didn't end in feuds and death. Most of the time, the alternate bloodlines created their own businesses, usually complimentary to the main family, and they became their own clan.
Peony's magic fit in so well with Armageddon's that I wouldn't be surprised to find they had been related somehow in the distant centuries. If we went back far enough, most magic families shared a common ancestor. About twenty generations back. Not distant enough for me if I had ended up sharing an ancestor with Oberon Taine. So gross. Fortunately, there was no direct tie between our families.
"When is everyone supposed to arrive?" James asked. He sat on the chair closest to my aunt. Her eyes were glistening with tears and she couldn't stop patting his arm.
"Some are already here. The rest within the next few hours. Several of the agents will stay here. We've prepared rooms for all of them," Peony explained.
"Plus a few others who aren't Irregulars," Peter added. He sat on the love seat and tugged me down beside him. I hadn't even realized I was standing there like a statue. "Today was the best day for that."
Not just because we could use the party to obscure the arrival of most of our allies from prying eyes. The magician new year, Eostre, was also the start of the light half of the year. It was the perfect time for us to gather to start on the biggest mission of our lives.
To save the world from darkness.
CHAPTER FIVE
A New Way of Doing Things
One of the more interesting problems with so many newcomers was where to put them. Fortunately, my uncle's castle was large enough to accommodate more than a handful of additional agents. But each came with their own needs that required a suite of rooms and there weren't enough consecutive rooms to handle it.
My bedroom was located in a corner of the castle and on the second floor. The room next to it and above it on the third floor had been turned into a two-story workshop with a stained glass roof for my sole use. I also had a huge dressing room and my own private bath. On the other side of me was Sera's bedroom. She would leave for school soon, but it was hers and wouldn't be assigned to anyone else.
Peter's suite was like mine but on the opposite corner of the castle. I had never been inside their chambers, but I knew my cousins had rooms not too distant from his. That left a dozen or so remaining guest rooms we could assign, but we each needed a workshop far enough away from the others that our magic didn't blend with anyone else's.
"They won't have access to the sky, but I put them in every third room and we can convert the small shoe closet into a workshop," Peony said as we walked through the upper stories of the castle, checking on the newcomers to ensure all their needs were met. Her policy was to make certain a guest never had to ask. "Some are more sensitive than others and I want them to have the best rooms for them before we cast the spells."
The castle dressing rooms were large enough that an extra space for shoes wasn't necessary. We were going to convert the shallow storage closets into vast workshops using the same magic Kamini's family used to run safe houses to create a much larger space inside than was apparent to anyone looking. A little pocket universe carved out of the nothingness in the between place.
It took a huge amount of magic to do it, and on top of that, we were going to transport the entire contents of their workshops from their various homes to ours. I was more excited than worried. I used the spell before, expanding the pockets I had in all my clothing and backpacks. But I had never worked on such a massive scale. Some magicians felt they were above doing expansion spells, considered them a household chore. They looked down on people like my aunt for using them herself. She had more power and intelligence than they ever gave her credit for, disregarding her because she performed her magic at home. Whatever. Their mistake.
Reg and Tian were already downstairs eating their breakfast when we met up with them. Reg gave us the specs to his workshop, and we left to take care of their room first.
"The shadows in the corners should be enough. Especially if we leave a crack in the curtains and let the sunlight in," I said as we made our way to the dressing room. Using both Dark and Light would give me the power to handle the spell on my own, although I would use Peony's guidance. After all, I was an apprentice. Tons of spells were still new to me.
My aunt slipped a small notepad out of her pocket and flipped through a few pages. "Here we go. This is the diagram you'll need."
I studied the complex figure. Reg used modern elemental symbols, which meant his family bloodline probably only created magicians powerful enough to come to prominence in recent generations. His clan history wouldn't have mattered to my uncle when recruiting agents, but even light magicians placed more significance on the ancient bloodlines. Like mine, which had strong magic going back thousands of years.
Reg drew his pentagram within a circle, each space of the star figure bearing a mark that indicated location, direction, magic flow, elements, time, and other various bits of information that gave me a sense of space and heft. Reg had a lot of stuff, but it looked like he shared his workshop with his wife, and I would move her things, too. Which made sense. She wasn't powerful enough to be an agent, but married couples couldn't help the blending of magic that took place starting the moment they tied the knot.
"Okay, let's do this thing." I closed my eyes and took in seven smooth, even breaths, letting each out slowly with the thought that they carried away all my tension with the Air I expelled. Only the diagram remained in my mind.
"Good," Peony murmured. I sensed her magic, a blinding presence of light and power just beyond my inner vision. Once again I wondered about that. She may be more powerful than my uncle, and that idea was shocking. But also kind of cool. "Pull the elements to you and build them up."
I did as she instructed, dragging the Dark from the shadows around me, Light from outside the window, and then an emptiness in the magic bubble I was creating drew my attention. I needed something else to stabilize the spell. My hand lifted and then rested against the ancient stone wall and pulled in the Earth element. Ah, yes. Perfect.
"I'm ready," I said. It was only a formality. Peony would be able to sense the completeness of the spell I was about to cast. She wouldn't know all the elements I applied, even when I let her in, but both of my guardians were aware I used Dark so I had nothing to hide. It made it easier to train with them.
My eyes snapped open, and I focused on the small area emptied of shoes. It was only about two feet deep, but not for long. I was casting a huge spell blind, something I hadn't done before. I had never seen Reg's workshop so I couldn't picture it before working magic the way I had when I first ascended. Instead, I recreated the diagram in my mind, envisioned it on the back wall of the closet to focus my magic, and heaved.
Working magic was beautiful. Streaks and starbursts and miniature explosions of colored light filled the room, the shoe closet, the workshop that existed somewhere else, far away, but now in front of me, a vast room where there once were only shelves lined with crystal lights.
"Good job, Lia!" Peony called above the noise. I hadn't expected that, but the sound of furniture and crystals and telescopes and astrolabes and tools galore moving from one reality to another was loud. My ears were ringing.
"Thanks." Working magic felt good. Clean. I couldn't imagine what it must be like for a dark magician. Dark spells often felt cloying. Suffocating. Like tainted honey. Ugh. "That was awesome."
My aunt laughed as she slipped her arm around me. For some reason, she was shaking. I looked her over to make sure she was okay before I realized that it was me. The tremors were originating from t
he center of who I was.
"That's just backlash," Peony assured me. She handed me a couple of cookies she had wrapped in a napkin. "A few empty calories will help with that."
I nodded as I stuffed them into my mouth. I usually liked to savor my favorite treats, but I didn't like how weak I felt. Not magically, but physically. Even in the trials, I had never used so much magic all at once. The closest thing to it was when I tried to vanquish David Novato. Or with the birds. I had fainted after what I did to the birds.
A shudder wracked my body, but it wasn't from the spell I had just cast.
Peony handed me another cookie. I took it and then dragged a water bottle out of my pouch. I started wearing it even while I was inside the castle. It had come in handy too many times to leave it in my room. Like when I needed the Water element. Although at the moment the only magic I needed from it was the kind that helped wash down cookie crumbs.
"How many more are we going to do today?" I asked. The agents had enough power to transport their own workshops, but my uncle's home-and-hearth magic was strictly limited to his family, and even then he had to cast his own spells to allow us to transport directly onto his land. We wanted to get the workshops moved before any vulnerability was revealed to enemies unknown. But that didn't mean I wanted to do everything all at once. I was using the elements, but it still took a toll.
"Richard and James are taking care of the others. Except for Joseph. He asked for you specifically."
A thrill of pride shot up my back. He was a high-powered magician with a huge region of agents answering to him. I wasn't sure why he wanted me to handle his transfer but it would be an honor. And allow me to get a sense of the mysterious man and his magic during the process.
