by HDA Roberts
Having looked at his defences, I didn’t think I’d have too much trouble getting through them, but not if I hadn’t known about them first.
He was still such a clever bastard. Plans within plans. Provoke me, distracting me so that I didn’t look too hard at him, then take the hits, probably cowering, maybe throw in a little begging... and in the end he gets another big nail for my coffin.
To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have attacked him, no matter what he’d said, but I had no doubt that he had a plan for that eventuality as well. I had to think a couple of steps further ahead.
So... options.
Mage Sight showed me that Myrddin was still a powerful Magician; he had a little over twice the Well capacity one would find in a very high end Sorcerer. That was offset slightly by the fact that his Aura seemed to have no trace of any Affinity whatsoever. That was quite a novel sight; even the lowest level Adept had some sort of Affinity, even if it was only for a single type of Spell. Myrddin had nothing, thanks to me.
That made my smile a little more genuine.
Alas, none of that really gave me anything to work with. It was useful information to have if we ever had to fight it out (if... ha!), but it wasn’t immediately useful.
But then I got a glimpse of his Mental Defences.
And just like that, I had an idea.
You see, the production of a Mental Defence was a terribly involved skill. It wasn’t the kind of thing you could dabble in; you had to dedicate time and considerable effort to the production of a good one, and you had to practice every day if you wanted to stay that good at it.
Unless, of course, you’d been born with a Telepathic Affinity. If you were such a man, Mental Defences came to you as easily as breathing. The fool that tried to break into your head, without considerable skill of his own and a massive distraction on his side, would soon find his brain oozing out of his ears like pudding.
Now, Myrddin was nobody’s idiot, but, just this once, he’d made a mistake.
He’d become so used to having an impregnable mind, so used to being completely dominant at Telepathy, that he hadn’t bothered to build a proper, at-rest, Mental Defence. When he was the Primal of the Mind, that didn’t matter, he’d have been able to detect even the tiniest intrusion and squash it with barely an effort.
Now, though, he was just a Magician. A powerful one, no doubt, but not a true Telepath; not anymore. He would still be a horrific opponent in a mental duel... but he’d have to see his enemy coming first.
For all intents and purposes, or for mine, at least, he’d left himself wide open.
I started assembling a Spell.
Now it was an effort to keep the smile conservative.
"Tethys is well," I replied, quickly picking up the threads of the conversation before he could get suspicious. I made sure to let a little false-doubt enter my voice, which drew a tiny smile from him. He wouldn’t know that I'd removed his influence over her. As far as he was aware, Tethys was doing her best to steal the Gods' Blade even as we were talking. I wanted him to remain complacent, thinking he had the winning hand.
Myrddin being such an arrogant prick no doubt helped with that. You’d think he’d have learned a little humility, but no...
"Good, good. I hope to meet her when I come visit you. Would the day after tomorrow be acceptable? The Conclave is sending a delegation to your home at that time, and I thought I'd come along."
Here we go, the critical moment.
"You would be most welcome," I said, extending my hand.
"Most civil of you," he replied with a frown, extending his own hand automatically... and creating a nice little bridge for my Telepathic Hex to bypass those impressive external defences and enter his all but unprotected mind.
It was the tiniest of things, the most I'd felt I could get away with. He may not have been a Primal anymore, but he was still a very skilled and experienced Telepath. Luckily for me, dismantling what I'd found in Tethys' mind had taught me an immense amount about subtlety, and I was able to use all that knowledge to return to Myrddin a tiny amount of the suffering he'd inflicted on my friend.
Tiny... for now. If I’d done it right, then this was one of those gifts that would keep on giving, and the effect was going to be cumulative.
To my joy (and not inconsiderable surprise), he didn't notice a thing.
"Ten o'clock?" he asked politely, that frown deepening as he saw what had to be a rather sinister smile on my face.
"Perfect," I replied.
He slowly backed away and left, the observers following him soon after.
"What the hell was that?!" Demise hissed when they were gone.
"That was me winning. Now it's just a matter of time and gentle prodding."
"What?" she asked, confused.
"When we get home," I replied, opening a Portal back to Blackhold. "These walls have ears."
"You mean he was right there? Right in front of you, and you didn't burn him to a crisp?" Tethys snapped once I'd gathered my inner circle.
Tethys, Kandi, Cassandra and Demise were all sitting comfortably in my Library, all of them agitated.
"It would only have made things worse at this point," I said.
"How could roasting our worst enemy make things worse?" Tethys muttered.
"Because we're not just dealing with Myrddin anymore," Cassandra explained, "And we're not fighting a traditional war, either. This isn't about strength or numbers or power. We're fighting a bureaucracy; a war of public opinion and perception against people who have immense resources and are slowly building the will to drop them on our heads."
I nodded, "Myrddin and the Conclave are up to something, something that needs my public image to be as dark and awful as possible. That's why he arranged that show with Tethys and the sub-committee and this farce today. He wanted me pissed off enough to do something nasty while he was ostensibly there for a peaceful, little talk."
"And you let him get away with it," Tethys said.
"Oh no, I didn't,” I said with a smile, a very evil smile.
I told them what I'd done, and what I expected it to help me accomplish.
Tethys started squirming again, staring at me very intently.
"The rest of you might want to leave the room, you aren't going to want to see what I'm about to do to him," she purred, biting her lip.
Kandi wrapped her arms around Tethys and bit her ear, "Down you, we're busy."
Tethys laughed and kissed Kandi's hand.
"That's... God, Matty, that's just evil," Cassandra said. "I love it."
Demise nodded, "I agree, but you realise that this plan is predicated on us completely failing to stop whatever they're up to?"
"I do. But all this is just theatre, politics at its worst. They're working to a script here; we're at a disadvantage because we don't know what their plans are, but we can take a pretty good guess what the end result is: Myrddin in a position of power, probably somewhere in the Conclave. That's what we're planning for."
"And we don't think killing him before he gets there is a good idea?" Demise suggested.
"It's a fantastic idea," Cassandra said. "But can you imagine that making things better for us? It's bad enough they've pinned fake deaths on us. I don't think we'd be able to recover if there was a real one on the books. Besides which, we're not assassins."
"I'm willing to be, just for the record," Demise said. “Fully trained and everything.”
Cassandra rolled her eyes.
I chuckled.
"Seeing as we almost certainly can’t stop this happening, the best we can do is start laying the groundwork for fixing it. Tethys, a lot of this is going to be on you and your network. We at least have a thread to pull on, now. Start looking at Councillors associated with both Myrddin and Bradley. If Myrddin’s in with them, then that means influence peddling, and I doubt that happens this quickly without money changing hands at some point. Try and find the source of his cash so we can interfere with it."
"I'm already following the Councillors’ money," Tethys replied. "But it's slow going. If there's one group of people better at hiding their money than Vampires, it's Magicians. This will take time."
"I think that we have a little time," I said. "Not as much as I'd like, but we have some."
It really was a great big mess. Myrddin's plan was almost certainly already in motion and likely well advanced. All we really knew was that he was after power (that was all he'd ever wanted), and we knew he was going to use me to get it. We didn’t know what form that power would take, exactly who was helping him and what methods he’d use to get it.
If I fought him now, when he was at his strongest (politically, anyway) and with so much evidence of wrongdoing stacked up against me, I'd lose; not the fight, but the greater war of innuendo and opinion. I wasn't a sympathetic figure to begin with, after all, and that reputation would only have worsened with Myrddin and Bradley’s whispers.
So I’d come up with a plan. It was risky, evil, too clever by half and relied on some really ugly trickery... just my sort of thing. It assumed that Myrddin would win this part of the war, which was realistic, unfortunately. He was too good a strategist, and I'd already fallen for too many of his gambits to stop him winning and winning big.
But what happened after... that was up for grabs.
And as I sat there, suddenly I had a beautiful idea of how to stack the deck further in my favour...
"Matty, you've got a little evil on your face again," Cassandra said.
I smiled and checked my watch, I had forty-two hours to get a very complicated job done.
"Just a little idea," I said. "Tethys, do you have any contacts at the James Sutcliffe Hospital?"
It turned out that she did. I went over there as quickly as an appointment could be arranged with one of the doctors in their infectious diseases ward. I came home with a cooler, locked the door to my library and got to work.
I was in there for nearly two days working on my little... project. They were two unpleasant days, filled with screw-ups and one nasty moment where I thought I'd accidentally created the next masterpiece in viral genocide.
But then I was done, and I was ready for my meeting.
I came out of the room smelling unpleasantly of sweat (and the room didn't smell much better). Cassandra was waiting outside.
"Don't go in there, yet," I said, closing the door firmly and locking it behind me.
"Why?"
"I'll tell you later, I need to shower.”
"Yes, you very definitely do," she replied, wiggling her nose.
"Anything happen while I was busy?"
"Three more attacks on the other Archons' territories, nothing serious. Desmond and Ross have started training again, and Tethys has been violating everything in a skirt when she hasn't been locked in her command centre trying to bring down the government."
"That's just a joke, right? The government can't come down just yet."
"Of course I'm joki- what do you mean 'yet'? That wasn't part of the plan you told us!"
I smirked and went to shower, leaving her confused and agitated. I knew I'd pay for it later, but that was a fun look to put on her face every once in a while...
At ten to ten, I walked down the stairs from my library, a little tired, but otherwise ready for the meeting. I knew it was likely to be unpleasant, but it should also have a small element of fun to it.
Tethys, Cassandra, Des and Demise were waiting in the front hall by the door. Tethys looked a little nervous, but otherwise okay at the prospect of seeing Myrddin again. Why Des was there, I don’t know, but there was no getting rid of him now without hurting his feelings.
"Nobody touch me for a while, I'll explain why later," I said as I took my spot in the middle.
"What happens if we do?" Des asked with a smirk on his face as he reached a poking finger towards me.
I rolled my eyes, "Probably nothing, but then again, maybe something very unpleasant, chronic... and life-changing."
He yanked his finger back. "Message received."
Tethys gave me a sidelong look, "What are you planning?" she asked.
"I'd tell you, but I don't think you'd be able to control yourself, and it might be very important that nobody I like touch me until I can get to a fireproof spot."
"This is starting to worry me," Cassandra said, taking a large step away from me.
"Relax, I'm fairly certain it's not airborne."
"Fairly certain?!" Cassandra almost squeaked, taking another step away.
"When have I ever been wrong about something Magical?"
"Do you want a complete list or will the five pages covering the last two weeks be acceptable?" she asked mean-spiritedly.
Before I could reply, there was a knock at the door and Demise went to go open it.
Myrddin was there, along with a man and a woman in the suits I associated with the Conclave Security Services. I immediately noticed that there were bags under his eyes, and that his skin was pale and sallow. He looked like he'd missed a couple of nights' sleep.
What a shame...
He still managed to look insufferably pleased with himself, though, as well as being perfectly turned-out. He wore a modern suit in dark colours, a dark red tie fixed with a platinum clip, heavy gold signet ring on his left pinkie and highly polished shoes that looked hand-made. Every inch the power-broker.
He marched right in like he owned the place.
"Good morning!" he said brightly, extending a hand in greeting (and unknowingly doing my work for me). "I hope we're not inconveniencing you?"
"Not at all," I replied cheerfully, taking his hand in both of mine. "Would you come in for tea?"
"It would be my pleasure," he replied.
Rather than use the drawing room or the kitchen, which were spaces I associated with family and welcome guests, we used a small reception room off the front hall.
It wasn't much of a space, just walls, a table and four chairs. I went in alone with Myrddin. I was in no danger and he was too arrogant to worry that he might be.
A tea service was waiting for us. I poured and placed a cup in front of each of us. He cast a Detection Spell over the liquid before he took a sip.
"I'm hardly likely to poison you in my own home," I pointed out.
Mostly because I'd already done far worse.
But don't think that poison hadn't crossed my mind. There just wasn't a readily available one that would do what I wanted.
"Oh yes you would. In a heartbeat, if you thought you could get away with it."
I inclined my head, "Well, you did violate the mind of someone I love very deeply," I replied, letting a little steel enter my voice. "She won't even let me look at the damage, she's that traumatised!"
I felt a flash of something like triumph surge through him, though he kept it from his face.
"Needs must in a time of war," he said instead, taking one of the biscuits from the service (after another scan for poison, he was taking no chances, the poor idiot).
"It wasn't war! You tried to rob me, and when I prevented you from taking one thing, you decided to try and steal something else. You're not a warrior, you're a thief; and not a very good one."
His eyes narrowed and I felt him begin to call Power.
"Oh yes, please, please give me an excuse," I whispered, meeting his eyes.
He snarled and pulled an envelope from his pocket before throwing it at me. A tendril of Shadow plucked it from the air before it could connect and placed it in my hands. It was identical to the last one I’d received from the Conclave, seal and all. I checked the latter as I had before and found it to be genuine. I opened it and read it over twice.
"I am summoned, apparently," I said evenly.
"You are. To answer for your crimes."
"You and I both know I haven't committed any crimes."
"Do we?" he snarled. "You murdered my father. You admitted that much."
"So that's what this is all about? Daddy issues? I should ha
ve known."
He slammed his fists into the table, jumping to his feet.
"He was an animal and a monster, but he was still my father! You killed him like he was vermin!"
"He was vermin," I spat, standing as well. "The things he did to all those people, Ambrose... thousands and thousands of women and children!"
"Sheep! Every last one of them!"
"Oh no they weren't! He slaughtered more than his fair share of Magicians, too, he showed me! He showed me everything, he was particularly proud of the things he did to our people."
"So what? He was still my father. He was mine to deal with!"
"Are you upset that I killed him or that I prevented you from killing him? You seem a bit confused."
He glared again.
"Oh, I'm going to enjoy watching you fall, Graves," he hissed. "One bit at a time, I'm going to take everything you love until you beg me to kill you and release you from the misery."
I laughed in his face.
"You really don't understand me, do you?" I replied. "If you push me that far, I won't be curling up in a ball and begging for the end, I'll be opening up Grimoires and preparing ways to keep your immortal soul in unending agony. The loss of everything I love doesn't make me a wreck, it makes me a monster. You may wish to keep that in mind when planning your next moves."
He actually blanched. I think he'd forgotten for a moment who he was speaking to. Perhaps I shouldn't have reminded him, I didn't want him that wary of me, after all...
I moved around him and opened the door before gesturing for him to precede me into the hall. He did, his eyes darting to me with every other step, as if he expected me to leap at his throat.
"This isn't over, Graves," he hissed at my threshold.
"You'd better believe it," I growled back.
His eye twitched, "What answer do you have for the Conclave?" he asked formally, remembering at the last moment what he'd turned up for.
"I'll be there.”
He smiled again, some of his former confidence returning.
"Then I have but one more thing to say to you," he began, and then he uttered a nasty, nearly incomprehensible word, something from a darker time, a forgotten prehistory.
