Industry & Intrigue

by Ryan McCall

  “Thank you,” said Brenna and she stood up. “Could you draw a rough map of the inside of Barus’s stronghold?” The woman nodded.

  “Good, Officer Snar here will wait with you while you do that.” Brenna left a pad of paper for her to make a start. “I need to talk to my captain and then I’ll get you processed.

  “Can I make one request?” asked Inissa. “Wherever you send me, make sure it isn’t here or Longhaven. Mikono can get to me in either city.”

  Brenna smiled at her. “Since you asked so nicely, I’ll see what I can do. Even if it did take you so long to cooperate.” Then she exited the room to leave the woman to map out the warehouse.

  She greeted Selim and Tolov with the news and handed over the details she’d written down.

  “Excellent work Brenna,” said Niko. “You too Selim. This is the biggest case the branch has ever made and it wouldn’t have been possible without all the hard work you’ve both done.”

  Brenna leaned back on her desk. “She’s giving Snar a detailed sketch of the building. It’s not going to be easy, she’s says they’re armed to the teeth and well-fortified. Add to the fact that they’re ready for a fight with the Stoneskins, we could take heavy casualties.

  Niko stoked his chin. “No, not easy. But now that we have this evidence, we’ll have a lot more resources to draw on. I’m going to send messengers to the head branch and the Torphin station. I’ll make sure we have more than enough officers. I also think we should have magical back-up.”

  “Magical?” said Selim. He wasn’t a fan of magic when it came to watch operations. Since the watch used firearms, it could be a bad combination. A high concentration of magic and mechanical technology inevitably led to guns jamming, or spells fizzling out. Something about their opposing nature that caused them to fail when near each other in concentrated amounts. The number of officers and guns they would need for this operation was large.

  “Relax,” said Niko, taking note of Selim’s discomfort. “It’s only as back-up, in case there’s an unforeseen obstacle. I know all too well what the presence of a mage will do, but it’s a risk we need to take. We’ll need to send someone to the Scepters.”

  Brenna spoke up. “I can do that. I know one of the Scepters; she owes me a favor.” She had not seen Zuri since the incident at Warded Spirals.

  “Alright,” replied Niko. “You head there, we only need a couple of mages, preferably those trained in energy or air based magic.” As Niko walked back to his office, Brenna watched him order a few officers to head over to the main branch and start coordinating with them.

  “Looks like we’re finally going to get Mikono then,” said Selim.

  “Looks like it,” said Brenna.

  Selim put his hand on her back and whispered. “Before you run off again, don’t you want to celebrate?”

  It had been a while since she had felt his hands on her body and a shiver went through her, but she pulled his hand away.

  “What? Right here in the station?” she whispered harshly. “I’m not going to swoon over that easily again.”

  The last time she had been with Selim intimately; it had been late at night and they had taken over one of the interrogation rooms, locking themselves inside for an hour.

  “You can’t tell me that finally breaking this case doesn’t have you all hot and bothered.” His face was leering at her. She gave him a smirk. He knew her too well.

  But she wanted to get this done with before she let herself indulge. “Right now we still have work to do. I need to get over to the Scepters and see a mage for a favor.”

  She put her gun in her holster and pulled her jacket on. She turned back to Selim. “Besides, if you think I’m all hot and bothered now. How much better do you think it will be when we take down Mikono and Barus?” She gave him a sweet smile.

  He pointed his finger at her and said, “I look forward to holding you to that promise.”

  Snar appeared out of nowhere and put the sketch that Inissa had drawn on the table. “Here it is sergeant.”

  Brenna jumped. She wasn’t sure how someone so large could move as quietly as he did. “Ah, good. Thank you Snar. Let’s have a look.”

  She peered down at the sketch, it was well-detailed. It showed every room of the two level warehouse. Inside the main floor, there appeared to be extra walls. Brenna put her finger on them and was about to ask Snar, when he answered for her, “She said those are the defensive barriers. Wooden barricades added in to create defensive layers.”

  Brenna had to admit the Inissa had been right. It was going to be difficult to assault. Niko was right to bring in mages. “Selim, take that to the captain” she said and handed him the map. “He’ll need it for planning the assault. I’m heading to the Scepter garrison.”

  Chapter 42

  The symbols of each of the magic disciplines were displayed in large banners around the room. There were sixteen in total-one for each for each of the four natural elements, then chromatics, energy, illusions, kinetics, healing, metallic, morphing, nature, necromancy, mind and Zuri’s own specialty, shadomancy. The banner for that was light brown and its symbol was a black circle with thin lines extending out of the top half.

  The final magic discipline was primeval and was known as the lost art. It hadn’t been practiced in thousands of years, the knowledge lost to the ages. It was also the most powerful and Zuri often thought that was why it had been lost. Its practitioners having wiped themselves out, or exterminated out of fear.

  She was kneeling in her mage’s robes in front of the leaders of the Hydrus Scepters in the Hall of Initiation of the Scepter Garrison building. Standing in front of her in pure white robes was Shonna Ciar, Chief of the Hydrus Scepters. The older woman had short, black hair, dashed with grey. She had a lined and flabby face, making her look like a harmless, old fishwife instead of the powerful mage that she was.

  Shonna held a thick golden staff in her hands, a few centimeters above Zuri’s head. “The oath,” she said.

  The signal for Zuri to say the lines she had memorized. Zuri looked up at her and placed her right hand around the middle of the staff.

  “In light and in dark, by fire, water, earth and air, and all the forces within and without, I swear to uphold and defend the Imperial Realm of Alkos. To protect its people, from any danger, internal or external. In the name of the Emperor and the First Scepter, I swear.”

  The First Scepter had been a powerful mage who had served as an advisor to Emperor Magnus, three hundred years ago and created the order of the Hydrus Scepters.

  Shonna smiled and pulled Zuri to her feet as she held on to her staff. “Welcome to the Hydrus Scepters, Mastermage Zuri Abeliah.” Shonna clapped and all of the other mages standing in a circle around Zuri joined her in applauding their newest member.

  Zuri let go of the staff and bowed her head. She was now one of the Hydrus Scepters of Alkos, a defender of the realm and a battlemage. If someone told her five years ago she would be here, she would have laughed at them. It felt like a lifetime ago, when all she had wanted was to teach magic to the youngest at Warded Spirals. Now here she was initiated in the Scepters with the empire on the brink of war.

  With the ceremony now finished, the other leaders congratulated Zuri and shook her hand. As they started to leave, an aide entered the room and ran up towards her and Shonna.

  The boy said, “Excuse me, Mastermage Abeliah.”

  “Yes?” she asked.

  “There’s a watch officer here to see you, Sergeant Brenna Moreland. She’s waiting in the entrance room.”

  “Alright thank you.” She turned to Shonna and Arnette, the two remaining Scepter leaders in the hall. “Thank you both once again for accepting me into the Scepters.”

  “You’re welcome my dear,” replied Shonna. “Best see what this sergeant wants. When you’re done with her, come and join the rest of us in the meeting room. I will be briefing everyone who is heading to Sethain in half an hour.”

  Zuri nodded and lef
t the room, making her way towards the front of the building. The atmosphere of the Scepters building was different from that of Warded Spirals. There was a feeling of discipline and order that the school had not had. Most of the Scepters were, after all, soldiers albeit using magic rather than guns or swords.

  Zuri spotted the red-haired watch sergeant sitting in a chair next to the reception desk. Brenna smiled upon seeing her and stood up to shake her hand. “Zuri, good to see you. I heard all about your investigation and battle. I see it’s left you with something of a promotion.”

  Zuri tugged on the new badge sewn onto the shoulder of her robes. “After what happened I needed a change. I’m not sure when or even if I’ll be ready to go back to Warded Spirals. Stopping that bastard Feyton felt good, I can do more good like that here. And I couldn’t have done it without your help, so thank you. Especially on behalf of Kyle Dunn.”

  Brenna folded her arms. “That’s why I’m here. I need a favor.”

  “Anything for you sergeant,” she said.

  “We’re planning a major operation against the city’s biggest drug lord. The place we need to hit is heavily fortified. My captain wants to supplement our force with a few mages from the Scepters and I was hoping to get the process moving faster if I asked their new star member. We need to hit tonight and if I went through the usual channel, we won’t have mages assigned to us in time.”

  Zuri nodded. “You’re right. You would’ve had to wait. We’re busy around here at the moment. Chief Ciar has everyone training daily in case the emperor appease the Galrians.”

  “I can imagine,” replied Brenna. “I shouldn’t need more than two mages, only to help us if we come across bigger barriers than we expect. It’ll only be for a few hours tonight.”

  She doubted it would be much trouble to arrange for Brenna. “I’ll talk to Chief Ciar, but it shouldn’t be a problem. So long as you bring them back in one piece. She isn’t going to want anyone injured the night before we leave.”

  “Leave for where?” asked Brenna.

  “She’s sending a contingent of us down to Sethain. She wants her best and brightest there in case everything goes sideways.”

  The redhead said, “So does that mean you’re going?”

  Zuri leaned against the desk. “Yes. Because of what I did, the chief wants me to serve as an inspiring example. I only did it because I cared for Kyle. It wasn’t because I was brave or heroic. The truth is, when the archmage blasted that wall open, I was more scared than I’ve ever been in my life. It’s different using magic in the heat of combat than in the classroom. Now I’m headed for a potential warzone.”

  Brenna put her hand on Zuri’s shoulder. Clearly the watch officer was trying to comfort her. Zuri didn’t push her hand away, humans had a greater need for touching to reconcile emotions than skylords. “I remember when I first graduated from the watch academy. My first week, we had to go into the Den to break up a street fight. I was terrified. It’s not fear you have to worry about Zuri. It’s how you use that fear. From what I’ve heard about what you did at the Blue Tower I think you’ll do fine as a Scepter. You’ll end up catching the eye of that handsome emperor of ours.” She was joking with that last comment.

  Emperor Lawrence may have been known for his numerous affairs in his teen years, but he had grown past that. Besides, members of the royal family getting an eye for a commoner was never a good idea. One of the emperor’s uncles had developed such an infatuation with a Westerner girl. When the scandal became public, the backlash had forced the man to abdicate from the line of succession.

  Zuri laughed at the notion, though she did agree with Brenna that the emperor was handsome. “There’s a meeting I have to get to. I’ll bring the matter up with the chief and convince her you need a couple of mages. When do you need them at your station by?”

  “Before six o’clock. We won’t be ready to hit the warehouse until later in the night. But the captain will want them included in the planning stages.”

  “I’ll have them for you by then.”

  “Thank you Zuri. I’m sure you’ll be fine, but stay safe. Or as safe as you can be on the border. Farewell.”

  “Farewell,” she replied. She watched the watch officer step out the entrance doors.

  By the time she arrived at the meeting room, many of the mages had already arrived, but Shonna had not started the briefing. She was at the back of the room, finishing off a cup of coffee.

  Zuri approached and quietly told her about Brenna’s request.

  Shonna had a thoughtful look on her face. “Alright. I will send Sadic and Andas, they’re the best young energy mages we have and I’m not sending them south. It will do them good to practice magic in a real situation. They haven’t had any experience outside of training.” She looked the room over. “Everyone is here, best take a seat and I shall begin.”

  They both moved towards the front of the room, Zuri sat down at the end of the third row while Shonna continued to the front of the room. Her eyes looked over everyone in the room as if sizing them up.

  She adjusted her robe slightly then spoke. “Thank you for coming. As you are all aware, the emperor has gone south to treat with the Galrian envoy. What you may not be aware of is that Imperial Intelligence has been assigned the task of investigating the assassination of Atoli Rossiv. From what I have been told, they do not have any new leads.

  So that means that within three days we may well be at war. All of you here will be leaving for Sethain in the morning. The city has defenses, both mechanical and magical, but only a small number of Scepters. I need all of you to make sure the magical defenses are well in place and to prepare for the worst. If war does break out, we do not want Sethain falling to Galria right in front of the emperor.”

  Shonna then made an upwards pointing gesture with her hand and the blank board behind her lit up. A bright blue glowing map appeared. It was the border and showed the placement of forts. Then arrows appeared and moved from the Galrian side to the Alkon side.

  “These are the most obvious routes of attack the Galrian army will take. They will have their own battlemages and will be using them to try and bring down Sethain’s walls. Many of the Galrian mages are skilled in earth magic, so we will need to ensure the walls are reinforced to prevent quake spells from breaking them apart.”

  Then Shonna talked about the Pale Brotherhood, Galria’s elite magic organization. She went into great detail about them and Zuri paid close attention. The Pale Brotherhood was more than simple mages, it was also a religious order.

  Their members believed that their magical power came from their pagan mountain god. They removed all hair from their bodies and dressed themselves in bone-white loincloths. They believed that the more skin they exposed, the more their god powered their magic. It was utterly ridiculous of course; magic was nothing more than natural energy, but it made them fanatical men. And fanatics were dangerous to fight.

  Chapter 43

  Lawrence had only been to the town of Rampart once before. His father had traveled here to negotiate with the Galrians, much as he was now, and he had brought his youngest son with him. He had been negotiating with Galria over a border skirmish. Lawrence hoped that he was up to the same task his father had succeeded at.

  Roughly eleven miles south of the city of Sethain, the town sat right on the border was thus more important than its size suggested. It was ringed with a high wooden wall and plenty of defensive towers. Throughout its history the town had been sacked numerous times and its inhabitants had taken those lessons to heart.

  It had originally been its own individual city-state until 1512. Unlike the other southern kingdoms it had not joined by conquest, but by choice. The neighboring Galrian states had treated the town and its lands as fruit for the taking and raided regularly. The citizens of Rampart had decided that joining with Alkos was the best way to prevent the raids.

  At the western edge of the town, the road leading out the west gate ran directly into Galria. There was a
large, stone building in the town center that served for negotiations. Lawrence and his staff were currently occupying the upper floor of the building and preparing for the Galrian envoy.

  There had been a response to his telegram from King Cyrus. He was sending a low-level representative to meet with him. Lawrence hadn’t expected anything less, after losing one foreign minister, the Galrian monarch was unlikely to risk another until the culprits had been caught.

  On that front, Lawrence was concerned. The telegram from Director Talmach yesterday informed him that the agents had discovered evidence that the Arm of Assassins were behind the killing of the Atoli Rossiv. Talmach’s agents were even now on their way to Longhaven. The Arm was powerful and secretive. He didn’t expect that they would be able to find the assassin in time.

  The more disturbing thought was that even if they did catch the assassin, they would only have the weapon not the master. The Arm was unscrupulous but usually apolitical. They would only have carried out an assassination like this for a large sum of money. He doubted they would give up the names of their client. It also made Lawrence wonder who could stand to profit from the assassination so much, they would employ the Arm. Assassins of their nature did not come cheap.

  There were plenty of governments that would be happy to see Alkos and Galria go to war, the Kordate Union especially. But with their strict religious values they wouldn’t use assassination as means for their ends. Silund had the money and will, but they could stand to lose as much they gained from a war with Alkos.

  Tal Feros or Ze Feros wouldn’t shy from political assassinations, but they would target each other directly, they wouldn’t waste time involving other nations. The last two possibilities were of course, Galria or Alkos-there were those in both nations that wanted a war. Lawrence hated to think that someone in his own government may have had a hand in it.