Not much was said about the second shift aberrations, but it seemed as if the entire Guild was on edge.
“I’m glad I’m not second shift,” said Wanda. “I can’t imagine what kind of shit they’re in. Incompetent bastards.”
John, for once, was not his regular joyous self. “If this thing keeps going, we’re all in deep shit.”
“You think it’s going to spread to the other shifts?”
“It’s getting stronger every time,” said John. “More magic is being drawn. The very foundation of our guild- the control and preservation of magic- is being eroded.”
“We cleanse people for a reason,” said Lorenz. “Others may take joy in the cleansing, but I do not. It is simply my duty. And if we cease to cleanse this city, then chaos will befall us and the light of civilization could very well go out.”
“That’s dramatic,” said Terrance.
“Journeymen are not taught our true purpose here,” said Lorenz. “I pieced together a part of it at a very young age and thus chose my path, but I do not expect one of common stock such as you to have had the exposure necessary for such leaps of logic. And I won’t tell you — that would bring the wrath of the Guild upon my head — but if you look at enough lines, and then read between them, you’ll start to get the picture. Or you could wait until you are made a Master. Or maybe you could ask that brood mare of yours some questions- she seems to suspect the second purpose.”
A True Purpose… Terrance briefly considered that there might be more to the brutal Inquisitor program than met the eye, but soon discarded the idea. There had been no previous indication that such a thing existed, and no reason he could see it existing aside from, perhaps, as a self-justifying mechanism by those who had developed a distaste for their chosen line of work. And distaste was the word for Lorenz- if he was truly revolted, he hid it well. Then again, so did Terrance.
Whatever the case, talking to Johanna again would be a good idea. Both for her information, and because he… missed her. As weird as that was.
But tonight he was talking to Angelika, their long-planned meetup for drinks. He hoped it wouldn’t be weird. Adolfo’s hate hung around her neck each time they talked.
His contemplations were interrupted when John got up and checked his device. “Looks like another spike. Out west.”
“I’m up,” said Wanda.
As she left, John and Lorenz pulled out books and began reading. Lorenz was even taking notes. John’s book was Introduction to Tracking Criminals. That wasn’t good. Lorenz had Mana Production and Conservation.
“What’s that one about?” asked Terrance.
“You can read it when you’re a Master.”
“What’s the summary?”
“It’s only another year. Prove your loyalty and everything opens up to you.”
“How am I supposed to protect the Mages' Guild if I don’t have access to all the information?”
“You don’t have to know everything about the source of our power. Just do your job. We have these things for a reason. Do your job and then the evil beast won’t return and ravish the city.”
Terrance knew a brush-off when he heard one, and he was unlikely to provoke Lorenz into saying anything more. So he settled down with his own book: The Limits of Magic.
The Limits of Magic wasn’t quite what he was expecting, but it was interesting enough. Part of it focused on the biggest, most complex spells available — like the ones the Departments of War or Great Works used — but it was mostly talking about how to make each individual spell more efficient. A fireball with no wasted heat. A construction spell that could create the same quality of artifact for half the mana usage of the old formulation. It was really quite maddening, since the Department of Resource Management could simply write out an authorization for whatever amount of mana they wanted.
Still, it did help reduce discoverability; the less mana you used, the closer an Inquisitor had to be to pinpoint your location. He would have to keep that in mind with their practice sessions, make sure they didn’t channel enough magic to make their exact location obvious from base. If that happened, and they detected the same place multiple nights, then the second shift could easily lie in ambush. He wondered what other little subtleties of magic he was missing…
He read on. Couldn’t worry about the gaps in his knowledge he wasn’t even aware of- that way lay madness.
Several hours later Wanda returned, tense. “It’s happening to us,” she said. “It’s started happening to us!”
Lorenz raised an eyebrow. Terrance barely held back a grin. A successful operation.
“When I approached, when I was a couple blocks away, it looked as if they were in a popular tavern, when their signature, it…. disappeared. Completely disappeared. I searched the tavern where they had been, but it was impossible to tell which of them were the miscreants. None even looked guilty. I interrogated several of them. I hurt them. They still wouldn’t tell me anything. One mentioned “suspicious figures” in the alleyway, but I think he was just trying to get me to stop. It’s…” She sunk down in a chair. “How many of these until we’re as fucked as the second shift.”
John paced. “It was only a matter of time before whatever was happening there spread. We should have paid it more mind then, before the problem came to us, but that time is past.”
The spark had left him completely, replaced with something smoldering. John had never been innocent, but before he was almost like a wolf cub tearing up a rabbit, doing what was natural to him and oblivious to the pain he caused. This week, culminating in this moment, he had slowly morphed into something else. An actual monster.
Terrance knew the magical training and disappearances would stir the pot a little, but these reactions seemed out of proportion. The real subversion hadn’t even started yet.
It was all worth it when the next ping came up- his turn. West side.
His rescues knew he was second up in line today, so they would only do one fake-out. This one was real.
It was his easiest rescue yet.
He walked in with full Inquisitor garb, cornered the terrified boy, and pressed the cleansing device to his skin. Explained what was happening and sent him off to the safehouse. No grabbing a prisoner. No killing an innocent. No messy sawing and staking.
And just like that, they were up to eight rescues.
Terrance had to fake anger and despondence when he got back to the Inquisitors’ room, but he did get to use it as an excuse to leave early with a book. He stayed at his flat reading and planning until it was time to meet with Angelika.
“I can’t stay long,” she said. “You can’t imagine the disarray that Resource Management is in. Or maybe you can; Inquisitors are at the forefront of this.”
“It’s embarrassing, definitely. I didn’t realize Resource Management was being drawn into it as well.”
“The magic budget, you know? We have some set aside each year for illicit usage, but since you guys return most of it we hardly ever go over budget. But when you can’t catch them and return the magic…”
“Wait, there’s a magic budget? What happens if you go over?”
“If we go over? We don’t go over, unless there’s a war. Or shit like this starts happening. We’ll probably start by increasing the amount we allow ourselves to expend just a little bit, then cutting some bridge repairs or some ceremonial-type projects. We’ve already reshuffled the schedule for later in the year. And the next few rounds of trainees may get even less hands-on practice than we did. It’s really quite amazing how much mana these events are drawing.”
“Why a budget though? It seems so arbitrary.”
“I don’t know. There’s this whole set of things that they won’t let me access until I’m a Master. Concepts. Reasons. An entire wing of our underground warehouse, the one closest to the Palace, where, at the border of the forbidden zone, you can hear rumblings of machinery and feel the strength of the magical field increase. Even trips to the Palace are forbi
dden to journeymen.”
“Tell me about it. They said there’s some secret purpose behind the Inquisitors’ actions that help ‘preserve civilization’, but I can’t know that secret until next year.”
“Maybe the secret purpose is to make our budget work,” joked Angelika. “They said that going over budget would endanger the whole city. Wouldn’t that be crazy? Everything the Inquisitors do, all to make some numbers line up right.”
He didn’t have the heart to tell her how over budget they were going to be that year. If getting his rescues trained was going to freak out the Guild, it was just another reason to do it.
“We did approve some more expenditures to track down the source of the leaks,” said Angelika. “I guess you’ll be seeing them soon enough, or at least hearing about the second shift’s exploits. Higher-ups were not happy, but better to take them down than continue to be drained.”
Terrance nodded, changed the subject, and then they chatted pleasantly for another thirty minutes before Angelika had to take her leave. He headed off in the direction of his house- before turning around once he was sure he was out of sight. He had to warn the others to be wary of these extra ‘expenditures’… and it was time to move to the next stage of the plan anyways.
21
By the time Terrance got to Wile’s shop, the rescues had already left for the nightly magic practice. Not unexpected- they knew he would be doing other things tonight, and they had gotten to the point where they could practice and cleanse without him. Luckily, they had told him which location they would be practicing at in case he got off early and decided to join.
He was about halfway there when he felt them start. He might as well keep walking so he could talk to them on the way back. Besides, it felt good to be in the open air, just moving. Not having to worry about keeping his facade up in front of the other Inquisitors.
He was another block down when he felt something. Another magical spike, behind him, from the direction of the Mages' Guild. Coming closer.
Going towards the rescues.
He remembered what Angelika had said about the second shift getting more authorizations. This must be what she was talking about. The magical spike was holding steady, moving at over twice the speed of someone running. At that rate, he would get to the practice group before Terrance- or at least before they could all cleanse themselves and get out of the area.
With enough warning they could win this fight, but without warning it would be a massacre. An Inquisitor in full garb, with full authorization, would start with some quick fireballs to wipe out a couple, and then move on to using enhanced close-combat attacks while drawing on the earth to injure the others or hold them back. Meanwhile, his cloak would protect against any scattered fireballs that the rescues could get off.
Terrance started running. Soon he was out of breath, and he wasn’t going to get there in time without magical help anyways. He would have to reveal himself.
He drew on the magic and started running with his newly enlivened muscles. The Inquisitor behind him sped up, sensing that something new had come into play. At this rate…
The lights ahead started winking out. Someone must have noticed the two advancing mages. But it was going too slowly because they only had one cleansing device with them and their numbers had grown.
It was time to prepare for battle.
When Terrance arrived, he figured he had less than twenty seconds to organize them.
“It’s me!” he yelled. “Prepare fireballs!”
He used his enhanced muscles to jump to the top of the nearest building. Only one story tall, but it gave him a good view of the approaching mage. And, hopefully, it could be a good lure for the Inquisitor’s first fireball and draw it away from the main group. They were clumped dangerously close together.
“Spread out while building fireballs,” said Terrance. “And release on my mark.”
They spread out, enough so that no single fireball could hurt more than one of them.
The Inquisitor approached, slowed. Terrance didn’t hold a fireball, since he wanted to concentrate on leading, so his enhanced senses could see the expression on the Inquisitor’s face. Seemingly he couldn’t believe his luck- he’d gotten there before the lights winked out! But as he came into view and saw the fireballs his expression changed.
“Release!”
A fireball doesn’t reach its target instantaneously. It must go through an arc, like a thrown rock, although the earth doesn’t seem to have even half as strong a pull on the fireball as it does on the rock. So the Inquisitor had time to crouch behind his cloak and protect himself from the worst of the volley. But he was left singed, wobbly, and a sitting duck for other attacks.
Terrance jumped from his building and started building a fireball as he approached. The second the Inquisitor looked out from behind his cloak, Terrance released the fireball. The Inquisitor blocked it with his cloak again, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was the pause. Terrance sprinted towards him and let loose a powerful kick.
Even with the Inquisitor’s cloak and hardened body it was an exhilarating blow. The Inquisitor went flying and crashed into the stone wall ten feet behind him.
Terrance ran for another blow, but the Inquisitor molded the earth beneath Terrance’s feet and tripped him. Even fashioned some small spikes for him to land on. By the time Terrance had reached the Inquisitor, the sword was drawn.
“Surround him!” yelled Terrance.
The others approached to form a semicircle.
He pointed at one of the rescues. “Form a fireball. Don’t release until my mark.”
He approached the Inquisitor. That cloak was what gave him protection against the fire… if he could get the cloak away, they could kill him in short order. Unfortunately, the Inquisitor had a sword and Terrance did not.
While he approached he quietly molded the stone wall to have a protrusion above the Inquisitor’s head. The gambit paid off quickly, as the Inquisitor attempted to jump up for a better vantage point and hit his head. It didn’t stun him as long as it would someone without a magically enhanced body, but it was enough for Terrance to come in and rip the cloak away. He skipped backwards and yelled for the fireball to be released.
It caught the barely-recovered Inquisitor on his side, singed his arm, caught his clothes on fire, and partially melted his sword.
They let him burn and scream, rolling on the ground to put out his clothes and completely losing track of his sword.
When the flames were gone Terrance walked up and applied a kick straight to the face.
The sword was too hot to touch, but Terrance had a knife on him. He jabbed the Inquisitor in the throat repeatedly.
He had forgotten that some of the rescues hadn’t seen death yet and so was surprised to see one of them throwing up.
“No time to celebrate,” said Terrance. “There’s more coming.”
They cleansed themselves and ran.
“That was awesome!” said Hans.
He was the only one that felt that way. Terrance felt slightly sick, but more from worry about the consequences than from the actual killing. Natalie was unaffected. Everyone else was a mess.
Most of them had been silent on their way back, long after it had been required. One had thrown up once the danger had passed. One hadn’t even waited that long, pushing up the contents of his stomach as soon as the Inquisitor was dead.
Now they were back at Wile’s shop, fairly sure that they hadn’t been tracked. The two Inquisitors that had bolted to the site had fading signatures, and they were heading back to the Mages' Guild.
“He… he bled so much,” said one of the newer recruits.
“And it was AWESOME!” yelled Hans.
“That wasn’t awesome,” said Natalie, “But it was necessary. There are- how many Inquisitors did you say there were?”
“Twenty-three.”
“Now there are twenty-two.”
“So we have to do that twenty-two more times?”
asked another.
“Twenty-one, unless we want to kill Terrance.”
“We got lucky,” said Terrance. “I knew about their plans beforehand and was able to reach you in time. If I hadn’t gotten there, we would have half as many people in this meeting. You’re getting stronger, but you’re still a poor match for a Master Inquisitor. And each shift has three to five Inquisitors on duty — a couple who are Journeymen like me, most of them Masters.”
“We could’ve taken him.”
“With losses,” added Natalie. “We could’ve taken him on, but we would have lost people. Not half — I don’t think Terrance understands how much we’ve improved — but the losses would be unacceptable.”
“And that’s with one Master Inquisitor,” said Terrance. “What if the fight had taken longer, and the backup had arrived in time? Even if one of the two backup Mages was just a Journeyman, if I wasn’t there then that would be enough to wipe the whole group out.”
Natalie agreed this time.
“They’ve shown that they’re changing tactics, so we’ll have to change tactics to match them.”
“What does that mean for us?” asked Wile.
“I’m not sure yet. They’ll definitely continue to use magic to reach us and attack us. If I’m there and we see them coming, we’ll be able to handle them. They may double up, which would make handling them more difficult- we’ll have to figure out ways to handle it if they come in pairs. Maybe set up some traps.”
“What type of traps?”
Terrance pointed at the row of books he had managed to sneak out of the Mages' Guild, and then at the other rows of books that their supporters had donated on less magical subjects.
“This sucks,” said Hans. “I want more awesome.”
The rest of them, however, seemed to welcome an activity that had a low chance of violence. For a couple, that meant sleeping where they sat, leaned against the wall.
Wile noticed. “Sleep seems like a good first step. Then tomorrow we hit the books and make a strategy.”
Everyone agreed.
Mages Must Fall Page 11
