Chapter 13 – Compromised

The footage was equal parts horrifying, sickening, and infuriating. Gayle had only caught a few glimpses before needing to turn away, fighting the gorge that rose in her throat despite the healing vis that constantly saturated her body. It was bad enough that anyone had done that kind of thing, leaving behind half-rotted bodies that had died of neglect or torture, but for a healer to do such a thing made her almost ashamed of her aspect. Gayle would never be anything like Fane.

“I am so glad I never actually met Archmage Fane,” Gayle said out loud.

“Indeed,” agreed her father.

Her entire family was gathered in the drawing room, which was not to say the entire Hargrave family. It was Gayle, her mother and her father, and her grandmother and archmage grandfather. Under the circumstances the House itself was fairly busy and they couldn’t afford to stop what they were doing to chew over news together, even momentous news like the missive that had gone out about Fane’s basement laboratory.

Gayle herself was not really used to being included in such meetings. She was, after all, only barely a full mage. Even that was a little bit hazy, thanks to how she’d been transferred into BSE, and nobody knew where Grand Magus Taisen was to clarify her position. But she’d found that as one of the only healers not affiliated with House Fane, and certainly the only healer in House Hargrave, she’d taken on new importance. Which was both daunting and uplifting, since people actually listening to her cut both ways.

“Honor is apparently not a concept that Fane ever learned,” her grandfather said. “There is a difference between destroying the enemy and whatever that was.”

“Do we really think Constance sent it, though?” Her mom frowned. “That girl wouldn’t even share candy when she was a kid. I can’t imagine her sending something like that out unless she was paid for it.”

“It’s likely it was Wells’ organization.” The Archmage shrugged. “Or maybe him personally, but either way, he was the one who removed Fane.” The ice in his glass clinked as he took a sip of whiskey. “That’s certain,” he concluded, punctuating his words with the click of his glass on the table. Gayle and her mother just had tea, for all the healing in the world couldn’t make her like the taste of alcohol, but all the men – and grandmother – had something harder.

It felt a little odd to be discussing such matters of import just sitting on the sofas with drinks, but she wasn’t sure how else they would do it. The quiet, informal meetings were, as she remembered from when she was very small, how the real decisions were made. Though she wasn’t quite sure how much she could add.

She almost voiced the thought that maybe Callum had targeted Fane because of her. She didn’t think of herself as having an ego, but Callum had seemed genuinely regretful about what had happened to her and how much Fane threatened her. Or maybe it was a message. When they had argued about how appropriate Callum’s actions were, and what GAR should do about things, she had no idea what had been going on in House Fane. If the Guild of Arcane Regulation wasn’t able to prevent something like Fane’s butchery, it was obvious that some kind of reform was necessary.

That wasn’t really her call, though. Her responsibility was House Hargrave, and that was enough for her. More than enough, even, since she’d suddenly gotten the responsibility of healing everyone who needed it within the House, which was far more than she’d thought.

There had been sudden skirmishes, not in the portal worlds but on the actual House borders. So far her House hadn’t suffered any deaths, but some people had come back with severe burns or even severed limbs, blood loss stopped only by force magic caps and bandages. It made her glad she wasn’t out there on the front lines.

“We should condemn it,” Gayle said, drawing eyes. “I know that some of the Houses won’t care, especially with what’s going on now, but if we want sympathy from the younger mages or some of the more ascetic Houses, this is perfect. We’re against Fane anyway and it’s not like we’re doing any of that stuff.”

“It’s not much of a risk,” her mother agreed.

“Also, though,” Gayle said, then hesitated. Actually advocating House policy was new to her, but she was determined to do the best job that she could. Even if some of what she’d settled on was unconventional. “I think we should take the opportunity to do some mundane outreach,” she said after a moment.

“Mundane outreach?” Grandma Jeannie questioned. Gayle flushed, but gamely held up the books she’d gotten.

“I was going over all this mundane literature on medicine and anatomy and such. I swear I learned more just from going through textbooks – publicly available mundane texts – than the last year at the Academy. GAR uses stuff based on it, and Grand Magus Taisen has no problems taking advantage of that kind of knowledge. We should, too.” Seeing that she had their attention, though not outright agreement, she continued on.

“Have you seen new phones and new computers?” The House computer for GAR communications was ancient by comparison. It even used a dial-up modem, which apparently was already outdated. “I think we’d benefit from working with mundane experts and businesses. Reserve enchantments for things only enchantments can do.”

“Now that would take some selling,” her father said, though he didn’t, himself, look upset.

“Mister Wells said he only had a mundane education,” Gayle pressed. “If that’s true, imagine what other mages could do if they had a full breadth of mundane knowledge! It’s not like it’s even hard to get. Like when I looked up clotting and neurology. All it took was going to a library!”

“Hmm. It might not be a bad idea,” grandfather mused. Gayle almost rolled her eyes, but didn’t. Grandfather doted on her perhaps a little too much. “We can set forth some new guidelines on how to interact with the mundane world, and use that as a wedge against GAR. The Houses that stay in the Portal Worlds won’t care anyway.”

It wasn’t quite the chain of logic she had followed, but it was good enough. No House changed in a day, and even just slightly more mixing with the mundane world would be nice. She had to admit to herself she really wanted to get more books like the one Callum had given her, and that was difficult from inside House Hargrave.

She was sure there was another piece of logic behind the decision as well. One which nobody admitted: that they didn’t want to make targets of themselves. If Callum could kill or banish one Archmage, perhaps he could remove others.

Perhaps anyone could.

***

The report of an anti-materiel rifle firing a .50 round was deafening, expensive, and satisfying.

The rounds cost a ridiculous amount of money, up to nearly one hundred dollars each for the explosive-incendiary types. Callum didn’t want to practice too much with the rifle just due to the costs, but he had to try it out a little bit. Not to get a feel for the thing, since he wouldn’t be firing it himself, but to see how it interacted with his portals and spatial senses.

He had no illusions about being a sniper or any kind of crack shot. Spatial senses and portals were his tools, and while they made up for a lack of actual prowess they didn’t nullify the physical properties of guns. He could measure a perfect straight line between two points in his spatial sphere, that was perfectly fine, but guns didn’t shoot perfect straight lines.

At point blank range it was pretty much irrelevant, but that was also close enough for a supernatural to notice and react to his portal. Mages had shields, and the others had superior reaction speed. Opening a portal two, three, or even five hundred yards away from the target were each a completely different scenario.

It didn’t really matter how powerful the bullet was, it still obeyed gravity and was pushed by wind. Maybe he’d be able to compensate for such things with enchantments eventually, but for now he had to work within the limitations of physics. Which meant that he wasn’t actually nearly as good a shot from any distance past about a hundred yards.

One way to fix it at a medium distance was actually to shoot straight down from above. That presented a smaller target than someone’s center of mass, true, but he could think less about where to aim his portal. It wasn’t until he got out to the longer ranges that effectively landing a shot with anything less powerful than the .50 rifle was basically impossible, even with his advantages. He wouldn’t really want to risk even the big rifle at his full range.

On the other hand, he could accurately target one to two hundred yard shots with the .50 rifle, which was a hell of an accomplishment under most circumstances. In the cold wind, fingers numbed half by temperature and half by the kick of rifle, he had doubts he’d be able to hit the broad side of a barn. Without his portals he could basically only hit the opposite side of the quarry he’d chosen for practice, far beyond where Lucy’s targets were set up.

“You make that look easy, big man,” Lucy said, very carefully unloading her own rifle.

“Well, I’m cheating. You’ll probably be a better normal shot than I am in a couple weeks,” he told her. She wasn’t exactly a natural at it, but she’d gone at it with determination despite her hands shaking from anxiety and adrenaline after emptying her first magazine.

“Cheating or not, this is harder than it looks,” Lucy said, getting a bottle of water from the cooler. She still preferred soda, but the realization that she’d no longer have access to healing magic on a regular basis meant she had to actually start thinking about her teeth and general health. Something that made her grumpy at times.

“You’re doing better than I did when I started out,” Callum encouraged her, only bending the truth a little. “It just takes time and practice.”

“Boo.” Lucy pouted for a moment before she started packing things away. Not that he couldn’t just sweep everything into the cave, but it would be treating her like a child to just do everything for her. Neither of them wanted that.

After spending several weeks much further south, the Texas cold was rather shocking. Worse, it didn’t even come with snow, which was the main selling point of winter weather. At least they could retreat to the bunker basement, even if it wasn’t exactly a full house, and the Texas trailer wasn’t really that bad. Though the cave-cache was slowly taking over a number of the functions of a normal residence.

“You know, it’s worth thinking about maybe expanding the cave,” Callum mused to Lucy as they sat in the bunker basement and ignored the sound of a generator overhead. Soon as everything was done he’d break out his magic generator and they’d be properly independent. “Or finding a new, larger one. Given how big my perception is, we could fit multiple vehicles and basically an alternate everything.”

“Long as we don’t live there,” Lucy said. “I know I spent most of my time in a basement before anyway, but I think I’d go crazy if I couldn’t see the sky at least sometimes.”

“I don’t think we could really have a full cave house unless we could find a trustworthy earth mage,” Callum said. “And I can’t imagine we’ll have that anytime soon. Besides, I don’t want to live in a hole in the ground either. Storage space is for things, not people.”

“Glad we’re on the same page there,” Lucy said. “Though I guess it’s weird that the bunker doesn’t feel like it can hold up against something like a shifter or a fae.”

“The idea is that if someone actually threatens us, we go after them first,” Callum said. “I mean, it’s what I got the gun for, but actually getting at one of the big time supernaturals is something else entirely. I don’t think we can pull our teleport swap trick again, unfortunately. Which is a shame, because I bet it’d work better against a shifter or a vamp. Or even a fae, but I don’t know about that given their weird magic.”

“Fae magic is just bull,” Lucy agreed.

Callum had to agree. He hadn’t encountered much of it, but what he had seen was completely arbitrary. At least it consistently required mana from Faerie, so dumping a fae into Portal World Five would be perfect if he could swing it. But if regular fae elites could pretty much jump back out of his portals, he was sure a king could do worse. Maybe even take control of it somehow, thanks to how weird fae magic was.

“Hopefully it’s not enough bull to stop a bullet,” he said, tapping one of the oversized incendiary-explosive rounds that he’d gotten for that purpose. Normally it’d be way above overkill for a person, but if fae were supernaturally tough it’d probably do its job. A corite bullet would be better, but the ones he had probably wouldn’t kill unless he could hit the head or the heart, and maybe not even then. They weren’t really all that large, and the purity wasn’t really that high.

“That was awful,” Lucy groaned. “You need to sharpen your wordplay skills.”

“Yeah it was,” Callum agreed. “I knew you’d hate it.”

“That’s not something to be proud of!” Lucy protested.

Callum opened a portal back to the Texas house. He had a drone anchor parked there to replace the teleportation pad, which was slated to be recycled because it wasn’t useful anymore. The small portal anchors were far superior and the teleport enchantment needed to be altered if Lucy was going to be able to operate it. The bare bones version he had made just wasn’t something she could manipulate.

They were still working on how to hook it up to the tiles. There was an entire section in the basement dedicated to it, because anything that was integrated into the tiles was something Lucy could control. The issue was they didn’t quite have anything that could integrate the metal teleport core into the glass tiles, so they’d have to go visit a metal shop soon.

Despite the pile of things he had to do and the looming task of determining a plan of dealing with the monsters still lurking in GAR, Callum was feeling fairly relaxed. He felt like he actually had time to just sit and talk and cuddle with Lucy in the bunker basement. Had time to see the house actually completed.

He only saw mages when he visited Alpha Chester, the ones set on him as observers and spies, and even then it was at a distance. The riskiest, most stressful thing he’d done was comb through House Fane’s stuff, and they had been far too preoccupied to even notice the little drone perched on top of a roof decoration. But relaxed as he was, he was still vigilant enough to notice when one of his portal anchors started charging of its own accord.

Callum wasn’t aware of saying anything, but apparently he said something because Lucy turned away from the tiles setup she was tinkering with to stare at him. She asked a question but he was far too busy wrestling with the portal focus to explain, hurling spatial attack forms at it after a moment of frozen surprise. That forced the forming thread to collapse, preventing it from actually creating a portal, but it didn’t solve the problem.

“I need you to break this,” he said, teleporting the anchor over to the table in front of Lucy. He could have done it himself, but it was easier to spend all his attention making sure the portal anchor didn’t fully activate, and that none of the others were doing the same thing. To her credit, Lucy didn’t even ask questions, just grabbed her hammer and screwdriver from next to the tiles and plied them against the anchor.

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It didn’t take much to deform the little bit of metal enough to disrupt the enchantment. Once it was broken, the intrusion stopped but Callum didn’t relax. He had no idea how such a thing could happen, and until he knew for sure he had to assume all of his anchors were suspect. For the moment he pulled all the anchors out of his cave cache – three pairs total, including the one that Lucy had just destroyed – to examine.

“The heck was that for?” Lucy asked, placing the bent and destroyed anchor next to the others on the table.

“Someone hacked my portal anchor I think?” Callum hazarded, heart still pounding. The anchor in question was paired with the drone that he had used to surveil House Fane, which was in a way a relief. That one had definitely been in enemy territory, and could have been compromised, though a close sweep showed no foreign vis. It had to be something on the House Fane side, which he didn’t understand but it at least explained why such an intrusion hadn’t happened before.

“We need to figure out a way to completely depower these things without destroying them, just so we can make them safe on our end. There’s no way we can just leave them as they are.”

“Whoah there, slow down,” Lucy said drawing out the last two words. “Are you sure they can even do that?” She added, reaching out to find Callum’s hand and squeezing it as she spoke. “Gotta be Duvall. If anyone can do that, it’s the Archmage. But she’s been around a while without this happening.”

“Yeah, I know.” Callum scowled at the portal anchors lined up on the table, feeling nauseous. “I’ve gotten lazy. I haven’t been making sure to clean up every single teleport with the drone, because they already knew that we were doing stuff.”

“You think that they could open the portal because of, what, traces you left? How would that work?”

Callum blinked, then realized that while he knew nothing about proper magery, at least he could sense magic. Most mages didn’t really seem to even notice the traces they left, so of course Lucy wouldn’t know about it. He took a moment to explain about how vis got stuck in ambient mana, and how he had cleaned it up, while he got up and paced to burn off some nervous energy.

“I figure that they found some of that residue and exploited it,” Callum concluded. “It’s that or any set of portals is vulnerable to being opened this way, but if that were true, they would have found me after I rescued you. There was probably enough magic getting flung around there to hide things, but at the Fane household? Nah, some of the buildings were practically dead.”

“So we disconnect them like with the tiles? Or put them somewhere it doesn’t matter?” Lucy suggested. “Like, just put a bunch of them at the bottom of the ocean and have only one leading back?”