Chapter 14 – Summit

“So it’s war, then.” Janry’s voice was as calm and measured as ever, but inwardly he was seething.

“Not necessarily,” Archmage Lobran said. Janry’s eyes flicked to him, not surprised that he disagreed. House Lobran had been one of the first to be swayed away from the plan by the Guild of Enchanting, but for some reason Lobran had kept showing up for any meetings that weren’t specifically for Janry’s inner circle.

“Outside of DAI personnel there were very few casualties, and most of the surrendered personnel have already been returned to their Houses,” Lobran continued, waving around at the gathered mages and archmages. “The damage to GAR is irreparable, yes, but it was not necessarily an attack on us.”

“An attack on GAR is an attack on us,” Janry said flatly. “The Guild of Arcane Regulation is the Archmage Council’s authority on Earth. It’s what ties the Houses together. Destroying it undermines the whole foundation of our relationships.”

“On Earth,” Lobran pointed out. “The Houses have managed affairs well enough here in Faerie, where there aren’t mundanes to worry about.”

“Are you even in Faerie anymore?” Janry asked pointedly.

“House Lobran has deep roots,” was Archmage Lobran’s oblique reply, then he waved it away. “I know that House Lobran personnel returned with a request for a summit. House Hargrave, House Taisen and all those people want to have an actual meeting before this goes any further. Anyone else care to confirm it?” He looked around the room.

There were some reluctant mutters among some of the representatives for the cadet Houses. Janry sighed, not able to pretend that he hadn’t heard the same thing. Not every member of House Janry in GAR had been in DAI, and a number of them – along with all the duds that were employed in menial positions – had returned with the same message.

He looked around the room and found entirely too many people who looked like they preferred talking to fighting. He would have liked to ignore the message, but most people had no spine and would seize on any opportunity to avoid conflict. Trying to bull through at the moment might fracture the core he had left.

“I suppose there would be no harm in it,” he said grudgingly, but already he was considering how to turn it to his advantage. House Taisen was new, and House Hargrave was not known for their diplomatic prowess. The ancillary players were almost nonentities — the fae princess didn’t have any real backing or heritage, and he didn’t think Wells would show up himself. Even if he did, he might well be a millstone given his infamy.

“Under the circumstances I would suggest inviting House Duvall as well,” said Archmage Mayer. “It ought to put more pressure on the Earth Alliance.”

“Assuming she’s willing to come,” someone else muttered. “She sure doesn’t care about the conflict.”

“If we are going to deal in this waste of time, we need to ensure that we’re in control,” Janry said. “Should they have anything to say that is worth hearing, they can come here and say it to the majority of the supernatural community.”

“I don’t think they’ll like that,” Lobran said. “What’s wrong with a neutral location?”

“Can you name one?” Janry asked pointedly. “The Guild of Enchanting isn’t neutral, and neither are the dragons. Earth itself is in question, and most of our facilities have been disconnected from the teleportation network.” He ignored that the private links had already been returned to the Houses so they weren’t entirely cut off from their peers in the Deep Wilds.

“If one of the Lesser Courts promised a neutral ground, they’d be bound to uphold it,” Lobran replied.

“And how much are you willing to pay for that consideration?” Janry retorted. “More, who would be willing to stake their reputation on keeping order among archmages?”

“We can keep our own order,” Lobran said cuttingly. “Unless you plan to start trouble.”

“I was thinking about Wells. He certainly would try something, and the fae would probably let him!” It was unfortunate that the man had managed to parley his wanton savagery into a reputation that the fae actually appreciated. Certainly it made the entire diplomatic process more difficult, since the fae paid far more attention to monsters than to civilized folk. Without Wells it was likely the Lesser Courts would just see the Earth Alliance as a vague morass.

“From what I’ve been hearing, the other Archmages are keeping him on a leash,” Lobran said with a shrug. “Unless you think Taisen and Hargrave can’t manage him between them, I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”

Janry considered for a moment. He could demolish Lobran’s argument, but now that he’d time to think it over it was probably better to consolidate things diplomatically. Pushing someone from the other side into violating a guaranteed neutrality wouldn’t be that hard either, and might well pull back people to the proper side.

“Very well,” he said. “Set it up.”

***

“This seems like a horrible idea,” Callum said, looking away from the gorgeous view of his front yard to focus on the laptop. “There is a zero percent chance that it’s not a trap.”

“We’re the ones who suggested the summit,” Archmage Hargrave said with a touch of impatience. The rest of the gang was gathered at House Hargrave, mostly because that’s where all the injured were convalescing. Despite arriving with overwhelming force, there had still been casualties. So far as he knew there were only two actual deaths, one mage and one shifter, which was still more than anyone wanted.

There had been a lot more casualties on the other side, of course, but Callum couldn’t bring himself to care overmuch about those. He might not have personally moved against them but with all the nasty underhanded evil that GAR was involved in, it was hard to summon any sympathy. So long as it wasn’t supernaturals preying on mundanes, it really wasn’t his place to cast judgement anyway.

“Sure, and I get why, but Faerie?” Callum asked, looking over to where Lucy was aiming a squirtgun at a laughing Alex. “That’s their home turf and there are all kinds of things they can pull! And I know there would be archmages meeting regardless, but letting them set the rules?”

“We won’t be letting them set the rules,” Felicia spoke up. “I will be setting the rules, and making sure that they are properly binding. In that sense it would actually be safer than holding it here on Earth.”

“Sure, but what about Chester and Shahey? Even if there’s some kind of feeder portal, that’s a major vulnerability. Like, all of us high muckity-mucks showing up in the same place? Why wouldn’t they just try and drop a nuke or whatever?”

“With all due respect,” Taisen said. “You’re very much overthinking it. Most people aren’t willing to commit wholesale massacre, especially not when they are themselves present. It won’t just be Janry’s crew; all the neutral archmages and the Guild of Enchanting are going to be there.”

“Mm.” Callum grunted, rubbing at the back of his neck. Taisen wasn’t entirely wrong, but Callum couldn’t help but worry that having everyone together in the same place might be too tempting for their enemies to pass up. Which might well be the exact reason that the proposed summit wouldn’t be on Earth. His reputation working against him. “I still don’t like it. There’s no way it’s just some discussion. What even is there to discuss?”

“Mostly to see whether it’s possible to wrap this up now, but I suspect they accepted because they’re hoping to discredit us,” Shahey said dryly. “Most of the archmages live in Faerie, and they don’t know anything about you or I save for what they’re told through channels. Like GAR, or the Guild of Enchanting. Most mages don’t interact with the mundane world at all. Considering what just happened, Janry is probably trying to bring the Houses back on his side. To push for open conflict.”

“We just absolutely destroyed GAR’s infrastructure and got rid of all of its records and most of its wealth. That’s not open conflict?” In a way, Callum was just arguing from sheer incredulity. He well knew that so long as there was no official declaration, any fight, any combat, any losses could be swept under the rug one way or another. Especially in a society so old and ossified as the mage Houses.

“We’re one step away,” Hargrave said, almost in confirmation. “Leaving the GAR buildings destroyed goes against my old instincts, but the mundane authorities are absolutely aware something is going on now. It’s going to be much harder for the other archmages to sneak around.”

“I don’t think they’re worried about that,” Callum said, and he wasn’t entirely certain that any amount of alertness would help the governments deal with magic. Normal bureaucracies moved just as slowly as magical ones, and certainly didn’t have the tools to deal with the supernatural. “But I guess no amount of complaining from me is going to change the venue.”

“You don’t have to go, I suppose,” Taisen said, but Felicia shook her head. The drone’s pickup was a full circle, given its multiple cameras, so he had a good view of the room, even if he needed to tile the feeds.

“I think he does,” Felicia disagreed. “The Ghost has been the lynchpin of this entire effort from the beginning. Freeing Earth from the depredations of the supernatural community. I know I can’t command you,” she said, looking directly at the drone sitting on Hargrave’s coffee table. “But I think we’d get the best results with your presence, so long as you fully invest in going. Come as The Ghost, the grim arbiter. People respond to strength. By yourself you could possibly force the point that Earth is independent from the supernatural sphere.”

“Ugh.” Callum sighed and rubbed his eyes. He really did not like the idea of attending some interminable, dangerous meeting of archmages and fae and trying to exert some kind of political pressure on people. Among other things, he was still quite convinced it was some kind of trap. Even if there wasn’t a direct attack, there’d be something, and he thought his allies were giving far too much credit to the opposition.

On the other hand, he wasn’t indifferent to the concept of a peaceful solution. He didn’t actually like killing people, and he was very aware that every death had the potential to spiral into a never-ending feud. That these weren’t obligate monsters anymore, like the vampires had been, but mages with families and Houses and backing. They were people, and that made things harder.

“There’s another thing,” Felicia said quietly, reaching out to hold Ray’s hand as she spoke. While Callum was used to her normal appearance, considering how he couldn’t see glamours, the drone’s feed also showed that she had dropped the human appearance and was back to the slightly fish-like form. Perhaps because she was now actually embracing her fae heritage. “You’re my largest backer. If you’re willing to publicly support me, that would give me far more power and latitude to enforce politeness and neutrality at the summit.”

“Those are a lot of good points,” Callum grumbled. He didn’t want to go. He really, really didn’t. But if he was going to actually put his money where his mouth was, or whatever aphorism was appropriate, he would have to put forth the effort and take actual risk by showing up himself.

“I don’t apologize,” Felicia said with a smile. “The longer this goes on, the less likely it is we can resolve it without wholesale slaughter.”

“Right, okay.” Callum said with a growl. “We’ll go to this diplomatic summit. But I’m going to be setting up some contingencies just in case.”

“I wouldn’t expect any less,” Felicia said, almost proudly. Taisen just shrugged.

“It’d be stupid not to,” he said. “We should have a plan for everything up to and including a full archmage brawl. I happen to agree that they’ll try something, though I don’t imagine it will be direct force.”

“I’m pretty sure that me showing up will throw them off no matter what,” Shahey said with a broad, toothy smile. “They still don’t know that you stabilized the portal. Hiding ourselves from people that came sniffing around was fairly simple afterward.”

“I hope the gym’s still open,” Callum said, a bit wistfully. “It was a good gym.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Oh sure,” Shahey said with a laugh. “I’ve got a suit that looks perfectly human.”

“There is one problem,” Hargrave mused. “You have no idea what the protocol is for such an event.”

“No, and I’m not expected to,” Callum pointed out. “I’ll come as I am, or rather, as The Ghost is.” Even as he said it he knew he’d regret it, but at the same time he was convinced he’d regret not going more. But he wasn’t going to be stupid about it.

As soon as he rang off, he started planning. Fortunately the Guild of Enchanting was doing more extraction on the private portal world Callum had supplied, and with a few calls – and parting with some of his hard-earned money – he had enough extra raw metal for his preparations. So far as Callum could tell, the new material was somewhere between copper and gold, with a low melting point and soft enough that he could do some cold working with his limited industrial tools. It also started to lose its mana suffusion rapidly if it stayed molten too long, but it was fine for 3D printing small things — which most of Callum’s enchantments were.