Chapter 21 – Revelation

Callum was thrown by his other allies taking care of Janry while he’d been busy putting out fires, but in the end that was what alliances were for. If he’d been by himself, things would not have turned out so well. As it was, the outcome was mostly positive — at least for the Earth Alliance. Janry was rather less fortunate.

One of Janry’s allies was dead, and two others had turned on him — Callum didn’t really get it, but the cadet Houses breaking with Janry was apparently a close equivalent to a country declaring independence. Nearly unprecedented, but under the circumstances it would probably stick. In addition, most of the mages and fae sent on the actual attacks were dead, absolutely severing Janry from any aligned forces.

The Earth Alliance had stopped the vast majority of civilian casualties, but the veil of secrecy had been well and truly broken. Callum didn’t know how that affected Chester’s plans, and since it had only been a few hours after the mad scramble, there hadn’t been time for it to really set in for anyone.

Callum would have almost preferred to just end Janry right then and there, when Wizzy had him dead to rights and his guilt was obvious. Cooler heads prevailed, however, and he waited with everyone else for a proper reckoning. Not that he would have hesitated a moment if the rest of the archmages tried to pardon Janry, but they knew better than that.

“I believe we have a quorum,” said Archmage Montgomery, who was apparently even more important than he had seemed. Once again Callum was attending an event in person, but not one he’d ever expected. He contented himself to stay behind Taisen and Hargrave, next to Gayle and Felicia’s mage companion Ray, all of them standing in House Harper’s courtyard.

It wasn’t exactly a trial. That would imply some sort of legal proceeding, some sort of charges. Instead it was simply most of the archmages coming together and agreeing that Janry had gone too far. It was easy to forget that most of these men and women came from an age where public executions were entertainment — and the only punishment short of death was exile.

Janry was still under Wizzy’s control; the Archmage of Blood lounging in the corner, showing no apparent strain at keeping Janry upright, unmoving, and awaiting his fate. Montgomery stood next to him, dressed in suit and tie, looking for all the world like a young accountant rather than someone about to pronounce death. The other archmages were similarly formal, but lacked the pomp and circumstance of the summit.

“For anyone who doesn’t know, Archmage Janry hired a number of fae and instructed a number of mages to essentially destroy as much of Earth’s mundane infrastructure as possible,” Montgomery said. Callum could quibble with the framing, but the details didn’t matter too much. “He broke our secrecy with Earth in the worst possible way and, worse, betrayed his House and all the cadet Houses that depended on him.

“Does anyone speak in his defense?” Montgomery surveyed the crowd. There was silence. He turned to Janry. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?” Wizzy waggled a negligent finger, and the control slipped enough for Janry to glare at Montgomery.

“Cowards,” he snarled. “History will remember you as the quislings that betrayed your—”

That was as far as he got before Wizzy cut him off. Montgomery was unbothered by the accusations, merely shaking his head theatrically. There was probably some sort of inter-mage politics going on, but it didn’t involve Callum. Only Janry mattered.

“I think the best solution would be to simply exile Janry to a useless portal world. It was not an option we had before but, bereft of a homebond, he could not return.” Montgomery offered a half-bow in Callum’s direction.

“Certainly,” Callum said, though he would have preferred to just shoot Janry and be done with it. Though there was no need to put Janry in a nice and comfortable portal world like his own. In fact, he knew exactly which one he wanted. “Just give me one moment.” He lowered his voice, muttering an aside to Lucy, who was listening in. “Lucy? Could you check the forbidden list and give me the coordinates on Hate Mountain?”

“Sure thing,” Lucy said, catching his intention, and after a minute read off the coordinates and the number of the nearest drone. He was aware of the attention focused on him while he maneuvered the drone to the appropriate area, letting Lucy fly it the last few hundred feet so it was on target, then looked up at Montgomery again.

“Ready.”

Montgomery held up a ring, Janry’s homebond, and then put it in his front pocket.

“We will discuss the disposition of House Janry at a later time, but the House as a whole does not seem to be implicated. I’ll keep this to be returned to the House coffers.” He nodded to Callum. “If you please, Mister Wells.”

Callum reached out, his vis thread flowing through portals to the moon and back, to a specific place in the midwestern United States, and tore open a small portal between realities. Through that small portal he ran another thread, and created an opening between Faerie and the Mountain Made of Hate. Everyone save Wizzy took a step back at the blast of emotion radiating from the portal.

Before anyone could say anything, Wizzy flipped his hand, hurling Janry with his fancy clothes through the portal. Callum snapped it shut. Once again he hosed down the dimensional link over in the US with anti-mana, since he did not want the Mountain Made of Hate to have even a fragment of a chance of breaking through into the real world.

He didn’t care what it did to Janry.

“What was that?” Felicia’s voice floated past his ear, and he glanced back at the fae princess. Her equipment had become even more fanciful and ornate, but it didn’t look at all delicate. If anything, the battle dress had an aura of impregnability about it, as if it could deflect tank shells.

“The reason why I have to be careful when opening new portal worlds,” he told her. “Not everything out there is as pleasant as Faerie.”

“My homeland has its own thorns,” she remarked. “But point taken.”

“We are done here,” Montgomery said, over the muttering that started to arise in the wake of the portal’s closure. “I’m sure we all agree that the matter is settled.” His last two words were fairly pointed, and Callum wasn’t certain whether he was sending a message to the Earth Alliance or the people who had agreed with Janry.

Some of the archmages flitted up into the air, headed back to their own Houses. Others grouped up in twos and threes, discussing things, while Wizzy sauntered over to the Earth Alliance area. Callum would have been quite happy to leave himself, but he was everyone’s ride so he had to be considerate.

“I’d have preferred a public execution,” Wizzy remarked. “But I think your demonstration was effective as well.” He narrowed his eyes at Callum, his shadow curling up over his shoulders. “You’re not opening up the hells, are you?”

“Absolutely not,” Callum assured him. “Nobody knows how to get there but me, and I’m making sure to eradicate the connection with prejudice.”

“Excellent,” Wizzy clapped him on the shoulder. He wasn’t the only one who wanted to be certain that any link to such a place was properly severed. Montgomery himself didn’t come over, but a few of the other archmages that Callum had seen in Montgomery’s orbit approached with essentially the same concern. Nobody wanted to deal with monstrosities like the Mountain Made of Hate.

They weren’t intending to stay for long. The gathering was impromptu to begin with, and Chester was still dealing with world leaders. Yet before Callum had a chance to make a portal back he saw a man in ordinary clothes, a button-down shirt and slacks, following a cat, both of them walking straight toward him. Something about the man bothered him, but it took a moment for Callum to realize exactly what it was.

Callum couldn’t sense him.

By his spatial perceptions, there was no one there. He could see the person, but there wasn’t even the slightest disturbance in the mana field. The grass bent under the man’s feet, and he seemed real enough, but something about him made Callum’s hair stand on end.

“Ah, you are The Ghost?” He asked, the cat sitting down next to his feet and washing its paw.

“I am,” Callum said cautiously, ready to teleport away. Hargrave and Taisen were nearby and didn’t seem concerned, but they didn’t have Callum’s senses.

“I appreciate you helping out Queen Felicity,” the man said, offering a hand. Callum took it, still disturbed by his inability to sense the man — but the hand was real enough, the handshake firm. “Good luck with your Earth troubles. Just don’t open any more portals like that here, eh?”

“Thank you,” Callum said, feeling somewhat at a loss. “I don’t intend to.” He wasn’t sure what else to say, but Felicia rushed over, saying something in a rapid patter he couldn’t understand at all. The man laughed and turned to her, replying in the same language, something that sounded a little like Gaelic. Then she hugged him, and turned to beckon Ray over.

“I wonder who that is,” Callum muttered, taking a step back, glad to leave the weird fae to people with more experience.

“No idea,” Lucy said into his earpiece. “Shows up strange on the feed. Like, he’s in higher fidelity than everything else, and that’s just bizarre.”

“Fae are strange,” Callum agreed. The odd man wandered off after a brief conversation with Ray, the black cat trotting along next to him. Felicia stepped up to Callum, while Ray trailed in her wake, looking dazed.

“Ready to go,” she said, glancing at the other archmages who had come.

“Sure,” he said, reaching out to make a portal for them. While Felicia did have her own Ways transport, it didn’t lead directly to House Hargrave. Not yet. “Who was that, by the way?” Felicia blinked at him, then laughed musically, the grass dancing to the sound of her voice.

“That was my father,” she said, smiling. “Oberon. King of Faerie.”

“Oh,” Callum managed, feeling as if someone had walked over his grave.

“Holy crap,” Lucy said.

“I think he likes you,” Felicia added. “So long as you stay over on Earth, anyway.”

“That’s the plan,” Callum said fervently.

“We’d better go,” Hargrave butted in, either being more sanguine about the ruler of Faerie crashing the party or not actually knowing about it. Considering that nobody had really seemed to pay attention to Oberon, Callum guessed it was the latter. If Oberon could fool Callum’s magical senses, then he could fool everyone else’s.

“Right,” Callum said, and opened the portal to House Hargrave. “Good luck.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Everyone went through, and Callum took one last glance around to see if he could see Oberon before teleporting himself home. Once he was in his own private portal world he relaxed somewhat, and opened a portal for Lucy from the war room so she didn’t have to walk. Alex was happily snacking on fruit, completely unaware of the drama of the past few hours.

“Thanks, dear,” Lucy said, stepping through and easing herself onto the couch. “How long before they make the announcement?”