Chapter 11: Five Days to Christmas

Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house, everything was stirring. And there wasn’t a mouse.

Getting the finishing touches on the preps for the Conclave, the show cases and display windows (that had to have the tomato paste scrubbed off) cleaned, and bringing the various inspectors through to accept that we were able to open for business, and that all work was currently finished was the finishing touch. We were going to have a soft opening for some Mages and a few Wizards on Boxing Day, and then fully open the following week. There were a number of people jockeying for Early Bird deals, but I left that with Reggie. The only exceptions I had were all of the Wizards and their guests, the American Mage Council, and a couple of exceptional people. Like Wendy Peters and Melissa Gordon. Pat was already coming and going regularly, as were Yana Marenko, Patrick Hamilton, and Sylvia Groton.

Sylvia Groton was deeply involved with Arno, and Pat and Jeffery, working on improvements and embellishments on the Monocle for power visibility. If we were going to work to apply different shades to different runed objects, we had to see it to affect it. Since Jeffery and Sylvia were the only two Mages (Besides me and Paula) who could see different shades of energy at the fumeral we had built, they were the ones best equipped to help modify the runes being added to the glass to allow for wider visibility.

Her partner of the hour, Michael Fitzhugh, meantime focused on the confluence of the various laylines that were converging under 1030, and making sure that there were no unnecessary decreases in the building’s foundations. Besides, he liked good scotch and the Lounge had it in supply.

Graf Helmet von Zaftmund (Helmut to his friends) was working with Juna on a living arch that went over the entrances of the foyer and the different windows for H.A. Lambert and the different stores. The illusion was keyed to the different species of Fae. We would have Dwarves and Gnomes working in the Lambert offices, and in the Diamon Exchange office, as well as the furnishings and furniture store. The goal was that if a non-Mage person came into the foyer during the Conclave, we wanted to ensure that they were not seeing the various brown, green or withered noses and ears of the different species. A backup on the existing Geas.

While this preparation was going on, Paula was practicing stepping to different locations. She and Jeffery had returned Saturday with twelve different locations to place a total of twenty-four “Caching Artifacts” in rivers and creeks that went past runoff locations of worked out Georgia Gold and Silver mines.

These were very simple frames with an artifact suspended about two feet from the bottom of a plastic plate made from a dog kennel base. On Christmas Eve, she and Jeffery went and placed them at the confluence locations of streams that fed from the various gold deposit sites in Georgia, South Carolina, and eastern Alabama. There were a lot of locations which had been worked out, and the slue of the last century had lain on the bottom. I thought that metal attraction for the Caching Artifact would do best lower downstream, where the current would bring the flakes to the cages.

It was an inexpensive engineering test. But we also had other things going on.

Natalie, Maggie, Carrie, and Carla all went to H.A. Lamberts and looked over bracelets, wristlets, watch bands, and ring sets to select the full time Runed jewelry that they wanted for Christmas. That they had no choice but to choose something with a large diamond or cubic zirconia on display with the band got no disagreements from the ladies. Each one picked out what looked like Sterling Silver bracelets, smooth and with settings for three or four stones.

When they were finished, Paula sat and worked with an actual Elven craftsman to place different elven, dwarven, and human runes into the basis of the inside of the bracelets, which would provide shields against mental projection, Magical and metallic objects, and fire. What surprised me was that the Elven craftsmen wanted nothing for these. “Your friends are Friends of Fae”. Was the only response I got. I figured I would find a way to pay them back somehow.

Christmas Eve was quiet. The different human and other residents of the building were all pretty much settled in, and a stronger force of Gnomes and Dwarves had settled into the first floor. I worried about them being comfortable, but I was told by Ogrenaut not to worry. Christmas wasn’t a elven or Fae celebration.

Christmas was bittersweet to me and Maggie and Carrie. We had lost so much. So many. And we didn’t know why. One of the best and worst things about being a Mage or a battery is you know someday you will lose. But when you lose all at once, it’s devastating.

Carrie left on Christmas eve, to go be with her mother. We were going to see her on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas.)

Peter, Pat and Jeffery, all invited us out, but we decided to stay in. Read, write, and remember.

The day after Christmas, Maggie and I went downstairs to meet and greet people. It was opening Day for H.A. Lambert LLC.

Soft Opening.

“Sir David, Lady Elizabeth, so nice of you to come. Reggie and Janice, it’s always nice to see you. Welcome to HA Lambert’s and the shops within”

“I must say, Hank, you have done a magnificent job here. I suppose all of this is your thinking and investment?” Sir David said.

“Much of it is, but the Fae have also contributed. It’s a economic venture for them as well. While we encourage their participation here, we also realize that there are some limits as to what they can do here in the human world. There are some things we have done which allow us to protect their identities quite carefully. For today’s engagement we are suspending the needs for a Geas to disguise the various people here, so you will see them as they are”. I said.

“Isn’t that rather dangerous?” Reggie said. “What about any inadvertent people who live here coming down?”

“Not really. Helmut has provided the illusionist lamps and arches that are overhead, and as such, to normal people, Elves, Dwarves, and Goblins are seen as singular short people. It’s exactly how we will work with the days of the Conclave”.

“Very good, Hank. You know, I would love to see this fumeral you have created here. I assume it’s impressive.”

“Certainly, Sir David. Reggie, Janice would you care to see it as well?”

With everyone agreeing we walked to the lounge door that was opposite the warehouse closet and storeroom. Opening the door, I saw Paula and Jeffery cheerfully charging artifacts for the girls and the others here. They had been left to set in their constructed state over the last two days. Jeffery was slower then Paula, but still quite capable of charging a four carat stone in under two minutes. Ogrenaut was in his normal location at the bar, setting up and cleaning glasses. The man is a work-a-haulic.

“Hi Hank. Coming by with a tour?”

“Yes we are. This is my mentor Sir David Drummond and Lady Elizabeth Drummond, and of course you have heard me speak of Reggie and Janice Van Houten, of the Mage Council”

“So, this is the infamous firepit.” Reggie said. “Not all that impressive and not overly warm for a “hell spout”, according to our friends from the Over Council.”

Jeffery smiled and handed my Monocular Viewer to Reggie and said “This gives a better idea of the real energy exposure.”

Holding the Monocular up to his eye, Reggie suddenly exclaimed “My God, it’s a fountain going up through the Ceiling. Its’ spreading along the floor. This should be a blast furnace.”

“Let me see” Sir David asked. When he looked, he expressed similar shock “You have a veritable “old Faithful” geyser flowing up through the ceiling. God in heaven, this is spectacular.”

“Do you feel anything, Sir David?” I asked gesturing him and Lady Drummond toward one of the couches. “A sensation of well-being.”

“Yes, now that you mention it. I do feel exnihilated. I take it that’s the norm”.

“Yes. It’s a great place to sit and study. Long hours and no fatigue.”

“So this is the energy filling station you had built.”

“Yes, and these two rascals are working here when they are supposed to be on the road.”

“We just wanted to get these four carat diamonds fully charged.” Paula said.

“New, four carat diamonds? How much do they contain?”

“About fifty joules per carat two hundred joules per gem. We started this morning and got all twelve of them finished.” Paula said.

Sir David carefully sank into the couch. Reggie sank next to him. The math was running through their minds.

“Finished. Twelve two hundred joule stones, finished. Since breakfast?” Reggie asked politely.

“Yes. These are good stones; the dwarves carve them carefully and we get rid of all imperfections during the burn in process. That really makes a difference in capacity and loading.” Paula replied.

“My dear, you’re Paula? One of the women that Abigail Anders had in her place in Atlanta.

Reggie asked.

“Yes, Reggie, she is a Free and independent woman who has emerged as a Mage with very strong abilities with respect to Power. She is currently my personal business manager as well as one of my partners in many enterprises.” I said probably more firmly then I should have.

“And I’m her partner, Jeffery Gibbs. Who also emerged with Paula one delicious morning.” Jeffery said. “Is there any issue?”

“No. I’ve heard a lot about both of you from Peter. A lot about all of this from him in fact and he’s quite your champion. I was given an inkling of your talents but loading 2400 Jules into diamonds in a morning was quite a step up from what I expected.” Reggie said.

“Hank” Reggie continued, “Do you have sales for these jewels?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t suppose you are interested in telling me where they are going.”

“Back where they came from. The dwarves have a need for massive portable power systems for the arches that Chief Hotawa created for them. He gets’ one in exchange for his work on the arches that are going to join the various fringe areas of the Brazilian colony together with the central hub. It’s all in the treaty addendum that Arno sent you in October.”

“How long will these last?” Reggie asked.

“Two hundred forty days, we will change them out every one hundred and eighty. That way we don’t have any risk of arch collapse” Paula said.

“I see.”

“Ogrenaut, I think our friends need some scotch. Gentlemen, if you can excuse me, I think I have other guests arriving, and I don’t want to disappoint. Go ahead and relax here and watch the fountain, what of it you can see. Paula and Jeffery, when you are finished, are you going to harvest the cache traps?”

“Yes, boss. We got the ping that three of them are at capacity.” Jeffery said with a smile.

Maggie was outside the door greeting new arrivals from the arch to New Orleans. The first were Sylvia Groton and Michael Fitzhugh. Michael and I combined the different leylines that Sylvia found with her monocle. It was two weeks of hard work tracking down the lines, shifting them to a conjoined location and adding the fumeral that allowed the energy to erupt through the floor.

They hadn’t been back since we competed the Lounge because Sylvia was afraid Michael would never leave. As he was headed toward the door, I whispered “Reggie and Sir David are in there. Might be a bit tense.”

Whereupon both of them turned around and headed toward the furniture store.

So I wasn’t privy to the conversation that I left behind me. I probably should have stayed.

Inquisition

“So, Paula, you are happy working here for Hank?” Reggie asked.

“Very much so. I am totally enjoying everything here. Great food, wonderful man in Jeffery and Hank keeps coming up with new and exciting things for me to explore and do. This is as good as it gets”.

“But don’t you feel there’s more?” Reggie asked.

“You know, Reggie, I have heard that some athletes have issues with their foreskin growing up over their ears and getting in the way of their hearing. I believe that the lady answered your question.” Jeffery said in a quiet FBI tone of voice.

“I see.” Reggie replied.

“Good. Darling, we got to pick up some Crab traps.” Jeffery said to Paula. Both departed shortly.

Mental communications.

Peter’s Perspective on a Boxing Day Afternoon.

Probably one of the greatest strengths for Mages and Wizards is the ability to converse mentally. When sitting in a comfortable chair or couch, with a cold glass of scotch, watching a flickering fire of energy, it tends to sooth the mind. Unless you are the President of the American Mage Council sitting with the president of the Wizard Council, and both with their wives sitting with an Ogrenaut serving drinks. Which I was called into after Jeffery and Paula had left. The mental conversation went like this.

“So, Sir David, How do you like the atmosphere?” Peter asked.

“Well, I have to say that Hank has a mature taste for furniture. A great place for old men to sit in.”

“And ladies” Lady Elizabeth said. “Ogrenaut, my good fellow, could I get some of that scotch please?”

“Would you care for the McCallan 24 instead?” Ogrenaut said “Hank says the ladies prefer it with ice.”

Reggie looked at Sir David and both said at the same time “Bugger”.

“Reggie, I believe that your Warlock has become somewhat protective of this place and its people. Is that wise?” Sir David asked.

“Well, he’s working for your Wizard. You tell me. Is he Enchanted?” Reggie replied.

“I don’t think so. I believe that the friendship is real. And perhaps we should leave alone”

Sir David paused to sip another taste of his drink. “You know, this isn’t bad Scotch”.

“Yes. But the ladies got the McCallan” Reggie said. “That’s Discrimination.”

End of the Soft Opening.

Who ever invented the term “Soft opening” for anything. I guess it’s a run through with a tame audience designed to gather what went wrong on a small scale so you can fix it before the grand opening.

The good. Everything worked. Lights, arches, the bar, the catered foods (small scale) and almost all of the displays were up. No one broke anything, stole anything or gave the Fae a hard time.

The bad. Not many people and the few that were there all went home by 3 PM. Lots of lookers not a lot of buyers. But then again, most of these people didn’t want or need new Artifacts. There was an interest in cleaning and recharging stones, but Paula was tied up and the two dwarves who were here were busy cutting stones. Which left the gnomes behind the counter of the Jewelry store to handle all of the questions of time and pricing. (Gnomes are not usually exposed to the Mage community. And some people were a bit shocked and reluctant to approach little grey men with large ears, large nose, and big eyes. Bigots.)

The Great. At four o’clock, Paula and Jeffery came in on the second-floor office with six Caching artifact traps. Four with Silver. Sixty kilos of elemental silver. Which would almost be enough to build a thousand different artifacts.

The other two each had thirty kilos of fine god. They called it “gold flour”. This was easily the best for our purposes in that it was never going to be mined successfully and “free” in the environment up to when it was caught. And at current prices of $1000 an ounce, with roughly 32 ounces per Kilo, we were talking about $960K USD. After casting in ingots, and ten percent given to the smelters, it was still over $850K USD in Brazil as backing for our exchange with the Fae.

Paula and Jeffery spread a plastic sheet under the artifacts and stopped the rune. And all of the dust fell into the plastic sheets. They rolled up into the bag, tie it off and ship it to Brazil.

We had already leased a closed out mine in Brazil. That hid the source. Not a bad “Boxing Day” after all. And we had eighteen more traps to check on. And only four of them were for Silver.

The Mage Over Council

Formal meeting, Boxing Day

“Maurice, what do you make of this missive from Mr. Van Houten. Do these images resemble any known Mage?”

“Yes. If you take the beard off, you should remember Nickoli Argel and Christos Myconos.”

“My God. You’re right. Those were the Balkan renegades. How did they end up at the place of Mr. Lambert?”

“I don’t know, but there had to be some enticement. There had to be a very big reward for whatever they went after. What do we know about them being there?”

“The warlock’s report was very succinct. I quote, they came, they attacked, they injured one of our new emergent Mages, they died.”

“Not a lot of detail in that.” Maurice said.

“No, which is why they send a copy of a memory stone.”

“Let me see” Maurice said. Holding the stone to his head, he recalled the memory inside. The scene was very disturbing. The sudden appearance of the two violent Mages, their use of Fireballs against the one Mage, who deflected the first two with no trouble. They then send a slow burning electrical ball, which penetrated his shields and barely damaged his chest.

Then, the woman cried out and focused on the two mages simultaneously. And they exploded. From head to toe the entire surface of their skins erupted and the contents of the bodies scattered like their insides suddenly exploded from liquid to vapor. And a crimson layer of mixed entrails was scattered for yards.

“Just before they exploded, I saw some Runes run across her vision. She saw what she was going to do and chained the links together. And so quickly that we cannot see all of the contouring and focus of this. This was a projection. A very tight projection of energy that entered the bodies and then became oppositional. I have heard of this but not for over a hundred years.” Maurice said.

“I agree. This is a combination of Human and Elven magic. Which we have not regulated because no one can do it. Except evidently this American woman” Cecile said quietly. “This is the work of a Full powered Wizard. This woman is another full powered Wizard.”

“Cecile, do you want to know what I think? I think two things. One, we can safely cross off the Balkan twins as an issue we need to pursue. I believe that we can safely say they are not a challenge anymore. Two, I do not intend to go to this piece of America without an engraved invitation and a guarantee of safe passage. Nor will Alphonse when I show him this image.” Maurice said. “Have the Americans published this little piece of entertainment yet?”

“Not yet. What they are asking for is identification and an address to send the Paste.”

“We should tell them we know who it was. But we do not know who sent them. And we don’t know where to send the remains.” Maurice said.

“Should we also say that we hope they are not bothered further and that we will investigate from our end?” Cecile asked.

“Yes. Investigate from a distance. Until we get our artifacts renewed, I don’t want to get into a match with a Mage who can project fireballs and an electrical lighting storm without one. Did they say if the Balkans had any artifacts?” Maurice asked.

“Nothing was said. But I am not so sure that I want to ask that question without first believing that they know it wasn’t us. And it wasn’t.” Cecile said.

“Yes. This Hank Lambert is changing the order of things. But considering how well he treated us for our incursion, I would prefer to make him comfortable that we are not a force he needs to fear.” Maurice said.

“Well treated? He stripped you naked, vented your personal power and then had you hauled to New Orleans. What would have been worse?” Cecile asked scornfully.

“What the Balkan brothers got. He replied with slightly more force then was used against him. What this shows is that he could have done considerably more.” Maurice replied.

“He resisted our authority” Cecile said.

“He did. Politely and rightfully and then with the permission of his own council. The Wizard’s Council. And we didn’t come home in a bag.” Maurice said.

“The message says that They use a large can sent the sauce back.”

“Not much difference.” Maurice said. “And not my preferred way to travel.”

New Arrivals. From Slaves to?

So, Thursday, while the finishing touches were underway, Pat contacted me on the phone asking me when I could receive the additional ten damaged slaves that were the last of his bunch. This was a change, as he usually pinged me mentally. I found out that he had gotten a message from Natalie asking that he use more human conventional means of communication for a while. “Hank’s still in a lot of turmoil, and we want to be easy on him.”

“Kid, I have to tell you, you sure have grasped the challenge with those three. Paula, Victoria, Natalie and now Jeffery are all singing your praises and defending you to us common folk. Heck, Even the Warlocks are on your side. Reggie asked Nathan Hughes about his thoughts of you and Nathan said “Great guy. Leave him alone”. And with Jeffery telling him to leave Paula alone and stop being a Dick, he’s kind of in shock. No Mage has talked back to him like that in a while.”

“Well, he was being a dick. Paula is still fragile, and I don’t want anyone or anything to shake her growing independence.” I said.

“I understand that. I admit that I kind of dumped her on you last summer, and I hoped she wasn’t going to suicide. But these last six months have been eye opening. She’s almost totally turned around and grown into a independent and downright dominating woman. She has grown in so many ways. When we were working on rune engraving and rune linkage for the girls bracelets, she was obsessive and snapped at me a couple of times. She takes what she does very seriously, and the girls’ bracelets are a whole new level of protection. Then she went back to Ogrenaut and said “Gimme. We do yours too. Now.”

“Yes, she is a bit obsessive. I have to temper that a bit. I don’t want her to get caught in a cycle of perfection at the expense of good enough.” Hank said.

“She likes to fiddle. She plays with figures on that Spreadsheet program every morning for an hour. Jeffery fixes breakfast, they play with the program and then they go and get things done.” Pat said.

“I know. She has shifted appointments and the project operations over to Carla. Who is now officially my office nagging mother.” I said. We both laughed.

“How are you doing, kid?” Pat asked. I knew what he wanted to talk about.

“The house being gone, and Paula and Natalie being here keeping things going and keeping me busy. I like to think that it’s sunk in, but I still have flashes of emotion at times. I miss them, but I keep remembering what they wanted from me, and that’s what I work to do. Be as good as they expected.” I said. “It’s not easy but I can do it.”

We goth were quiet for a moment. Then after shaking my head, we went back to the subject at hand.

“So, Pat. What can you tell me about these next ten people I have to adopt?”

“Four men, and Six women. All products of the Cunt’s planned evolution project. The women are all first or second cousins to Paula. All of them are aged eighteen to twenty-four. Think younger editions to Paula and Carla. The men are all almost totally closed off to me. I cannot tell what they are thinking. Everyone is fit and healthy. All are as duty bound as Paula was when she came to you.” Pat explained. “Hank, these are the last ones I couldn’t place. I worry about them adapting to society in any shape or form.”

“Gee. Thanks. Do any of them have any issues with Fae? Because I have several Fae here that are working every day that I don’t want anyone hurt.” I reminded him.

“No. They have no conceptions or prejudices for or against anyone. Socially they are almost a blank slate.”

“Ok. I remember what you did with respect to Paula. Do we have to do something similar to that to transfer them from you to me?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I’ll tell you one thing, though. I think Paula and Carla would be excellent role models for these girls to have. Why not ask them if they want the role of Den Mother?”

“Ok. So what about the Men?” I asked.

“Simple Be the person they want to emulate.”

Nothing like a large load just before New Year’s. As if I didn’t have enough to do.

Good Management means.

Effectively passing the buck

My dad had that on a desk paperweight he had. It was one of his favorite sayings. “You have to be the leader, but you also have to reward your followers. The best reward for a good follower completing a tough job is Praise, and then a tougher job.”

The question for me was “How do I do this without unfairly overloading the people I have?”

Like Paula.

Simple. I scheduled a meeting. With Paula, Carla and with Natalie. (Does it seem like I am running the women, or they are running me?) The day after Boxing day, with Jeffery and Peter attending. (Got to keep them informed. RACI.) And yes, I brought my notebook. A fresh one.