Chapter 12

First Impressions

I hadn’t known what to expect when Hank offered his arm to me as we walked toward the Arch to Louisiana. I admit that I was very excited at the dress I was wearing. And Hank in a tux is not something to be ignored. But I was reeling from the shock of his casual statement about us having to talk. I think every woman is apt to be shocked when they hear a man saying, “We have to talk”. The mind goes to so many different places. And if it’s in the beginning of a relationship (Like ours was at this time) then all kinds of alarm bells go off.

And when we went through the arch, I really had to focus on keeping my mouth from gaping open. Some of the creatures I had seen before. But the Men and women were dressed in great finery and I admit that I was a little nervous. I hoped my makeup was on straight.

I had reassessed my thoughts about hank over the last couple of months. His brash behavior in the Lounge when we first met clearly was not his real game. The more I thought about it the more I realized that he was setting a stage with me. And that he intended to not only find out what I wanted but also what I was capable of. The colors set up for a lot more involvement then I had believed I would initially get.

And now, here I was, his escort in this amazing dress, stepping to the front of a ball room filled with Mages, Wizards, some Fae, and more money then I have ever seen or thought of. On the hand of the man almost everyone knew and had strong feelings about. Yea, this was definitely above the rim of where I thought I was going to be when I snuck into the Old bar to see if I could get a interview.

And we stepped through the Arch

“May I have your arm, my lady?” I asked Karen.

“Certainly, sir. Shall we depart?” She said with a sneaky smile.

And with that, we stepped through the Arch to beautiful Louisiana, and on to the Conclave. Her first, my third, and the others had been from five to seven. Reggie asked that I not attend the one for my second year, because of the attendance of the European council of Mages.

There was some woman standing up on the stage with a piano player and a couple of musicians (Elves by the way) and she was singing favorites from the nineteen forties. When the piano started the opening of the sweet sound of “I’ll be Seeing You” she captured my ears across the room, I closed my eyes and saw Cindy’s face, smiling, and giggling to me.

“Knock it off, Hank. That was then and this is now. Get into the present, before Karen finds out your mind is wandering.” Cindy’s voice in my ear admonished me.

“Yes dear.” I said aloud.

“Hank, where’s your mind right now?” Karen asked at my arm.

“Nothing. This song just brings back some memories to me. A little slow to dance to, but I do like having you in my arms.”

The song ended and the singer wandered into “The wind beneath my wings” as a follow on, and the rhythm of that brought Karen gently into my arms.

“These last few days have been really good for me, Hank.” Karen whispered to me. “You are my hero. You opened a whole world to me, engaged me in serious work for a major organization, introduced me to a wide variety of people. And they are all people. I greatly appreciate being with you here.” Karen whispered in my ear.

“How do you feel about being my consort going forward?” I asked.

“What definition do you intend? The contemporary one, or the one from the fifteenth century? Or something more personal?” Karen said with a tease.

“I think we need to work on our definitions. And on our expectations. Just a little. Perhaps after dinner.” I replied with the same tone.

This pleasant conversation was interrupted by the presence of Jacque Pernard and his lovely wife. She was more a battery then a partner, but that was the standard for the Europeans. Two Mages under the same roof usually resulted in a violent outbreak at some point.

“Hank, it’s good to see you. And who is this lovely lady with you? Is this Karen Pullman we have heard so much about?”

“Good evening, Jacque. Karen, this is the current head of the European Congregation of Mages and hedge witches. Jacque, this is my consort, Karen Pullman. And her partner Robert.”

“I had heard that you were harboring dangerous creatures. Rudolph is quite upset about his dismissal, but I reminded him that the apple does not fall far from the tree.”

Never forget that a European will be insulting in any chance he can. The English are almost as bad. French are the worst. “Now Jacque, is that any way to greet a lady?”

“Hank, perhaps you should research in depth your consort’s paternity. There was a reason her ancestors were sent to the colonies.”

I felt Karen getting upset. This is exactly why I didn’t enjoy coming to the Conclaves anymore. Someone or something was always popping up to piss me off.

“Never blindly reply to an opening. Find out what is going on and use a pre-planned response. If you don’t have one planned, then you know what you have to get ready for next time.” My father’s voice whispered in my ear.

“Jacque, all I can say is that the finest things seem to come to Clan Lambert. Jewelry, or gold, or silver or even old repentant wizards. And we welcome them all. It seems that the best things wash onto our shores leaving the refuse behind.”

“I should have expected that from you. You do seem to collect the refuse of civilization.” Jacque sneered.

“And we send the worst remains back to you in bags and cans, as I recall. How is Abagail by the way? We have not heard back from you about inquiries as to her health.” I said calmly.

Jacque got red in the face and then left.

Robert focused his eyes on Jacque’s departing back but held back on his intent to divide the upper from the lower part of the departing Frenchman. Probably make a mess on the floor. “Diplomacy sucks.” He said to Karen and Hank.

“Hank, what was that about?” Karen asked me.

“Who knows. Regardless of what he said, you are who you are. And the only common thread we have with respect to all Europeans is that they are arrogant and self-centered and have no justification for the value they put on themselves. As far as I am concerned, they are arrogance wrapped in religious cloaks and no more real value then old copper coins.” I said to Karen. “And I strongly advise you to remember that. People’s value is individual, not group. And individuals usually far exceed the value of the group.”

“There you go again with your father’s “Leadership Lessons”. “Karen said quietly. “I wonder what he would think of all this?” Karen mused.

“What he has always said. “Any significantly mature technology is indistinguishable from Magic.” One of his favorite sayings.”

“What does he think of the maturity of people using the technology?”

“Kids with loaded guns are not inherently dangerous. But you do have to train them to be responsible.” I said.

We continued to talk and socialize with some friendly Mages until the bells called us to the tables. I had already been told we were at the front and right side of the room, The Europeans were on the front and to the left of the room. Reggie and his group were on the raised dais at the front of the ballroom. We had all been just settled when Reggie called the meeting to order.

“If there are no objections, I will ask that Janice Van Houten read the minutes and issues of the last meeting”

That followed about ten minutes of things that had been covered, included the latest in studies offered at the Lambert facility in New Mexico. Apparently, there was a waiting list for the thirty slots, with the one-week coursework, that would extend into April. Refresher courses would open in April and advanced studies would be offered then.

Questions were raised by the Over-council of Europe over the studies and composition of the courses (of course). Reggie had to pass the conversation over to Janice Van Houten to get into the details of the actual coursework. All of which was queried as to the need, composition and applicability to students. Of course, Janice pointed out that all of this had been hashed out over the last nine months, but evidently the questioners had amnesia.

Some other observations were made about the Fae Creatures that were in attendance. Not much attention to the Gargoyles, but the Fae attendants and Brimstone and Robert got more then a fair share of attention.

“These places are turning into animal farms” Rudolph said. “If you like these so much, perhaps you should clean out the other stables.”

I couldn’t let that pass. “Give me the coordinates and we will. That is, if you don’t have objections to our moving them to the western world”.

“Why should we care. It gets rid of all of the other trash we had. Like the refugees from Sweden.”

Karen’s face grew red at that point. “My Grandfather and Grandmother are from Sweden” she whispered to me.

“Maybe a genealogy exploration is in order. Maybe you came by your affinity to power naturally.” I whispered back.

The rest of the conclave formalities finally ended by six o’clock and then the waitstaff was busy bringing plates to tables. Reggie must have employed every one of Arno’s Gnomes to do the plate delivery, and I saw a couple of familiar faces among the serving staff.

Dinner was good, But the conversation at our table was better. Natalie, Jerry, Jeffery and Paula were all wondering how to get real permission to “empty the stables”, as Rudolph put it. We knew that there was another prison in the Northern portion of Iceland and Russia south of the Kara Sea. The Mongols had talked about that in Siberia. But crossing international borders on a body hunt was more then we really wanted to risk, even if we did end up growing our herd of Fae Animals.

After dinner, I noticed that Arno was deeply engrossed in conversations with Jacque and Rudolph after dinner on the sidelines, while Karen and I took to the dance floor. Remembering that his father had originally built these as prisons, I knew that there was an interest in his mind about getting the rest of them explored. And he knew just the people to do it.

Our group went home at Midnight, agreeing to come back the following morning, and also to have staff on hand to open the stores at 1030. No reason to avoid commerce. And Karen and I did a lot of talking about commitment and long-term relationships. And I wanted to get Helen to do a deep scrub on Karen’s ancestry. I could not help but wonder if I had another “Owen” somewhere in her family tree.

Karen’s thoughts that night at 1030

I have to wonder at the remarks from Rudolph and Jacque about my parents and grandparents. It struck a chord in me that they were alluding to my parents or (more likely) my grandparents. Both sides had come from Sweden in the late 1930s to get away from the clouds of war in Europe and had settled in Washington DC as diplomatic refugees. Lots of affluent Europeans had fled the rise of Nazi Germany then and boat tickets were a great investment. None of my parents were Jewish so there were fewer restrictions on their departure. And while Sweden was officially neutral, everyone agreed to get out of the war zone, first to England and then to the United States. My father’s father had been heavy in railroad ownership, and my mother’s father was heavy into shipping. And both decided to liquidate in advance of the German invasion of Poland in 1939. My Grandparents were no dummies.

I didn’t know much about my grandparents. My mother’s family had died when I was in high school, and my father’s father was a cold and dispassionate man who always seemed to feel my father was lacking. I remembered him as an aloof man who always spoke in a low voice whenever he was around.

“Hank, what do you think about that crack of Jacque’s about my paternity?”

“Karen, all I can say about it is that the Swedes sure do breed for looks. And the talent is a wonderful biproduct. After all, don’t all men drool over Swedish women?”

I thumped him on his chest and looked hard at him. “Is this something we can justify siccing Helen and Amelia on? I think I would like to know.”

“Make it a late Christmas gift to you? Sure, I can do that. Heck, I can even get Cindy to work on that.”

“Digging through prewar records would be a pain. But I would like to know if there are any landmines in my past. This last couple of months have been a real shakeup to me.”

Hank said. “I will be glad to help them any way I can. Let’s see what cooks out tomorrow on day two of the Conclave.”

And so we went home at midnight, and I nestled safely in Hank’s arms. And wondered what the day would bring.

Conclave Day Two

Day two was always a day of meetings, meetings, handshakes, and more meetings. And Luncheons which were also business meetings. I hated it, but I got up early and chased my consort out of bed and we both got ready for the “Not really Business” day. Office suits and other clothes.

We had all four retail outlets staffed (Jewelers, Clothiers, Furniture and Furnishings) and of course the Lounge. And the small meeting room was reserved for four meetings back-to-back for the day. So, 1030 was covered.

We, meaning Karen, Natalie, Paula and their assorted escorts (Like me) were all up and dressed and headed over to Louisiana by nine o’clock, and Jeffery and I were going to meet up with a few people from the west coast. And there was a Noon lunch that Arno wanted me to attend.

And the first person I ran into was Arno. The Prince of Elves was there almost in the front door waiting for “Clan Lambert’s Delegation.” And he had something interesting to say.

“Hank, would be averse to doing some investigation of the two remaining prison facilities that we abandoned to the Mages of Europe?”

“In conjunction with your people, not at all. But I think we need to get the euros to grant us their blessing first.”

“That’s the key item on discussion today at Lunch. Rudolph grabbed me last evening and suggested that they would entertain a clean out of those facilities if we would surrender the infrastructure to them when we withdrew the prisoners. There is some trepidation on their part about going into the prisons. They have been abandoned since before the last world war.” Arno said.

“Do they want a joint expedition, or do we go it alone?”

“I think they want to reclaim the Leyline resources that run the prisons, but first they want to humanely empty them out. And your success with Alaska has them wanting you to do it again.”

“So it’s just your people and mine?” I asked.

“That’s what I envision. Your success was impressive to say the least. And let’s face it, they don’t have the same level of intimacy with fae creatures that your Clan has. And now they are trying to rebuild old resources, and this may be one way. And frankly, I don’t think they have the numbers of people to stage an expedition that can fully explore these facilities. The maps and instructions were lost during the war.”

“Any idea of what the creature populations were? And what we need to feed them to get them healthy enough for transport?”

“No idea of populations. All of the Fae creatures of fantasy will react well to Leyline energy, so that isn’t much of a challenge for someone with Power.” Arno said with a smile.

“So, I guess we will be doing a lot of positioning and watching a lot of grandstanding for lunch. Wonderful.”

“Hank, it could be worse. Can you imagine how sour the flesh of Rudolph and Jacque is? Hell, all of the spices on earth won’t get that sour taste out of them.”

“Arno, I thought you didn’t eat humans anymore.”

“Not anymore. But some of them are just born to be beef.”

These were the thoughts I had when I went into lunch with the Europeans and the Prince of Elves on day two of conclave.

Of course, Rudolph could not keep his snide comments to himself and injected them frequently. But what little leverage he had was limited by some recent accomplishments by my technical staff, who had done a presentation just before lunch.

Karen and Paula had demonstrated power color affinity to task. It was something that Paula and I had for a while, and which Karen demonstrated affinity for. And while it was not that interesting to most Mages, for some it was a real eye opener. Lower spectrum power (Red, orange) were a clear advantage in elements like metal smithing and Gem formation. Particularly Diamonds. All of which the Dwarves and Elves loved, and which metalsmith Mages drooled over. Higher spectrum (Yellow and green) gave far more usable energy to Hedge witches and to Mages who focused on growing and elements of ground. Earth Mages absolutely loved the immediate jazz of power that was infinitely useful to their native tasks. Europeans loved it and wanted more of it. The upper spectrum (blue, indito and violet) was particularly useful for shields and weapon technology. Like spears of energy and saws. All of which were particularly energy hungry, unless fed by colorations along the upper spectrum of the color band.

That was what the lunch talk was all about. And a couple of the German and Russian mages made overtures to us about some level of exchange of trade. Evidently the coalition with France, Spain and England were not all that useful to the Poles, Germans and of course the (remaining) Russians. Rudolph and Jacque were not having a lot of luck keeping their constituents in line with the Anglo/French alignment. The idea of cheap power had the eastern Europeans salivating and wanting to give away anything. Including the possibility of ancient prisons being converted to charging stations for eastern European mages.

Jacque got shut down twice by the German and Russian congregation members. Neither of them were interested in the plans of the Anglo/French alliance. Even Rudolph was silent as his fellow Germans embraced the idea of converting prisons to power stations.

“Of course, you will have to provide Mages who can be trained to see and properly fill artifacts and gemstones.” I said, getting everyone to a halt. “To my knowledge, such capabilities are limited at this time. Also we need to register the actual Mage owner to the artifact to get maximum utility from the artifacts. Stealing and sharing artifacts of high power won’t work with this new arrangement of artifact linked to a specific Mage.”

“How do you politically select the Mages you train to do this magic?”

“We don’t. If the mage can see and identify the various colors of power coming out of an open fumeral, we can then train them. If they can’t, then we can’t train them to work with what they cannot sense.” I said.

“It’s convenient that all four of the Power Mages are within Clan Lambert” Jacque said.

“We discovered people who could sense it, and we trained them to use it. It’s the American way to maximize talents.” I said blandly.

The sour look on the representatives from England, France and Spain told me that they didn’t like the facts of my answer. But I wasn’t too sensitive to their feelings anyway.

Later that afternoon, I was cornered by the Russian and Iceland representatives. And it led to a very interesting discussion.

Apparently, the artifact filling plant that was in Iceland had pretty much lost its output. Three of the technical people that had been there were now working in New Mexico. For us. And the remaining people were hard pressed to keep the old plant going. Lava heat conversion technology was wasteful, cumbersome, and not reliable. And they knew it.

“What interest would you have in working to assemble and train operators for a plant such as you have in Georgia and New Mexico?”

“Let us survey the prison that you have near Geitafloss, and we can see what’s available. If the ground is stable, we can condense multiple streams in the area and build a fumeral. Then we can see what output it has. But first we have to clean out the stable.”

“What will it cost us?”

“We will do the transportation of all the residents of the prison to my properties in America at no charge. What we need is the acknowledgement of the Iceland Government that we are doing the survey with no intent to disturb the nature of Iceland.” I replied.

“What about the material costs for bringing the facility up to date as a fumeral?” The Iceland representative asked.

“All the costs of materials and room and board for the team doing the construct are yours. But once we finish, it’s yours. We only ask that you do reasonable license of each artifact to each Mage or wizard. Cost of operations is your issue.”

“That’s an extremely generous offer. You would have us provide registration of each artifact to the licensed mage. But would you object to us keeping those records, to conserve the privacy of the Mages? Can we put that in writing?”

“Of course. And it’s a contract with Clan Lambert. The current one, not the one that was a blight on the history books.” I said.

“We both can see that. It’s almost a shame that you have to endure the history of that English reprobate. He was truly one of the evil people that gave Mages an ugly reputation.”

I kept my mouth shut. Robert Lambert was one of the Crystal Palace members. And he was a very inventive bastard when it came to spells and rune design. Not exactly the person you wanted to have running free rein on designs. He tended to leave little “easter Eggs” in his spells that could backfire. Quality Control was not his venue. Cecile made close review of anything he produced, and they made a pretty good team for original spell weaving and rune casting. He was an amazingly inventive SOB. Cecile did the “User Notes” on anything that they produced to caution the Mages and Hedgewitches to leave the spells alone as written, with warnings of what sort of things could go wrong. So far, people listened.

But the Europeans didn’t need to know that.

“I agree that I have a lot of reputation to live down. I only hope that enlightened people like yourself will see that this Clan is far and away different from that predecessor.”

“Well, you have come a long way toward that goal. So what sort of timeframe can we expect for Iceland and Russia?”

“Well, both places are known for being rather cold. I expect that we can mount some expedition in early February for Iceland, and early March for Russia. I expect that we will need that time to put together a plan of operations and then personnel and clean up another area for whatever refugees we find in either facility. Plus, we need to do some recruiting among your people to make sure that the operators are color competent. All of this is dependent on you both placing the proper government permission for us to mount these expeditions.”

Both representatives nodded their head. I expected greater problems then either of them envisioned. Not so much from Iceland, but the Russian DEW line was across some of the areas we would need to terraform to get a fumeral built. I didn’t know how deep in the Russian government the Mages in Russia had penetrated in the post Reagan era.

Interesting enough, Chris Guage and Jerry Markham were both at the Conclave. Reggie had invited both of them to get their feet wet with the Mage society. Karen and I ran into them as we were getting ready to go home. My consort was warm and extremely welcoming but I had a different goal when I wanted to schedule meetings with both of them in two weeks.

Chris was initially reserved and quiet when I approached him. Jerry was enthused at meeting me again. Both agreed to meet with me in two weeks in Albuquerque for follow up and some planning to expand rune into computer language operations.

“Our main goal is to find ways of translating Runic Spell language into applications that fit this World Wide Net you guys are creating. I think that we can learn a lot from the information that is out there, as well as provide it more easily to talented people who may have Magic ability.” I said, setting the goals.

Jerry nodded his head, but Chris was initially distant. It seemed that he had some reservations about Clan Lambert, and we needed to find a way to either treat that or isolate him. We didn’t need any more cracks in the armor around Clan Lambert.

I could see that the next couple of weeks were going to have some interesting developing opportunities. And a few risks.

Preparations for Iceland

January 7 was an interesting day. Waking up with Karen was starting to become habit forming. Going out and brewing coffee for her and taking it to the shower was the sign of a well-trained man, or so she said. I laughed and said that Breakfast was coming up.

I had become accustomed to her and Cindy having mental conversations. I had no idea what the two of them talked about every morning, but I knew that being a penis equipped individual that I had no business asking. And I probably really didn’t want to know.

After breakfast (I did learn to add cute little chocolate chips into pancakes, and they looked cute just before cutting and eating) I did my normal readiness to go past my desk in the office and then down to the arch to New Mexico.

Since we moved the assembly point to there, it was becoming increasingly obvious that sooner or later I would have to occupy the suite that was built for me there in the Annex. I had to admit that Ogernaut and others had built a very elegant set of rooms out there. The building was three stories (One below ground) and it was settled in Sandia Bedrock, with Layline flows coming through from the mountains and the Rio Grande. The only real production still in Georgia was with gemstone production, and custom jewelry for the stores in NY, Fla, Calif, and London. We were extremely careful to not allow any duplication of any jewel sets across different buyers. You could look at a Tiffany earring set. But you had to go through them to buy them. And that attention to detail kept everyone honest.

Anyway. I got to my desk and Carla smiled and pointed at the notes laid out on my desk. “Boss, you have two there that are important. One is from William Webster, needing to do a in person meeting with you. The second is from the Monsignor of the church here in Augusta, and he wants to have a meeting between you and some visiting papal personal representatives. Also, Arno has found the documents for all of the committed creatures in Iceland. Last date of notice was in January 1945. Just as all communication was falling apart.”

“Ok. Put Webster on track to find out when and where he wants to meet. Marigold is best to communicate that. Call the Monsignor back and get a date and time. And give the documents from Arno to Jeffery and ask him to look it over, set his staff requirements and get back to me with a plan and date of execution. And tell Paula I am bailing him out of New Mexico for the time needed to work this mission. And let Natalie know that I am not going off halfcocked again.”

“Wow. Boss, you are setting a new standard for this year. Being all responsible and stuff. Are you feeling ok?” Carla asked with a smirk.

“Lord Hank” a Dragonish voice interrupted. “Master Jeffery and I have already put together an exploratory team for Iceland. Two sprites, two dwarves, a ground hunting Gnome, a Dragonet and a full dragon is in reserve if needed. I assumed that Jeffery would be on site in tactical command. And the rest of the Corp would be on standby to back him up with any additional resources he felt he needed.”

“Thank you Deamonus.” I thought back to him. “You have permission to execute”.

And thank you, again, dad. You are right, put the right people in place, give them a mission, resources and let them go. I am still responsible, but they have authority. This works.

“It has for me for twenty years, son.” His voice whispered in my ear.

Carla’s sudden smile told me she had heard almost all of it. No one heard my dad yet.

“Should I call the Monsignor?” She said with a grin.

“Yes. And get a date and time. And get Deamonus the population papers for Iceland so he has an idea of what may be there. Also get them distributed among the initial team.”

Carla’s smile reminded me that I should never try to teach people to suck eggs. Deamonus probably had those already and used those to set up his team. I smiled a moment. Sending two Dwarves meant that he wanted someone to deal with any gates, or barriers that were not magic. The next step up from them would be Ogres and then Trolls. Severe muscle power in case the dwarves were outclassed by a barrier.

Yea. Nothing like force and firepower. It was a shame we could not let the prisoners some sort of warning. Like the phrase from Peter Gabriel. To tell them “Grab your things, we’ve come to take you Home”. Got to see what it takes to put on Loudspeakers on Dragons.

“You have been watching too many movies” the voice of dad whispered.” Some gifts are best as a surprise.”

‘Ok dad.” I said aloud.

“He talking to you again?” Carla asked.

“And you don’t think I’m crazy?” I asked.

“Hank. We love your brand of Crazy. Everyone wants to know when we can join in.”