Chapter 42

Boyd collected up his ten new mages and Daniel and blinked them to the big cavern in the mountain.

The men were excited to be included in his mass spell. Other than Daniel, the rest only had a vague idea of what Boyd planned to do. That being that, he planned to remove the effects of the potion and the tattoos.

Boyd had explained to them that they were to provide him and the wizards with the extra power to boost the spells he did. They all were fine with this as long as they were included in making life for the other men better like theirs now was.

Boyd looked over the rest of the people assembled. To start with, there were far more people here than he expected to find. He frowned when he saw Marcella and a bunch of senators from the General Assembly.

Upon seeing him, Marcella marched over to confront him. “What is the meaning of this gathering, Boyd?” she barked at him.

Boyd lifted an eyebrow to question her stupidity. “Marcella, please don’t try and tell me you have no idea why we are here.”

She blustered and even blushed before getting control of herself. She then said, “Catia said that you were going to try and make the male-born fertile again.”

“That is true. The potion you people gave them was designed to remove this ability from them. What you may not know is that it also affected at least twenty percent of your females as well.”

The shock on her face was evident. “That many! They said it would only affect a few,” she gasped out and then slapped her hand over her mouth.

She flinched when Boyd reached out and touched her. She could not move out of his reach fast enough and became immobile once his finger was upon her temple. The crowd went quiet as they watched him.

Marcella cried in pain as he blasted through her mental shields to seek out the knowledge he required. He released her a few moments later and looked at her in revulsion.

He turned to seek out Catia, who was standing away from the crowd with Hadi. He marched over to her and bowed his head.

“Please accept my apologies, Catia. I took from you that you knew of the changes to the potion. I, however, jumped to the conclusion that your only reasons for trying to cure Daniel were self-serving.” He looked into her eyes to show his sincerity.

Catia gave him a woebegone smile and looked down as she said, “It matters not. You can take the items from me if you wish. I have not served them well.”

Boyd reached out and touched a finger to her chin to lift her face to his. He smiled benevolently.

“That is not true. While some of the reasons for bringing me here were a little off the mark, the point is that I wouldn’t be in the position I now am if it wasn’t for you.”

“All of the people you took and who I have released are getting used to their new lives and know that this life is a new beginning. Some will need time to adjust, but none wish to go back to what they were.”

“In Daniel’s case, you just failed to check what Daniel was because you didn’t expect it. To err is human. Shifters may be biologically different in some ways, but you are all still human.”

Catia jumped and gave a little shriek as she was hugged from behind.

She then smiled with delight when Daniel spoke into her ear, “I love you, Mum. And I’m all fixed thanks to you bringing Boyd here.”

She turned in her son’s arms and hugged him back. She didn’t even try to stop the tears of happiness, and neither did Daniel. Boyd had to step back as several other Marcus’s added to the huddle to share their joy that Daniel was back.

Boyd walked back over to Marcella, who was still standing where he had left her. “You and your family I will deal with later. Go away. If you are smart, you go far away.”

Marcella turned and fled.

Once things had settled down a little, Boyd collected his two High Wizards.

They had a whispered conversation that no one could overhear or even determine by their lip movements. Boyd was a little surprised by Catia’s full support.

He didn’t realise that her entity fully agreed with his, and she knew better than to argue. Plus, the more she thought about what he wanted to do, she could see sense in it, and it was the right thing to do.

The three of them made their way to the dais, and Catia and Daniel moved so that they flanked Boyd but stood back from him by a step. He created an effect to dim the lights to gain the attention of the crowd.

Once they were quiet, he then turned to face them with his sceptre in one hand and his magical items on display. He did make sure his ‘glow’, as Daniel had put it, was toned down some.

He did look splendorous in his attire.

Boyd had argued with Adel as to what to wear.

She had bullied him, nicely, of course, to dress up. He had refused to wear a toga, so she had taken him to one of the old caverns below the house. In it were clothes from a forgotten era. Even so, they were all well preserved.

Boyd had found a form-fitting white suit with gold trim that he could live with. At least he got to wear pants. The suit has a military look and reminded Boyd of the dress whites the Navy wore on Earth, but it was more tailored after he had finished with it. He did put a ‘Keep Clean’ spell on it and forwent the hat.

As the room quietened to a hush, Boyd brought up the lights or, more correctly, removed the shadow blocking the light emitted by the crystals overhead.

“Greeting to you all. For those who haven’t worked it out, I have claimed the Regent Wizard’s magical items.”