Chapter 111

The war may have been over, though there was still some tidying up to do. There were still rogue units of Sidhe out there turning to banditry as well as what remained of the fanatical Nephilim, though most of those had perished with the destruction of the fortresses. The vast majority of the Sidhe units still in the field had come in to claim amnesty from Verenestra as she held court in Keldravan. In all cases it had been granted, though a large minority had had terms attached to monitor their behaviour.

To this end, for all we withdrew the bulk of our forces, we left four Seers, teams Rinku and Nisha plus a large contingent of wolves under Leonova to assist the Sidhe with unexpected problems. All our other allies withdrew and, other than the missing Oonagh, a period of peace and reconciliation began.

Morgana was summoned to the Council and simply gave a synopsis of the end of the war and whilst there were a series of attempts to criticise her for the number of casualties, it was clear that the opposition’s heart wasn’t in it, as we noted when Mage Sofya remained silent on the process. The feeling in the Council tended to be relief rather than exuberance. Both Morgana and Julia were quietly praised for the work they’d done in bringing the allies together to enable the Sidhe menace to be put to bed, hopefully for all time. Morgana, via the Enforcement Office, was tasked with liaising with Verenestra in the hunt for Oonagh, the Council realising it might take time, but they were grimly determined to see that threat eliminated once and for all.

It also seemed odd at first running into Dorry in the Council headquarters where she shared a little office with Simone. Her initial training was going well and she’d bypassed the setting fire to herself stage, though was having a little difficulty with controlling her new-found energy and setting fire to everything else bit.

Róisín felt somewhat aggrieved when Morgana won the ‘Jukar’ pool, though Jukar herself was delighted, if somewhat resigned to waiting a while. She’d finally gained a measure of control over her magic and her serious training with Imelda had begun. At barely a year and a half in it was still at the how to run and hide stage, which was more to do with avoiding giving yourself away to ordinary people than the Coalition. Hers and Dorry’s swordplay was coming on by leaps and bounds though. Mage Roxanne, during a visit with journeywoman Mage Kate, evaluated her and Dorry and promised to take over their training in about a year’s time to their delight. Kate herself proved to be a good practice partner for both of them and they hit it off as friends almost immediately.

Morgana herself had now decided to intensify my training along with Róisín and had us practicing her flicker shield technique which was incredibly effective against any physical or energy attacks, but was tricky to formulate until you understood the principles properly and how a set of parameters had to be maintained in a specific sequence in order for the shield to flash into place. Once she was sure we had the basics, she then ordered us to wear ordinary clothing and threw a cricket ball at us, reasoning that a little pain would be a good learning tool. In a sense she was right, as Róisín and I picked up the holding principles very quickly before she’d let us heal ourselves. After that she used telekinesis to initially send softer objects towards us at high speeds until our reaction times improved. By the end of the week she was satisfied that we could maintain the shield satisfactorily, though said we still needed to practice it constantly until it became second nature. By this time both Róisín and I could stop a bullet, though only just and we were determined to get a lot better at it.

Arch took over with our training on portals. Whilst he wasn’t quite as good as Morgana, he did have the knack of demonstrating the how of it better when it came to developing an out of phase portal for escaping a situation. Though Róisín and I (or indeed Arch) didn’t have the ability as yet to create an undetectable inbound portal. Morgana could, but much preferred to leave it to a Seer if possible.

Mage Zola had now formed her Emergence Office and had her small staff checking into possible candidates for emergence. Rowenna had suggested the girl children of the gulag ladies where they could be found as a good starting point even though most of them would be in their fifties or indeed sixties by now. The question of male candidates was also proving tricky and Zola’s team were checking out a few orphanages for young men with no ties and a reasonable moral outlook ... basically they were looking for good people. Morgana had also suggested hospices as we could substitute a body with a homunculus and heal the unfortunate soul involved.

Either way, it was a bit of a moral minefield and Zola’s office was being very careful about their choices and had not as yet called me in to begin the process.

The various Bureaus were also in the stage of adapting to new circumstances. With the Coalition, Nephilim and Sidhe no longer a major concern the numbers they required were no longer as great. Many, particularly on the enforcement side, deciding to hand their notice in and seek employment elsewhere; a good few taking up an offer of employment from Murias where they had a Mage shortage and still occasionally struggled against the Tuathans.

Ferrimoot and the Murians were naturally delighted, particularly as many of the Mages set up a school for advanced learning for the ordinary people in the hope of kick-starting an industrial revolution as well as getting Vaniralla Freya to begin sponsoring a proper apprentice and journeyman system to bring any newly emerged Mages fully into their powers.

Freya had also calmed down from being banned from the battlefield and had presented Ferrimoot with a son and had invited her friends from Earth as well as the Æsir and sundry others along for his naming day. Naturally we accepted and pointed out that I would be attending with my wives ... including Jukar as my wife-to-be. Tu’tar, Nell, Leonova, Tryphaina the Gorgon, Morgana, Jude, Arch and Jemima were also attending. We’d received permission to attend via the Murian portal guard, which essentially was merely a formality.

Versim, the Murian capital, had most definitely changed. The fortress feel about it had vanished and Mages were removing the city walls and allowing a lot of greensward to develop. The rules and regulations viciously enforced by the Moralité Gendarmerie were gone and the citizenry, particularly the women were dressed conservatively, though far more casually. It wasn’t unusual to see one of the women’s auxiliary wandering about in Mage style form-fitting armour and not getting a second glance, well, other than from a few admiring males who knew not to touch.

We were greeted cordially by Kordanta who had turned up at the embassy portal to escort us to quarters set aside for us. He spent a bit of time conversing with Jukar in her native tongue, getting updated as to her progress in training as well as filling the rest of us in on recent events.

“The Gorians now know better than to attack one of our towns. The modern weaponry you supplied us with makes that extremely risky for them. Now they do hit and run attacks on our villages and a few farms, though more often than not the inhabitants give as good as they get,” he explained to a question from Morgana.

“So they still keep on attacking?” she asked.

“Yes, their civil war is now mostly over and if anything the regime now in charge is as bad, if not worse than the previous one. Councillor Ferrimoot really doesn’t want to get involved, but they’re pushing us into it whether we like it or not,” Kordanta explained.

“I’ll report that as such to the Council of the Wise,” Morgana nodded. “I’m sure we’ll assist a valued ally if asked.”

“At the moment we’re planning a slap on the wrist using our new Magiciens and the auxiliary troops backed up by the Æsir dróttina of Councillor Freya,” Kordanta replied.

“How big a slap?” Arch asked.

“A ‘burning Senone to the ground’ type slap,” Kordanta chuckled.

“That should give them pause,” Tu’tar rumbled. “Some of the young of my herd would probably like to be blooded if they could secure an invite.”

“They’d be more than welcome,” Kordanta chuckled at the thought of getting hold of a few Mazdani berserkers.

“We normally keep to ourselves, but we like Ferrimoot,” Tu’tar explained.

“He appreciated the friendship of the Mazdani and was pleased to grant a new herd territory on Finias,” Kordanta nodded.

“It is a new experience for us. A new world, but we have established a good relationship with the few surviving hu’mans,” Tu’tar acknowledged.

“It was of advantage to us too. The Gorians will not go there now in case they offend the Shangdi houses,” Kordanta chuckled. “For which we are grateful,” he nodded. “We have a few outposts there for farming purposes in some of the more temperate zones and we don’t want them destroyed.”

“Ah, the vineyards,” Tu’tar agreed.

“Yes, good wine is a staple of our economy and diet,” he chuckled.

“And ours, though yours is better,” Tu’tar stated.

“Yes, the Lamelda herd is buying it up and selling it on,” Kordanta chuckled. “They exchange cut wood and mined ores.”

“That is my herd,” Tu’tar acknowledged.

“Ah,” nodded Kordanta as we entered Ferrimoot’s residence.

“Good that you could come, my friends,” Ferrimoot greeted us jovially.

“Heilir og sæl,” Freya also added.

“It is good to be amongst friends,” Morgana replied.

“I should be very angry with you, John,” Freya chuckled.

“I felt it wise that you protect the future Wind Councillor,” I replied with a grin.

“And in that you were right, as well as wise to avoid me for a few weeks,” she replied with an answering grin.

“It was no place for a woman with child. The Murians took heavy losses.”