Chapter 14

The following day Morgana called a meeting of her senior staff, people she'd trusted with her life over the centuries she'd been a Mage and who had earned her trust time and time again. Also in attendance were their apprentices and journeymen, who included myself, Róisín and Abigail.

Morgana went over the events of the previous day including the injuries to Mage Theo and described accurately the men and Mages who were involved on the other side. She also mentioned the summoning, though not what was being summoned.

"We appear to be at war with some group, possibly based on another Earth," she stated. "I want you all to look into various aspects of it from the details supplied by the Mages and journeymen present. Geoffrey, could your people go over the type of portal used and see if you can come up with anyone else using that type plus give some thoughts as to the weapons and other equipment. Roxanne, can you get your people to send out feelers into the various embassies to see if anyone in the mundane world has been subject to some form of magical attack that doesn't sit right with what we know of the Coalition, also use your backdoor links to open up a dialogue with the Coalition to see if they have any idea as to what's going on. Henry, your people are going to have to go over these details carefully. We may be subject to some form of direct attack and I want to make sure our defences are at their best. I want you particularly to look at various buildings adjoining us with regard to assembly points for some sort of attack. Jemima, could your people go over the data supplied to see if it can be enhanced in order to give us more warning and a better location. Thomas, could you liaise with Arch to form a rapid response team in order to tackle such incursions very quickly in the hope of gaining more information as to who, what and why."

"Are we to presume these attacks are from alternate realities?" asked Mage Roxanne.

"Make no presumptions or assumptions," Morgana said. "The odd details may just be a ruse to disguise the origin of the attacks which may be here on our Earth."

"It seems unlikely," said Mage Henry. "The weapons alone are definitely not of a type used here, or anywhere else as far as I can tell."

"Be that as it may," said Morgana with a smile. "Please do not assume something simply is, because on the surface it looks that way."

"Of course, Mage Morgana," he acknowledged.

"Would it be worth speaking to the other Earth representatives to ask if they have any information they could supply?" I asked.

"It's a thought," said Morgana. "However I'm reluctant to do that at the moment as it may tell them far more than they'll tell us."

"Perhaps Mage Roxanne's people will be able to check out sources from those realms?" I responded.

"We certainly could, Mage Morgana," said Roxanne. "Put out a few feelers, without going into details, that is."

"Use your discretion Roxanne," said Morgana. "I trust your judgement."

The discussion then broke up into various small groups as lunch was served and I wandered over with Róisín to speak to Abigail, who frankly looked a little overwhelmed at the company she was currently keeping, then again she was only 13 years old as we had learned.

"Hello Abigail," I said. "I'm journeyman Mage John and this is journeywoman Mage Róisín. We just wanted to thank you for the tip off you handed us yesterday on that incursion."

"You're welcome," she said quietly.

"How did you manage to detect it when the other Seers didn't?" asked Róisín.

"Um, it's difficult to explain to anyone not a Seer," she said. "But basically they'd chosen to use a form of magic that disguised or camouflaged the intent of the incursion to make it look like every day usage. I didn't know that and it didn't look 'right' to me anyway so I looked."

"Good job you did," I said.

"Thank you," she said with a shy smile. "I watched you yesterday, you were very brave, both of you."

"I was lucky; Róisín is the sensible brave one," I said with a smile.

"Will you be able to spot it, if it happens again?" Róisín asked after elbowing me in the side.

"Yes, and so will the other Seers now we know what to look for," Abigail answered.

"Until they change their patterns when they know we know," I sighed.

"Um, I don't know if I should be telling you this..." said Abigail. "But, there's a definite ... er ... presence I suppose is the word, behind the incursion. I felt it though none of the other Seers did. It's malevolent and does not mean us well."

"Does Seer Jemima know about this?" I asked.

"Yes, she does, but wanted to wait for further correlation of data before broaching a hunch by an apprentice to Morgana," Abigail replied.

"I'll let Morgana know about your hunch," I said. "There's a lot more going on than this meeting would seem to indicate."

"Thank you," she said with another one of those shy smiles.

We wandered off to find Morgana to let her know the additional information we'd gleaned from Abigail.

"She's smitten with you," said Róisín with a giggle.

"Who?" I asked.

"Abigail, of course, dummy," she replied.

"She's only 13," I said.

"She won't always be 13," Róisín said. "And it's obvious."

"Obvious to you," I replied. "Not to me, mind you, you have to come close to killing me for me to notice the obvious when it comes to women," I said smiling.

"True," Róisín said. "I'll get her to stab you then shall I?"

"At least wait till she's out of her apprenticeship," I said with a smile.

"Deal," said Róisín.

I hoped she was joking.

We informed Morgana of the extra details Abigail had supplied us with.

"Jemima did mention it," she said. "Though I rather think she hopes it isn't true as it means we'd be facing an incursion from the outer realms."

Outer realms? Well, they're the powers that exist outside our universe and our frame of reference. A place of chaos and wild magic we believe, though no Mage has visited and returned. It is the place of origin of the Old Ones and what we consider to be elemental forces. Whilst we use what we call magic to achieve certain things it has been posited that they are magic. They are extremely powerful and highly inimical to life in our universe. The separation between the states is maintained by the hosts of the Almighty, but occasionally there are incursions when some idiot or inimical force invites one in. The Old Ones are apparently considered a minor nuisance in the context of the denizens of the outer realms.

It was several weeks after the meeting that we made a little progress with the problem at hand when the Coalition requested a meeting on neutral territory to discuss 'incursions' and other issues. Specifically they requested it with Morgana and one other.

The next day Morgana and I, as her 'other', wandered into the Ritz restaurant in London to meet a representative of the Coalition. We were shown to a private room with a set table though as yet no sign of anyone else. We didn't have long to wait as Merlin himself strolled in along with another Mage, though I didn't recognise him.

"Ah Morgana, John, you're looking well, all things considered," he said. "Allow me to introduce you to my journeyman, Pyotr."

"Merlin, Pyotr." Morgana intoned.

"He doesn't look like much." sneered Pyotr.

"Now, now, Pyotr. Appearances can be deceptive. After all, how many Old Ones have you taken down in your short life?" Merlin chided.

"Feel free to ask Mages Brianna, Zhang Jue or Johannes for a résumé of my abilities, assuming you'd care to visit Kurukshetra for some of them," I replied in turn watching Pyotr flush with anger.

"Ah yes, Brianna," said Merlin. "How is my lovely daughter these days?"

"She was well last we spoke," I replied.

"Give her my regards should you meet soon," Merlin said.

"I will, though I cannot say what her reaction might be," I said.

"You asked to discuss something with us," Morgana said.

"Yes, it appears we also have a problem with a form of incursion from what appears to be elsewhere. We are investigating, but we haven't that much to go on. It does appear we have known of them longer than you however," said Merlin. "Our first indications came with an incursion at Tunguska. Back in 1908."

He produced a crystal and activated it showing a fight between Mages and a military unit who also had Mages. It was also apparent that the Mages alone were losing and being forced back by a combination of powerful magic and physical weapons.

"Yes," he replied to the unspoken question. "We were losing, our techniques have always been to use magic first and foremost and they have very good Mages who supplement their mundane weapon systems. In the end it took the combined power of seven High Mages of the Coalition to detonate a controlled sub atomic implosion underneath their bridgehead. It worked and they withdrew ... Yes, withdrew. It didn't kill them all. They even took their wounded with them. We heard nothing more, but we suspect they have infiltrated our Earth in other places, possibly even the Coalition, perhaps the Council too."

Morgana produced a crystal of her own showing the recent incursion and my efforts to counter it.

"They were attempting to summon an Old One," she stated. "They failed, though we are worried they'll try again somewhere that we aren't able to get to."

"You have a defence against Old Ones now?" queried Merlin.

"We do," said Morgana. "Though it's extremely dangerous to use, particularly if they realise we have it. And there are indications our mutual enemy know we have one."

"It would be good to have such a defence ourselves," said Merlin.

"I'm sure you would think so," said Morgana archly.

"We won't allow you to access the territory we control, simply because you won't let us defend ourselves," said Merlin.

"That's alright," I said. "We can go in when you're dead and gone."

Merlin simply glared at me, but realised I was not even remotely awed by his reputation anymore.

"This meeting was to exchange information, not spells," said Morgana.

"Yes," sighed Merlin. "Ask away, though for every question I answer, you answer one of mine."

"Agreed," said Morgana. "First without mentioning any names of course, do you have someone on the Council passing you information or other details?"

"No," frowned Merlin. "Odd that, I was about to ask you the same only for the Coalition."

"The answer is no, too," said Morgana. "Interesting though that we both believe we have a mole in our organisations."

"Isn't it just," said Merlin. "I take it that you now suspect someone in your organisation has been working against you by thwarting your moves against us?"