Chapter 33

It took several months before Morgana was finally able to take her position in the Council of the Wise. Much of the time was spent tying up loose ends in the Department, as well as making sure Mage Roxanne was fully up to speed on the various sections plus the inevitable do's and don'ts.

Finally the day came when she opened a portal in thin air and led me through it into a sealed chamber somewhere on our planet. I had been under the impression that the Council was based in North America, but I was wrong. After the attempted coup back in Constantinople in 1204 AD, they had moved their headquarters, for lack of a better word, to a moveable bubble of air deep in the earth's crust following random magma flows.

"I've placed a link to this place in a similar manner to the link to my manor," she said to me. "I expect you'll figure it out soon, but leave it in place, I do not want anyone breaking you and stealing it."

"Yes, my Mage," I formally replied, already picking at it like someone with a recently missing tooth.

"The other reason is if you misuse the link it will kill you," she chuckled, watching me turn slightly pale. "Keep looking for the Manor one, it's safer."

"Yes, my Mage," I repeated myself with a wry chuckle.

We stepped through into a brightly lit chamber, though there was no discernible light source and were greeted by a party of ten high Mages.

"Greetings Mage Morgana and journeyman Mage John," the leader of the group welcomed us formally.

"Greetings Mage Thea. I take it this is the available duty staff of the Enforcement Office?"

"Indeed they are, others are currently going about their assigned duties as ordered by Simon Magus," Thea replied.

"At some stage I'll need to authorise a meeting of all staff, perhaps several meetings. I intend to implement a few changes in policy and I will brook no misunderstandings," Morgana stated.

"Yes, Mage Morgana," Thea replied with a satisfied look whilst some of the others looked shocked and concerned.

"Now escort me to my office and brief me as to the Enforcement Office's current status," Morgana requested. "The rest of you please go about your duties. John, you're with me."

"Yes, my Mage," I replied and followed her and Mage Thea whilst doing a general scan of my surroundings.

As I expected, the wards and protections built into the Council headquarters were both frighteningly powerful as well as very subtle and I was pretty sure all I could detect was the least of them, nor could I detect where the magma bubble was or how it was constructed.

"Behave, John," was all Morgana had to say.

"Yes, my Mage," I sighed.

"I know you're curious, but trust me, probing the wards will only have a very bad result from your perspective," she added.

"Just curious as to how it's being done, my Mage," I responded.

"Ask Simon, he constructed it with the help of Rowenna," Morgana replied.

"I will, my Mage. It's very elegant," I admitted.

"That it is, ah here we are," Morgana said as Thea opened a door for us and we entered a very plushly fitted out office in traditional Chinese style.

I could tell Morgana was not impressed by the décor, though for the moment she chose to keep her opinions to herself. She's a bit of a minimalist when it comes to the trappings of power, preferring reputation rather than appearance to cow or overawe those who get on the wrong side of her.

"Sit please," Morgana began.

We both sat and she gave us the look I now knew so well which had even the most courageous of Mages feeling like a trapped butterfly under the gaze of an entomologist with a pin.

"First things first. Thea, I have no idea how the department ran before, but under no circumstances now do I wish for any Mage or magical creature to be brought in for questioning without copies of the evidence for arrest being presented to myself, John and eventually to others whom I believe have earned my trust. Do not take this the wrong way, but anyone who operated within this office under Heinrich is not on my trusted list," Morgana stated baldly.

"I understand, Mage Morgana, and whilst it's not my place to approve or disapprove such an action, all I can say is it's about time," Thea replied.

"Access to me will be either through yourself or through John here and I have no wish to be snowed under with trivialities. The European Department more or less ran itself with people only bringing the most important decisions regarding policy decisions or implementation to me. I expect eventually we'll have this office running the same way, but until then, yes, I'll want to know what's going on. But, I'll only need a synopsis, not the originator's input and they do not get to see me unless it really does need my input," Morgana went on.

"Yes, Mage Morgana. Although I think the biggest problem will be people running their own agendas whilst trying to avoid scrutiny from you," Thea replied carefully.

"That's why John will be acting as my trouble-shooter and will be investigating the activities of all the members of this office, including you. Do not be fooled by his youth or his seeming affability. If you have any secrets, believe me he will find them out and he will not be scrupulous as to his methodology, or in playing by the rules," Morgana added.

"Of course, Mage Morgana. I'll have the various files brought to John as soon as he's ready for them," Thea replied with a smile reminiscent of a shark scenting blood.

"Very well. Now bring me up to date with current activity," Morgana finished.

"Essentially the office has been run as an extension of the Interrogation Office and we have been at their beck and call with Mage Hermes ordering various arrests and internments without permitting questions or reasons as to his acts. Most I believe were straightforward and necessary, others were somewhat mysterious, but carried out anyway as we had no recourse to a higher power, save only Mage Simon, who was usually not available," Thea began.

"That stops now," Morgana replied. "Now, please go on."

"Security is nominal; all members of the Council have an active Mage monitoring their personal security. We have a ready team available if help is called for," Thea added.

"I'll look at that and if necessary I'll swap the teams around if I think complacency is a problem," Morgana responded.

"I believe Mage Julia and her intelligence gathering office will desire a closer rapprochement having been prevented from such by the previous head of this office," Thea said.

"I'll bear it in mind, though first I'll be seeking to establish this office's independence and integrity," Morgana replied. "Note also that I will be coming down hard on any enforcer whom I believe serves two masters, be it intelligence or interrogation."

"Yes, Mage Morgana. That will be most welcome from my point of view. I tried to keep the office running and without bias, but too often I did not have the authority to override requests from outside, some I only found out about long afterwards," Thea sighed.

"Those who do such in the future will be out on their ear. I'll be making that very clear when I speak to the various enforcers," Morgana replied sternly.

"I'll bring the individual files for your assessment, Mage Morgana. I'll also bring my own appraisals as to who is working for whom, though much of that is hearsay or rumour," Thea added.

"Allow John to appraise those, he has a nose for the stench of corruption," Morgana replied.

"Yes, Mage Morgana," she replied.

"John, in your copious spare time I expect an audit of the functions and responsibilities of the Enforcement Office staff, if there's a serious issue I expect to know about it before it explodes in my face," Morgana said to me.

"Yes, my Mage," I replied.

"Now if you'd show John to an office where he can begin his work and fetch those files you mentioned, we'll make a start," Morgana finished, dismissing both Thea and I to our duties.

"It's such a relief to have someone to pass the buck upwards to," chuckled Thea as she set me up in the office in front of Morgana's where anyone attempting to gain access would have to pass, the other desk I presumed was hers.

"I really, really hope you never try that if it is your responsibility," I replied. "Mage Morgana will back you up, but if she suspects you're delegating your authority to her you'll regret it."

"I realise that, John. It's just nice to have that back-up," Thea replied after giving a little thought to what I'd said. "But at least there's someone over my head now to prevent me being forced into acts I don't think are wise, fair or just, but don't have the authority to stop."

"That I can assure you will stop, or at least Mage Morgana will give you the authority to deny cooperation if she thinks it's necessary. Which will also mean they'll try getting to her, which I intend to make damned near impossible for anyone not at least her level in the Council unless they have good reason," I replied.

"Good trick if you can do it," Thea said frowning.

"I'll give it a good shot, but be prepared for some tense moments as I also intend to open all her mail before taking it in," I chuckled.

"Oh bloody hell, this is going to be fantastic," she grinned looking very satisfied. "Mage Heinrich was too much in Hermes pocket, friendly if distant to other Mages of other factions, but what Hermes wanted, he generally got. To be honest it did not come as too big a surprise to find Heinrich had his own agenda as well," Thea admitted.

"Morgana is unlikely to tolerate any agenda save her own when it comes to this office either, though in her case it's not going to be hidden, quite the opposite in fact," I replied. "Now if you could fetch the personnel files, I'll make a start."

Soon enough I was almost snowed under with case files relating to the members of the Council's Enforcement Office most of which appeared to be in perfect order, if anything too perfect. This was a lesson Mage Thomas had taught me when he'd had me investigating anomalies in the European Department's records. 'Human error is to be expected, perfection suggests something to hide' he'd intoned gravely to me. I soon had several files set to one side for Mages on the enforcement teams which all read the same, even to the wording and all were perfectly correct in all details.

"Did Heinrich insist on a standard pattern or format for filling these out?" I asked Mage Thea.

"No, if anything he was lax as to any forms of record keeping," she replied.

"Seems some Mages here are either cribbing someone else's notes or are simply putting things in by rote," I replied and showed her the oddity I'd spotted alongside her own neat if occasional random records.

"To be honest I've never had a reason to check the records. I've probably been remiss in simply taking our Mages' word for it," she replied eyes narrowed at the evidence.

"We had a similar problem in the Department. Morgana solved it by appointing an administrator who harried us all into doing it right," I chuckled.

"Right, but not all the same I take it?" she queried.

"Yes, he was quite adamant about individuality and woe betide you if you skipped details," I replied.

"I rather suspect a similar solution would work here, but in several cases the reports bear no relation to the actual activity. I was on at least two of these and this isn't what happened at all ... or why we did what we did," she admitted.

"Hermes specials?" I asked quietly.

"Yes, very much so, even my record shows signs of tampering as I'm sure this isn't what I wrote at all," she replied miserably.

I simply nodded and went back to my task knowing that those Mages I'd uncovered so far were probably on their way out, but not before they'd face an interrogation of their own by Morgana.

I soon had the most 'suspicious' of the reports bundled and took them into Morgana telling her why I thought them suspicious, as well as the need for a proper administrator for the office.

"I'll see to it John, though we won't get Thomas, I couldn't do that to Roxanne," she replied.