Chapter 48

Once the Council’s deliberations had finished, I was led back by Arch and Morgana to her office along with Róisín, Thea and Mage Rowenna. Rowenna immediately began to scan me muttering a series of curses in tones of utter disgust.

“Weeks,” she finally announced. “At least three, possibly more, the damage is extensive and pervasive.”

“I feel fine, a little weak, but mostly fine,” I added.

“John, you’re anything but, you won’t even be able to use your regeneration regimen to fix the damage that barbarian did as it relies upon a more or less intact nervous system to advance its progress and yours is burnt out in several key areas and will need to be regrown,” Rowenna replied. “Such things like regrowing a limb take time if it’s to be done right.”

“Loegria?” I asked.

“No, you’re too high profile at the moment for you to disappear there for too long,” She replied with a wry smile. “Mage Imelda will be able to do this for you in London.”

“Thank you Mage Rowenna,” I replied with a formal bow that nearly overbalanced me as my head swam with conflicting signals being received by my brain.

“I take it you aren’t finished with that idiot Hermes and his Office despite your word that you’d leave it to the Council?” Rowenna asked Morgana.

“In that your suspicions are correct,” Morgana replied with a vicious smile. “Humiliating him in the chamber was but the first move. That said though I’m going to leave him to stew for a while whilst I have Indira dealt with. I believe I can influence the tribunal towards a death sentence.”

“You believe she deserves that?” Thea asked quizzically.

“I do, but will settle for less, the intent is to force the Interrogation Office into either trying to defend her or looking so callous as to throwing her to the wolves,” Morgana answered.

“Damned if they do, damned if they don’t,” I murmured.

“Correct John, on top of this will be the investigation into their interference with my Office and the collapse of our moves against the Coalition, coupled with the investigation as to how Mage Gudrun and Pyotr managed to get off the Council chambers, something which would not have been possible if the Interrogation Office hadn’t hamstrung this Office by shutting down all our other activities,” Morgana added. “All of which I intend to land full square in Hermes lap whilst circumventing any attempt by him or others to resign before this has run its course. It’s possible I’ll even permit him to remain in office, though much reduced in influence ... and knowing it too.”

“You should have challenged him to a formal duel,” Arch responded.

“My answer to that is that he’s not worth the honour of being killed by me, my friend,” Morgana replied with a grin.

“Ouch!” he chuckled by way of a reply.

“Could you beat him my Mage?” I asked.

“Oh yes John and he knows it, I more or less surpassed him in power and subtlety way back in the 1700’s and it’s only his influence in the Council and the fact that I’m not interested in power per-se that’s kept him here spinning his webs of influence,” Morgana replied thoughtfully.

“He must be good at his job surely?” I enquired.

“So long as he stuck to his job yes, the last two centuries though he’s been trying to increase his influence over the Council as a whole however, something he’s not good at as he’s rather intolerant to those who don’t share his view on how things should be,” Rowenna answered.

“So what changed?” I asked. “Something must have driven him towards trying to dominate the Council.”

“Good question John, something worth looking into perhaps,” Rowenna mused.

“He’s always been a little unstable with me and the subject of Merlin,” Morgana added.

“Yes, but it was only you in specific, not the Council as a whole,” Rowenna replied.

“Two centuries ago would have been about the time of Ímar Ua Donnubáin and Heinrich’s treachery beginning,” I mused. “Wonder if there was anyone else they managed to plant in the Council, as well as possibly Mage Gudrun, though for the life of me I cannot see her as a Coalition spy, she must have known what they are to women.”

“Yes, Gudrun’s treachery, assuming it was that, might have simply been a ruse to cover someone else’s tracks John,” Arch agreed.

“I also doubt, assuming no-one simply vanishes from the Interrogation Office that the traitor, assuming there is one, still is amongst us. Pyotr’s vanishing was simply too pat, too convenient, too easy,” I added.

“This is why I like having John around,” Morgana chuckled. “He’s got a very healthy streak of paranoia going for him.”

“It’s not paranoia, there really are some out there determined to get me,” I said with a grin.

“They nearly succeeded this time John,” Róisín added.

“I had no doubts about my Mage rescuing me and I would not betray her even if there were no chance,” I said simply.

“Do you wish to see Indira, by any chance before the tribunal that is?” Rowenna asked.

“Not really, I’m not the gloating type and I’ve nothing I really wish to say to her. I’ll simply let justice take its course,” I replied.

“She may request it John, you’ll have a say in the sentencing and she might wish to apologise,” Rowenna added.

“In the words of my Mage, ‘apology not accepted’ or acceptable. Not because of what they did to me, but for threatening my Róisín,” I answered solemnly.

That naturally got me a hug from Róisín and nods from the senior Mages present.

“That said I won’t demand a death sentence be it immediate or by Null aging,” I added.

“Pretty much my way of thinking John,” Morgana agreed. “Particularly now that my initial anger has worn off.”

“Agreed my Mage, that said I’ve no intention of allowing her or her two compatriots off easy.”

“Besides I intend to make them suffer for centuries if necessary,” Morgana added.

“That’s my true friend speaking,” chuckled Arch.

“Arch, Thea, John, Róisín, could you begin the investigation as to how Gudrun and Pyotr vanished off the reservation ... so to speak,” Morgana commanded.

“Yes Mage Morgana,” we all intoned formally.

“Mage Rowenna, could you please make sure John is returned to health as quickly as possible?” Morgana formally requested of Rowenna.

“Consider it done, I’ll get Mage Imelda to set things away during John’s sleep cycle as it will work better if he’s immobile and out of it. Besides he could do with a rest as I know he burns the candle at both ends,” she chuckled by way of reply.

“He is what he is,” Morgana added. “I’ve no intention of changing him.”

“Why would you?” Rowenna enquired. “He was after all prepared to die for you.”

“I know, I just wish he’d never been put in that position, even if it’s removed several obstacles to getting things done here,” Morgana sighed as we trooped out of the office.

We all went back to the Council chamber and began a few enquiries off the still mostly assembled Council. The odd part was that no-one could remember Pyotr or Gudrun leaving as the doors had been sealed. Enquiries to the chamber guardians met with a similar result, they stated no-one had left during the session whilst it was ongoing.

“I don’t suppose they used an invisibility spell and simply left with someone after the session?” I asked.

“Not possible John, you felt the Null barriers at the entrance, plus the doors have to be physically opened to drop the barriers and they weren’t.” Thea replied.

“Disguise?” I mused.

“Disguise?” Arch enquired.

“Lot of the more old fashioned Mages wear those silly robes and cloaks. Pull on a mask and mingle at the edges until people leave and slip out with them,” I said.

“Bit basic, but eminently possible I guess,” Thea agreed. “Most of our security is based on keeping Mages out, not in.”

“Do we record comings and goings as in teleports out?” Róisín asked.

“None were made during our initial scan, but there have been several in the last few minutes,” Thea said after a pause whilst she made a few mental enquiries.

“Should have been none at all until we’d found out what happened,” Arch sighed.

“I know Mage Arch,” Thea agreed. “But it was assumed they’d already gone and banning a Council member from teleportation with their staff is not going to happen unless Mage Simon says so.”

“Yes dammit!” Arch agreed bitterly. “Means we now have to try and see who went where.”

“We could try a time mirror,” I mused out loud.

“Time mirror?” Arch enquired.

“We create a window into the past and observe the events,” I said.

“You have to be kidding, the higher powers will go bananas,” Thea stated.

“From what I can tell, they won’t get involved unless we change things, we won’t be changing anything, merely looking,” I said.

Both Arch and Thea looked at each other before shrugging.

“Best ask Mage Morgana,” Thea finally said.

“Yep,” Arch agreed before we all set off to Morgana’s office.

“This is very dangerous John,” Morgana finally said after I presented my case.

“I know my Mage, but it’s not something I could or would do on my own, that’s why I suggest asking Father Antonelli to have a word with his patron too,” I answered.

Antonelli wasn’t too hard to find, he and Father Bryce normally hung out in the Council’s bar and chatted to all and sundry who came in looking for refreshment. Oddly enough most Mages were now pretty much pleased to see them and get their slant on matters political and magical, save naturally for some who avoided the two Theurgists at all costs.

“Looking isn’t doing, so I’d guess it’s ok John,” Antonelli finally opined. “Want us to help just in case?”

“Yes please, though I’d also hoped this might have simply been one of those things that you knew when thinking of it,” I chuckled.

“Not this, even the higher powers we serve don’t know what the outcome will be,” said Bryce. “One of those down to God things.”

“Looks like we take a chance my Mage,” I finally said.

“I’ll clear it with Simon, though I suspect he’ll want to sit in too,” Morgana chuckled.

“No time like the present, although I doubt going back further than a few hours would be feasible with what I currently have learned,” I replied.

“The mathematics are daunting, you have to look back at a precise spot where our Earth, this chamber and a certain person was at a specific time in the past bearing in mind that all are moving at incredible speeds,” Thea added.

“Yet it can be done,” Róisín said.

“That it can, although to simplify things we’ll all help and add our abilities to it, should you choose to volunteer of course,” Morgana stated.

“I’m in,” I said seeing the others all nod their heads in agreement.

Simon was quite hard to convince and wasn’t happy about using the Council headquarters for doing such an activity in, oddly enough Mage Hermes was all in favour of it, although I suspect he hoped that the higher powers would simply remove me, Morgana and our group should we break some celestial law.

Still the following day we assembled as did the Council and the experiment began. I as (supposedly) the most surplus to requirements with the ability to use tachyons set up the field in the shape of a circular mesh of silvered wire which I also treated as to be a one way viewer in order not to interfere with anything we saw in the past by them seeing us. In this Morgana agreed, seeing as we hadn’t observed anyone looking in from the time of the last meeting in the Council she took it as a sign of it either working or completely failing. Once set up I used a series of coordinates as given to me by Arch and Thea to lock onto a point in the universe where our Earth and the Council chamber was physically located the previous day. Then guided by Morgana I used a sequence of Tachyon emissions to move the view which was of a point in space backwards until we reached a specific time reference and allowed me to bring the scene into view.