Chapter 70

Rowenna had agreed to meet us halfway as it were in Kurukshetra where Hermes was housed in the old medical wing. This was in part a safeguard by the Council just in case the embedded wards gave off a homing signal as we knew via Mage Cornelius that the Coalition were now aware that Rowenna’s Healing Magic office was no longer resident on that planet, nor on any planet they were capable of scanning.

“Mage Rowenna,” Morgana and I greeted our friend with a formal bow whilst Judas simply stood to one side and gave a friendly smile.

“My friends, why so formal?” Rowenna joyfully greeted us with a smile and a hug. “Good to meet you again, Jude. You’re quite the talking point amongst several Mages.”

“Notoriety has its price,” chuckled Judas.

“Not amongst friends,” Rowenna chided him.

“Indeed, Rowenna, indeed,” he chuckled.

“So, this is the information Merlin,” Rowenna pronounced the name as she would a curse, “gave us with regards to freeing Hermes from his torment.”

“Yes, does it make any sort of sense to you?” Morgana replied as Rowenna rapidly scanned the documents.

“Yes ... though whoever came up with the tortuous ward bindings was or is a certifiable genius of the mad scientist category of humanity,” Rowenna answered with a frown. “I rather doubt it was all Merlin either. Yes, he had a hand in it, but there’s a lot he appears to be very vague about, including a few of these wards, still, we can at least make a start.”

“Can it be done?” Morgana questioned.

“Yes, though I’m not going to be able to do it alone, that and I’d prefer John to assist with his ‘cure’ and also a Seer or two for a deep scan as well as a warning system for anything untoward happening when we remove the wards,” Rowenna replied.

“Seers are not a problem, Julia will authorise it and John would help no matter the circumstances,” Morgana replied with a smile at my nod.

“I can have my staff here within an hour, including Benjamin,” Rowenna acknowledged.

“Julia says yes, Simone and Jemima are on their way,” Morgana added.

“May I stay and observe? I have a modest gift for healing myself,” Judas asked.

“Will your prayers be answered here?” I asked knowing most Theurgists were limited to one Earth.

“Yes, I still feel his presence here,” Judas replied with a slight smile.

“I have no objection,” Rowenna said looking at Morgana.

“Nor have I, Jude,” Morgana stated.

“Thank you,” was all Judas said and then went back to studying his surroundings.

Rowenna then led us to a warm comfortable room where Hermes was kept in an artificially induced coma. He looked ghastly, but his condition though slowly deteriorating over time could be restored by my own personal gift which worked differently from the established way of healing someone. Something I believe Merlin did not know, as I suspected when fitting the wards he would have thought that a rescue attempt would kill Hermes.

“No change?” Morgana asked.

“No, every attempt to probe the wards has resulted in them locking us out and disturbing Hermes’ physical stability, which is why you were in a lot of demand the first few months of his initial state, John,” Rowenna replied.

“And without knowing the removal sequence because you couldn’t probe them, here we are today,” I sighed.

“Yes John, but now at least we have a chance,” Rowenna acknowledged.

“Think he’ll get his job back?” I asked.

“No,” both Morgana and Rowenna answered at once. “Council rules for an incapacitated member allow up to a year before their position is revoked. All Hermes can do is re-apply for a position on the Council, assuming there’s one available, which there isn’t since Mage Rutu’s ascension a year ago to take what used to be Mage Cixi’s place,” Morgana went on.

“Wonder if that figured in Merlin’s thinking,” I mused.

“I suspect it amuses him, though it wouldn’t have made him hand this over unless he had to. Even then I suspect he’ll have a backup plan in there somewhere,” Morgana replied. “He’d be more likely to try and increase Hermes’ suffering if anything.”

“Surprised it took so long, to be honest,” I replied.

“The Council isn’t noted for its speed, John,” Rowenna chuckled. “As it was, the back room bargaining for a place on the Council can oft times take decades, as with Morgana, simply because she was severely disliked by one of the factions.”

“Can’t think why,” Morgana chuckled looking at Hermes.

Judas looked a little mystified until I briefly explained the history of Merlin, Hermes and Morgana.

“I knew of course about Merlin, I did not know about Hermes being his master,” Judas stated at the end, after moving to hold a white faced Morgana’s hand. “I’m sorry for your loss,” he finished, alluding I believe to Morgana’s sisters and her son.

“It was a very long time ago, Jude, but yes, at times the pain and loss come back to hit me hard,” she said, a small tear running down her cheek.

“As do my own losses,” he said with a nod.

At this moment Simone and Jemima ported in, along with Abi who was working with Jemima. They were joined by Mage Benjamin as well as Artello and a few of the neuro-technician/surgeons of Loegria, some of them looking rather stunned at where they now were and the mode of travel.

“Great Gods!” Artello said after a cursory examination of Hermes.

“Yes indeed,” Rowenna replied. “What we need your people to do is guide me into fitting the frequency suppressor to his brain to prevent him fighting off the attempted removal of the devices. We have all the equipment you need, I believe, as you sold it to us.”

“Yes, we did this with Dorry and Olmer although in reverse, as it were. We’ll be your eyes as you attach the electrodes to the nodal neuro complex,” Artello replied getting nods off his staff.

“Simone, Jemima, Abi, could you monitor for any attempt by the wards to communicate outwardly or react to harm Hermes, please?” Rowenna asked.

“Of course, Rowenna,” Simone replied whilst Jemima and Abi simply nodded.

“John, Judas, could you be ready to step in if this goes wrong and we need to heal and restore him?”

“Yes, Mage Rowenna,” we both replied.

“Benjamin, you’ll hopefully be needed to aid in Hermes’ post-operative recovery,” Rowenna finally finished giving out instructions.

“Of course, my love,” Benjamin replied with a slight smile.

It took a little while for Artello and his people to set up various machines and sensors around Hermes to show what appeared to be a full colour 3D view of the centre of his brain where I presumed the frequency changing device needed to be fitted.

“Ready,” Artello announced.

Rowenna then microported a small elongated tubule into Hermes brain and then, under instructions from Artello and his staff, proceeded to attach tiny slivers of wiring to various points within Hermes brain, moving them through some convoluted pathways at times.

“Ready to test,” Rowenna finally announced.

“Ready. Device has run through start-up and has self-calibrated. Device now beginning preliminary tests on subject,” Artello intoned as he watched his instruments. “Frequency is changed to Loegrian norm. All stable and holding.”

“Well done and thank you,” a relieved Rowenna said to Artello and his people.

“Always a pleasure, Mage Rowenna,” Artello replied. “May we remain to observe the procedure you intend to carry out?”

“Of course, Artello. Make yourselves comfortable,” Rowenna replied as Artello’s people moved to the back of the room where they could watch from their ubiquitous phones via the monitors they had set up around Hermes.

The Mages and Seers then assembled along with Judas and I at the head of the bed where Hermes was lying.

“Nothing from the wards by nature of a reaction,” Simone said as the Seers probed Hermes.

“Morgana could you assist? The rest of you please stand ready,” Rowenna finally announced as she scanned Hermes.

Rowenna then proceeded to telekinetically float the procedure Merlin had given us until it was slightly away from Hermes head but within eyeshot of her and carefully used her mind to withdraw one of the barbed wards embedded in Hermes skull. Taking her time and healing Hermes behind the withdrawal the ward finally floated away from his head followed by a trail of blood and pus as she expelled any damaged or infected matter out with the ward.

“No change or reaction from the rest of the wards,” Simone said.

“Hermes remains stable,” Morgana added. “Though his mind did react and attempted to reach out to his environment.”

“Merlin’s instructions are precise,” Rowenna noted, “both in the order of removal as well as the override code needed to stop the ward interacting with the others, just not with the nature of the wards.”

“So that’s what we were missing before?” Morgana asked.

“Yes, without the override code even if we’d removed it chances are it would kill him. We can’t teleport them out and trying it in Null prevented his defences from keeping him alive,” Rowenna replied. “We might have got there eventually, but it may have taken centuries.”

Rowenna then proceeded to remove other wards one at a time according to the sequence in Merlin’s notes until she was finally left with two and was forced to pause.

“We may have a problem here,” she said finally after scanning the notes several times.

“Problem?” Morgana asked quizzically.

“We have two identical wards, but two different pass-codes and I can’t identify which is which,” Rowenna explained.

“Are we now in a position where we could withdraw them both and risk success?” Morgana queried.

“There’s still a 70% chance of brain damage if we do,” Rowenna replied.

“Are they totally identical?” Artello asked. “Only the shapes I see don’t look identical.”

“You must be seeing something different from us,” Rowenna mused, walking across to where Artello and his team had been raptly studying our surgery. “Well, well, well,” she finally said softly when she saw what was on Artello’s phone.

“Solution?” Morgana asked.