Chapter 75

The Council chamber listened in silence as Morgana gave her detailed mission report of the demise of the Coalition leadership. It was only after she completed it that the questions began.

“You mean you have no intentions of attacking what’s left of the Coalition in Iran?” Mage Fen asked.

“None at all,” Morgana replied coolly.

“Why not, I would have thought you’d relish the thought of going in gung ho?” Fen retorted.

“Their leadership is broken. We don’t know where they all are and unlike Vanuatu where we had good intelligence, I’m not going to risk the lives of good Mages on the off chance we can take some Coalition small fry,” Morgana replied evenly.

“Now you consider the lives of Mages?” Fen spat.

“I always consider the lives of Mages and weigh them against the odds of a successful mission. We lost nine Mages in the fight in Vanuatu, mostly from North America; their names are burned into my conscience. However, their sacrifice enabled us to destroy the Coalition leadership; we killed forty two of their upper level Mages and captured nine, including their ruling triumvirate. That in my opinion was a price worth paying to rid us of a bunch of murdering, raping, psychopathic egomaniacs who had preyed on the ordinary decent Mage community as a whole for far too many years,” Morgana replied at length getting a few ‘well said’s’ and nods of agreement from the assembled Council.

“Yet you refuse to go after the rest of them?” Mage Fen hit back.

“If I can find them and take them down, I will. I will not, however, go into Iran on the off chance I might find a couple. That in my opinion would be a complete waste of my Office’s and the Bureaus’ resources,” Morgana replied.

“Mage Fen, you voted against the attack against the Coalition on Vanuatu, yet now when the odds of success are even less by a far wider margin, you wish the Enforcement Office to risk exposure to mundanes by going into Iran to turn over every rock to find a few Coalition malcontents?” Mage Julia asked with malice aforethought.

“Not at all, I was merely highlighting the hubris of Mage Morgana in claiming victory against the Coalition when they still hold Iran,” Fen replied loftily.

“Vanuatu was a victory,” Mage Zola retorted. “I don’t however recall Mage Morgana claiming to have won the war.”

“Indeed she did not,” Simon said to the assembled Mages. “It’s my opinion that we monitor what happens in Iran and act, if necessary, to stem any attempts by the Coalition to expand their activities in the world at large. Indeed I can see the advantage of permitting them to exist as a magnet for other malcontents in the Mage community, assuming of course we can keep them contained.”

“I rather doubt the Iranian public at large will take to Mages becoming evident and I’m pretty sure the Iranian leadership will be cautious about any friendship they maintain with the Coalition too,” Mage Julia added.

“So it’s the intent of the Vanguard Entente to allow this Pyrrhic victory to stand and not seek total victory?” Fen asked.

“As opposed to wasting Mages’ time and energies on a wild goose chase, yes,” Julia acknowledged dismissively.

“And what of the Coalition prisoners?” Fen asked.

“What of them?” Mage Cixi asked.

“Surely they will have information on the whereabouts of the remaining Coalition scum?” Fen asked.

“They do not, no more than Simon does for the individual members of Morgana’s team” Cixi replied.

“As soon as they realised we had the leadership, they moved. We’ll naturally try to track them, but it won’t be easy,” Morgana confirmed.

“Survival, not trying to bring down the Council will be the Coalition’s concern for the next few years I suspect,” Julia added.

“When can we expect any trials?” Mage Zola asked respectfully.

“At the moment we’re going through masses of details on Coalition activities worldwide going back to the days of the Vikings in certain instances. Collating and archiving it could take years. We are also providing the Bureaus with evidence of Coalition moles in the Mage community as a whole, most of whom were unwilling blackmail victims,” Mage Cixi replied. “In short, not soon.”

“All of them?” she asked.

“As the possible outcome is a death sentence, we are erring on the side of caution. Some like Merlin and Elymas it’s inevitable though they have the most stored information. Others, like Edward, who believe Mages should be ruling humanity, but wanted to bring it about non-violently are being scanned and evaluated at length,” Cixi explained.

“They should simply be killed out of hand!” Mage Fen retorted.

“Now who’s the barbarian,” Morgana murmured, yet loud enough for a good few Mages to hear.

“For what they did to Mage Hermes, they should die!” Fen continued to a background of chuckles.

“I believe I have a prior claim on Merlin. One in which Mage Hermes himself was complicit in covering up,” Morgana stated icily. “Yet I would see justice not only done, but seen to be done.”

“The case against Merlin was not proven at the time, you can hardly blame Mage Hermes for that,” Fen said haughtily.

“Only because Hermes would not permit a scan of his golden boy, despite other evidence as well. Evidence which you dismissed at the time as being a web of deceit and lies,” Morgana hit back. “Even now you seek to have evidence destroyed by the simple expedient of having Coalition Mages killed out of hand before all their secrets are revealed, some of which will no doubt be highly embarrassing to the Council and its members,” Morgana retorted getting a lot of nods of agreement.

“I only acted on the evidence before me as did Mage Hermes. You were hardly a credible witness,” Fen dismissed Morgana’s response.

“Yet she spoke the truth and took a scan. A scan which Mage Hermes and the Interrogation Office would not permit to be used by the prosecution,” Simon interjected. “Mage Morgana was terribly wronged by this Council and the way some Mages used its rules and procedures to cover up an embarrassing truth, many of whom have yet to apologise to her and still it appears bear grudges for having their complicity revealed.”

“I will not apologise for following the rules,” Fen snarled.

“And I will not permit the rules to be bent to allow the execution of the Coalition leadership because they may reveal idiocy on the part of the Amity Caucus in centuries of appeasement in trying to bring them back into the fold,” Mage Cixi stated baldly.

“You were once part of the Amity Caucus, Cixi,” Fen retorted.

“I was. Yet now regret my folly. We talked when action was needed and acted when caution was called for. We could have easily destroyed the Coalition back in the 1300’s when it was but a small cabal, save only Amity wished to talk them back and I for one went along with it, to my regret,” Cixi stated. “We knew what they were. We knew what they’d done to Mage Morgana and other female Mages, yet still we talked and for that, Mage Morgana, you have my heartfelt apologies.”

“You apologised and I forgave you many centuries ago, Cixi,” Morgana replied graciously.

“Yet Simon has the right of it, some have not, nor will not accept their part in the blame of how we ended up here and for that I intend to see the evidence presented that all may see how the Council failed you and many, many others up until September 11th,” Cixi added.

“There will be plenty of blame to go around believe me,” Simon acknowledged. And no, Mage Fen, as per my office of Senex veneficus penitus orbis, I will not permit the execution of the Coalition leadership until we have all that they know in our records.”

“I can have you overruled by the Council!” Fen spat.

“Mage Fen proposes that the Council overrules my decision to allow Mage Cixi the time to extract all of the Coalitions secrets and simply have them executed. Any seconders?” Simon announced.

There was utter silence in the chamber.

“I believe that answers your threat, Mage Fen,” Simon said into the silence.

“You would have good Mages humiliated simply because they didn’t know all that was going on!” Fen replied coldly.

“No, I’d have those Mages who knew what was going on and who still refused to do anything about it exposed,” Simon stated with gravitas. “Anyone, even a Mage can and does make mistakes. However not learning from them and repeating the same mistakes, time and time again, is unforgiveable and worth exposing to humiliation, believe me.”

“I believe Simon is going to clean house,” I murmured to Morgana.

“Yes, John. It’s been coming a long time,” she replied quietly.

“What will happen to the Bureaus now the Coalition is gone?” I asked.

“We still have the Nephilim and the Sidhe, John,” she replied. “But we’ll gradually reduce them to simply dealing with Mage society and ensuring it keeps to the accords, it’s not like we don’t have the money to keep them either.”

“They’d get bored,” I chuckled.

“Which is why we’re going after the Nephilim and Sidhe as soon as we can get organised,” Morgana replied with a smile.

“Do we have a plan?” I asked.

“Not as such, simply a bunch of slowly coagulating ideas,” she replied. “Which reminds me, we need to visit Tír na nÓg to speak to Titania, or rather Verenestra and William, as I believe there has been a development. Now quiet, it’s time for Mage Fen to dig herself in deeper.”

“Surely it is not your intent to begin a witch-hunt, Mage Simon?” Fen asked archly.

“No, merely clear the air of some of the judgements handed down over the centuries that this Council handed out which in hindsight look decidedly questionable and reeking of favouritism,” Simon replied mildly.

“Which judgements would these be?” Fen asked nervously.

“The continuous harassment of Mage Morgana, even after she was vindicated by Elymas’ revolt, for one,” Simon replied.

“Her judgment has always been somewhat suspect,” Fen replied vindictively.

“Even though she was right?” Julia asked.

“That was not known at the time,” Fen replied.

“Yet still you question her judgement?” Julia noted.

“She would have brought this Council down had she had her way. Reasoned debate was the factor which kept Mages safe over the centuries, not malicious attacks on other Mages which would not have helped,” Fen spat out.

“Yet in the end her way brought down the Coalition,” Julia replied.

“She was in part the reason why the Coalition came about in the first place!” Fen raged. “Her vendetta against Mage Hermes and his associates drove them out of the Council and into rebellion!”

There was a stunned silence in the Council as Fen in her anger gave word to the vicious rumour spread by the Amity Caucus to cover its role in the Coalition’s formation.

“Are you saying her rape and enforced slavery should have been ignored, Mage Fen?” Simon asked ominously.

“An investigation was made. Merlin was acquitted. She should have accepted that, rather than undermine the Council from within until she had gained power!!” Fen spat out.

“Yet the Interrogation Office under Hermes investigated me many times whilst ignoring the evidence of the Coalition’s gathering of objects of power along with their role in the rise of barbarism and never once found me to have breached the rules, Mage Fen,” Morgana stated outwardly politely, though I could tell she was inwardly seething with that cold icy detachment she used when taking down an enemy.

“Indeed the persecution of Morgana many times caused the Interrogation Office and its Investigators to be reprimanded for their excessive zeal,” Simon stated. “They also blocked attempts by the Enforcement Office to investigate the activities of Elymas, Merlin and Djadjamahnk.”

“Moves which drove them ever further from the Council and into revolt!” Fen spat.

“Yet Morgana was treated far worse by the Council and did not revolt,” Mage Cixi stated. “It would appear you are still living in a fantasy world of your own making, Mage Fen. The Amity Caucus, which you now lead, has obstructed justice, concealed treason and permitted the Coalition to grow whilst endlessly debating useless measures and attempting to shift the blame for these debacles onto those who were actually dealing with the issues the Coalition were throwing up. I should know, after all, to my eternal regret, I was part of it.”