Steven was early the next day. Something which was unusual for him. He slept precisely eight hours every night, any more would be intolerable. But this morning he was early. He awoke at exactly seven forty-five. He frowned; it was most inconvenient. Him being ahead of schedule meant that the servants would be out of sync, undoing his normal perfect morning routine. And yet he could not lay there for fifteen minutes, wasting time, doing nothing.

Suddenly, a part of his fractured mind shouted for his complete attention. “Whales?” He muttered. “Dolphins? What?” He sat upright in bed. “Whales! Dolphins! Yes, that is it.” He scrambled for his phone, which was on the other side of the room, and punched in a number. The phone went over a number of times, making Steven almost shout.

“Yeah, this Dave, who dis?” A sleepy voice came over the line.

“Dave, it is Steven Cairn, I have an urgent assignment.” It was silent for a few seconds on the other line.

“Oh, hello mister Cairn, assignment?” The voice sounded a lot clearer suddenly.

“An urgent assignment Dave yes.” Steven said impatiently.

“I need you to collect as many hours of whale and dolphin sounds as possible, both above and under water.” Dave almost fell off the bed he was now sitting on.

“Whale and dolphin sounds?” He asked a bit confused.

“Both above and under water, different regions and different subspecies.” Steven answered, irritated by the other end’s slow responses.

“Yeah, okay, I can get you those tomorrow, all right?” Dave said, already going through his contact list. “Standard price, paid up front.” Steven wired the money with barely a thought. “Transaction confirmed, until tomorrow mister Cairn.” The line went dead.

Steven nodded, pleased for having it figured out. He looked at the clock seven fifty. He glowered at the clock. He turned the telly on, watched part of the match that was being replayed, until finally it was eight o’clock. He let out a long breath. “Not as it was supposed to happen, but ultimately fruitful.” He said in a desperate attempt to salvage his normally perfect morning routine.

Grudgingly he entered the shower, it alleviated his annoyance and by the time he came out of the shower the world was right again. “Grey.” He mused as he looked at the suits that had been laid out for him. “Something lighter.” He dressed and walked towards the dining hall. It was empty, Serena hadn’t woken up yet, excellent. He said down, picked up the single cigarette lying to his steaming cup of coffee.

Before he could light it however, the doors were thrown wide open and his niece came striding in. He made a quick assessment of her clothing, discount army boots, discount army pants, cheap and worn sweater and finally an A2 deck hat. It all screamed of poverty to him, but she was allowed her own taste. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t seen worse. Some apprentices took being a dark mage a little too literal. With some amusement he recalled the people he had apprenticed with. No, if Serena wanted to dress like this, she was free too. “No hats inside the house, it is impolite.” He said quietly.

For a second, it seemed as if his niece was going to explode, she opened her mouth angrily, then closed it again. She took the cap off and sat down on the other end of the table, as far away from his as she possibly could. Unsurprising, but a little disappointing. He thought, but decided to say nothing of it, instead he lit the cigarette. He then rang the bell in front of him and as the maid entered, he nodded towards his niece. The servant made a curtsy and hurried over to his niece.

“Thank you, some cereal if you have it and coffee.” He heard her say in soft tone. Before the servant could walk away, she stopped her. He watched from behind the pages of the Daily Inquirer, holding the paper just low enough so that he could keep track of the engagement. “I’m sorry what is your name?” His niece asked, in a soft voice.

“Hannah, miss. Hannah Marsh.” The maid said, her eyes rushing back and forth between Steven and his niece.

“Hannah, could you tell Toshiro that I will come to the kitchen later today?” Hannah nodded, then curtsied. “Oh, and please, stop that, I’m not some kind of Lady. Honestly, I delivered pizzas before I came here.” Humanizing herself towards the servants? No. Embarrassed? Perhaps. He mused as he observed the exchange. His attention was drawn back to the paper and he stopped listening to what was being said.

HAVE DARK MAGES INFILTRATED THE COUNCIL?

The headline read, followed by;

THE LEGALIZATION OF DRAGON SCALES IN A NEW LIGHT

He quickly read further, a frown forming on his face.

Written by Patricia Pole.

The frown deepened; he had an immense dislike for the Pole family. Once upon a time, they had been one of the great magical families of the United Kingdom. The family had however fallen on hard times, mismanagement and a lack of mages. Artifacts had to be sold, many of them now lying in the Cairn vaults, creating gaps in the protection of the Pole family home. The mansion was raided a couple of months later. All of that could happen to the best of families, but it had been their solution which made him despise them.

The Poles, down on their luck, afraid of their former friends, had gone to the council. In exchange for protection, the Poles had given the council everything. Everything might not had been much in the material sense, but immaterial, that was an entirely different story. The Poles had been a respectable, old family. As such they had been wined and dined in every great magical household across the nation, and a number beyond. The Poles had basically given the council the layout of the homes of every dark mage in Britain.

The series of raids that had followed had been devastating for many of the old families. Historians now consider it a turning point in mage history. Before, the council had been a player, mostly because they united those mages who didn’t belong to or worked for the old families. Now, the council was sitting on a cache of magical artifacts that would be the envy of even the oldest of magical families.

He started reading the article. Patricia Pole’s scathing words condemned both the current council as well as the remaining dark mages in the country in a single breath. Apparently, there was a violent conspiracy between certain council members and known dark mages. She didn’t mention names until the very end of the article,

Who then stands in the very centre of this web of corruption and scandal? A source within the council, who wishes to remain anonymous, points the finger to Aram Winterhand. Mage Winterhand, the source says, associates with dark mages frequently and counts some of them amongst his friends. We tried to reach Mage Winterhand for commentary, but we found his rather large house to be empty. We can only speculate where or with whom Mage Winterhand is spending his days.

He closed the paper, there was a limit to that women’s dribble he could stomach. When he looked up, he found that Serena had finished her breakfast and was staring at her phone. He stood up, a second later followed by Serena. “Time for class.” He said dryly.