Hugo saw a few frowns at her proclamation. Evidently some of the other colonels didn’t want him to know everything. He was glad that the general decided to share though. He needed to know this information if they were ever going to stop the shimmer vein attacks.

General Kallas ignored the frowns and said, “We have discovered that there was a coordinated effort by an unknown organization to bring down the river coalition. They have enlisted a splinter group within Deva’s military to attack and destabilize Ettel, Reval, and Tallinn. The attacks on the other cities were just misdirections.

“We caught fourteen spies, each of them with orders from their commanding officers to disable control runes on the wheel. Two for every city but Deva. They didn’t know much more than that. Only a few of the saboteurs knew that their orders weren’t coming from their President.

“We haven’t found any evidence of their involvement with hedge mages yet. We suspect that they will be brought into the operation later in the year. They are gearing up for something big, there are bounties out for mana cores and competent runists and ritualists have been disappearing.”

Hugo sat back. He had suspected the mana cores were part of this, but the abductions were a surprise. He said, “How are they paying for everything? You mentioned that their President wasn’t supporting them, so how are they paying for mage abductions and mana cores?”

Colonel Sebastian spoke up, “That’s a good question. That’s why we know there is an outside source directing everything. Even the President of Deva couldn’t fund something this big. The cost of the mana cores alone would bankrupt his city-state. We would suspect one of the big three funding the attack, but they each rely on the food we grow here. Even a temporary disruption in food production would seriously hurt them. It has to be someone new.”

“What do we know about this outside source?” Hugo said.

“Hardly anything. We know the money started pouring in late last year, and they have started spending more and more recently,” Colonel Sebastian said.

“That’s it? That’s all you know?” Mia said.

General Kallas said, “We are not equipped for this investigation. We fight monsters, not people. Normally this is something the shimmer corps would handle. If we could trust them, we would have handed this over to them right away.”

They all sat in silence for a moment before Colonel Sebastian said, “Let’s discuss our next steps. What is our plan of attack? We need a coordinated effort.”

“Whatever we decide on, the plan shouldn’t leave this room,” Hugo said, “When the hedge mages attacked on new year’s, the first I saw them was in this room. I didn’t hear any fighting before then. That indicates that the hedge mages had inside help when they infiltrated this building. I suspect some of the sentinel guards may have been bought out.”

The colonel from Tallinn immediately protested, “Maybe Reval sentinels can be bought, but not mine. Tallinn sentinels are above reproach.”

Colonel Sebastian stood up and was about to retort when General Kallas slammed her hand down on the table and said, “Shut it. No one has an organization full of angels. With the amount of money we are talking about, at least one sentinel in each city will get compromised.”

The two colonels stared daggers at each other, but said nothing. Colonel Sebastian slowly sat down.

“If we suspect spies in our ranks, how do we organize anything?” the colonel from Tallinn said and turned to Hugo.

To his surprise, the rest of the room turned towards Hugo as well.

Why were they asking him? He was just a kid. These sentinels should have a better idea of how to organize and lead people. He had just read a lot of cheap spy novels. Still, he did have a suggestion pulled from those pages. “Well, if we are worried about infiltration, perhaps the best course of action would be to set up cells. Each city would work independently, passing vital information through the general. The general would pass along what we need to know, without giving out each city’s plan to tackle the hedge mages. The sentinels within each city should work the same way, everyone operating on a need to know basis.”

The general nodded along. She said, “I know I can trust everyone in this room, but operational security will do us some good. That will be the plan. I will coordinate everything, but colonels won’t tell each other their plans. I will also ask each of you to create separate cells within your organizations. Colonel Mandisa, please include Xhosa within one of your cells.”

Hugo looked to his right to see the nox nod. Now he knew one more name. Colonel Mandisa was the nox sentinel in command in Paarl. He wished he had gotten there in time for introductions so he knew everyone’s name.

Dean Artjom spoke up, “Actually, I would recommend that Xhosa stay out of anything dangerous. We need him alive to ferry messages back in time if we fail.”

Hugo shook his head, “No, I am not going to hide while everyone else risks their lives. I need to be in the thick of things, to get first hand knowledge. Plus, I have at most five trips back in time, I can’t try over and over again like Mia did. I am living each life like it is my last one.”

The dean clearly disagreed, but he sat back and said nothing.

“Alright then. We all have the same information, now we need to develop plans to root out the hedge mages in our cities,” General Kallas said. “I will personally organize the efforts in Deva. I don’t think I need to tell you all that the sentinels in Deva will be kept in the dark about all of this. They are loyal to their country before they are loyal to the sapient peoples of the wheel.”

There were a few nods around the table. It made Hugo a bit sad to think about. The eight cities on the wheel were parts of four different nations. The River Coalition, Nox Paxia, Poxima, and Hunedoara. Each nation had committed to support a singular effort, protecting sapients from the annual monster surges with the sentinel forces. Hugo had grown up thinking that the sentinels were the one true incorruptible force in the world. They stood against the tide for the good of all. Apparently that was just another lie they told children.

“Speaking of loyalties. What are we going to tell the nobles?” the light mage said.

“Should we tell them anything? Politics will just make all of our efforts harder,” Colonel Sebastian said.

“We have to tell them, it’s vital information that they need to know. We have a foreign force attacking each of our cities. It’s clearly an act of war they need to know about,” Colonel Mandisa said. Only a few of the other colonels nodded along with him.

The general shook her head, “No, those children can’t be trusted with this right now. After the heartbeat, we can tell them everything. For now we keep this in house.”

Hugo sat back as the meeting wrapped up. They discussed their goals and how often to report to the general on their progress. Once the minutiae was nailed down, the general dismissed the meeting.

As the colonels filed out of the room, Hugo waited patiently for them to leave first. It had been a nerve racking meeting, talking to all of these powerful people. A few of them asked him how he had gained three domains, but he refused to discuss it.

“Hey Xhosa?”

Hugo turned and said, “Oh hey, Mia, what’s up?”

She shivered and said, “It’s weird that you know me and I don’t know you. I am used to being on the other side of things. Anyway, I was wondering if there was anything I could do to help out.”

Hugo nodded, “Maybe talk to the Tallinn colonel? I am sure you would be the best person to get Alexandru out of hiding. Other than that, maybe I can come visit for some lessons on the runic domain? I am just starting out and you have lots of experience.”

“That’s it? Just talking to people. I don’t know how much you know about me, but I am experienced in some pretty crazy stuff,” Mia said.

“I know how capable you are, but I don’t know the best way for you to help just yet,” Hugo said. He looked over to the dean who was talking to the general. “Actually, maybe you can help out. I was going to ask the dean to do this but I know you are just as trustworthy, if not more so.

“There is a new student named Lenna that just started in the formations class. She has a crazy idea for an armor that will block attacks from mana bolts and shimmer casters. It’s going to work. You should befriend her or something and encourage her to work on her design. She needs her third element choice to complete the armor though. Maybe talk to the dean in a few months and have him sponsor her rank ups in exchange for enough armor to protect the top ranks of sentinel command.”

“Armor that will stop shimmer casters?” Mia said, still catching up to the crazy idea.

“Yeah, it’s going to cause a problem down the line, but we need something in case we don’t stop all of the hedge mages before they attack. The dean isn’t going to like the idea, but I am sure you will be fine with upsetting the balance of power on the wheel,” Hugo said.

Mia smiled, “You know it! Lots of people around here don’t like change, but if what you are saying is true, protection from shimmer casters is vital.”

Hugo nodded and bid her goodbye. He would check in with her in a few months to see how she was doing, and maybe get some runic lessons at the same time.

Colonel Mandisa nodded to him as he walked out of the meeting hall. “Are you heading home now?”

“No, there are a few things I need to do in town before I go,” Hugo said.

“Come by the sentinel office sometime over the next few days. We will discuss your place in the coming efforts,” the colonel said.

“I will, thank you,” Hugo said. Now that he knew how lax the apprenticeship was, he knew that he could get away at any time.

The first thing that he did after he left the sentinels was track down the nearest runic workshop. He wanted to get some more money and he figured it was better to skirt the metal guild’s rules in a city he didn’t live in.

He started with a high end runic store and checked the maker’s marks. Then he wandered down to the merchant district and asked around for where their shops were. It took him longer than he liked to find where they made runes, some people just weren’t friendly to nox.

Eventually he found himself at the right place. Before he went in, he ducked into a side alley and fabricated several mithril rods. He left himself a cushion of twenty points of mana, but he was still able to make a sizable amount of mithril to sell.

He walked in and asked to speak with the purchasing director. Hugo was led to the archmage’s office.

“Thank you for meeting with me, sir,” Hugo said.

“Of course. I have to admit, I am curious why you wanted to talk with me,” the archmage said from behind his desk.

“Thank you for asking. I live in Paarl, and I had a father that recently died. He was a runic mage and since I will not be following his footsteps, I sold off most of his equipment,” Hugo pulled out the bundle of mithril rods. “Imagine my dismay when I learned that his mithril rods couldn’t be sold. The metal guild won’t buy them back and I am told the runists there won’t buy them from me either.”

The archmage looked at the bundle of rods with interest and said, “My condolences on your loss.”

Hugo set the rods on his desk and said, “Thank you for saying that. I was hoping that you could offer me some monetary condolences as well. I would leave these rods here for you to dispose of.”

“I can’t buy them from you, but you should leave the rods with me. You wouldn’t want the metal guild to catch you with them. They might think you were trying to sell them.”

The archmage reached for the rods and Hugo slapped two hands on the rods and said, “Don’t worry about me. I can dispose of the rods myself.”

“No, no. I believe I can dispose of them properly. I would love to offer you monetary condolences as well. But we just met, I would hate to hear that the shimmer corps had offered you condolences as well,” the archmage said.

“I am not a fan of shimmer corps. I’ve never talked to them. I haven’t talked to your competitors either,” Hugo said.

“That’s good to hear,” the archmage said and held up a vial of acid, “Do you know what this is?”

“Yes, go ahead,” Hugo said. It was testing acid. The archmage wanted to make sure that these rods were pure mithril.

After he was done testing, the archmage said, “Thank you. I can give you two gold in condolences as you leave.”

Thanks to his experience with selling mithril before, he knew that was way too low. “I was hoping for a lot more heartfelt condolences. More along the order of twenty gold.”

The archmage shook his head, “I am generous, but not nearly that generous. The best I can do is ten gold.”

It was still far below the real value of the rods, but Hugo said, “That is acceptable.”

The archmage reached for the rods again, but he flickered a barrier around them. Hugo raised his eyebrow. He didn’t trust someone so quickly willing to break the rules the metal guild set up. He was going to get his money first.

The archmage laughed and counted out ten gold coins. Hugo took them and recycled his barrier. As he was leaving the office, the archmage said, “Bit of warning to you, kid. Don’t do this often. If the metal guild gets wind of this, they will come after you. I would get a slap on my wrists because they need me to keep buying. You though, you're their competition. And they don’t like competition.”

“I only have one father, sir. This conversation won’t ever repeat itself,” Hugo said as he left the office.

He decided the man was right. Even if he traveled, he couldn’t do this too many more times. The metal guild had created an artificial scarcity on certain metals, they were sure to have ways of eliminating their competition.

He didn’t regret selling the mithril today though. He had plans for the money.

His first stop was at Hanna’s house. He put three gold in an envelope and dropped it off with her parents. Now she wouldn’t have to spy on Kristofer for his father.

The next step was a simple letter. He wrote a letter to Marius and told him exactly what was going to happen with his grandcryst. He sent it to his mother’s place. Marius would get the letter exactly when it would be most useful.

Next, he traveled uptown to his final stop in Reval.