Against the stupidity of man, the Ancients themselves toil in vain.

Wisdom of the Ancients, Book 2

As Edgard Maistry entered the room, his gaze fell on Elena Worchester and he smiled.

“It feels insane,” she simply stated as she noticed him, looking up from what he recognized as the old Mages of America book.

“The third shipment has just arrived. Roman’s agents had everything coming through multiple channels to avoid interception if any hostile force discovered what was going on.”

“But power at the touch of a… simple sheet of paper.”

“Not so simple,” he replied, then raised his right hand… flexing it.

“Although I’m not used to having it back yet, I can’t say I’m disappointed by those Fixers,” he added.

“You tell me.”

“What did you pick?” he asked.

“I was waiting for the crates after reading your stolen notes. I went for… Steam Shaper,” she said. “I’ve always regretted not having Billy-Jo’s flame and immunity to fire. That way, I keep my fogs, but I’ve opened perspectives.”

“I’m not going to ask for a detailed list,” he answered.

She turned her head in the direction where they both knew the tower was. The tower and the Ancient Skeleton locked in it.

“So, you were wrong about the need for this?”

“Oh, it is absolutely tied with it. Agnello just arrived yesterday and… well, he had bad news.”

“Let me guess. You tried to capture them and failed?”

“Is it that obvious?”

“You are a bit single-minded. I told you before, you should have tried the soft way. Ancient saying about flies, honey, and vinegar. You would have avoided all this. So, tell me all.”

“She invoked it?” Elena was wide-eyed.

“His man Zlatan Tadich was there and fled once he realized it was toying with him, and I spent most of the night debriefing him and Agnello. They had the entire profile for all of them, a strategy, and instead of surrendering or fighting out, she simply turned into… well, into a skeleton. With wings of black, capable of flying. Dread worthy of a Tyrant Fixer, not a Fire Shaper or Master. She shrugged enhanced Ranger attacks, struck with a kind of ice attack we don’t know, and when she spoke… it wasn’t her voice. It was another voice. Its voice.”

“Magic can do a lot bit… but that sounds positively supernatural. More than just magic.”

“It spoke of destiny, of inevitability. That even Zlatan himself was part of the order it wanted, as it blasted his team with frost balls.”

“Not ominous at all,” she said.

“Now, not everything is lost. Even though nobody has any information on what happened to the other team, which I now assume got it to intervene as well, the hit on their Talent House went almost perfectly, which is why we have so much of their stock. We’ll have the rest within a few more weeks.”

“But they can remake it.”

“If they can get their hands on enough Ancient Books, yes.”

“So, what is the plan?”

“Right now… I have General Adorno trying to assemble a pair of Talented companies from veterans and use just them to end the war, quickly and decisively. We may have enough to field a few empowered regiments beyond that, but that’s it without them to make more.”

“You’re thinking of bringing the war to the Central States… to where they are now.”

“Can’t afford to do anything else. And it has to be quick. Independence will get them one way or another, even if they don’t turn immediately to Wexler for protection and support after the failed kidnapping. If they can remake their stock of those parchments, the quality advantage of our empowered platoons will be negated when they match our troops.”

Elena’s eyebrows rose.

“Sorry, strategies gaming planning going on non-stop. Any cautious scenario ends up in failure.”

“How so?”

He pointed in the general direction of the tower.

“If it was just through the physical object here, it would be perfect. We would have all the cards. But it’s not just an Artifact. It has a… presence. A will. And they can channel that will through them. Your little Johanna Milton and the other three. They don’t need to have access to it.”

“You want to destroy it?”

“My first impulse would have been to sink that in the Pacific. But there is no guarantee it would even suffice. It’s impervious to anything we have, even if we don’t trigger defenses, so it might survive being dumped into one of those deep trenches there. And then we’d lose control of that piece. Right now, we have the numerical advantage in terms of Talented, but we will lose that fast if they keep making parchments.”

“You are serious. You want to end the creation of Talents.”

“It’s an Ancient, not God. We’re committed to this course, Elena. There is no turning back. And don’t pretend you haven’t enjoyed suddenly gaining additional power.”

She laughed, the laugh more brittle than Edgard had ever heard from her. That briefly worried him. She might be replaceable now, but she was one of his strongest supports from early on in this war.

“You know… I wanted to see magic. But I can’t unsee. People say it is strange… but they don’t see mana. I do. I see it. All everyone sees is weird weather above your castle. I see what truly surrounds it now. The immense churning of mana that goes over it.”

She laughed, little hiccups coming.

“It’s not even powering it. That Artifact, in the cathedral? It needs to be fed mana from above. But the mana around it… it comes from within. And it attracts more. Just by being there.”

“Keep yourself together, Elena. Do you want to head to Kootenai and help there? You might not be entirely necessary there immediately, but if you need to get away from New Benton and the tower?”

“Now, I’m okay.”

He stood up.

“See you, then.”

Just before he left, Elena asked, “What did you pick?”

He turned, smiled at her, and simply left.

The Warden of the Montana came out into the courtyard and his gaze rose up, and up, until he was looking straight above, at the heavy cloud cover that promised rain without quite delivering.

And the hole in the clouds, as clouds swirled above, leaving a square opening to the heavens above. Even if the sun didn’t shine in that direction, you knew the opening was exactly above the skeleton on its chair, safely hidden in the tower. Hidden and visible to everyone.

Edgard Maistry, Warden of the Montana, wasn’t given to flight of imagination, but he still got the impression that, if he went there, the skeleton on its chair would be looking at him. Taunting. Daring him to do something, anything.

Fuck you, Ancient. It’s my world, not yours.

Douglas Joseph Moore

NULL, 183 years, 3 months

NULL (Human Resources Middle Manager)

Level: NaN

XP: 9312

STR: 23 (-233 XP)

Last: Zlatan Tadić

AUT: 4 (24,755 XP)

Last: Johanna Marcia Milton

AGI: 0 (? XP)

PER: 2 (8,000 XP)

Last: Johanna Marcia Milton

DEX: 133,882 (-27 XP)

Last: Strength+Arcane Guardian

EMP: 1 (255,885 XP)

Last: Johanna Marcia Milton

Time Synchronization available at 10,000

Interaction range of NaN yards

20/20 180° vision in low-light conditions

Full descriptors available

Perceive level, specialization and skills used up to NaN