Fortunately, the Magician had set up a temporary workstation at the front of the library, clearing out some of the shelves of books and transferring many of them to the floor around his heavy wooden desk and large chair. Candles lit the room, as well as a radiance that seemed to shimmer from the bookcases of its own volition. The master was in residence and the occupants approved.
“Okay, I’ll bite,” Brody said, getting right to business. “Invitation to what? And have you already responded to it?”
The Magician gestured, and while before there’d been no seating other than his own, three chairs now appeared in front of his desk. We moved forward and dropped into them, while Armaeus continued speaking. He didn’t look at me, but I was okay with that.
We’d been trying to work through our relationship as normally as possible, given that only one of us remembered it. But it had proven a little overwhelming for me. Part of the reason I’d spent so much time in my office was that I couldn’t handle the intense emotional reaction I had to Armaeus every time I saw him. I loved him. I always would, even though he was a fundamentally different person now after his most recent trials. And he definitely cared for me too. To him, since he’d lost his memories of me—of us—our relationship was fresh, new, undiscovered. Whenever he glanced my way, I felt the thrill of his intense interest, the heady rush of his intellect, curiosity, and desire focused solely on me, like I was the most important person in his entire world. It was flattering, in its way. Exciting.
But this new Magician also scared me, frankly. It wasn’t a negative fear by any means, but that didn’t make it any less real. The yawning abyss of possibility that our future now held was far more alarming with the Magician’s eager support than it had been when I’d been flailing around trying to figure out things on my own.
“The High Priestess was with me when the first report of the summoning fires came through,” Armaeus said, giving me a blessed reprieve to focus on this more pressing issue. “She left immediately, as you saw, but not before she conveyed to me the gravity of what she believed was happening. It takes a very deep and old magic to summon the High Priestess, and a very determined summoner. Her belief is that the remnants of several of Earth’s most ancient Connected societies have been awakened. It is something that we considered as a possibility during the confrontation with the gods this past winter, but after the initial flare of awareness, we saw no other signs of activity that would indicate that we’d disturbed the old guard unduly. It appears we were incorrect.”
“Uh-huh,” Brody said. Sadly, he was echoing my own thoughts. “Once again for the cheap seats?”
To my surprise, the Magician turned toward me. As if I had any of the answers.
Then, suddenly, I did. Not so much the words, but the feelings, the emotions, the pleas that had been surfacing across my desk for the past several weeks coalesced in my mind. I’d reached out to find any magic-related artifacts that Connecteds had been willing to contribute to the Arcana Council for study and possible use in a coming Connected conflict. But I’d gotten so much more back in the notes that had accompanied those artifacts, I now realized. New rumors and concerns, even hints of danger. And threaded through it all was a growing sense of fear. Something was threatening the Connecteds, and they didn’t know what it was. The Shadow Court? Worse? Whatever it was, they wanted help in facing it. Guidance.
Something.
“Last winter, we tried to keep the gods from breaching the veil to Earth, and we succeeded, but along the way, we let loose new magic into the world, both positive and, well, demonic,” I said, studying Armaeus thoughtfully. The scourge of demons we’d unwittingly released continued to be a problem, but I didn’t think that’s what the Magician was focusing on, here. “What I didn’t realize was that we’d also awakened old magic that had gone dormant for centuries, even millennia. Is that what you’re talking about?”
He nodded. “In some cases, it is not even the original magic itself, but descended family lines that have been activated. Awakened, you could say, to the power they have held for millennia. Some, like the magicians in Venice, even the witches coven in Los Angeles and certainly the New Celts in Ireland, understood what was happening and acted on it as quickly as possible. Others took a more cautious path and are only now emerging, in part because they are now paying attention to the threat that has come to their doorstep. Because of our recent conflict, the stakes have been made clearer to them.”
“The Shadow Court,” Nikki put in. “You think they’ve made themselves known to these other pockets of Connecteds who are realizing their abilities?”
“I do, in part,” Armaeus said. “I believe the Shadow Court reached out, and some Connecteds responded. Some didn’t. Instead, they either fled, sheltered in place, or turned to us. The Arcana Council, whose millennia-long dedication to remaining separate and apart is now being called into question.”
Don’t engage. I felt a thrill of excitement as Brody held up his hands.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he said. “I thought you guys were here to balance magic. Policing it, at a stretch, but nothing more than that. Actively shifting that balance of power isn’t your job.”
“It isn’t our job,” Armaeus said. “Or perhaps, put more plainly, it wasn’t our job. Now we are faced with a different possibility,” he said. “The possibility of taking an active role in a war that is not between Earth and the gods, but between different factions of magic. We’ve never before taken sides in mortal conflicts, so this is not something we should enter into lightly.”
“It’s not something you should be entering at all,” Brody countered. “You can’t tell me every Connected in the world is down with going to war. I can guarantee you that’s not the case.”
“Not war, but there’s definitely a desire for safety…protection. Protection we can offer,” I said, though it sounded strange for me to be suggesting it. “It’s come to the point where not making a choice to protect our own becomes its own choice.”
Armaeus inclined his head.
“You’re getting into the game,” Brody groaned. “That’s what you’re telling me. You’re going to go all vigilante and shit and get into the game.”
Beside me, Nikki drummed her fingers on her knees, clearly keyed up. I couldn’t help my own wisp of righteous fervor. I’d always understood that the Arcana Council kept itself above and away from the affairs of humankind. I’d railed against it, argued and fought and finally accepted it. But I’d never really liked it. I’d always known they—we—could do more. And now, with this new and different Magician, a Magician both darker and more unpredictable than the one who had come before, it appeared we were going to get our chance. I had no idea what that meant. The prospect terrified and exhilarated me at once.
“The situation is yet more complicated in that there have been activities ongoing that have undermined the Council. I was not aware of these activities because I had lost memories of this particular threat. I didn’t take the proper precautions to protect us against the Shadow Court because I no longer considered it a problem. That said, it’s now time to act. There will be changes within the Council structure, and there will be changes with how the current Council conducts itself going forward. I will no longer be the head of the Council, either. Instead, I will be its sword.”