Paranoid Mage

“They did what?” Callum wasn’t really sure how to feel. Bewildered, mostly, because he couldn’t see any sense to both healing people and destroying vineyards. The first was great; Ms. Mosley even had the hip she was constantly complaining about fixed. The second was just plain vandalism. He had no idea how much time and money those vines represented but it was probably a lot.

Actually, the more he thought about it the more pissed off he got. The vineyards were private and not really a major contributor to Tanner’s economy, so as a threat it was useless while still being wanton destruction. If they’d actually wanted Tanner’s food supplies to suffer they’d have had to target dozens of small poultry places and fields, as well as blockade the roads to cut off imports.

He was getting really damned tired of people trying to take shots at him and hitting someone else.

“It’s supposed to be a combination carrot and stick,” Shahey replied, shaking his head. “I’ve gotten familiar with the way he thinks, and that sort of demonstration is meant to say, look what I can do.”

“Yeah, it says to me he could be helping a lot more than he is, but he isn’t. Instead he wants to be petty and destructive.” Not that such a thing surprised Callum. Any mage that wanted to be helpful would be sidelined and punished by the secrecy and dictatorial rules of GAR. Another reason not to treat every mage like a war criminal, as if he needed one.

“The same could be said for most supernaturals,” Shahey said. “But the secrecy came from a time when they weren’t as well organized or powerful, and now they’re stuck with it.”

“They, not we?” Callum asked.

“We’re not natives,” Shahey said. “There’s no telling how much damage it would do if people knew outsider powers like us were around.”

“Okay, that’s fair,” Callum said. He had to admit that Shahey had a point there. If it were just dragonblooded, it’d probably be not much of an issue, but with everyone else it became extremely complicated. “So, it looks like I need to take care of Fane. Which from what I can see he’s absolutely earned beyond what he’s doing here. If I do that, can you deal with whoever is in Tanner?”

“As an official request?”

“It can be,” Callum said. Considering what the dragonblooded had said about his type being guests, he could well guess Shahey was hinting at the rules Callum needed to invoke to get real help.

“Excellent,” Shahey said. “In return, I would like you to come to the dragonlands and open up new rifts. Not to Earth, just new world portals.”

“Ah. I can’t do that,” Callum said. “I thought they were just natural things.”

“Natural? Yes. Just? No. If you can’t do it yet, I can wait until you can. Time is not an issue.”

“I imagine not,” Callum said automatically, still somewhat shocked by the concept that he could open holes to other realities. Even though he’d seen that the dragonlands portal had looked artificial he’d not really made the leap to thinking about doing it himself. He’d figured the dragons had done it.

Now he wondered if it had been Duvall, or someone like her. There had to be a reason why Shahey or the other dragons hadn’t extracted a similar service from GAR’s spatial mages. He had to imagine there were risks associated with it that he didn’t know about; politics wasn’t always the answer. But they were risks the dragonlands would be running, not Earth, and the ability would probably be extremely useful for him.

“I accept, then. Though I have no idea when I’ll be able to do something like that,” he warned Shahey.

“As I said, I have time.” Callum assumed that the dragon behind the dragonblooded was immortal, even if the avatar was somewhat expendable.

So far as Callum knew, Sen was still in Tanner so he’d be one of the mages Shahey neutralized — however Shahey wanted to do it. That was even assuming that they had orders to start wrecking stuff. Or decided to on their own, which was something he could well imagine from what he’d seen so far.

Sen needed to be held to account for murdering innocent bystanders, since GAR obviously wasn’t going to, and Callum wasn’t too fond of delegation. There was too much room for doubt or for error. Or for someone else to get hurt. But if Shahey was going to take care of it, he’d be satisfied. Tanner was the dragonblooded’s town, too, so he could trust that Shahey would do the right thing.

“I’ll get back to you after things shake out. Your judgement on how to deal with the people here is probably better than mine.”

“You sell yourself short, Mister Wells, but it is true I have a certain insight.” Shahey shrugged scaly shoulders, looking out over his gym. “I wish you luck. Fane has been an irritant for a very long time.”

“Yeah, I bet he has.” One of the most alarming findings about Fane was how many people the Department of Acquisition sent him.

Lucy had found the records when she’d gone digging on Fane in order to confirm rumors. Literally thousands of people, mostly mundane but some supernatural, had been shipped off to Archmage Fane personally. When there was any notation on the reason, which was not common, it just read some variation on medical purposes. A phrase to chill the blood of anyone familiar with human history.

The Department was rotten from top to bottom, and could not go on existing, but he didn’t know how to start with it. Not yet. Fane was a more urgent consideration anyway, and he could only take on one thing at a time.

“The hell did you just agree to, big man?” Lucy asked. They were in the van again, since Lucy was doing some more trawling through the GAR databases and emails. Until he had enough material for a permanent portal to a decoy internet site, they were wardriving public wifi whenever she needed to check it. Which wasn’t really an issue, with portals and teleports.

“Something far in the future,” Callum said. “I have no idea how to even begin. Making portal-world portals hasn’t exactly been on my radar. But something to look into once we’re more settled.”

“Man. Kind of a lot to bite off.” Lucy shook her head. “But I guess they have to come from somewhere. For all I know House Duvall has a bunch of portal worlds of their own somewhere and just don’t share.”

“Now you’re being properly suspicious,” Callum told her, and she stuck her tongue out at him.

“You’re infecting my thought processes,” she accused him.

“Probably so, but I’m not wrong,” Callum said, and she reflexively glanced down at her wrist. He’d been working on removing the tattoo for her, which was unpleasant for both of them but had to be done. The magic inside it had broken already but there was still a lot of the band left. Lucy hid it with a bracelet most times.

“Nobody likes a know-it-all,” Lucy said, threatening him with her index finger. He grabbed it and she relaxed, linking hands with him. “Well, except when it helps.”

“Hey, I don’t know everything. I’m just a suspicious bastard.” Literally true, he realized after a moment, but he didn’t take back the phrase.

“Yeah, yeah. That’s pretty obvious at this point.” Lucy squeezed his hand then returned to poking at her laptop. “Can’t complain too much. Otherwise I wouldn’t get to play with all these toys.”

The toys in question were little boxes Lucy had made with audiovisual capability and transmitters – an improvement over the walkies – for when he was supposed to “meet” with Fane. Callum had no idea when they expected that to happen, since he hadn’t gotten official word. His week deadline was up the next day, and since the high-end resort was secured and a good chunk sectioned off, he assumed that they’d be telling him to meet Fane almost immediately. But that was only an assumption.

Placing Lucy’s boxes around had been incredibly easy, despite the jammers that had been deployed in sensitive places. He was somewhat annoyed that the use of those things had proliferated, but he couldn’t expect the people in GAR to keep that particular countermeasure to themselves. Still, the jammers only covered a small area and he could pop in a few of the spy-boxes and their signal transceivers to cover those parts of the resort.

When the time came, he’d be using a tablet to actually talk to Fane — assuming the man didn’t reject that sort of thing out of hand. Not that it mattered, since the point was less what he’d say to Fane, what deal he would or wouldn’t make, and more about being able to know which teleporter Fane was going to use.

“Any other movement we have to worry about?”

“From GAR? No, they’ve got people combing various places and following up some stuff — all copycat crimes, I think. They do have people looking around Texas, but Texas is a big place. The Houses, though. They don’t use the email system much, so I have no idea.”

“So long as there’s nothing specific,” Callum said, though he frowned at the idea of more copycat crimes. There wasn’t anything he could really do about it, at least on the face of things. Not unless he was willing to personally hunt down every perpetrator, and he wasn’t a detective. Though he doubted that he was the reason the crimes happened, just a convenient excuse.

“There was a mention that they still have the mundanes – sorry, the Feds – looking for you. So I guess don’t go to any airports or post offices any time soon.”

“Wasn’t planning on it anyway. Heck, with your drones we have a better way across the ocean. Faster, anyway.”

“I do like it when you tell me how clever I am.”

“Good thing it’s true, then,” he said. Lucy grinned at him. “Okay, I’m all set here. Guess we’d better get ready for showtime.”

“Suppose so.” Callum charged the teleport plate for Lucy, and she stepped on it.

“I still swear I can feel this stuff,” she said. “Maybe when we get the tiles in I can play around with it more.”

“Definitely,” Callum agreed. She’d tried the beginner mage exercises to no avail, but if other supernaturals used enchantments, there might be some sort of in-between condition where a non-mage could trigger one that was already charged. How exactly that worked required more study. Assuming they could finally get the time.

He found it hard to sleep, tossing and turning on the couch foldaway. Lucy had offered to trade with him but he had insisted she take the bed. There were times when she would go quiet, especially if she were left to herself too long, face drawing into something distant and wary and completely unlike her. The things she’d experienced had taken their toll, and despite her upbeat attitude it was clear they still haunted her.

So he insisted she take the bedroom and whatever comfort and security it had. The foldout bed was not at all inviting, and even felt a little exposed that close to the front door. Or so he felt, and he figured she felt the same way, especially since she didn’t have the perceptions to tell what was going on everywhere nearby.

Ultimately he managed a few hours of sleep, and did his best not to drag when he finally hauled himself into the shower. Someday he’d be fresh and ready when it was time to do something important, but thus far he hadn’t been so lucky. It wasn’t like he even needed to be ready to deal with the actual Archmage, if he and Lucy were reading things right. They’d only had a couple emails to go off of, but it seemed pretty clear Fane wasn’t headed to Tanner.

By the time he got out Lucy was up too, and they went through the process of making coffee and getting breakfast together before starting in on the actual work. Most of what he was relying on was her stuff, so he really couldn’t do more than look it over. Used tablets, drones, little boxes with breadboards and stuff from electronics supplies stores. He was learning, but she had years and years of experience.

“So, what’s the over-under?” Lucy asked once they were seated at the table together. “Twenty bucks says they tell you to show up there or else, but only after some tedious sneering.”

“No bet,” Callum said. “Too easy. I think the real wager is whether they try to refuse to talk to the tablet.”

“I’ll say no for the stooges in Tanner, but yes for the Archmage. I expect he’ll be super pissed you don’t show up in person.”

“Good thing we don’t care about that.”

They could have sent the drone with the tablet over in the early morning, but Callum decided to wait until around noon. Not so much as a power play as because he wanted to have plenty of time to do final checks and keep a surreptitious eye on what they were up to. There was no such thing as being too careful.

So far as he could tell, though, all the mages inhabiting the big old mansion did was eat delivery from one of the better restaurants in town. Watching through cameras was very strange when he was used to sensing through his sphere, but the portal focus was parked on top of Shahey’s gym so he was watching through Lucy’s relay boxes. It was less immediate, but he could actually see color and writing, not to mention actual people instead of featureless bubbles. It made him wish that he could actually get that sort of thing from his spatial perceptions.

Lucy piloted the drone over, and this time the mages noticed it as it approached the front entrance of the house. Since Callum didn’t have an anchor there he couldn’t actually see if the drone had tripped wards or if active senses were in use, but either way the drone camera fuzzed as they carried it inside and then a few moments later he saw someone’s face from the tablet camera. The man barked something in Mandarin.

“It’s Wells,” Callum said, turning on his own camera. There was nothing behind him but a cheap whiteboard to block out any details of his location. “Get Sen.” The man blinked at the tablet, then turned away and spoke some more Mandarin. Soon enough, Sen’s face appeared on the camera.

“Took you long enough,” Sen said with a sneer. “I was beginning to think you’d run away.”

“I said a week. It’s been a week.” Sen’s entire manner irked Callum. Probably more than it should have, but since the guy was an unapologetic menace it was hard to treat him objectively. “What do you have to tell me?”

“You should be flattered,” Sen told him. “Patriarch Fane has agreed to meet you. It is a great honor for anyone outside the House to see him. But make no mistake, you will bear the burden for all the trouble our Patriarch has had to go to.”

“Oh, I’m sure I will,” Callum said. He wondered exactly how Fane intended to squeeze him, but it was only an idle thought. There was no way he was getting within a hundred miles of Fane or his people. “So where and when?”

Instead of replying like a normal person, Sen had to make it a production. Or more likely, it was Fane that made it a production. There was a crackling noise and it seemed that Sen had gotten out an honest-to-goodness parchment scroll.

“You are requested and required to present yourself to Feng Palace Resort, Beijing, China, no later than eight AM tomorrow.” Sen paused to sneer at the camera again. “That should not be too difficult for a spatial mage.” Callum had to check; there was a full twelve hours offset so it was a little past midnight over in China. Without teleports, the eight hour deadline would have been incredibly difficult.

“You will refer to Patriarch Fane only as Honored Patriarch. You will wear a suit, with head uncovered. You will…” Sen kept listing off requirements that made it sound more like a peasant meeting with a king. Which it probably was, from their perspective.

“You gonna tell them that you’re not even showing up in person?” Lucy messaged him through their private chat program, the text popping up in the corner of the laptop he was using to talk to Sen. She didn’t say anything because neither of them wanted to give away that he wasn’t alone.

“No. I’d rather wait until the very end so they have less time to try and change things.” If Fane decided not to show up, or change the location of the meeting, all the prep work they’d done would be wasted and who knew when they’d have another chance. Or what sort of mischief Fane would send their way in the meantime.

So he just nodded along as Sen listed out the requirements, trying to suppress his irritation at being dictated to even if he didn’t intend to actually obey. The restrictive dress and behavior mandates weren’t particularly interesting or even that unexpected, but the bubble protocol was interesting. Or rather, sphere of authority, as they called it. He was supposed to keep his suppressed, close around him, which he vaguely recalled being somewhat indecent. All in keeping with trying to establish how low he was in the social pecking order.

It seemed weird to Callum that they were trying to be so high and mighty when they were the ones who had come to him. But then, that was generally the attitude of despots and tyrants, who thought that their attention was flattering. Considering that Fane had been around for a few hundred years, there had been plenty of time for the Archmage to evolve that sort of outlook. Assuming it didn’t come naturally.

“Understood,” he said, when Sen finally wound down. “Is there anything else?”

“That will be all,” Sen replied.

“Can I have my drone back?” Callum asked. Sen frowned and the feed cut out. He glanced over at Lucy, who shrugged.

“He probably slagged it,” she said. “I’ll remove it from the network anyway, just in case they’re smarter than that.”

“We’re going to run out of drones at this rate,” he said. They did have five extras sitting in boxes in the corner, but he’d already wrecked a couple by accident, and if mages were going to start melting them those five wouldn’t last too long. He’d already written off the one he was sending to Fane.

“Heck with the drones, even used tablets are kinda expensive,” Lucy grumped. “I didn’t realize how much money you burned through when everything is single-use.”

“There’s a reason I use cheap burner phones most of the time,” Callum agreed. “Right, we have eight hours to get everything set up.”

“I tell you what, big man. I was afraid we’d have like, eight minutes. Eight hours is plenty of time.”

“Don’t say that, you’ll jinx it,” Callum said, and she snorted.

“Now, don’t go superstitious on me, big man. Being paranoid is bad enough.” Her grin held a teasing edge, so he reached over and tousled her otherwise immaculate hair. That earned a squawk of outrage, but she didn’t stop smiling.

The operation actually needed all the anchors he had available to him, plus the teleportation core he’d made for the occasion. Which fairly well exhausted his stock of corite, but they couldn’t think of any other way to deal with Fane. Not in any way that was certain. Between his healing and his homebond, the man was just too slippery even if they could get through his shields.

One drone went back to Portal World Five’s buoy, where Callum dropped the steel-enclosed anchor for later. Then the drone itself went on to Beijing, and the teleporter closest to the resort. Or rather, to some six hundred yards away from it, since he didn’t want to be anywhere nearby when Fane came through. That was also close enough to hook into the chain of surveillance boxes that Lucy used to connect to the network they’d left in the resort.

Of course, the entire plan could be derailed if Fane came through some other teleportation location, but there was nothing they could do about that. Fortunately, even House Fane didn’t have free access to spatial enchantments and there was only the one node anywhere close. Though interestingly enough, that particular GAR office was staffed solely by humans, some mages and some not. It seemed that the Chinese branches didn’t want to share with other supernaturals.

It took at best an hour to put the portal anchors into place and test the electronics connections, making sure that none of the boxes had been disturbed or compromised. Considering they’d all been placed in inaccessible areas with the help of his spatial senses, it would have been a surprise if someone had found them, but he was still dealing with supernaturals.

“C’mon, big man. Let’s take a lunch break. You can’t work all the time.” Lucy poked him in the side to distract him from surveying the teleportation office for the umpteenth time. “Getting all sour-faced on me.”

“Okay, okay,” he laughed, fending her off. “We’ll go get something interesting. Probably better if I come back to it with fresh eyes.”

“That’s right,” Lucy nodded. “Besides, we probably won’t be as anxious if we’ve got something in our bellies other than sausage and waffles.”

“I still don’t see how you eat that stuff.” He shook his head. Callum had never acquired a taste for pancakes or waffles or sweets and breads in general, but Lucy seemed to thrive on the stuff. How she managed that while still maintaining her figure was a mystery for the ages.

“It’s delicious, that’s how.”

Going out to lunch with Lucy did help, and while he couldn’t completely put things out of his mind, he puttered around the house until after dinner and the eight o’clock hour approached. He didn’t have much of a dinner, because despite Lucy distracting him from the problem at hand he was wound too tight to be hungry.

Fane’s arrival was a bright blazing beacon of obvious power, the same completely opaque, steel-hard shell he’d seen from the mages in the Deep Wilds. Callum’s portal anchor was far away from the teleport but his hands still shook slightly as he contemplated the man’s bubble, knowing how deadly it was.

Callum only relaxed once the bubble went out of range, heading outward to the resort, though not entirely since he knew that so long as there was any of his magic nearby there was the possibility of danger. It was remote, but there, which was why he was using cleanup enchantments basically everywhere. Then he gave Lucy the nod and turned his attention to the little windows she had set up for each of the camera feeds.

It hadn’t been hard to figure out where the meeting was going to be. Once they’d put in the surveillance it’d just taken observation, and occasionally running some of the chatter through a translator to double-check. Neither he nor Lucy spoke the language.

It took Fane no more than ten minutes to go from teleporter to the resort. Callum studied the camera footage as Fane sat down to a lavish breakfast, which would not be finished by eight, so he would be making Callum wait. Not very surprising.

He looked almost cartoonish, with a long white moustache and beard, carrying himself with dignity. Even Fane’s face seemed almost perfectly stereotypical. It probably played well in his own House, but Callum was just a little incredulous people like that actually existed. Admittedly, the concept had to come from somewhere.

At five to eight, Lucy piloted the drone with the tablet from its position on an overhang of the resort’s indoor garden courtyard area that had been reserved for the meeting. Callum was half worried that someone would blow the thing up before he could state who it was from, but Lucy kept it well away from the center where Fane was eating breakfast.

“This is Callum Wells, here to see Patriarch Fane,” he said as Lucy piloted it toward one of the employees, the speakers mounted on the drone amplifying his voice over the buzz of the drone’s rotors. The poor man did an actual doubletake, before turning away and speaking something over the headset he had.

Callum was sure they had no idea what to do about the fact that there was a drone with a tablet with a video call, rather than a person. Some poor soul would have to kick it up the chain until it reached Fane himself, though Callum rather doubted the Patriarch was unaware of what was going on. Even if Fane’s active senses wouldn’t notice the drone, it wasn’t like Callum was being quiet.

Lucy parked the drone on a nearby settee while the information traveled along the chain of command. One of the relay boxes still had a view of the courtyard from above, full of potted plants and lavish furniture, while Fane himself seemed unruffled by the scurry of activity about him.

Finally someone went over to whisper in Fane’s ear, and the man nodded but made no move to have the breakfast cleared or anything. Eventually someone came back and addressed the tablet hesitantly. The employee’s accent was strong, but he was still understandable.

“Patriarch Fane will see you at his leisure. You will wait until then.”

“Sure,” Callum said, and switched to the chat program.

“Hurry up and wait,” he remarked to Lucy.

“That’s how it always is,” Lucy replied. “I swear, supernaturals love their power games.”

They were kept waiting for a good hour while Fane sipped tea or coffee or whatever, had the table cleared, and read a book. Callum was sure he was meant to be stewing or something, but really he was just bored. He was almost tempted to just call the whole thing off, since he’d already gotten what he really wanted — Fane in a known location, with a specific teleporter that he’d use. But he might as well learn what he could.

Finally an employee came and lifted up the tablet, bringing it over to Fane’s table. It was low on battery but Callum doubted the discussion would take too long. There wasn’t much to negotiate about.

“You did not come in person,” Fane said, disapprovingly. “What reason do you have for this insult?”

“You may have noticed I’m a careful person,” Callum said. “And you probably also know that I’m aware of how dangerous healing mages are. Considering that and my relationship with GAR in general, it didn’t seem advisable to be physically present.”

“I’m the Archmage of House Fane, boy. GAR works for the Archmages, not the other way around,” Fane scoffed. “I thought you were a sharp one but maybe you’re just lucky.”

“Maybe,” Callum said noncommittally. “What exactly was your offer?”

“I don’t like your tone, boy,” Fane scowled imperiously at the tablet. “Even if you’re not in front of me I can still make you regret it.”

“Perhaps so,” Callum said, though he wanted to dare Fane to try. “But I admit I am somewhat at a loss as to why we’re even meeting in the first place. With House Fane being so powerful, surely trafficking with a known criminal is an unnecessary risk.”

“When you’re powerful, the only thing that matters is more power,” Fane declared. “You, young Wells, could greatly enhance the power of House Fane.”

“You want to offer me a job?”

“A job,” Fane scoffed. “What you have is an invaluable opportunity to join the greatest House in the world. Do you think GAR would even dare touch you? Hardly! I have been tracking your accomplishments and House Fane could use a man like you. We are, of course, invulnerable, but agents of even marginal competence are difficult to come by.”

“You flatter me,” Callum said dryly. On the other side of the table, Lucy was rolling her eyes in an exaggerated fashion. It was all being recorded, as well. He sure didn’t intend to take Fane’s offer but the recording of Fane making the offer might cause a splash. Lucy would be sure to get it sent out on the GAR network after they were done.

“Hardly!” Fane scowled again. “You have talent, but only that. Talent is something to be harnessed or crushed. Those are your choices.”

“And what exactly do you intend to have me do?” He found it a little odd that none of the ever so generous offers had included any details on what they imagined him doing. It wasn’t hard to guess, but he’d like to hear it directly.

“What you do already,” Fane said. “Only more effectively, guided by a better hand.”

“I prefer guiding myself,” Callum said, glad that Fane had put it so bluntly. He was well convinced Fane was a bad man – in fact, the proof of the deliveries from the Department of Acquisition was enough for that – but direct threats made things easier.

“Then you’re a fool,” Fane snapped. “And you’ll pay for wasting my time.”

“I doubt it.” Callum couldn’t resist the comment. For some reason, it seemed to seriously infuriate Fane, the man’s eyes pinching nearly shut in fury.

“Not only are you a fool,” he said coldly. “You’re a fool with a deathwish. Nobody spurns House Fane.”

“Then we have nothing to discuss.” Callum did successfully resist the urge to point out that Fane’s ultimatums made him sound like a third-rate supervillain. He didn’t want Fane riled up to the point where he would, for example, use the homebond to return directly.

Callum waved a finger at Lucy and she turned off the feed to the tablet. She kept an eye on Fane while he started preparing for the assassination. The first thing to do was start his steel cube anchor sinking into Portal World Five, which he hastened along with some judicious use of gravitykinesis. Then he had to make the switch on the teleporter.

All the ones he’d seen were standardized for the most part. There were some flourishes on some of the ancillary enchantments, but the core telepad was identical. All he needed to do to change out the core was open a portal underneath it, unscrew the existing core and slot in his ringer. They didn’t even use proprietary screws or anything, so they made great subjects for his temporary cleanup enchantment.

“Alright, he’s leaving — aaaand, invisible. Glamour up I guess.” Callum nodded. His ability to pierce glamours didn’t extend to recordings, where the altered reality had been dutifully recorded and reproduced.

“Great.” Callum performed the switch, putting the old core on the table. Though he was pretty sure it wouldn’t take much thought for anyone to figure out what had happened, he still wore gloves to avoid fingerprints or anything like that. Then he dismissed the portal, focusing back on the still-sinking cube and driving it further downward.

He was jittery, even though the plan itself was incredibly simple and almost entirely risk-free. Even if it failed, they’d not be much worse off. It didn’t help that once he stopped shoving the steel cube downward, big shifts of vis and mana brushed by the edges of his perceptions, like sharks circling just out of sight. He knew he wasn’t in any real danger, but it was still disconcerting.

The minutes waiting for Fane to get to the teleporter stretched. It seemed to take forever, broken only by Lucy drumming on the tabletop. He didn’t speak, and she didn’t either, the two of them just waiting in silence.

When Fane’s adamant bubble showed up on the very edge of Callum’s perceptions, he scrambled into action. The receiver plate for the ringer teleport core went over into Portal World Five, but he couldn’t just leave it. The spatial differences meant he’d have to help the teleport framework form. Then he watched intently, reaching out to the spatial core he’d pilfered from the teleporter.

In order to keep the ancillary enchantments, the security and safety ones that surrounded the actual telepad, from sound any kind of alarm, he had to charge the original core. That way its matching receiver on the other end registered as being in use, and it would trigger properly to send Fane on his way. Only, it was Callum’s core inside the teleporter, and where it would send Fane was not a GAR facility.

Over the next few seconds the enchantment structures unfolded and stabilized. Callum had to give the receiver plate in Portal World Five extra juice, since the normal mana intakes didn’t work quite right. He even tweaked the framework directly, though that wasn’t something that would last. Not that it needed to. It just had to work once.

The teleport frames locked into place and Callum pulled his anchor cube back, leaving the teleport plate behind in the portal world. He really would have liked to know that the plan worked, but there was no way he was leaving any link to his vis where Fane might think he was under attack. He very much took Shahey’s warning seriously; a casual discharge from Fane would probably kill him.

Fane’s bubble vanished from the teleporter, and Callum stopped feeding the original core, the deception complete. He quickly opened another portal to swap the cores, not overly worried about the mages inside the teleportation office. The maintenance room was thoroughly screened from them, and none of them had shown any signs of restiveness. A few seconds later the original was back in place, and he began the process of retrieving their surveillance boxes. That was a chore, but no matter what happened he didn’t want them discovered.

Now they had to wait and see if it worked.

***

Archmage Fane simmered. The sheer gall of Wells to snub him so! Clearly he’d vastly overestimated the man’s intelligence. While his actions had demonstrated some form of competence, whoever handled him had to be doing the thinking. No sane person would insult House Fane the way Wells had, let alone the Archmage that led it.

He would remove Tanner from the map for such a thing, to start. The fact that it was part of the dragonblooded’s suspicious projects was a bonus, but he wouldn’t have committed the resources to such a thing before. Now, it was required. He couldn’t let such an insult pass.

Punishing Wells himself would be harder, but Fane was sure it could be done. The man was just as foolishly emotional as Fane had thought, so even with all his pathetic little technology trickery it would be possible to draw him out. Then any of Fane’s apprentices could incapacitate the man. Healing magic, chi and gu, was ultimately the most powerful. It hardly mattered that he couldn’t manipulate wind or water when he could control those who could.

Such as the Guild of Enchanting which had provided the foci he used to fly from the resort to the teleporter. He preferred having his servants around to ease the annoyances of everyday life, but an Archmage in public was a lone power, and needed no help. It would hardly do for Patriarch Fane to look weak.

His local teleporter was far nicer than the often completely utilitarian versions that the barbarians over in America used. Still, he barely noticed the silks as he strode up to the pad and activated it. Unlike other mages, Archmages could attune their shells properly, since it was no longer being restrained by the limits of the body. Archmages didn’t wear those ridiculous, intrusive magical tattoos.

The teleport snapped and his shields reacted immediately, the world going black around him. A sudden burst of portal world mana flowed through him, pressing in against his shields as they held back something, fairly screaming from a force that he couldn’t see.

Fane was not a man to panic easily. He would have been dead long ago if that were true. Yet there was still a brief instant of shock at the effrontery of daring to attack him, one he conquered by blasting outward with gu to sense and kill anything around him. Even as his magic gave him hints of something incredibly large, now dead, he started charging the gold homebond ring on his finger.

Yet, it didn’t want to take. The magic was there, but it struggled, and Fane cursed the crude and unreliable artifice of that Duvall creature. He’d tested it before but she had probably given him a defective homebond, to judge by how poorly it was working. Even his prodigious magics were having difficulty keeping him safe from whatever was around him, whatever travesty of a reality the portal world was, but surely he could hold out long enough for the ring to charge.

Surely.

A massive rumbling came from something in the black depths, the roar of some enormous creature vibrating against his shields. He tried to force more vis into the ring, but it was a thing of space, not of healing, and his shields shook as something big closed around him.

His vis pulse showed teeth the size of houses closing down, and he hurled out more Gu. The thing was dead instantly, but the teeth collapsed on him, adding their pressure to that of the surroundings, one mountain added to another. His shell cracked, shivered, then shattered. Water with enough pressure to powder rocks crashed in.

In the end, even the great Archmage Fane couldn’t withstand the crushing depths of Portal World Five.