Fixed, thanks for there reminder.
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
Fixed, thanks for there reminder.
BoredMan
I will not give you my energy Goku. I'm using it.
Why ask for 24 hours instead of plans in general? That way we could get any former plans before this incident.
Edit: Also if they can look through the eyes of any of those infected kids and Carlos won't they know what we're doing just by looking unless we knock them all out?
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On the second part - this depends. Not all subversive magic is the same - notably, only Tina's was triggered. Further, we don't know if it was real time scrying, or a sort of recording, to be collected from her mind later. In their place, I would have done the latter - it should be harder to detect, and more convenient to use (you are not forced to do the scrying while in the middle of a senior council meeting, for example).
On the first part - the better we define the question, the more detail we get, I think? Plans beyond the immediate ones are not tactically useful, and we are very much in the tactical, not strategic situation right now.
BoredMan
I will not give you my energy Goku. I'm using it.
That's true but we have no particular reason to believe it wasn't live and they only would've used one to observe Molly because that's all they'd need to see her combat abilities and there'd be less risk of detection so it makes more sense as a restraint rather than a lack of capability action.
If I realized I was caught I would deploy some of my centuries long plans instead of waiting for the most opportune moment as Usum describes his belief for their restraint, he rolled pretty high for that deduction too. If we asked for plans in general we would know what those plans are.
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On "live vs. recorded", and why I think "recorded" might actually be more plausible:
1) The enchantment was triggered by the situation - there definitely was no active communication before it was triggered.
2) Because of point 1, the conspirators couldn't be sure when the enchantment would be triggered. This makes live transmission problematic for two reasons:
2.1) They couldn't be sure it would go through whatever wards we had. Yes, direct arcane link which should go through any possible wards, but that's not a 100% guarantee. We could have taken them deep into NeverNever, or into Sanctuary, for example.
2.2) They couldn't be sure when the enchantment would be triggered. If it's triggered when they are asleep, they lose the opportunity to observe. If it's triggered when Peabody is in the senior council meeting with Gate Keeper present, it puts him at unacceptable risk of discovery.
I agree on the second part. Note that I ask about contingencies first. "getting alert that their magic is discovered" is a contingency we can't guarantee they have (because it's an additional link to them). Basically, I want to know what triggers when subversive enchantment is discovered, and tailor the second question based on the data from the first.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Rather than live recording, to be retrieved at a later date, or transmitting in some manner, she could be possessed by a minor spirit of some sort, one with no control or influence over its host body. If it's just along for the ride, hunkered down and hidden well, that's probably less likely to be detected or interfered with by the host's natural mental defenses than real mind fuckery.
No need to implant a trigger when you can just give the spirit basic commands, and the possession would probably be quicker and more reliable than trying to do non-destructive mental tampering on short notice, at least if you don't want to risk a noticeable deviation in personality or behavior because of it.
No need to implant a trigger when you can just give the spirit basic commands, and the possession would probably be quicker and more reliable than trying to do non-destructive mental tampering on short notice, at least if you don't want to risk a noticeable deviation in personality or behavior because of it.
BoredMan
I will not give you my energy Goku. I'm using it.
How do we know this? I mean couldn't they have been watching until that point and we only just noticed?
You used the word contingencies which made me think "If we are caught how do we fix the problem before we get outed entirely" moreso than "If we're outed what do we do?".
In my mind they might've had their mental enchantments caught before on a smaller scale then dealt with the issue or concealed their involvement or worked to not be seen as the cause which would count as "contingencies for if the subversion is discovered" rather than plans to react if outed. Remember the Grey Council is a thing and the list of traitors was smaller than last time.
You may want to use a different word I'm not sure how to Crown would interpret that.
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Here:
I am open to updating the wording, of course. What do you think would make the intent clearer?
That works too.
Catching up on replies:
Im assuming that Peabody has tried to compromise the wizards who man the Council's communication system, because its an obvious target for a spy/agent of influence, and one of the places where you can safely staff with weaker wizards.
=====
Furthermore, spirits have no trouble accessing that, something that Mikaboshi's latest shenanigans have reminded everyone.
Neither do Fae, ghosts, vampires, and a constellation of supernaturals.
All of whom belong to factions who will seek to turn that information to their own advantage.
Even Bad Guys arent automatically allies, something the Cleveland Affair told us at the beginning of our career.
You remember when they say its not the crime that gets you, but the coverup?
Better to say nothing about the source of your information than to tell a lie that can be checked.
You can simply say nothing.
Remember, when Rashid sent a message to Harry at the beginning of Proven Guilty about black magic in Chicago? He didnt explain how he knew, and Harry didnt expect him to reveal his sources.
=====
You need to try to distinguish statements of fact by Harry Dresden, and when he's simply expressing an opinion which may or may not be accurate based on what he knows.
2)This is the time machine in the Crafting document:
It takes the user and companions FORWARD in time to 12 midnight, a distance of no more than 24 hours.
I did not create the limitations, they are literally there in the stat block of the Prodigy as written.
The fact that you can compare it to a wizard travelling back in time hundreds or thousands of years to doing this:
Is presumably you misremembering what you read.
===
No, thats not true either.
In Exalted 2E, Sidereals, Solars and Abyssals can learn and master SMAs, with Sidereals being the only Exalts who can invent or teach them. Despite being Solaroids, Infernals can not learn SMAs. Neither can Lunars, Alchemicals or DBs.
In ExWoD, only Sidereals can master or teach Secret Arts, the SMA quivalent.
Solars and Abyssals can learn up to 4-dot SA charms, but NOT 5-dot charms.
Every other Exalt type can only learn 3-dot charms.
===
Please dont call me a liar, or accuse me of telling lies
It is not conducive to polite discussion.
Thank you.
Luccio is his boss. I have doubts about him considering HER to be a security threat, any more than he'd consider the Merlin a leak. Molly doesnt know she's a potential leak as of this update.
Im assuming that Peabody has tried to compromise the wizards who man the Council's communication system, because its an obvious target for a spy/agent of influence, and one of the places where you can safely staff with weaker wizards.
=====
My point is that its not the kind of security measure that a conspiracy of wizards would default to.
Furthermore, spirits have no trouble accessing that, something that Mikaboshi's latest shenanigans have reminded everyone.
Neither do Fae, ghosts, vampires, and a constellation of supernaturals.
All of whom belong to factions who will seek to turn that information to their own advantage.
Even Bad Guys arent automatically allies, something the Cleveland Affair told us at the beginning of our career.
You remember when they say its not the crime that gets you, but the coverup?
Better to say nothing about the source of your information than to tell a lie that can be checked.
You can simply say nothing.
Remember, when Rashid sent a message to Harry at the beginning of Proven Guilty about black magic in Chicago? He didnt explain how he knew, and Harry didnt expect him to reveal his sources.
=====
1) Harry thinks they are neuroses. That doesnt mean he's accurate.
You need to try to distinguish statements of fact by Harry Dresden, and when he's simply expressing an opinion which may or may not be accurate based on what he knows.
2)This is the time machine in the Crafting document:
Midnight Clock (•••)
This ornately-tooled, gold-inlaid grandfather clock's bodywork is decorated with fanciful depictions of monsters creeping out from behind bushes, clouds, and tombstones. When its hands are dialed forward to 12:00, the clock and everyone in the same room with it are all snapped forward in time to precisely midnight. It does not require attunement, but may only be used by one of the Exalted.
This ornately-tooled, gold-inlaid grandfather clock's bodywork is decorated with fanciful depictions of monsters creeping out from behind bushes, clouds, and tombstones. When its hands are dialed forward to 12:00, the clock and everyone in the same room with it are all snapped forward in time to precisely midnight. It does not require attunement, but may only be used by one of the Exalted.
I did not create the limitations, they are literally there in the stat block of the Prodigy as written.
The fact that you can compare it to a wizard travelling back in time hundreds or thousands of years to doing this:
The image sank down until it showed a familiar landing point, though it had no ruined town and no Whatsup Dock and no row of wooden piles in the water. It was just a little beach of dirt and sand and heavy, brooding forest growth.
Then a ribbon of light maybe eight feet long split the air vertically. The light broadened until it was maybe three feet wide, and then a figure appeared through it. I recognized the signs—someone had opened a Way, a passage from the Nevernever to the island. The figure emerged, made a gesture with one hand, and the Way closed behind it.
It was a man, fairly tall, fairly lean. He wore ragged clothing in many shades of grey. His grey cloak had a deep hood on it, and it shadowed his features, except for the tip of his nose and a short grey-white beard covering a rather pointy chin.
Letters appeared at the bottom of the screen. They read: (MERLIN.)
"Wait? You saw Merlin?" I asked Bob.
"Nah," Bob said, "but I cast Alec Guinness. Looks good, right?"
I sighed. "Could you get to the point, please?"
"Oh, come on," Bob said. "I wrote in this romance triangle subplot and cast Jenna Jameson and Carrie Fisher. There's a love scene you're gonna really—"
"Bob!"
"Okay, okay. Fine. Sheesh."
The movie shifted into fast motion. The grey-clad figure became a blur. It walked about waving its arms, and directed oceans of energy here and there, settling them all in and around the substance of the island itself.
"Wait. Did Demonreach tell you how he did that?"
"No," Bob said, annoyed. "It's called artistic license, Harry."
"Okay, I get it. Merlin built the island. However he did it. Get to the part with the problem."
Bob sighed.
Merlin walked into the woods in comically fast motion and vanished. Then time passed. The sun streaked by hundreds and then thousands of times, the shadows of the island bowing and twisting, the trees rising, growing, growing old, and dying. At the bottom of the screen, words appeared that read, A LOT OF TIME PASSES.
"Thank you for dumbing that down for me," I said.
"De nada."
Then the camera slowed. Again, Merlin appeared. Again, oceans of power rose up and settled into the island. Then Merlin vanished, and more years passed. Maybe a minute later, he appeared again—looking exactly the same, I might add—and repeated the cycle.
"Hold on," I said. "He did it again? Twice?"
"Ah," Bob said, as a fourth cycle began on the screen. "Sort of. See, Harry, this is one of those things that you're going to have trouble grabbing onto."
"Go slow and try me."
"Merlin didn't build the prison five times," Bob said. "He built it once. In five different times. All at the same time."
I felt my brows knit. "Uh. He was in the same place, doing the same thing, in five different times at once?"
"Exactly."
"That does not make any sense," I said.
"Look, a mortal jail is built in three dimensions, right? Merlin built this one in four, and probably in several more, though you can't really tell whether or not he built it in a given dimension until you go there and measure it, and the act of measuring it will change it, but the point is: This is really advanced stuff."
Then a ribbon of light maybe eight feet long split the air vertically. The light broadened until it was maybe three feet wide, and then a figure appeared through it. I recognized the signs—someone had opened a Way, a passage from the Nevernever to the island. The figure emerged, made a gesture with one hand, and the Way closed behind it.
It was a man, fairly tall, fairly lean. He wore ragged clothing in many shades of grey. His grey cloak had a deep hood on it, and it shadowed his features, except for the tip of his nose and a short grey-white beard covering a rather pointy chin.
Letters appeared at the bottom of the screen. They read: (MERLIN.)
"Wait? You saw Merlin?" I asked Bob.
"Nah," Bob said, "but I cast Alec Guinness. Looks good, right?"
I sighed. "Could you get to the point, please?"
"Oh, come on," Bob said. "I wrote in this romance triangle subplot and cast Jenna Jameson and Carrie Fisher. There's a love scene you're gonna really—"
"Bob!"
"Okay, okay. Fine. Sheesh."
The movie shifted into fast motion. The grey-clad figure became a blur. It walked about waving its arms, and directed oceans of energy here and there, settling them all in and around the substance of the island itself.
"Wait. Did Demonreach tell you how he did that?"
"No," Bob said, annoyed. "It's called artistic license, Harry."
"Okay, I get it. Merlin built the island. However he did it. Get to the part with the problem."
Bob sighed.
Merlin walked into the woods in comically fast motion and vanished. Then time passed. The sun streaked by hundreds and then thousands of times, the shadows of the island bowing and twisting, the trees rising, growing, growing old, and dying. At the bottom of the screen, words appeared that read, A LOT OF TIME PASSES.
"Thank you for dumbing that down for me," I said.
"De nada."
Then the camera slowed. Again, Merlin appeared. Again, oceans of power rose up and settled into the island. Then Merlin vanished, and more years passed. Maybe a minute later, he appeared again—looking exactly the same, I might add—and repeated the cycle.
"Hold on," I said. "He did it again? Twice?"
"Ah," Bob said, as a fourth cycle began on the screen. "Sort of. See, Harry, this is one of those things that you're going to have trouble grabbing onto."
"Go slow and try me."
"Merlin didn't build the prison five times," Bob said. "He built it once. In five different times. All at the same time."
I felt my brows knit. "Uh. He was in the same place, doing the same thing, in five different times at once?"
"Exactly."
"That does not make any sense," I said.
"Look, a mortal jail is built in three dimensions, right? Merlin built this one in four, and probably in several more, though you can't really tell whether or not he built it in a given dimension until you go there and measure it, and the act of measuring it will change it, but the point is: This is really advanced stuff."
- Cold Days Chapter 17, Page 166-168
===
No, thats not true either.
In Exalted 2E, Sidereals, Solars and Abyssals can learn and master SMAs, with Sidereals being the only Exalts who can invent or teach them. Despite being Solaroids, Infernals can not learn SMAs. Neither can Lunars, Alchemicals or DBs.
In ExWoD, only Sidereals can master or teach Secret Arts, the SMA quivalent.
Solars and Abyssals can learn up to 4-dot SA charms, but NOT 5-dot charms.
Every other Exalt type can only learn 3-dot charms.
===
Please dont call me a liar, or accuse me of telling lies
It is not conducive to polite discussion.
Thank you.
No, it isn't. Let me quote, again:
See the bolded and underlined part? Exalts are perfectly capable of making a backwards traveling time machine. Without magic even, because gadgets are super-science.
EDIT:
And let me give you more quotes:
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BoredMan
I will not give you my energy Goku. I'm using it.
Thanks. I should've reread it.
That said if say an Outsider is looking through her head or something like what Goldfish described then it could also not be a recording. It would simply wait for that trigger from Tina's mind before 'waking up'.
Edit: Although in that case it would depend on this thing being a hivemind like Nemesis and I'm not sure if that's a reasonable possibility.
Free Will is annoying. Maybe something like, "What plans may the traitors deploy if their traitorous activity is discovered?". Traitorous activity would include their mental tampering and if their actions get outed entirely. Plans would mean any long standing protocols and the like for being discovered but not if their undercover mission is declared FUBAR yet and if it happens on a larger scale and they figure they may as well get what they can before pulling out.
This may come off an me being anal about it as the Crown isn't a monkey's paw but we do have to be specific about questions so I just want to be sure.
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The specific example in the book was a 3-dot Prodigy with a temporal range of less than 24 hours, that moves forward.
That was a direct quote, and provided a hard benchmark.
Now if you want to argue that a 4- or 5-dot will allow you to travel backwards in time?
For years, even centuries? Thats between you and the QM.
But there is no benchmark for that.
BoredMan
I will not give you my energy Goku. I'm using it.
You said your going to reread so you probably noticed but just to make sure we do know of her in character.
You are ignoring the direct text of the quotes I gave. Exalts are specifically capable of making time machines that travel backwards through time, and they don't even need magic for that. Ot naturally follows that whatever can be done with super science can also be done with magic, bit this part is an extension of the direct text I quoted. Which mentions backwards time travel. Which you specifically insisted exalts couldn't do. They can. It's in the design document.
We literally did we have something that can make it really easy to soak in most poisons but we just didn't craft any this time because the leading plan only crafted two potions instead of making the marbles that would make us extremely poison resistant hell same thing for the magic cleaner and every other type of potion we could have possibly made.
Aelgean Marble: An oddly warm Stone formed from a viscous yellow bright concoction taking the form visually similar to Sunburst marble allowing the possessor of the stone to resist passive forms of harm that detract from health such as Poison. This lowers the difficulty to resist Poison by one and adds a dice to the resistance roll on successful creation for every two successes after another dice is added.
Magic Cleaner: A clear liquid that when poured over an enchanted object removes the magic from it. This functions similarly to unweaving with the number of dice used identical to the number of successes during the potion's making. If drunk by or injected into a magic user, the potion instead acts as a difficulty adder, with each two successes beyond the first one adding one level of difficulty to any magic using roll by said person. The effect is identical to getting drunk, and lasts as long as it takes the potion to metabolize (same time frame as strong alcohol)
Contingencies should include plans, should they not? And also include automatic responses, like magical triggers?
BoredMan
I will not give you my energy Goku. I'm using it.
"Subversive enchantments" specifically refers to their mental tampering being discovered rather than them being outed entirely which may have a different response. So this is the source of my concern on the wording-
I'm aware. Do we have those antivenom-potions now? Are we planning to stop and craft some or an alternative? Point still stands, it would've been helpful to make people immune entirely for a set peroid so they wouldn't have to take an action to drink a potion or something and that's assuming we make some or made some in the background.
I don't like using 'we can just craft that' as a response either. A lot of times we don't.
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Algean marbles aren't potions they're magic rocks that give that bonus permanently I do agree that just crafting it is not really helpful in the moment but we did explicitly make a choice not to have them on hand. We could have made them at any time they don't go bad they're rocks. No one has to drink anything.
My thought wasn't that the black council was using it, but rather that we'd frame it as a traitor looking for leverage over other traitors. Hence the security; our hypothetical target would be profiling co conspirators to find weak points to exploit for internal political gain. If you're hiding things from two different groups of wizards a computer starts to look a lot better as a storage medium.
I expect more scrutiny on us when we're naming names as traitors to the council and reality at large. Especially since this event heavily implies a timeline on our knowledge. It's not accurate, but it still points them towards making the right assumptions about us.
BoredMan
I will not give you my energy Goku. I'm using it.
I was referring to the antivenom we brought for the first plane assault. I'm not sure why your pointing out that we could've made them. We don't have them right now and unless it gets added to a vote we won't.
What Anti-Venom are you talking about the closest we would have had it that point is just health potions.
BoredMan
I will not give you my energy Goku. I'm using it.
The antivenom we brought for the first plane assault against Arianna. Looking back we didn't actually craft it Harry had made it for us.
We have some left actually.
Molly's anima power works if she's being observed by someone, I don't think a recording spell would actually set that off. Molly even referred to it as the viewer getting a report on how we fight and not attempting to get one.
COMMENTARY
Okay, so we can assume that everything we told or talked to Carlos about when we took him to Sanctuary has been revealed to the Ashraaf conspiracy. I think Carlos was clean when we first took him to Sanctuary with Morgan and the Asian lady. So if he's compromised now, it means he got whammied sometime recently.
40 people including Luccio but not including any Senior Council member suggests these are the people with permanent back doors in their heads. It doesnt appear to include the people who only get temporarily influenced/nudged, like the rest of the Senior Council. Which means there's a lot more people at risk. We dont know how the influence is being spread IC
For reference, the Wardens total almost 300 as of Turn Coat in canon, after five years of rebuilding after the events of Dead Beat killed most of the old guard. 40 is more than 1 in 8 of that future number; right now its a larger percentage.
And its also canon that Peabody had the shutdown command in essentially every Warden under 50.
40 is fewer than canon. I wonder why.
Im a little surprised that we havent called Harry yet. Isnt he in town?
It is probably worth calling Lash as well; might as well find out if Lore of Awakening treats geases and the like
We might want to consider calling Maeve.
IC we just found out that major sectors of the Council apparatus are compromised, and we need to talk to a Senior Council member without alerting the conspiracy. We can owe her a favor, and she can actually contact the Gatekeeper.
We actually should talk to Bob as well.
Either in person, on the phone, or sending one of Molly's clones; he's got sufficient experience with magic to give Molly a good idea what the threat vector is.
Worth noting that Michael broke Mab's mind magic on Harry in canon with a short prayer.
So he's also another option for breaking a mind control geas, assuming he's in town.
You're mistaken. The WoJ was one for every million people:
5) Wizards have to sleep. Yes, an enraged wizard could probably kill just about anyone he wanted to, flatten towns, all the mighty wizard stuff. But… there are about a million humans to every full-blown wizard talent. A strong wizard can kill a mortal with about as much effort as it would take you to pick up a piece of gravel and toss it twenty feet. Now, go out to a gravel pile and do that a MILLION times.
And we have explicit IC reference from Turn Coat that ~500 wizards is a significant minority of the Council
There wasn't much choice in that. Given the recent threats to the Senior Council and the unexpected intensity of the attack at Demonreach, they wanted the most secure environment they could get. The trial was supposed to be held in closed session, according to the traditions of how such things were done, but this one was too big. Better than five hundred wizards, a sizable minority of the whole Council, would be there. Most of them would be allies of LaFortier and their supporters, who were more than eager to See Justice Done, which is a much prettier thing to do than to Take Bloodthirsty Vengeance.
Which should represent only a minority of the wizard talents born, since not everybody born with wizard-class magic is recruited or gets training, or even lives to adulthood.
I dont think thats accurate.
To my recollection, he uses magical inks to influence the White Council in general and the Senior Council in particular; his position as a senior clerk allowed him to get people to sign shit.
Harry's distaste for documents and signing shit, as well as his general distance from Edinburgh kept him safe.
But we are never told exactly how he installed his controls in people.
Ink is probably the safe bet, but its never stated.
Can I get a citation for this?
Because I am pretty sure you are misremembering. Harry says the opposite, actually:
Basically the entire supernatural world had heard about LaFortier's death, the ensuing manhunt for Morgan, and the dustup during his trial, though most of the details were kept quiet. Though there was never any sort of official statement made, word got out that Morgan had been conspiring with Peabody, and that both of them had been killed during their escape attempt.
It was a brutal and callous way for the Council to save face. The Merlin decided that it was ultimately less dangerous for the wizards of the world if everyone knew that the Council responded to LaFortier's murder with a statement of deadly strength and power—i.e., the immediate capture and execution of those responsible.
But I knew that whoever Peabody had been in bed with, the people who had really been responsible knew that the Council had killed an innocent man, and one of their largest military assets, at that, to get the job done.
Maybe the Merlin was right. Maybe it's better to look stupid but strong than it is to look smart but weak. I don't know. I'm not sure I want to believe that the world stage bears that strong a resemblance to high school.
The Council's investigators worked more slowly than Lara's had, but they got to the same information by following the money, eventually. The Council confronted the White Court with the information.
Lara sent them the heads of the persons responsible. Literally. Leave it to Lara to find a way to get one last bit of mileage out of Madeline and the business manager's corpses. She told the Council to keep the money, too, by way of apology. The next best thing to six million in cash buys a lot of oil to pour on troubled waters.
He might have wound up with his brains splattered all over a desolate little hellhole in the Nevernever, but Peabody had inflicted one hell of a lot of damage before he was through. A new age of White Council paranoia had begun.
The Merlin, the Gatekeeper, and Injun Joe investigated the extent of Peabody's psychic infiltration. In some ways, the worst of what he'd done was the easiest to handle. Damn near every Warden under the age of fifty had been programmed with that go-to-sleep trance command, and it had been done so smoothly and subtly that it was difficult to detect even when the master wizards were looking and knew where to find it.
Ebenezar told me later that some of the young Wardens had been loaded up with a lot more in the way of hostile psychic software, though it was impossible for one wizard to know exactly what another had done. Several of them, apparently, had been intended to become the supernatural equivalent of suicide bombers—the way Luccio had been. Repairing that kind of damage was difficult, unpredictable, and often painful to the victim. It was a long summer and autumn for a lot of the Wardens, and a mandatory psychic self-defense regimen was instituted within weeks.
It was tougher for the members of the Senior Council, in my opinion, all of whom had almost certainly been influenced in subtle ways. They had to go back over their decisions for the past several years, and wonder if they had been pushed into making a choice, if it had been their own action, or if the ambiguity of any given decision had been natural to the environment. The touch had been so light that it hadn't left any lasting tracks. For anyone with half a conscience, it would be a living nightmare, especially given the fact that they had been leading the Council in time of war.
I tried to imagine second-guessing myself on everything I'd done for the past eight years.
I wouldn't be one of those guys for the world.
***
I was in the infirmary for a week. I got visits from McCoy, Ramirez, and Molly. Mouse stayed at my bedside, and no one tried to move him. Listens-to-Wind was a regular presence, since he was pretty much my doctor. Several of the young Wardens I had helped train stopped by to have a word, though all of them were looking nervous.
Anastasia never visited, though Listens-to-Wind said she had come by and asked after me when I was asleep.
The Gatekeeper came to see me in the middle of the night. When I woke up, he had already created a kind of sonic shield around us that made sure we were speaking in privacy. It made our voices sound like our heads were covered with large tin pails.
"How are you feeling?" he asked quietly.
I gestured at my face, which was no longer bandaged. As Listens-to-Wind had promised, my eye was fine. I had two beautiful scars, though, one running down through my right eyebrow, skipping my eye, and continuing for an inch or so on my cheekbone, and another one that went squarely through the middle of my lower lip and on a slight angle down over my chin. "Like Herr Harrison von Ford," I said. "Dueling scars and beauty marks. The girls will be lining up now."
The quip didn't make him smile. He looked down at his hands, his expression serious. "I've been working with the Wardens and administrative staff whose minds Peabody invaded."
"I heard."
"It appears," he said, choosing his words carefully, "that the psychic disruption to Anastasia Luccio was particularly severe. I was wondering if you might have any theories that might explain it."
I stared across the darkened room quietly for a moment, then asked, "Did the Merlin send you?"
"I am the only one who knows," he said seriously. "Or who will know."
I thought about it for a moment before I said, "Would my theory make any difference in how she gets treated?"
"Potentially. If it seems sound, it might give me the insight I need to heal her more quickly and safely."
"Give me your word," I said. I wasn't asking.
"You have it."
"Before he died," I said, "Morgan told me that when he woke up in LaFortier's room, Luccio was holding the murder weapon." I described the rest of what Morgan had told me of that night.
The Gatekeeper stared across the bed at the far wall, his face impassive. "He was trying to protect her."
"I guess he figured the Council might do some wacky thing like sentencing an innocent person to death."
He closed his eyes for a moment, and then touched the fingertips of his right hand to his heart, his mouth, and his forehead. "It explains some things."
"Like what?"
He held up his hand. "In a moment. I told you that the damage to Anastasia was quite extensive. Not because she had been persuaded to do violence—that much came easily to her. I believe her emotional attitudes had been forcibly altered."
"Emotional attitudes," I said quietly. "You mean . . . her and me?"
"Yes."
"Because she always believed in keeping her distance," I said quietly. "Until recently."
"Yes," he said.
"She . . . never cared about me."
He shrugged his shoulders. "There had to have been some kind of foundation upon which to build. It's entirely possible that she genuinely felt fond of you, and that something might have grown from it. But it was forced into place instead."
"Who would do that?" I shook my head. "No, that's obvious.
Why would he do that?"
"To keep tabs on you, perhaps," the Gatekeeper replied. "Perhaps to have an asset in position to remove you, if it became necessary. You were, after all, virtually the only younger Warden who never gave Peabody an opportunity to exploit you, since you never came to headquarters. You're also probably the most talented and powerful of your generation. The other young Wardens like to associate with you, generally, so there was every chance you might notice something amiss. Taken as a whole, you were a threat to him."
I felt a little sick. "That's why she showed up in Chicago when she should have been back at headquarters helping with the manhunt."
"Almost certainly," he said. "To give Peabody forewarning if you should get closer to his trail, and to locate Morgan so that Peabody could make him disappear. Morgan dead at the hands of White Council justice is one thing. Had Peabody succeeded, killed Morgan, and gotten rid of the body, then as far as we knew the traitor would be at large in the world, and uncatchable. It would have been a continuous stone around our necks."
"And a perfect cover for Peabody," I said. "He could off whoever he wanted, and given the slightest excuse, everyone would assume that it had been Morgan."
"Not only Peabody," the Gatekeeper said. "Any of our enemies might have taken advantage of it the same way."
"And it also explains why he came to Chicago after I dropped that challenge on the Council. He probably thought that the fake informant was Anastasia. He had to go there to find out if his brainlock was holding." I shook my head. "I mean, he never needed to come through that Way since he already knew one out to Demonreach. Christ, I got lucky."
"Also true," the Gatekeeper said. "Though I would suggest that your forethought allowed you to make your own luck." He shook his head. "If Morgan had not acted so quickly, things might have been even worse. Luccio would have stood accused as well, and neither of them would have had any idea what had happened. Accusing Morgan was bad enough—the Wardens would not have stood for both the Captain and her second to be placed under arrest. It might have begun a civil war all on its own."
"Morgan . . . he loved Luccio," I said.
The Gatekeeper nodded. "He wore his heart on his sleeve for quite a while when he was younger. But she never let anyone close. In retrospect, it was a personality shift that should have been noted, though she kept her relationship with you discreet."
It was a brutal and callous way for the Council to save face. The Merlin decided that it was ultimately less dangerous for the wizards of the world if everyone knew that the Council responded to LaFortier's murder with a statement of deadly strength and power—i.e., the immediate capture and execution of those responsible.
But I knew that whoever Peabody had been in bed with, the people who had really been responsible knew that the Council had killed an innocent man, and one of their largest military assets, at that, to get the job done.
Maybe the Merlin was right. Maybe it's better to look stupid but strong than it is to look smart but weak. I don't know. I'm not sure I want to believe that the world stage bears that strong a resemblance to high school.
The Council's investigators worked more slowly than Lara's had, but they got to the same information by following the money, eventually. The Council confronted the White Court with the information.
Lara sent them the heads of the persons responsible. Literally. Leave it to Lara to find a way to get one last bit of mileage out of Madeline and the business manager's corpses. She told the Council to keep the money, too, by way of apology. The next best thing to six million in cash buys a lot of oil to pour on troubled waters.
He might have wound up with his brains splattered all over a desolate little hellhole in the Nevernever, but Peabody had inflicted one hell of a lot of damage before he was through. A new age of White Council paranoia had begun.
The Merlin, the Gatekeeper, and Injun Joe investigated the extent of Peabody's psychic infiltration. In some ways, the worst of what he'd done was the easiest to handle. Damn near every Warden under the age of fifty had been programmed with that go-to-sleep trance command, and it had been done so smoothly and subtly that it was difficult to detect even when the master wizards were looking and knew where to find it.
Ebenezar told me later that some of the young Wardens had been loaded up with a lot more in the way of hostile psychic software, though it was impossible for one wizard to know exactly what another had done. Several of them, apparently, had been intended to become the supernatural equivalent of suicide bombers—the way Luccio had been. Repairing that kind of damage was difficult, unpredictable, and often painful to the victim. It was a long summer and autumn for a lot of the Wardens, and a mandatory psychic self-defense regimen was instituted within weeks.
It was tougher for the members of the Senior Council, in my opinion, all of whom had almost certainly been influenced in subtle ways. They had to go back over their decisions for the past several years, and wonder if they had been pushed into making a choice, if it had been their own action, or if the ambiguity of any given decision had been natural to the environment. The touch had been so light that it hadn't left any lasting tracks. For anyone with half a conscience, it would be a living nightmare, especially given the fact that they had been leading the Council in time of war.
I tried to imagine second-guessing myself on everything I'd done for the past eight years.
I wouldn't be one of those guys for the world.
***
I was in the infirmary for a week. I got visits from McCoy, Ramirez, and Molly. Mouse stayed at my bedside, and no one tried to move him. Listens-to-Wind was a regular presence, since he was pretty much my doctor. Several of the young Wardens I had helped train stopped by to have a word, though all of them were looking nervous.
Anastasia never visited, though Listens-to-Wind said she had come by and asked after me when I was asleep.
The Gatekeeper came to see me in the middle of the night. When I woke up, he had already created a kind of sonic shield around us that made sure we were speaking in privacy. It made our voices sound like our heads were covered with large tin pails.
"How are you feeling?" he asked quietly.
I gestured at my face, which was no longer bandaged. As Listens-to-Wind had promised, my eye was fine. I had two beautiful scars, though, one running down through my right eyebrow, skipping my eye, and continuing for an inch or so on my cheekbone, and another one that went squarely through the middle of my lower lip and on a slight angle down over my chin. "Like Herr Harrison von Ford," I said. "Dueling scars and beauty marks. The girls will be lining up now."
The quip didn't make him smile. He looked down at his hands, his expression serious. "I've been working with the Wardens and administrative staff whose minds Peabody invaded."
"I heard."
"It appears," he said, choosing his words carefully, "that the psychic disruption to Anastasia Luccio was particularly severe. I was wondering if you might have any theories that might explain it."
I stared across the darkened room quietly for a moment, then asked, "Did the Merlin send you?"
"I am the only one who knows," he said seriously. "Or who will know."
I thought about it for a moment before I said, "Would my theory make any difference in how she gets treated?"
"Potentially. If it seems sound, it might give me the insight I need to heal her more quickly and safely."
"Give me your word," I said. I wasn't asking.
"You have it."
"Before he died," I said, "Morgan told me that when he woke up in LaFortier's room, Luccio was holding the murder weapon." I described the rest of what Morgan had told me of that night.
The Gatekeeper stared across the bed at the far wall, his face impassive. "He was trying to protect her."
"I guess he figured the Council might do some wacky thing like sentencing an innocent person to death."
He closed his eyes for a moment, and then touched the fingertips of his right hand to his heart, his mouth, and his forehead. "It explains some things."
"Like what?"
He held up his hand. "In a moment. I told you that the damage to Anastasia was quite extensive. Not because she had been persuaded to do violence—that much came easily to her. I believe her emotional attitudes had been forcibly altered."
"Emotional attitudes," I said quietly. "You mean . . . her and me?"
"Yes."
"Because she always believed in keeping her distance," I said quietly. "Until recently."
"Yes," he said.
"She . . . never cared about me."
He shrugged his shoulders. "There had to have been some kind of foundation upon which to build. It's entirely possible that she genuinely felt fond of you, and that something might have grown from it. But it was forced into place instead."
"Who would do that?" I shook my head. "No, that's obvious.
Why would he do that?"
"To keep tabs on you, perhaps," the Gatekeeper replied. "Perhaps to have an asset in position to remove you, if it became necessary. You were, after all, virtually the only younger Warden who never gave Peabody an opportunity to exploit you, since you never came to headquarters. You're also probably the most talented and powerful of your generation. The other young Wardens like to associate with you, generally, so there was every chance you might notice something amiss. Taken as a whole, you were a threat to him."
I felt a little sick. "That's why she showed up in Chicago when she should have been back at headquarters helping with the manhunt."
"Almost certainly," he said. "To give Peabody forewarning if you should get closer to his trail, and to locate Morgan so that Peabody could make him disappear. Morgan dead at the hands of White Council justice is one thing. Had Peabody succeeded, killed Morgan, and gotten rid of the body, then as far as we knew the traitor would be at large in the world, and uncatchable. It would have been a continuous stone around our necks."
"And a perfect cover for Peabody," I said. "He could off whoever he wanted, and given the slightest excuse, everyone would assume that it had been Morgan."
"Not only Peabody," the Gatekeeper said. "Any of our enemies might have taken advantage of it the same way."
"And it also explains why he came to Chicago after I dropped that challenge on the Council. He probably thought that the fake informant was Anastasia. He had to go there to find out if his brainlock was holding." I shook my head. "I mean, he never needed to come through that Way since he already knew one out to Demonreach. Christ, I got lucky."
"Also true," the Gatekeeper said. "Though I would suggest that your forethought allowed you to make your own luck." He shook his head. "If Morgan had not acted so quickly, things might have been even worse. Luccio would have stood accused as well, and neither of them would have had any idea what had happened. Accusing Morgan was bad enough—the Wardens would not have stood for both the Captain and her second to be placed under arrest. It might have begun a civil war all on its own."
"Morgan . . . he loved Luccio," I said.
The Gatekeeper nodded. "He wore his heart on his sleeve for quite a while when he was younger. But she never let anyone close. In retrospect, it was a personality shift that should have been noted, though she kept her relationship with you discreet."
Not that it resolved itself once it was exposed