Bernt squared his shoulders and knocked on Iria’s office door, doing his best to appear calm and fident. He didn’t o be nervous—the archmage had asked for him specifically, and she’d traded her influeo get him here. That should have reassured him, but he still couldn’t quite keep himself from nervously sweating into his clothes. What could she want him for?

  No one answered. What was going on? The guild was nearly deserted and almost eerily quiet—his instrus had said to appear before dawn. Except the archmage wasn’t here.

  After waiting a few more awkward seds, Bernt knocked again, a little more firmly this time. Again, nothing.

  “Wizard Bernard!” A voice called out the same moment that he heard steps, behind him and to his left. He flinched, startled by the sudden sound, and whirled to see the archmage by the stairs on the nding. She waved to him, already turning back the way she’d e. “e this lease.”

  Hurrying to catch up, Bernt caught Archmage Iria half the stairs to the floor.

  “Good m, Archmage,” he said, trying not to sound out of breath. “Where are we going?”

  “Your office,” she replied. “Are you familiar with the historical significe of the Invigitio?”

  Bernt missed a step, nearly stumbling oairs before catg himself. What was all this about? He hesitated for a sed, trying to decide what to say, but there was no point iending ignorance.

  “Yes, Archmage,” he said. “They’re the adherents to the four temples of the Sacral Peaks who were responsible for trolling warlock activity in the former Empire before the Solicitors came along.”

  “Yes,” the archmage said, sounding a little surprised. “That's good. I don’t know what you might have heard, but the temples are attempting to coordinate a ti-wide respoo the Duergar threat. In resuming this kind of political role, though, they’ve also made some other, mostly symbolic traditions relevant again—”

  “The legitimators,” interrupted Bernt as they reached the upper floor of the Mages’ Guild. “I’m familiar with them. I work with a padin – he’s been telling me about it.”

  “Ah, he already caught you up,” Iria said, giving him a sharp look that suggested she uood quite a bit more than he’d meant to say. “So it wasn’t just his mother’s idea – I should have guessed.”

  Bernt blinked, surprised. raveled fast.

  “Torvald asked me if I’d e with him, I just said I’d go if the t appointed me,” Bernt said carefully. “What does that have to do with the guild?”

  Iria harrumphed. “Everything, boy. Those who do not work to shape the future risk being shaped by a future they had no trol over. Remember that, if you ever pn to get involved in games of power. The temples are calling this cve to make decisions about our entire try, and our neighbors, too. They he king’s cooperation and sent, but nobody’s going to ask us for our opinion here at the guild. That’s not acceptable to us any more than it will be to any of the uilds or other is in our try. We don’t know where all the representatives at this cve will e from, or how many there are. You might be the only Beseri mage there, for all I know.”

  Bernt swallowed as Iria led them down the Wizard’s Society corridor, sweeping by offices and boratories with a purposeful stride. She wanted him to… what? Wrahe cve into doing her bidding? That sounded a lot more ambitious than what he’d had in mind. For that matter, it raised airely different question.

  “Do you know why they're even doing the cve in the first pce? I mean, why go have a meeting at the Sacral Peaks? ’t the gods iate amongst themselves to e up with an agenda for the Invigition? I imagihat all the kings and the Kallrixian cil would be more willing to work with something like that, too.”

  Iria looked over her shoulder at him, one eyebrow raised. “It's not that simple, no. You should read up oopic a bit before the time es. I know most mages aren’t very religious, but this is going to bee very relevant to you, soon.”

  "Okay. So why have the cve?"

  The archmage stopped in front of a pin wooden door and fumbled through a ring of keys before thrusting oo the lock.

  “The gods don’t like to interfere with our political affairs directly – whibsp;isn’t the same thing as saying they don’t get involved. It’s an agreement they made to end the Age of Barbarism and allow civilization to develop without one of their own crushing it every few years to spite whichever god spohem.”

  The hinges squealed as she opehe door. “Here we are. This is going to be your office.”

  It was a small room with a desk, a single chair and a bookshelf. There was no dust – someone had ed the pce retly – and a small stack of books sat on the desk alongside a dwarven steel pen, ink and a stack of paper. Berered, taking it in. It was a bit stark, but not more than his own house. Reag up, Bernt hung a perpetual torch spell in the air up beside the door. It gave the mostly empty room a cozier air. Much better.

  “Thank you, archmage,” he said, walking up to the desk. Leaning down, he sorted through the books, cheg the covers. They were primers on the four temples involved in the Invigition, a history book about the fall of the Madurian Empire, a book about temple protocols and rituals, and another on Beseri diplomatic protocol.

  “You wao study these?” he asked. Bernt could guess what was going on here, but it was always best to get clear instrus.

  “That’s right.” Iria firmed. “Ideally, you’d spend a few years learning how to think strategically about our p the world, both the Mages’ Guild and Besermark. We don’t have that kind of time, though, so I’ll just o prepare you as best I . There’s an intelligence report about the Duergar at the bottom of the stack. Pollock tells me you respoo open-ended inquiry, so see if you work out what our is are in this matter, and how you think you might be able to address them at the cve.”

  Bernt looked from the books to the archmage. This was all getting out of hand very quickly. Torvald had asked him to do this to keep him out of all the political games – or at least to protect him from his family. Hells, Bernt had just wao do his experiments in the Phoenix Reaches. Oher hand, though, the opportunity here was obvious. He’d be an idiot not to take it. Besides, at the end of the day, nobody could forbsp;him to do anything at the cve.

  “Thanks," he said, clearing his throat. "I’ll get right on it. How long do I have? Torvald didn’t say when we’d actually be leaving.”

  “The temples all across the Empire and at the Sacral Peaks have to decide on a date for the cve. My scryers and the those at all the uilds across the ti are w with them to establish a reliable unicatiowork, but it’ll still take some time. You’ll have at least a few weeks.” Iria said and swept out the door. “Start with the history book!”

  When he couldn’t hear her steps anymore, Bernt opened his bag and pulled out all of his other books – those he’d checked out from the library. He hadn’t expected Iria to give him an office up here at the Wizard’s Society, but the proximity that gave him to Pollock would be a huge be. Holy, it was better than he could have hoped for.

  Oher hand, there was a lot to gh here. He would have to manage his time carefully if he was going to be ready in time.

  ***

  Ed reached up and gingerly felt at the burns on his scalp. It was healing well enough, but it still hurt like hell. Jori ahead, standing on a rod stig her nose up into the air, sniffing for something or other.

  “Damned demons and their stupid fire rivers,” he grumbled, digging through his pouch for something to eat. They’d been trudging through the rodscape for who knew how long, hiding from passing demons and sleeping when they got tired. There was no day ht here and the ck of a proper way to track time was beginning to grate on him.

  “Hey!” Jori protested. “I warned you that you weren’t going to like it!”

  He grunted in reply. The damned imp had dragged him down some kind of heating shaft to a massive tuhat ran uhe city. Instead of carrying sewage or water, though, this one carried hellfire. Ed khat the river terminated iy somewhere, but he hadn’t really sidered what happeo it. Now, though, he was absolutely certain that he didn’t want to know.

  The thing had a narroay along the side, but he’d still had to maintain a mobile heat barrier around himself the entire way. Casting a simple, stationary barrier was easy – even a spherical oo cover him from all dires. Moving while maintaining the spell, though, was airely different proposition. It was a lot, even for him, and he’d slipped up – actally letting the top of his head poke out beyond its edges. The burns had been instantaneous, and he’d nearly lost trol of the spell entirely.

  They’d made it out, and Jori had led him away from the city and up out of the valley where it y.

  She’d been nothing but friendly since, but Ed knew she wasn’t telling him everything. She wanted something in exge for her help. Iria’s initial ashed in the pouch along with the food, had said as mubsp;He would humor Jori, he'd decided – you couldn’t expect altruism from most people, never mind a demon. It would be like expeg a dwarf to fly. Besides, she was his only tact to the mortal world, and acc to the note, his only real ce of getting bae. That, and she had given him the food without asking for anything. She'd earned some goodwill.

  The imp had disappeared several times sihey’d escaped the city, only to reappear a few mier – summoned by solicitors who wanted updates, she’d said. Sometimes she came back carrying more food or a message from either Iria or Radast. Iria sent him news from outside, but the warlock mostly just wao know what it was like here. Damned asshole had better hope he didn’t give him a taste whe back.

  Waving at the imp to signal that he was taking a break, Ed found a rock to sit on and jured himself some water.

  “So, Jori. What’s yame in all this?” Ed asked as she joined him. He’d been waiting for her to spill it, but she’d been tent just to lead them off in what looked to him like a random dire.

  Jri him, dispying poieeth. “We’re going to save my pack!”

  Then she produced a bit of jerky from her Underkeeper's robes, which she'd recovered after their escape, and began gnawing on it. Ed scratched at his stubbly beard and scowled at her.

  “Well this is going to be a fine mess,” he grumbled. “Save them how? Where? And what do you mean to do with a paps when you’ve got them?”

  “That way,” Jori said, pointing the way they'd been going. “We have to find a fiend alsh. I smell him. His blood stinks. He bound the paself years ago. It’s how I got separated, before I was summoned for the first time. I hid away from them and he didn’t find me. I’m very sneaky!”

  Ed let out a slow, tired breath. “And your pack... they're going to be wherever he is?”

  Jori snorted. “Some of them, maybe. That’s not the point, though. We o kill him to break my cousins’ obligation to our ealsh is bound to Zijeregh, a servant of Nuros. They won’t betray their master on their own – it would be an insult to their master’s master. Very dangerous. Bad things happen to traitors. But, if the of obligation is broken, they aren’t traitors. They would be free to follow us. It’s how things are done, here.”

  Ed squi her in fusion. “How do you know all their names?” Did demons intuitively know the entire of and of other demons they met? How would something like that even work?

  “I asked!” Jori replied, as if it were obvious.

  The archmage shook his head, irritated. He didn’t have the patieo weasel every little thing out of her. “Alright. What’s your pn? you take this fiend in a fight?”

  The imp shook her head firmly. “No! Fie weaker demons – especially imps. They are predators. They don’t burn, and they're much strohan us.”

  Ed grunted, and dug around itle pocket in his sleeve for a pinch of tobacco. He packed it into his pipe, thinking.

  “So, you wao kill it for you so this fiend doeshem all, probably. Does that mean all those mean little baby imps are gontached to me? I don’t know that I need a passel of little demons following me around. Especially not bae, if I’m guessing where this is going.”

  “No.” Jori said firmly. “They will be free!”

  Ed scoffed. “Down here? Free to follow us around, et picked up by the bigger, meaner demon that finds them, you mean.”

  Jrinned, and Ed could see the fire burning behind her eyes. “Free to run from the Great Oo hide, or to fight!”