Page 11 of Magical Midlife Conclave

“Cool.”

A doll tottered in. It stopped in the middle of the room…and stared at Aljoe with a wide, non-human grin.

Sebastian shivered. He didn’t typically mind the dolls, but this one was off-putting. Aljoe glanced at it. His bearing turned hostile, though Sebastian couldn’t pinpoint why. And then…Aljoe slowly looked away, as though practicing his restraint. He clearly wanted to throttle the thing.

Sebastian turned away, scratching his head, his focus wandering. He mumbled his list of wants, pausing when the doll squealed with a weird sorta-laugh before tottering back out the door again.

Odd.

He went back to mumbling his list of wants, then his list of needs, trying to decide what books to pull out. He could put those aside for another day. Then, to pass the time, he could check out some of the grislier spells and see just how crazy things were back in the day. He wondered if his power level could handle them.

He also wondered if there were a better way to connect with Jessie and fuse their power. A way that might bump them up to a higher level than they could collectively reach now. They needed more power. That might give them the edge over anything Momar could throw at them.

“Start with the needs.”

It took him a moment to register Aljoe’s words. He glanced back. “Oh, sorry. I tend to talk to myself when I’m tired. And working. And thinking.”

“Speak louder. Go over your list of needs. It’ll help me understand the defensive issues facing us from your perspective.”

“Oh.” He smiled at the alpha.

A moment later, that intense stare melted the expression into a frown.

“Right.” Sebastian cleared his throat. “Okay. Well…”

He let his fingers trail against the books as he walked the length of the room. He explained about the realization with the basajaunak and the shifters. “I’m not sure basajaunak can be bought. What would they do with the money? They live in trees. But shifters can probably be bought.” He cocked his head. “Gargoyles, too. Even if no one is bought, though, mages will inevitably slip into this territory. It’s only a matter of time. Maybe they already have. Gathering information is just as dangerous, if not more so, than sneaking in to kill.”

He glanced up, expecting Aljoe to ask why. Most people would have.

Instead, he somehow got the picture that the former alpha understood the danger of gathering intel, how it might be used later, and to keep talking.

“Very useful, that trick,” Sebastian muttered. “I need to learn it. Imagine if I can tell people to go away without having to interrupt what I’m doing to actually speak.”

He took a deep breath, stopping in his meandering to look out the window.

“Momar is highly intelligent. Niamh agrees. He’s cunning. If I were him, I’d send in a decoy. I’d send in someone or a few people to try to kill…whoever. They’d probably die, right? But how? That’s useful info.” He chewed his lip. “While they are either getting information or dying, I’d send in one or two highly powerful mages under the radar to get as much useful information as possible. Our weaknesses. I’d leave magic behind to help break in later.”

“We can smell magic. Austin’s patrols are highly organized, and the structure is always changing. If magic is done here, they’ll know it.”

Sebastian shook his head. “Firstly, just so you know—since you’re new to all this—you can smell a person who has done magic. The magic leaves a residue on them. But you can’t seem to smell spells, for whatever reason.

“Second, he’ll already have a spell or potion to deaden a person’s sense of smell. Sight, smell, sound—he’ll have something to entirely hide the person from you. My counter-potion won’t be enough to reveal them, not anymore. At this point, they are smarter than me. They have time on their side. Research. A big team with lots of ideas. I don’t have those things. We can assume I’ll be beaten. I need a way to flip the script.”

He turned to look at the books.

“I need ancient magic.” He scratched his head again. It probably looked like he had fleas. “Magic from an age lost, when there weren’t surveillance cameras. When a moat and castle walls weren’t good enough. And I need a ring of mages to help create the sort of power and complexity that Momar can’t even fathom.”

“You’ll get it,” Aljoe said with absolute conviction—like he’d personally move heaven and earth to make it so. “But it’ll take time. What can you do right now to balance out the odds? Or even get close. Narrow your scope to the bare minimum to level the magical playing field. Deaden their mages and let us handle the rest until we can get this conclave out of the way and focus on the larger goals.”

Sebastian turned to him with widened eyes. “Wow. You’re much better than a plant.”

Aljoe’s expression didn’t change. “Thank you.”

Sebatian nodded. “Okay. Level the playing field.”

He went to push up his sleeves before realizing he didn’t have any.

“Level the playing field,” he whispered. “Think it through.”