Kommora pressed the rune against the soldier's chest. It glowed indigo. The paper dissolved, leaving just the outline of the rune over his dark green uniform. The colour spread along his body and then sank into the flesh. His eyes glowed the same indigo before returning to their natural brown. His body shuddered all over.

"My apologies, Sergeant Loughty," she said under her breath, knitting her brows together to reinforce the influence of the indigo runes over his mind. "But you'll thank me for this later."

The shuddering stopped. The man blinked and took in a breath, looking dazed. Kommora slipped a violet rune with an eavesdropping symbol into his hand, which he nimbly tucked up his sleeve. She checked her surrounding monitoring runes; there was nobody about and no rune magic in action aside from her own. With a curt nod, she dismissed him from her office.

She eased out a breath as his footsteps disappeared down the corridor. It wasn't easy tracking down a soldier who worked directly for the king's mages. It was just as well Liore and Ash were both well-respected and could pull weight amongst their peers. She would uncover Pollin and his mages' secrets. With Acrise being threatened, Karma would be readying her retaliation. Zor Jarsdel and Rinoa Gruger had only returned from Patrixbourne earlier that day, having attended in the king's name the inauguration of the new students enrolled at King's Academy of Magic. Tonight was the first night all the king's mages were gathered in Benover. They might be able to silence Loren and think they could frighten Kommora from advancing further with that move, but they underestimated her. Loren's death would not be in vain.

She rubbed her temples with a sigh. She owed it to the Rummages. It was just as well chaos magic died with Loren. Nobody else could be entrusted to use it for good. She looked at the hanging paper dove chandelier in the corner, behind the bookcase where nobody could see it but her. The enchanted wings used to flutter as the birds chased each other in their little paper cage. Now they lay as crumpled pieces of paper at the bottom of the cage. Loren made them to celebrate Kommora's fortieth birthday a few years ago when she'd created fold magic. Kommora would never voice it, but it did alleviate some stress seeing the magical creatures dance around, their paper wings crackling. Five years, and the magic still hadn't worn off. Until she died.

Her communication rune flashed. That was Liore's signal. The Sergeant had entered the king's mages' den. Kommora drew her receiving rune closer and checked her security runes before sitting at her desk. Nobody was around. Nobody would be able to walk in on her. Good.

She breathed, laying her hand flat on the violet-indigo rune on her table. The magic engulfed her and activated.

When she opened her eyes, she saw through the eyes of Sergeant Loughty, standing guard outside the king's mages' committee room on the second floor of the west wing at the Council of Mages. She could feel the man's subconsciousness: his job was to maintain vigilance for the next three hours of watch. No sound emanated from the door; she was not surprised. No doubt the room was runed to prevent eavesdroppers -- not that it was a hurdle for her. She made Loughty apply the rune and wave at it. The glow became suppressed by one of the sigils and the voices came through, slightly muffled due to the clashing effect of their silencing rune and hers. And as long as Loughty kept in contact with the rune and the rune with the wall, Kommora could hear everything.

"The opportune moment is drawing near."

"There's just one hitch. The girl." Karis Bonneville. Kommora could almost hear the clink of her jewellery as she paced the room.

"You know our orders are not to touch her." Domic Butterworth's voice made Kommora taste bile.

"I won't." Bonneville gave a dry laugh. "She made me pay the price for that already, Domic. I don't forget."

"The Hannan king's death date draws near. When Mephis dies, Prince Fautos will storm Acrise," said Rinoa Gruger in her signature toneless voice.

"If his siblings don't get in his way."

"And we will do our part. So what is your concern?" said Butterworth.

"My concern--" Kommora could almost hear Bonneville's lips curling with disdain. "--is that the girl is in Acrise right now. That summoning you sent out, Domic, called for everyone Iwade and northwards to aid Acrise. She was in Iwade. She's now in Acrise with that little military runt, Woodbead. If it's so important she lives and Acrise is about to be swarming with Hannans, wouldn't it be prudent she gets out of Acrise?"

"That little bitch gets into trouble of her own accord. It's almost like she wanted to die."

Bonneville laughed, a shrill sound that made Kommora wince. "Don't you wish she had six years ago? Would have made all our lives easier."

"If you want her to remain on our side, you will do your best to keep the girl alive. She is our only bargaining chip," growled Zor Jarsdel.

Bonneville scoffed. "I know where my loyalties lie, Zor. Now what are we going to do with this one? I thought we'd agreed to kill her."

"Yes, but after Rinoa got information from her first. Things have been... busy lately."

"Haven't we all?" muttered Bonneville. "If you want to torture her, I can easily do that. You don't need Rinoa."

"I do want her to be coherent when she gives me information, Karis. Your method of torture tends to... compromise people. Permanently."

"Are you talking about that Rummage bitch? Because I intended her death. She had nothing I wanted except her life. So I took it." Bonneville savoured each word. "Her precious little chaos magic was no match for organic magic after all."

"Congratulations." Butterworth remained deadpan. "You stopped her from blabbing that mouth of hers. I suppose given how some of the mages' suspicions are high with recent events it's probably helpful."

"Shut up, Domic. It was your idea to just take over those investigations and ignore the questions. I would have released some official statement to quench the desperate newsletters making their own stories."

"Shut it," said Rinoa Gruger with a growl. The mages fell silent. There was a cry and a thud, like the sound of limb hitting furniture, and then the muffled screaming started. Kommora had heard these type of screams before. It was not the sounds of pain, but of nightmares, where the throat became raw and the sound jumped up and down octaves with terror, relieving one's worst nightmares as information was ripped out from their minds -- the application of indigo runes in mental torture.

It seemed to last forever. Kommora could only bite her lip and weather it. At last the shrieks stopped, to be replaced by heavy breathing and chokes.

"You got the names?" said Jarsdel.

"Of course I got them." Gruger sniffed. "That Nithercott brat's attempted organic magic hadn't done any lasting damage. Just as well, or she'd be a vegetable before we even start."

"Well?"

"Bellamy Southwark, Crina Nighy, Azriel Edevane, and Tesla Relish."

"That's a small merry crew, considering they've been slinking around Karma for the past month looking for recruits. I guess people are more loyal to Pollin than we gave them credit for."

Bonneville snickered.

"With Nighy dead, then that leaves only three to take care of," said Butterworth.

A quick movement caught Loughty's attention out of the corner of his eye. The Sergeant released the rune he'd pressed against the wall. The magic dissipated, leaving no trace. The mages' voices died away. Kommora could still sense through him. He drew his gun, ears perked for the next sound. Surely enough, it came from round the corner. Someone had crept across the courtyard despite the heavy guards overnight and snuck into the Council.

There was another flurry of movement. Sergeant Loughty shouted, alerting the other guards. There was the glow of a red rune and an explosion that rumbled through the marble building and sent the men down onto their knees. Loughty was blinded by the puff of dust that flew into the air.

Kommora released her connection with him. The bang rattled her windows even though she was several streets away. Frowning, she rested her elbows on her polished oak table, crinkling some of her paperwork, and laced her fingers together before resting her chin on top. At least the pending invasion by Hanna also put the king's mages on edge. They betrayed their fellow mages but were not treasonous. King Mephis of Hanna's death would be in the next few days, if Kommora's sources were to be believed. His children would fight for the throne, although the one most likely to win was, as Gruger said, Prince Fautos, for he had the wealthiest land and the biggest army. Prince Fautos, who was renowned for his bloodlust, would no doubt use his ascension to the throne to declare full-blown war and invasion on Karma. Although his siblings, whose own lands and armies were not insignificant, would not go down without a fight. That would buy them more time to prepare.

The girl. They were obviously talking about Seiren Nithercott, especially with the link to that runt Woodbead. Jarsdel mentioned Nithercott being the bargaining chip for the powers of another person, probably a mage, if his or her alliance is so crucial to their success.

But there was no mage alive who would have such an investment in Nithercott, especially not with her so wilfully burning all her bridges since the death of her family.

Unless Kristen Harred was alive and it was Harred's powers the king's mages were after.

But that was a preposterous thought. Kommora was present at the funeral. She saw the corpse in the open casket. She saw it being lowered to the ground and buried with her own eyes. Nithercott never attended it, but Kommora was certain Kristen Harred was long dead and gone.

Whoever that person was, their alliance with the king's mages seemed to only last for as long as Nithercott remained safe. Which meant one way to truly cripple the king's mages, Nithercott must die, something Karis Bonneville seemed only too happy to do.

Karis Bonneville.

"Because I intended her death..."

The image of the woman with the white blonde hair and too many piercings made Kommora's blood boil and teeth gnash. Although Rummage's aides had suspected rogue mages behind the attack, Kommora felt differently. Loren's body reeked of their magic when Kommora put a tracker on her. Now there were two people on Kommora's list to eliminate, and she looked forward to their faces when the time came. Her only regret was Loren having to die in such a horrific manner. Organic magic stripped the soul from the body, intact, and then shredded the soul after tens of hours of torture after destroying the user's source of magic, which explained the dead fold magic birds. It was forbidden magic. And it came as no surprise that the king's mages viewed themselves above the law and inflicted it on a fellow mage.

Kommora would see that Bonneville received an equally fitting end. And now she knew exactly where the king's mages would be headed.

She stood up. As a Benover mage, she had to at least show her face for that attack just now. Not that she was going to hurry and rescue any of those traitors. 

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