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"I guess I'll go over the bedroom and the bathroom," Roxy said motioning over a couple of guys.

  Daelyn nodded, "I'll check the machine room, hopefully we can clear out of here in a few hours and leave the rest to the guys here. Granite?"

  "Yes, Ma'am?" the leader of one of the beta teams asked.

  "Have someone find me when John gets here, I'll want to go over everything with him."

  "Yes, Ma'am!"

  Pleasant Conversations

  Arthur Troy set down his teacup and nodded, as always, the tea here was wonderful. The drive out was a little longer than Arthur preferred to make, but as a neutral location for a private meeting, it was a popular choice among the different councils. This was why he maintained a membership in this particular country club.

  "So, Morgan," Arthur said looking across the table at the head of the local Council of Vestibulum, "what is it you wish to discuss?"

  "I'd have thought that would have been obvious," Morgan said with a smile. "Sean Valens, obviously."

  Arthur shrugged, "I don't see what there is to discuss."

  "Oh, come on now, Arthur. That young man is going to upset the status quo! How can you say that there is nothing to discuss?"

  Arthur picked up his teacup and smiled slightly, "You say that like it's a bad thing," and took another sip. This really was a good blend; he'd have to ask the maitre d' later about it. Perhaps they would tell him where they got it?

  "How can it be anything but bad, Arthur? We've relied on our lycans for years! So have you for that matter! What do you think is going to happen to us, without them?"

  Arthur shrugged; he'd already been having this discussion with the heads of the other Sapientia covens across the country. Many of them were as concerned as Morgan was, but Arthur was starting to see things just a little bit differently now, and interestingly enough, he wasn't the only one in Sapientia with those thoughts. All he needed was a bit of logical leverage, a nice simple and easy to understand argument.

  "I don't know, Morgan. I kind of like the idea of not having to worry about the Council of Gradatim not having an army to send out to kill any of my members that they suddenly have a gripe with. I suspect I'll feel even better about it once the Council of Ascendance loses theirs as well."

  Morgan sighed and leaned back in his chair, nodding slightly, "I can't say I disagree with you there. I'm only surprised that he didn't kill more of them over at the Gradatim compound."

  "I'm not so sure he killed any of them," Arthur smiled.

  "I heard that he killed quite a few," Morgan replied looking carefully at Arthur. "Are you saying that's not true?"

  "Really now, Morgan! You know of Roger's love of purges, and Charles' love of torture. Roger was dealing with a power struggle when suddenly he lost all of his support with the removal of his troops. Richard Sorother just took advantage of the situation, put himself in charge, and then used the most obvious excuse to direct the blame away from him."

  "And you know this, how?" Morgan asked.

  "I have my sources," Arthur set his cup back down. "With all of the problems I've had with Roger over the years, trust me when I say I have been keeping a very close eye on him. I just wish I'd been keeping a closer one on Harkins.

  "And I must say I'm just a little surprised that you haven't been, Morgan," Arthur said looking Morgan in the eyes.

  Morgan threw his hands up in the air, "I've only been the head of the council for four years now. My predecessor was a rather trusting old man."

  "Yes, I know," Arthur agreed. Royce had been so trusting that he hadn't seen it coming when the newly arrived Morgan quickly rose up through the ranks and then engineered his ouster. Arthur still wondered if the stroke Royce had suffered had been coincidental, or engineered by Morgan as well. While the Vestibulum members didn't normally play the kind of hardball anymore that Gradatim or the Ascendants did, they weren't above the occasional knife slipped between the ribs.

  "So, aren't you worried?" Morgan asked him.

  "About what?"

  "About losing your lycans to this kid? About having him come in and freeing them all?"

  "Not really, no. I'll deal with it, if and when the time comes. While they are nice to have, we've always made sure not to depend on them. Unlike say, some of the other groups?"

  Arthur smiled inwardly as Morgan bristled a little at that. The Vestibulum covens were known for keeping large numbers of lycans in thrall to their needs. It was how they had obtained their number one position after all.

  "I was hoping to find some common ground here, Arthur. Perhaps even an ally. Once he finishes with Harkins and his people, you'll be the next on his list, I'm sure."

  Arthur nodded slowly, and took another sip of his tea, considering that. From a logical rendering of the situation, it would make sense for Sean to come after him next. But Arthur was pretty sure that Sean wasn't looking at this the same way as Morgan was. Sapientia had never gone after Sean; the sole encounter between them had been quiet, private, and personal.

  This made Arthur think that either Sean would bypass Sapientia, or simply try to negotiate with him first, possibly even in person.

  Also, quite honestly, Arthur was hoping to use all of this to his best advantage and move Sapientia back up to the position of the greatest power. If he sided with Morgan and Vestibulum, well he'd be locked into an inferior position, of that he was sure.

  "Morgan, I will take your desires of an alliance to the other council members, and we will discuss it," Arthur said carefully, there was no reason to antagonize Morgan after all. "This is not something I can do on my own of course."

  Not that Arthur had any intentions of doing any of that.

  "Don't take too long," Morgan warned, "I don't think Sean is going to sit idly by and wait for us to have our meetings and reach a consensus."

  "I'll be a bit more worried after he's dealt with Harkins," Arthur chuckled. "I doubt that will be over any time soon."

  "Just don't take too long," Morgan said again and tossing a twenty on the table for his drink he stood up. "If we have to deal with this kid on our own, we will. But then we won't be sharing anything that we gain."

  Arthur nodded, "I understand. Have a good day, Morgan."

  Arthur took another sip of his tea and watched as Morgan left the room, heading for the front door, Morgan's two bodyguards getting up from where they had been sitting and following him. He was just about to get up himself, when the server came over and set a salad down in front of him, and a second one in front of the chair Morgan had just vacated.

  "I didn't order any food?" Arthur said, to the waiter who just shrugged and then walked away.

  "Oh, that's okay, Arthur, I did."

  Looking up in surprise, Arthur saw Joseph Harrison; the gray haired head of the local Council of Eruditio, pull out the chair that Morgan had just vacated and sit down.

  Harrison smiled, "I missed lunch and I really hate having these dreary talks over an empty stomach. So I ordered us both an early dinner. I hope you don't mind? I know you are particularly fond of the lamb here, so I ordered that."

  Arthur blinked, "How do you know I like the lamb here?"

  Harrison smiled, "Because, Arthur, I own the place. You see," Harrison said with a conspiratorial wink, "we learned a long time ago in our quest for knowledge that the best information isn't always written in our books."

  "Huh," Arthur said with a nod, conceding the point. "And just why are you sharing this with me?" he asked and picking up his fork he started in on his salad. Joseph may have gotten the better of him, but he saw no reason to let good food go to waste.

  "For almost two hundred years now, Vestibulum has ruled the roost. What have those years brought us?"

  "Not very much," Arthur admitted.

  "Exactly, stagnation. When Sapientia was first formed and took control of things over a thousand years ago, they cleaned up many of the problems and issues our ancestors faced. While not all of the solutions are good ones now, they were certainly good f
or their time."

  "So you mean to oppose Vestibulum in this?"

  Harrison smiled, "Honestly, Arthur, both of us already are. You see an opportunity to return your Council to the leadership role; I see an opportunity to end an injustice now, rather than waiting for it to blow up in all of our faces."

  "So, you think the freeing of the lycans is inevitable?" Arthur asked looking at Joseph curiously.

  "They outnumber us by what now, Arthur, six to one? And that number is growing. They have created their own rules, laws, and councils, though I understand they call theirs a 'fellowship' because they really dislike the word 'council,'" Harrison gave a little laugh, "not that I blame them.

  "But getting back to the point, they're civilized now, they're organized, and in a few more generations they'll outnumber us ten to one. And what do you think will happen then?"

  Arthur sighed, "Nothing good, I'm sure."

  "No, nothing good at all," Joseph said shaking his head. "That's why we set all of our lycan servants free back when Bernard Valens started his crusade. We still employ lycans, but that's exactly what we do, employ. They can come or go as they please, we pay them, take care of them if they wish, why we even have a 401K plan!" Joseph added with a grin.

  Arthur nodded slowly, "So, what's your pitch then?"

  "I think it would be best for all of us if Sapientia reconsidered its views, and its rules on the keeping of lycans as slaves, don't you? You are the heralds and keepers of all of our traditions. Great heed is paid by many to what you say and do."

  "Yes, but then we would risk appearing weak," Arthur sighed. "We would be seen as doing it under threat from Sean."

  "Ah, but Mr. Valens hasn't approached you yet. I on the other hand, have."

  Arthur considered that, Eruditio had been campaigning to change the way lycans were treated for several years now.

  "Still," Arthur said, "I'm not sure how my fellow council heads throughout the rest of the world would see it."

  "And that's where I can help you," Joseph smiled, "hire an accountant, one preferably who knows about us, and investigate just what the costs of maintaining all of those slaves and servants are. I'll be more than happy to show you our books to compare it to."

  Arthur stopped eating and stared at Joseph.

  "You're telling me that it's cheaper to hire them, than to keep them as slaves."

  Joseph nodded, still smiling. "Several of our historians had discovered this to be true about most slave owning operations in an era where labor is rather cheap. Part of our giving up our servants was to test this theory. We were all rather surprised."

  "Now, that is an argument I can take to my peers," Arthur conceded pointing at Joseph with his fork.

  "And you can follow that up with the argument that when Vestibulum loses their slaves, they'll become weakened, which will allow Sapientia the opportunity to regain its position."

  Arthur nodded and set his salad fork down on his now empty plate. He could see the server approaching with the main course.

  "So, what's in it for Eruditio?" Arthur asked.

  "First and foremost, survival," Joseph said, suddenly looking serious. "If we wait for a lycan uprising, even if Eruditio's members are spared - which I doubt many will be - we will all still be outed to the general public at large in the process.

  "Secondly, we have always prided ourselves on our knowledge, wisdom, and ethics. We have come to realize of late that the keeping of slaves is not very ethical at all, nor is it very wise."

  Arthur had to smile as he considered Joseph's words. Eruditio had always been small, and never very interested in the kinds of games the others played. They had held onto their position all of these years solely because of the power that their knowledge gave them. Eruditio's wizards had a reputation for being very powerful when it came to a fight, and for being very patient about getting their revenge, even if it took decades. Part of why everyone was more than willing to grant them their neutrality.

  "I concede your points, and I will want to see your books. Honestly," Arthur leaned back as the server cleared away the salad dishes and then set the main course in front of him. "Recent events have given me a lot of opportunity to reconsider my stand on certain things."

  "She's your favorite niece, isn't she?" Joseph asked congenially as he picked up his fork.

  "She's the only one that still sends me a birthday card every year," Arthur chuckled. "But putting that aside, she has always had this knack for picking a winner. As well as winning herself," Arthur added, thinking about how she'd dealt with her own magical problems. "Then of course there have been other enlightening moments as well, such as this dinner."

  Joseph inclined his head in a small nod of acknowledgement.

  "Now, let's not spoil your chef's hard work with talk of such weighty issues, agreed?"

  Joseph smiled and nodded, "Agreed."

  Real Life Realities

  Sean sighed and leaned back in his chair. What the hell had just happened to his life? He now had seventy-seven werewolves who lived in his building and all of whom answered directly to him. Then there were Sheila and Peg who were both werefoxes. Sheila definitely answered to him, for now, and Peg, well, he felt bad about it, but he'd all but bullied Peg into submission for now as well.

  That wouldn't last of course, Peg was finally starting to come to terms with what had been done to her, and even had begun to accept it. Sean had no idea what he was going to do with her seeing as she could practice magic like him, and was a lot better trained in its use. Unlike Jolene, whose magic was vastly different from his, Peg's magic was the same type and style. She'd been trained in the classical manner of using magic and casting spells for years, where he'd just sort of 'winged it' from the beginning.

  She'd been avoiding him; he suspected she'd been avoiding everyone other than Sheila who she really did seem to like. Sean hadn't been seeking her out either, considering how he'd just steamrolled over her requests to go back home. While he felt guilty about telling Sheila to bite Peg, he hadn't let that guilt stop him from taking responsibility for her. Now if he just knew what to do with her.

  Not like he had any ideas about what he was going to do with the rest of them either! But at least they were all here willingly. If his lion hadn't been such a brat in dealing with Michael, Sean could have turned them all over to him. But now the Western Pack no longer had a leader, and even though it had been two weeks, they still hadn't picked a new alpha.

  'He needed to be replaced' Sean's lion said suddenly. Sean had noticed his lion had been down right 'chatty' of late. He really needed to talk to Roxy.

  'Why did he need to be replaced?' Sean grumbled. 'I've got his second showing up here at almost every day now asking for advice and telling me what's going on! I'm busy enough already!'

  'I'm sure a new alpha will rise up soon enough.'

  'That still doesn't tell me why he needed to be replaced.'

  'He wouldn't submit.'

  "Well," Sean muttered under his breath, "aren't we a prissy little king."

  Sean got the feeling his lion just sighed and shook his head. Yeah, he'd been annoyed at Michael's stringent behavior at the warehouse, but if he'd known he was going to end up with so many headaches....

  Sean sighed and shook his own head, but damned if his lion wasn't right. He needed to start building up, he needed these people, he needed everything that came with being the leader of a movement, and the leader of what would probably become a revolution, albeit an undercover, out of sight, and very secret one.

  But still, who knew there'd be so much work involved? Oak was good with dealing with the other wolves and supervising them, because he knew them. But the paperwork? The bills? The legal stuff?

  Yeah, Sean wasn't having much fun dealing with any of that, especially all of the stuff involved with buying a building, starting a business, and doing a payroll. He'd need to find somebody who he could trust and who knew what the hell they were doing and push as much of it off as possible on
them.

  Then there was the 'machine' as he had taken to thinking of it. He needed to design and build the machine that was going to help him churn out enchanted items. Primarily the 'Silver Tags' as well as the lycan collars, then once those were done, maybe a few other important items as well.

  Everyone in the building had a collar now; those weren't too hard to make, especially with the help of Jolene and the girls. Making a few each night was pretty much routine now. He was still sending them off to Sawyer as well, and his bank account was slowly recovering. This morning he had twenty grand in it, apparently the price on them had crashed a bit faster than expected.

  Looking over the last bill he had to sign, Sean tossed it in the 'out' box and picking up a pencil he pulled out his notes on the 'machine.' He was going to start small; he had a bunch of simple copper disks with a hole punched into them and a lion etched on one side. He'd cast his scrying protection spell onto one, and then made a bunch of duplicates for each of the wolves living here to protect them from the simple mind spells as well.

  It had taken more energy to put the spell onto a copper round than it had to put it on the gold coins he'd previously used, twice as much in fact. So the bit about the more expensive the metal, the easier the spell, had been true. That had gotten him to wondering about changing the tags to gold and seeing how much that would lower the casting costs, but when he saw the current price of gold, that quickly put a stop to that idea.

  "Whatcha' doin'?" Daelyn asked coming up behind him.

  "Working on my machine," Sean told her. "What are you doing up here? I thought you were working on the truck we bought for the shop?"

  "Oh, I finished that. Jolene and Roxy took a ride off to Sawyer's to check in. I thought I'd come up here and maybe distract you a little bit," Daelyn giggled.

  Sean sat up and turned to look at Daelyn. She was wearing one of her work coveralls, and the zipper was all the way down, exposing all of that very lovely flesh underneath, as Daelyn didn't ever wear anything under those coveralls.