Of course, having first generation mages wasn’t a bad thing. They would come into the magical world with open minds.
And would be far less prejudiced than their more magical-lineage-inclined counterparts.
No parents to tell them what magics were
In other words, first generation mages would be far easier to induct into diabolical methods of magic.
Of course, it was dangerous. Not so much because of the demons, but because of fellow humans. Too noisy, and they would attract the attentions of demon hunters.
Eventually, such a thing wouldn’t be a concern. They would become powerful enough to defend themselves. A handful of students, all able to order multiple demons into battle, would wipe the floor with most assailing forces.
Unfortunately, that would be far off, relatively speaking. There were–Martina glanced down at one of the reports–a mere eight students remaining in the current class. None of them had formed any kind of proper contract yet.
For the time being, Martina would have to rely on herself, Catherine, the security force, and Zagan. And Zagan was far from reliable.
After his antics involving the missing students, Martina was almost doubling the priority of finding a way to dismiss him without winding up killed herself.
Aside from them, Eva had a small contingent of demons following her. A force that she
Martina started as her door opened with a click.
Catherine hadn’t said a word.
Martina shook her head, shaking off both the unexpected arrival and the missing Catherine.
Obviously she was off tending to her class, thereby allowing Anderson to walk in unannounced.
Anderson never brought good news.
“Something I can do for you, Mr. Anderson?”
He took a moment to dally about the entrance of her room. Removing his coat and hat, placing them on the rack, and then straightening out his suit gave him plenty of time to change up what he wanted to say based on who was in the room. He had a markedly different personality whenever Zagan was present.
It also meant that he was planning on staying for some time.
With a barely concealed groan, Martina reached down into her desk and withdrew a second glass. She tipped it in his direction, a silent question.
He, thankfully, shook his head. “No thank you, Martina. I’m here on business. Afterwards, I must depart for a meeting with the other governors.”
“Suit yourself,” she said as she replaced the glass. The less Hellfire liquor she had to waste on others, the better. “This business?”
He didn’t appear outwardly angry with her. That was good at least. Ever since he had shown up talking about two missing students, they hadn’t been on the best of terms.
Or rather, Martina was fairly certain that she only managed to keep her job through being the one holding Zagan’s contract.
“Unpleasant,” he said.
“The Elysium Order has suspended operations in North America.”
Martina winced. “The entire continent? I was unaware that we had such a large impact on them.”
“One of our other ‘test runs’ down south may have had a brief run in with them as well. But this has two direct implications, neither pleasant and both affecting Brakket.
“First and most obvious, the pressure on everything they hunt will be off.”
“And that includes necromancers. Including the one that attacked the academy twice.” Martina reached out to her glass and took a long drink. “Why did they have to announce it? This is only going to make their job harder when they restart their crusade. Vampires will be out of control. Liches too. Even ones that aren’t here already will be looking to move to where the Elysium Order is not.”
“As of this time, the Elysium Order has submitted several bounties to the Royal Guild of Mage-Knights. Time will tell how effective the guild is in keeping undead under control.
“More importantly, they explicitly cited demonic interference as their reason for suspending operations.”
Martina froze mid drink.
That was… bad.
Downing the rest of her Hellfire in a single gulp, Martina slammed the glass on the desk, shattering it. She swept the shards off of her desk, ignoring the small cuts she got on her hand.
“Any two-bit hunter will easily be able to glance at recent Elysium deployments and make guesses at what they are talking about.”
“Indeed,” he said. “Keep your head down. Act like everything is normal. Gather students as usual and continue with the program. The others have agreed, given
Martina grit her teeth.
Anderson had stood up, but she was only scarcely paying attention.
