Meeting

The crew gathers around the fire at lunch time. It’s been a tense morning for the collective, eyes weary from watching the sky. Kalen made some wonderful scrambled drake eggs. But nobody is in high spirits.

“We’ve been seeing Imperial Wizards more and more this last year,” Razha says. “Some say their numbers are increasing. That’s hard to say when there are no official records of their deployments. Since we’ve all come into this collective from different fronts of the war, I think we should all share what we’ve learned about the wizards.

“As for me, I first encountered them during an infiltration of a covert military research facility. They didn’t yet have any wizards deployed, but I got a look at some of their technology--alchemical and biomechanical devices like I’ve never seen before. I can’t even explain what much of it might do. What have y’all seen?” Several hands go up. “Okay, Zal.”

“The wizards have been appearing in cities a lot. I’ve had a few close encounters since Talheim. Once in Averis, the wizard was part of the protection detail of a senator, but when a protest broke out, it pacified a lot of people with some kind of fog. Then there was in Ashevel, a prisoner transfer vessel was docked there, and a military escort was present with two wizards. They had cast some kind of magical barrier around the shipyard and we couldn’t even sneak in up close, it repelled us like we were magnets.”

“Elliv,” Razha says.

“I had a correspondence with an old military contact over winter, and he suggested that now a wizard is being assigned to every airship crew.”

“That’s in line with what y’all saw yesterday,” Razha says.

Lein looks over at Elliv and gestures like he’s holding a piece of paper.

“Oh! Lein also heard from a military contact recently,” Elliv says. “He said wizards are never dispatched alone, they always have an officer overseeing them. Rumor is they can be very unstable and unpredictable.”

“Not a good sort of chaos,” Razha says. “Nadia.”

“The Wizard Corps is a new development. They were not involved in the siege of Misthaven, nor did we see them in the rape of Sabaku. But I have heard rumors that whatever technology they use was in development for some time, tested in secret military raids, and covered up from the public record.”

“It was,” Filla says. “I--I’ve seen it.” She keeps her eyes down and she flaps her hands nervously.

“What do you know, Filla?” Razha says.

“Only that Imperial Wizards are not human, they have no conscience, no mercy, and no hesitation to kill.” She keeps her eyes down and rocks back and forth, taking deep breaths. Zal offers her their burning roll of hazeweed, and they quickly accept and take a long draw from it.

“Okay. Kurri,” Razha says.

“I had an encounter with a wizard in medical school. It was performing some...terrible experiments, on blight patients.”

“That confirms rumors that in addition to military applications, the wizards are being used in medical contexts,” Razha says. “Ketha.”

“It was shortly before Elliv and Maris arrived in Lakkia. My collective then conducted a raid on the Population Department’s holding facility there. We took them completely off guard and had the sents backed into a corner, when the wizard just, it just came out of nowhere, and it conjured lightning. We lost two people there...”

Elliv puts his arm around them and pulls them close to him.

“Maris,” Razha says.

“We were laying an ambush for an Imperial supply convoy on the capital road. We were completely hidden, yet somehow, they knew exactly where we were. Only after we were being shot at did I notice the wizard, and when it looked into my eyes through those black goggles, I suddenly felt sicker than I’ve ever felt, and I had to fall on my knees and throw up. It stopped when my comrades shot at it. Two of ‘em hit it, but it just kept coming at us, no fear of death. I shot that bastard twice more, in close range, with my shotgun, before it finally died.”

“Annia.”

Annia signs, “However their magic functions, scientifically, it seems to be empowered by proximity to discordium. I was part of a raid on a loading dock where a barge full of black death was being loaded up. Wizard met us there, it conjured ice and cold. It was like a heavy winter storm, so intense we had no choice but to retreat and escape.”

“That’s just like the spell we were hit by in Korben,” Kurri says.

“Krev?” Razha says.

“Well all I can say is that I ain’t never seen no wizard before, there ain’t been one in this valley before now,” Krev says.

“Then this is a definite escalation here,” Razha says. “So what we know is: the wizards use some kind of experimental new technology to produce the potent abilities they use. This technology reacts with discordium nearby. They have a wide variety of these abilities, and they each seem to specialize in a particular sort of talent--extrasensory perception, conjuring elemental power, disrupting the human metabolism, creating invisible force fields, for instance. They also have a habit of showing up out of nowhere--maybe they hide their presence somehow.

“We can expect to see one with any airship crew, accompanied by an officer handler, because they are not trusted to work alone. They also are being assigned to other missions of importance to the military or the company. They haven’t been deployed oversees, that we know of, but the program has been in development and secretive testing for some years before reaching this point. And the wizards do not display human emotions or reactions, do not seem to know fear, and do not hesitate to kill or destroy. They are extremely dangerous, and very hard to kill.”

“What will the escalation by the military mean for our plan?” Nadia says.

“I think it means we have to get on with it sooner rather than later. Mikal said the workers are ready,” Razha says.

“But we ain’t ready,” Maris says. “We’re still lacking the kind of firepower we’ll need.”

“I have a solution to that,” Zal says.

“What’s that?” Razha says.

“It solves two of our problems in one. Nisho, from the temple, we really owe him for all his help, and we want to help escort him up to the holy place like y’all said. And that’s on White Ash. But what else is on White Ash? The strip mine, and what are strip mines full of?” Zal says.

“Explosives is what!” Maris says.

“Explosives,” Zal says.

“Alright. Let’s plan for how we can approach that. Medics should go check in on the clinic later today and tell Nisho we can do what he asks,” Razha says.