Revelations of the Synod’s connections and pawns in country after country, Family after Great Family, was rocking all of Europe as more and more nasty secrets started coming out and catching some air, released at regular intervals to keep the people staggering... and the reputation of the Church of Light and the Mage Association was falling right into the shitter.

-Would you look at that. Someone just took down the Wards at the Boston Mage Association and some Earth Mages ripped open the basements. Guess what they found, right where the files said?- Sama /snickered.

-Oh, those secret cells for holding American malcontents and inventors and those who the leadership didn’t like? I take it the Branch President has fled with all speed back across the pond?-

-We sent his flight path over to Britain, who may or may not feed it to the Whales. It turns out the man has a fetish for Dolphin flesh, too.-

Oh, I was suddenly certain the man wouldn’t make it to Rome or France or anything.

-Well, it should keep Cold Rice off a war footing. Of course, if the Synod wishes to reveal its full strength, not that we haven’t already revealed a lot of it for them, there’s not much we can do but reply in kind.- I considered things. -How about a website devoted to revealing the secrets of the Synod, something they can’t take down? All the Families, Great Families, and politicians, Mages and Archmages and Sages and Great Beasts. Reveal it all for all the countries to see and point at and realize where they stand in the world, and just what the Synod and Church of Light can do to them when it becomes time.-

-And just maybe there’s a whole lot of Family members who don’t want to be slaves to the Church or the Curia? Sounds fine by me!- Sama /declared after a moment of thought. -I imagine there’s some powerful nations who aren’t going to be happy that they are so overshadowed... and that some of their loyal citizens, aren’t.-

-Life is a cruel process. Let them earn their pay for once.- I wasn’t sympathetic, as being ushered into power by Sages who could use you as a puppet was the way of politicians for most of the planet. After all, without real power backing you, what worth were your words? The true power was in mighty individuals, not armies or the numbers of loyal citizens.

Silver Magic backed by Caster Level would alleviate a lot of that, and Typeless magic and Wizardry was having ripple effects everywhere. Organizations were coming around to the fact that a skilled generalist was better than having a dozen niche performers on hand most of the time, and only when you REALLY needed a specialist was a mage of a specific Element required, you just had to make sure the Typeless wizard you hired had the right spells!

Wizards and artificers by default and necessity were intelligent people, too, and they knew the value of their talents. Talking about pay was encouraged so everyone could get a fair shake, and breadth of known spells was a key metric among them.

-Make sure you reveal their Elements and favored spell variants. I’m sure they’ll appreciate that being known to intelligence agencies and rivals all over the world, too.- Such information was normally classified at the Mage Associations, or MAYBE if someone in the know at a Hunter’s Guild offered it up for a steep price.

Well, we’d be stealing some of the Hunter’s Guild’s Senior Information Network’s thunder, but since it was the kind of stuff that could get you killed, they wouldn’t miss it that much.

-But of course. Anything to please the hungry masses.- And those who wanted the knowledge would be very pleased to know that so did a whole lot of other people, and they might even contribute some other stuff to the whole to further beat-down the Synod, who knew?

I could unleash a spell that would devastate an area hundreds of miles in diameter right now, destroying it utterly, reducing a little pimple on this forsaken hellhole to a blasted white wasteland... and I couldn’t reveal my true power because it would instantly trigger a kneejerk reaction and start the whole end of the world.

I was definitely the most powerful Human mage that had ever existed here. I’d had Beast Emperors who were older than the human species inform me of that fact. Yet all the power gained me was more hiding in the shadows because the price of showing off was likely the destruction of humanity on the planet.

Just, ugh. There was nothing I could do beyond a certain level... and that stuff was best done by others while I looked on and made sure nothing went wrong.

Playing games of Faith and influence while waiting for the world to die... or not die.

Existence sucked. I shouldn’t have to be here. These Damned souls should have been allowed to discorporate and get returned to the cycle of life as raw energy, but no. The Realm Lords wanted their spiritual weight here, and so they had to remain.

At least their primary agents on the Mortal Plane were crippled. Sama had been delightedly hunting the Black Curia down for years with the help of Coralost’s Diviners, tracking them down, disposing of them coolly, setting a lot of hidden places on fire, and really being a hidden and brutally murderous force of nature who’d just had enough of those people.

But there were always more arseholes where they came from, because Evil didn’t sleep, and some of their prime advocates wanted to inherit the entire world.

Ugh. Just, ugh. Sometimes the urge to just cut it all off, grab the people in the Allegiance and funnel them into the Broom Closet, and just leave this bloody mess behind was so tangible that I could taste it. Frustration at having power and not being able to use it constructively was not fun.

No, not in the slightest.

------

Cairo, Egypt...

I looked around at the circle of mostly-familiar faces. The Dry River Sage had stayed prudently absent, replaced by Prime Minister Shalad mu-Sunomed himself, a powerfully built, dark-skinned man from the tribes of the south of Egypt. They all bowed to me respectfully, fully and obviously a powerful Sage that I was, and only the Prime Minister had that distinction among them.

The Prime Minister had actually benefited from Mok Fan’s rampage through the mighty of the Asian Magic Association over in Dubai. The greatest Sage in the Middle East had perished during that encounter, along with almost all of his toadies and tens of thousands of Dubai natives. The shakeup had given the Prime Minister and his country much more influence in the Association, and he was now among the most influential Sages in the immediate area, no longer threatened by the mighty Sages not far away across the Arabian Peninsula.

That said, the magic began to Sing as I arrived, something no other Sage on the planet could do, and it was prickling at all of them, their very Stars reacting to my presence.

“Healer Fae,” the Prime Minister said formally, careful to use the Name the Emperors had given me. “I did not meet you during your previous visit, but I have met a large number of your Undead Hunters during their service here. Welcome back to Egypt, and thank you for the efforts of yourself and your people here.”

There was an edge of excitement and dread to all of them. I had completed the Mexican Pyramid, and now the Dead Zone of Mexico was completely Sealed. That left only two major and several minor Death Zones left in the world.

The major ones were the Ancient Capital in China, and the Valley of Kings and Pyramids of Egypt.

I was here, not in the Valley, and the Undead Hunters who had put down the Dead Zone in Mexico had appeared in Egypt, quietly setting up a camp OUTSIDE the Wards of the city, erecting their own fortress and barracks to stay in this time, one whose defenses and Wards had instantly proven capable of utterly slaughtering a probing attack by Medusan forces.

Their arrival and return had sent a jolt and buzz throughout all of Egypt. Could what had been done in Mexico be replicated in Egypt? I could naturally feel the rising of Hope throughout the country at the possibility.

“Prime Minister, mages,” I greeted them politely, returning a shallow bow to them. The politeness only made them feel worse as my Aura of Menace crackled about them.

None of them were Good, and my Aura thus made me stand out not as an ally, but a potential threat of righteousness and judgement upon them. Most of them had distinct Evil tendencies, and were acutely uncomfortable in my presence, although trying to hide it.

It had not been so distinctive most of the time during my previous visit. Now, it was very hard to leash, and so extremely intimidating to those without pure hearts.

“Shall we be seated?” the Prime Minister said urgently, and we all took out chairs, the six of them turned to face me. I noticed Nailah had secured the other middle position, the women relegating the other men to the sides. She had been a strong backer of the Undead Hunters all along, and her position had naturally risen with their success in Mexico.

And now, I was here once more!

“We have been in contact with the government of Mexico,” the prime minister opened up the conversation carefully. “Your return here has raised many hopeful questions among our people. To clarify, is it true that you and your Undead Hunters have destroyed the Pyramids of Teotihuacán and Sealed their connections to the Netherworld?” he asked eagerly.

“The Glittering Dewdrop White Jade Mantis Emperor would not be guarding it if I had not,” I stated simply, which was proof enough on its own. A Beast Emperor would not bother with anything less significant, and only a more powerful Beast Emperor could have ordered her to take up the station and abandon her own territory for a time.

There was a sigh around the table at the absolute confirmation. Even people like them could feel a little hope at the news!

“The first step in clearing your Death Zone is to open a Crystalheart Compound here, and get massive buy-in and enrollment for your citizens who have Dark Magic, yourselves included.”

That immediately wrongfooted them. “What?” the Prime Minister blinked in astonishment.

“Did you miss the entire announcement where the Beast Emperors really, really loathe Dark Mana, and humanity is the single biggest contributor of it to the Mortal Realm?” I replied, maybe only a little condescendingly as they stared at me. “Dark Mages like yourselves are the reason why the Death Zones work in the first place. My Undead Hunters and I are not going to rake water out of the ocean if you keep filling it back in on us. I told you the last time I was here that Egypt’s number of Dark Mages is vastly above the world average, and the Dark Mana spreads from here like a vile ooze across the Middle East and Africa.

“Yes, we can eventually clear the Death Zone, crack the Pyramids, kill the Pharaohs, and Seal the Conduit.” I leaned forward just a bit, and they all flinched back. “It is time for all of you to do your share to ensure that Infinite Sands Emperor doesn’t just bury you all if and when that happens. If that means you have to suffer and scream as your Dark Stars are Burned with vivus and popped clean, then that is what you do!”

General Achmed flushed under my gaze. “That-that was not a requirement for the Mexicans!” he protested.

“One, the Mexicans already have a Crystalheart Compound, and have been sponsoring a thousand people a month or more through it. You do not. Two, the Mexicans do not have an angry High Emperor sitting right next door preparing to bury all of northern Africa, the Middle East, and Europe under sand to get rid of the magic of the interlopers.” They flinched again at the emphasized news. “You need to make all efforts to clear everyone of the Light Element trained via the Church’s standards and any and all Dark Magic.

“There is no Seal in existence that can endure the sheer amount of Dark Magic you Egyptians can saturate the Manafield with. Sealing the Conduit is an exercise in futility unless you and your people are willing to take the steps needed to win this fight.

“But... there are so many people with Light Magic!” Nailah spoke up quickly, and winced when I focused on her.

“They are only important if they are Adepts, and there are no more Adepts of Light than there are Dark Mages. Actually, the number is fairly close, which might not be such a coincidence, if you think about it.”

They did, and their expressions changed again with how they were being used.