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“That’s a nice way of putting it,” Inota snapped, feeling her control give way. “Why don’t you say what you mean, for once? Nobody surrendered to the Mage’s Guild for questioning ever makes it out unscathed. Queen Lana, you can’t let them take him. I’ll go willingly, but you can’t let him suffer for what I’ve done. Please.”
“Silence,” the mage snapped, his eyes burning. “We’ve heard more than enough from this criminal—”
“She has a good point,” Queen Lana said, raising her voice just a little to cut the mage short. “Surely a compromise can be reached. You’d be more than welcome to question Callan here, for example.”
“Unfortunately, that won’t be acceptable. Both prisoners must come with us.”
“Callan isn’t a prisoner,” Inota snapped. “He’s done nothing wrong, which is why you want to carry him off to interrogate him in secret, where nobody can stop you—”
But before she could continue, the doors to the Throne Room slammed open. Inota’s eyes widened with a mixture of shock and delight as she saw the unmistakable figure of Callan outlined in the doorway, his arms full of books and loose sheets of paper. He looked like he hadn’t slept since she’d last seen him, days ago, but there was a curious crackling energy in the air as he strode forward.
“Apologies for the interruption,” his voice came, calm and measured despite the vivid excitement in every movement of his body. “But I have a few points to make.”
Chapter 27 - Callan
She was wearing the face he knew her by, Callan thought with a pang of nostalgia. Was that for his benefit, or for the Court’s? Part of him had wondered whether she’d attempt to manipulate her way out of the situation again. That was why he’d decided against being present in the Throne Room during her testimony. But he’d been listening at the door, and he’d heard every word she’d said. And now he was even more determined to clear both of their names.
He regretted the dramatic entrance, but it certainly served its purpose—the visitors were surprised enough to stay quiet for long enough for him to embark on his argument. He’d been poring over it for the last hour, checking and re-checking his logic, worried he’d missed something, desperately hopeful that he hadn’t. This was the only weapon he had at his disposal, at the end of the day, but if this didn’t work, he knew he wouldn’t just stand by and let them take her. He’d fight with his teeth and his nails for her if those were the only weapons that remained to him. And if he lost his life in the process, so be it.
But first, he was going to try diplomacy.
The mages, at least, were listening. It had been abundantly clear from their dismissive responses to Inota’s impassioned pleas that they didn’t care about where the blame for the crimes rested, only about their right to take prisoners, so that was where he focused his arguments. He had citations from the governing documents of half a dozen insulas that forbade this kind of forceful extradition of individuals accused of wrongdoing by an organization, and he saw the mages exchanging frustrated glances as he cited example after example of legal precedent confirming it.
“The rules of other insulas don’t concern this one,” the leader said finally, impatiently.
“But legal precedent does where it concerns the Mage’s Guild. Your own governing documents advise strongly against the action you’re attempting to take here.”
“I disagree with that interpretation,” the mage said coldly. “Our governing documents are very clear when it comes to the punishment of mages—”
”That brings up my next point.” Callan tapped on the page his notes were open to. “Inota isn’t a mage, is she? Your own documents define a mage as a human being with the ability to access the power within magical artifacts. Inota, by her own admission, is neither human nor able to use magic.”
”Your own Queen just acknowledged the extent of her power,” the mage snapped, pointing towards Lana.
”Power, yes—her only power, which is the power to change her appearance. The power of the artifact she wears around her neck. An artifact that was created by an actual member of your own Guild, as I understand it, making forbidden use of shifter magic.”
The leader’s face didn’t change, but the junior mages behind him exchanged a brief, uneasy glance with one another, and Callan knew that they hadn’t expected him to know quite as many details as he did. He pressed his advantage.
”So Inota makes use of one very specific kind of magic, with a power source that the Mage’s Guild explicitly avoid using. She possesses no magical artifacts, and wouldn’t be able to use them even if she did. If changing your appearance with shifter magic makes you a mage, then I’m just as much a mage as Inota is—and so is every dragon in this Valley, and every wolf. And if Inota isn’t a mage, then there’s no reason mages should be deciding her fate. If anything, it ought to be shifters.”
”You’ve made your point,” the leader said stiffly, and Callan could hear the frustration in his voice. “It’s strange to hear you defending a woman who manipulated you with magic.”
”I was manipulated by magic, yes,” he said, and when he turned a few pages in his notes he saw the mage scowl. “Which, by ample precedent from your own organization, should mean I’m absolved of any persecution over what I was manipulated into doing. I’d go further, though. I’d suggest that Inota, too, made the choices she made as a result of magical interference. Her original body was destroyed by the artifact she now wears. Every subsequent action was a reaction to that fate… a fate imposed upon her, I’ll remind the court, by a member of the Mage’s Guild.”
”And that explains her whole life of crime? That’s a stretch,” the mage said, his voice low and taut. Callan nodded.
”Perhaps. But it’s worth considering in context, isn’t it?” He turned to Queen Lana with a neat little bow. “Queen Lana, I have here the documents I’ve cited if you’d like to peruse them.”
She accepted the documents from him with a faint smile and turned over a few pages, though he could tell she wasn’t paying especially close attention. Still, it made the leader of the mages bristle.
“Queen Lana, we need your answer.”
“I think you ought to reconsider your request, in light of the excellent points my advisor has made,” Queen Lana said, and Callan could see the smile she was hiding. “I’d hate for the Guild to act in violation of its own governing documents, especially given its impeccable reputation for honoring the letter of its law…”
He could see the blind fury the mage was holding back. But there was nothing he could do without violating his own organization’s rules… and his grudging mutter of assent was music to Callan’s ears. He let himself steal a quick glance at Inota as the mages retreated a few paces to mutter amongst themselves, and the look of wonder on her face made him feel like a king.
It felt like hours that the mages spent in whispered conversation. Callan strained his ears to try to eavesdrop, but to no avail. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest with the adrenaline of a confrontation he’d been preparing for days. What if the mages refused to listen? What if they simply insisted on taking her by force? It wasn’t as though they lacked the ability to do so… Callan was grateful when a couple of the guards escorted Inota from the room. He couldn’t stop picturing the mages seizing her and disappearing in a puff of smoke.
Finally, the three of them moved out of their dense little huddle,and the leader reapproached the throne where Lana was still leafing through the thick bundle of paperwork that Callan had brought.
