“Seal it!” Councilor Caitlin screeched as she stumbled through the portal. She could hear the fighting growing closer as the technician in charge hurriedly fumbled at the controls. With hardly a moment to spare, the portal snapped closed.

With a sigh of relief, she turned toward the still frantic-looking tech. “Alert the Council, we are under attack!”

“…Um ma’am, most of the council is already here in the boardroom. They arrived only minutes before you did. I was sent to alert you of the situation.” She whirled on the speaker. It was another mage underling, one she recognized. He was often used as a courier since his skills with magic were subpar at best.

When his words sunk in, she hissed at the man. “Out of my way.”

The low-level mage complied with a bow as she stomped past him and toward the boardroom. While she wasn’t some hot-headed idiot like some of the other councilors, they couldn’t simply sit back and let this attack unfold. Having someone question their power like this was dangerous.

The boardroom doors were opened for her and she strode inside only to be greeted by a madhouse of arguing as blame for this attack was being lobbed about. It seemed the main target of their vitriol was the Council Leader. As well it should be.

“Where is Donovan?” she demanded.

One of her peers scoffed at her outburst. “The question of the day isn’t it? We all know who’s attacking, right?”

“It’s that upstart, Lord Norman,” Another councilor shot back. “We should have eliminated him and his ilk when we had the chance.”

J-son’s replacement laughed. She had never bothered to learn the man’s name, mostly because he was of a similar mindset as the disgraced former council member, which meant he was an idiot. “You say that as if we can’t still wipe them out. They are but a tiny nuisance. We will deal with this surprise attack, and then we will deal with them.”

Caitlin wasn’t so sure of that. She had been keeping tabs on Normenia and its lord as much as she could. Her reach and ability to spy wasn’t nearly as vast as the Council Leader’s but the little she learned was frightening.

When Donovan had first brought up the possibility of working with that man, she had voted against it. But she was in the minority back then. That was before they even knew who Lord Norman was or what he was capable of. Now… now she would have willingly killed half the Council to prevent that disastrous decision. Not that she could have overrode the Council Leader’s decision anyway. That thought made her pause.

Did Donovan know this would happen? Had he planned this? His timely absence – she glanced around the room – as well as that of his son’s said that he had been prewarned of the attack. She was no fool, she knew they were all pawns under Donovan’s rule. That didn’t mean she hadn’t taken advantage of the situation to benefit her as well. Had the man finally grown bored of his little game? Was that why he was absent?

“Where are our forces?” She asked, pushing down those thoughts so she could deal with the current issue.

“They are on the way, Councilor Caitlin,” Sharina managed to squeak out.

Caitlin frowned at the former Transportation Councilor, making her flinch back slightly. Why was she even here? The woman had completely lost her backbone after she had been delivered back to them strapped to the mutilated forms of Gail and J-son. She shuddered at that memory. It was what had prompted her to look deeper into Lord Norman.

“Put everyone on high alert. We need to contain the damage and eliminate Lord Norman’s forces quickly.”

Sharina bowed rapidly and hurried toward the exit when the building shook.

“What the hell was that!” Someone screamed.

She hated people who asked stupid questions. As if anyone inside this room would know what that was. The building shook again, but not as much as the first time. Then the protection enchantment on the room went red, sealing everyone inside.

Caitlin wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, the enchantments could probably survive the entire building being destroyed. Then again, she never thought anyone could breach her home or would be foolish enough to attack the Council’s seat of power.

All they could do now was wait as the red lines of enchantments pulsed softly through the room. After a few minutes, the overhead lights flickered and went out, casting the room in the dull red glow of the enchantments.

J-son’s replacement cried out as he tried to create some fire to banish the darkness from the room. A monumentally stupid idea in a closed space. Thankfully, he failed. “My magic isn’t working!”

Caitlin gulped, maybe she had been too hasty to be thankful for the man’s failure. She could see a few sparks of color as others attempted to form spells. She tried as well to no avail. All the spells fizzled out as the magic seemed to evaporate like smoke as soon as it started to form.

A light knock came at the door, and everyone in the room froze and went quiet. They all turned to stare apprehensively at the only entry into their sanctum. The reason for their shock was evident. Nothing should transmit through that door while the enchantments are active.

A voice followed shortly after. “I know you’re in there. We can do this the easy way… you know what, screw that.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Hissed whispers began to fill the room as the silence outside dragged on.

“You think they gave up?” Someone whispered from across the room.

There was a dull thump on the door and everyone jumped slightly. Three more thumps followed, causing everyone to look around nervously.

Then there was another prolonged period of silence before a small hole appeared in the door. Light from outside streamed through the hole, ensuring nobody would miss it in the darkness. Shortly after someone peered through the opening, blocking the light. There was a chuckle from the person as they backed away from the hole. “Well, don’t you all look cozy in there. Don’t worry, I’ll be in to have a chat in a bit.”

Worried muttering broke out and one councilor had the bright idea to try and kill himself. He took a letter opener off the table and jabbed it into his neck repeatedly with a manic grin on his face. Others were about to follow his example to escape this nightmare and get resurrected when the voice outside tutted.

“None of that now. If I have to resurrect you to get answers, you’ll wish I went easy on you like I did Gail and J-Son.”

It was too much for her. If Caitlin could have gone any whiter, she would have. Instead, her brain shut down, her eyes rolled up in her head, and she passed out.

***

His little trick to talk through the door wasn’t anything special. It relied on the same principles as two cups on a string. He simply pressed his palm against the door and used a simple spell using oscillation to transmit what he was saying through the door, thus bypassing the enchantments. He couldn’t hear anything in return but it wasn’t meant for communication, it was all about the psychological effect. He wanted them to think their enchantments were faulty, then maybe they would do the smart thing and deactivate them from the inside.

After a few minutes of waiting and nothing happening, he stared at the door. “This is going to be annoying.”

At first, he had Eugene try the same trick as he did on the entryway, but the enchantments were different, as well as more powerful. He didn’t know why they hadn’t used the same ones below. If they had, he wasn’t sure they would have ever gotten in. Well, at least not as easily.

After four blows, Eugene stepped back and shrugged. “Not enough room to gather momentum in here. Plus I would probably kill everyone inside if I did break the doors down.”

Eugene was right. Norman let out an annoyed huff. He could wait out the enchantments. They would fail eventually, but that could take who knows how long. He couldn’t sit around and wait. If Donovan wasn’t in there, then surely someone would know where he was. And each minute he wasted standing here made whatever these people knew less reliable.

“Alright, step back and let me have a crack at it.”

Eugene stepped off to the side while Norman examined the door again. With the array setup, he couldn’t cast spells. Which was technically true. He couldn’t cast them into the environment as it would immediately destabilize his spell. But he did have an idea. “This is gonna suck.”

He rubbed his hands together and shook his arms as he began to mentally prepare a Disintegration Beam. Instead of casting the spell outward, he pressed his finger to the door and activated the spell inside the tip of his finger.

The tip of his finger along with his bone armor evaporated away as the spell activated, but the spell still retained its shape long enough to bore a small hole through the door. He was so surprised it worked that he stepped back and chuckled.

Eugene glanced into the hole for a bit before standing back up and shaking his head.

Dammit! After finding Donovan’s house trapped and nobody there he knew it was a long shot to expect Donovan would have stuck around. He took a few calming breaths, trying not to let the anger of the man’s absence get to him. Now he needed answers and to get those he needed to get into that room as soon as possible. Since his spell worked on the door, he knew it was only a matter of time. He could already see his impromptu peephole was causing the enchantment to flicker.

From the frantic voices coming from inside the room, the Council members were beginning to panic, but he quickly put a stop to that. He doubted they would get far if they did manage to get revived, but it would be annoying to round them all up again.

After subduing the idiots inside the room, Norman turned his full attention to the door. If he could figure out which enchantments to target, a few more well-placed holes would cause the entire structure to collapse. He had Kalia to thank for that bit of enchanting knowledge.

He cracked his knuckles and got to work. Enchantments may not be his forte, but they were Kalia’s. And he liked to listen to his wife when she discussed her work. He found what looked like a storage symbol and placed his finger on what looked like a connecting line. His spell fired off, burning away the symbol and its connection to others as well as another fingertip.

The pain… sucked. But he still had eight more fingers and he wasn’t about to waste a healing potion until he was done.

The red glow surrounding the door faded momentarily before brightening again.

Ooh, redundancies. Nice. The door might be annoying, but it was like a little puzzle. And he liked solving puzzles.

It took six more holes before the protections on the room began to waver violently. For good measure, Norman punched three more holes and waited. The last one he sacrificed a second digit on one of his pointer fingers. Knowing the enchantment would fade soon, he pulled out a potion and sucked it down.

After less than a minute, the entire enchantment went dark. It was just about the same time it took his fingers and armor to regrow. He knew the enchantment had finally failed completely when he heard desperate sobbing coming from beyond the door.

With a nod from Norman, Eugene kicked the door in, which wasn’t strictly necessary. It also killed the idiot who was standing too close with his hands in the air.

Norman turned toward his Commander. The man scratched the back of his helmet in chagrin. He just shook his head silently before turning his glare on the cowering Council.

At this moment, he had to ask himself why he ever feared these people in the first place. After seeing the sorry state of their defense, he realized they were pathetic opportunists and that was all they were. The only person that made them a force to be reckoned with wasn’t even here.

He supposed it was time to get this over with. As soon as he stepped into the room, the few conscious councilors took steps back. With as neutral of a tone as he could muster, he spoke. “Where is Council Leader Donovan and his son?”

They shared glances between themselves, but nobody spoke up.

Norman sighed and the people in the room stiffened slightly. “I’ll incentivize you to tell me. I’m only here for those two. Once I find them and deal with them, I will leave you to your own devices.” He didn’t bother to mention those devices would now be under the direct guidance of someone else, but they didn’t need to know that. Not yet anyway.

“He- He’s not here,” One man tentatively stepped forward.

Norman began to clap. When nobody else started clapping, he motioned for the councilors to join in. It was slow at first, but soon everyone started clapping. “Bravo! Thank you, Captain FUCKING OBVIOUS!” Norman couldn’t help screaming the last part out, causing everyone to freeze in place.

It was no fucking wonder they hadn’t been able to stop him. If this was the mental acumen the Council was working with it was a wonder they managed to dress themselves in the morning.

“Eugene, would you be so kind as to close the doors?”

The big man chuckled darkly and stepped outside, closing the doors behind him as quiet pleading began from the councilors.