The Hologram fell away, and President Havier looked around at the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
There were some very depressed, borderline frightened men there.
It was no wonder. Heavenbound Hall had released some videos of what had gone on in Yellowstone, above and beyond what so many of the men there had witnessed. They still hadn’t issued anything about the final confrontation at the middle of the place, and there hadn’t been any scouts within miles, of course.
The biggest thing to the President had been the acute sense of relief, radiating from the Spirit of the Land, as if something annoying had been wiped away.
General Mallory took a deep breath as Havier looked around the room at the soldiers here. The Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the Arcane Guard, and the Marines were all represented here. It was significant that every single one of the people in the room was Powered, aside from the President himself.
The President was, however, a Landbound Warlock, as powerful as any on the continent, save perhaps a few from Heavenbound Hall and that woman from Chicago. If they could look down at him in certain ways, his tie to the continent itself had gained their respect.
It was hard to call yourself a loyal American if you were pissing off the people sworn to Her, right?
“This woman is a strategic-level threat of extraordinary concern,” General Mallory stated firmly. While the armed forces were more integrated on many levels, the upper ranks were still dominated by humans. Terms of service and forced retirement dates had also insured that longer-lived races could not continue in posts of seniority, nor the longer-lived Powered, making sure that younger people still had something to look forwards to.
That had been a reform mandated by many Churches, although some Imprusar and more grasping faiths had either been opposed or neutral on the prospect. Anyone with a term of military service long enough to trip the requirements was definitely a true loyalist of the country, however, and the terms of their retirement meant they could be called up in case of an emergency.
There was also a basic mandate that you had to have Levels, and you had to be competent. Again, this had come first from Heavenbound Hall, and had been proven over and over in command situations. Experienced troops simply would not respond well to commanders who either had no aptitude at command, or were lower in Level than themselves. Elite troops had to be commanded by people whose prowess they respected and trusted, or efficiency and troop morale instantly dropped like a rock.
As a result, the process of rising through the ranks had become both more ruthless and more open. Men who rose to the rank of General were now basically still in their prime, and if they had to, they could still strap on their gear and walk out into a fight with the best of them. If they couldn’t, their men would know it, and watchers throughout the service would see and hear the grumbling start to rise instantly... magically, as it were.
It was one of the ways that Havier had become President, actually. Finding a Seven (no, a Faux Seven, Mallory corrected himself) actually willing to run for public office had been difficult for all the major parties. Career politicians who could not Level never got past the municipal level, now, and if you weren’t at the top of the curve, you couldn’t be a sitting President. Congress would just ignore you, the media would treat you even more mercilessly than normal, and the electorate basically whine and complain about you from all sides. You’d get nothing done, and the only reason people would vote for you was because there was no one else.
Voter apathy reached ridiculous proportions if you didn’t have the Levels.
Landbound Warlocks had a massive advantage since they represented the Spirit of the Land, and they had a Warlock’s impetus to Level. Sure, they had to deal with Priests and Druids who also represented major powers, Bards and Minstrels who loved the social conflict and scheming, politically-minded Rogues who excelled at political games, and other Warlocks scheming to advance the agendas of their Patrons while staying outside the realm of martial conflict.
In addition, getting the major powers to actually pay attention to the government was quite a challenge. Heavenbound Hall, for instance, was a perpetual thorn in the side, as its people went out and did Good Deeds, regardless of how disruptive or unwanted those deeds would be to certain people involved. While rarely as open as the Hall, other players routinely worked around anything the government did, and often had such immense influence and personal power that doing anything about it was the equivalent of starting a war.
It was noteworthy that the Evil Warlocks who got into positions of power where they could ply words, temptations, and lies to sow discord and gather personal power tended to be self-correcting, as Heavenbound would walk right in, regardless of the laws protecting such terribly important people, and put them right to the sword.
Their political rivals would be utterly happy to tip the Hall off, too.
“Nor is this woman an American,” the General went on, as if that was a damning fact, a point Havier noted. His own parents were from Mexico, and as the child of immigrants, he was very aware of how they’d been looked down on when they fled north to escape the warlords and constant strife that engulfed their homeland. “She’s of French birth, arriving here less than two years ago, possibly to avoid her civil service.”
Which would basically mean she couldn’t return home once she came of age, unless she promptly did her civil service. She was halvyr; the two years of her life was nothing, and given the magical power she showed, she’d be fawned all over in the service. That was an idiot’s excuse, especially given what she had done since!
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“A point, General Mallory,” General Elise Haerkon of the Arcane Guard spoke up, and received a nod. “This young woman, named Elrii, showed absolutely no indication or ability with magic growing up, a rather exceptional set of circumstances for a halvyr. Her school records indicated she definitely had the mental chops, but she was unable to master even the slightest Cantrip.”
President Havier frowned. He knew the rules for Powered were different, but that did sound very unusual. He glanced at where the Holo showing her slaughtering fire Elementals in massive numbers had been. “And what changed?” he asked.
“We don’t know,” General Mallory admitted. “Apparently, she was pregnant and kidnapped by some Sinbound Warlocks, and abandoned in the New York Shroudzone after they stole her child. She survived the Shroudzone and made it out alive, and had her magic.” The old warrior waved his hand dismissively. “The reports on the matter chalk it up to being suddenly attuned as a Shroudborn. However, no other Shroudborn Caster we have on record ever experienced such phenomenal growth in ability over such a short period of time.”
The President glanced around at the room of uncomfortable men and women, only one halvyr among all of them, but Air Force General Tomawild was considered as loyal an American as anyone here. “You do not buy this explanation, General Mallory?” he asked shortly.
“With all respect to her accomplishments, Mister President, there has been no independent verification of whether that fact is true or not. The report noted that such justification came from Traveler herself, and there was no way to disprove it.”
Havier blinked, and pointed despite himself. “She works with Heavenbound Hall,” he noted dryly, and all the general officers flushed. “Are you telling me she’s lying straight off to all those Priests of Harse, who I understand are very enthusiastic about supporting her?”
“Mr. President, I doubt she is lying as much as misleading. It is entirely possible she is simply skirting around the subject of where she got her power from, or...” the Chairman hesitated carefully.
Havier merely waited calmly, staring at the man.
“Or,” the Chairman continued, “there are two other options.”
“Which are?” Havier asked calmly.
“That she is telling the truth, or that she is not telling the truth, and Heavenbound Hall is covering for her.”
Havier sat back to consider those options. Both of them were troubling, but... “The main fact is that she has the power, and she is working with Heavenbound Hall,” he pointed out, steering the subject away from Heavenbound Hall and the government’s lack of control over its wilder elements, which the organized military naturally detested. “Are you denying the validity of the information she has broadcast to the public, General? Including the language we are all now speaking?” he pointed out.
“No, sir. I am merely questioning where she got it,” General Mallory refuted immediately, finely practiced in covering his ass and redirecting attention elsewhere. “Is there a greater purpose behind this release of information, and the instability that is already starting to arise from it?” Despite himself, the general hesitated. “No one in this room does not want to see the honored dead returned to their rest, or not look freely on the sky, Mr. President.
“It is that we don’t know the source behind this knowledge, and if they have some ultimate goal that is in direct conflict with us.”
Well, it was the nature of the military to be pessimistic with regards to others outside their power structure. After all, their entire purpose was to support the existing power structure, and defend it by all means necessary.
“Gentlemen, I will say unreservedly that her snuffing of the Yellowstone Shroudzone was greeted by the continent with a sensation not unlike having an annoying itch scratched.” Their faces changed slightly at his words. Obviously, that meant the sleeping continent approved of her actions. “As for the collapse of the New York Shroudzone, and the efforts underway in Washington DC and California, the feeling the Landbound get is mostly uncaring.”
Those were assaults on places of mortals and their cities, and so obviously minor and unimportant. Contamination and purification of the Firezone, however, had been important enough to stir the sleeping Mother Land.
“Strategically, can you give me a negative reason why the Hall is advocating a slow and gradual take-down of the Shroudzone, Leveling up the largest amount of people possible, and their Weapons, as they do so?” he pressed them.
It was General Tomawild who spoke up. “Sir, the pros of that method are very clear: they Level up large numbers of people and their Gear, without requiring massive outlays of goldweight to empower them. It is an ideal way to build up a faithful army... and, I will note, adherents of Heavenbound Hall represent the most advanced faction exploiting this methodology.
“The con of this method is somewhat counter-intuitive: by raising up large numbers of low-Level people, we are making it difficult to raise up our own high-Level people... in short, those that might contest with Traveler in power.”
“Or,” General Mallory added grimly, “those forces that might be coming from outside our world in larger numbers, once the Shroud is gone.”
“Yes,” General Haerkon agreed. “We have verification from multiple sources that there are incredibly powerful forces outside the world, currently held at bay by the Shroud. That includes the very gods who have risen in power across the globe, despite not even being directly aware of us, according to certain of their Servants, good or ill, that are trapped here. We are going to need intensely powerful people to fight such entities.”
“People we will also not be able to control,” President Havier pointed out, drawing more glum faces. They were a bunch of Faux Sevens, at best, and none of them were optimized according to the Double Helix Method. Trying to control the youngsters coming up now and Leveling like mad would require them basically giving up their jobs to do the same, at least for a while.
That was rather difficult when you were a thousand miles away from the major Shroudzones, although the military was conscripting the small Wounded Knee Shroudzone for Leveling up its soldiers... although very carefully not monopolizing it, for fear of some nasty backlash. These generals were among the shooter teams hustling up there to shoot down ghosts, if for no other reason than to improve their Weapons for free...
“Yes,” General Mallory sighed. The thing with powerful people was not just that they could defy routine forces, it was that they could simply leave for places that were more welcoming. The military put up with it all the time, as all the best people served their time and left for greener pastures. The elite special teams were generally made up of talented Powered who had gained Levels before entering service, and actually liked the jobs they had to do enough to stick around.
“I understand that your retention rates have actually increased since news of Named Weapons became available?” President Havier went on.
“As long as soldiers can improve their personal Gear, they do tend to be more satisfied with their jobs, yes. Conversely, there is considerable pressure not to be assigned to locations where they do not have access to the conflict which can help them do so,” General Mallory winced.
“So, you’ve got a lot more soldiers who want to fight. Well, we have an ammunition budget for a reason,” President Havier remarked mirthlessly. “Now, have you any thoughts about the invitation to her meeting before the Solstice Celebration?”