"Would you prefer me to call you Ms. Sullivan, or Ms. Biggs?" The man sitting on my brand new couch asked me.

The movers had just taken the plastic off of it thrity minutes ago, I haven't even gotten to sit on it yet. Beth's news station apparently has made so much off of advertisment revenue that they purchased this apartment for me, and are covering the utilities and building association dues for the next year. I spent the morning telling the moving company where to put furniture as it came in, with Beth's cameras watching my every move.

Honestly, it felt good to finally be in control of something once again. It seems like the last six months have just been, me being jostled around. I decided to let my hair grow out, as a sign of the new me, but even that has come with an issue. Because of the ammount of mana in my body, some of the strands have taken on a turquoise hue; something said to only occour in the most powerful of the magic society.

"I've come used to Trillion. Please, use that." even though the words were polite, I made sure my tone wasn't, and that I didn't want this person here. But because of the nature of my magic, I couldn't very well ask Dean Westman, the highest ranked Wizard on this planet, to jump off a cliff.

"Thanks." he said as he leaned back in the couch. Beth's cameras now floated in a way to capture this conversation from multiple angles while she sat on one of the new barstools that she picked out. "Can the reporter shut off the cameras?" he asked.

"No." I answered quickly, before she could perform the hand guesture to stop their recording function. "You are here, univited, and I feel as though I need a recording of this meeting; I will ask that she delay publishing our conversation for a month, but the cameras stay on." I tell him. he nods while pursing his lips.

"I understand your aprehension." he gives an honest, genuine, smile. the first person besides Beth to show one to me since Planet Fall. "But she would only need to hold the recording for three days." he says, seeming to decide something on the spot. "I came here today to let you know something, at least know before the general public." he looks over to Beth, "can you swear on your channel's contract to not release any of this conversation for at least three days?"

"I so swear." he nods at her response, and then looks back to me.

"Good enough. The mage council responsible for this region will be releasing a statement at some point within the next three days, reguarding Wild Magi, or Wilders as we call them. since you are the most prominent one at the moment, I felt that I needed to tell you in person what the public statement will entail." It feels like this is going to be more of a conversation rather than just him spouting descisions, so I decide to take a seat in the new chair adjacent to the couch.  It felt comfrotable, but the armrests were slightly lower than what I would like, it encouraged slouching; I wasn't going to do that in front of this man. "First and foremost, we are amending our recruitment policies, as well as our policy on how we handle Wilders. These two policies directly effect you, and as well, you are the cause of these amendments."

"You aren't hiding much, are you?" Beth asks.

"I am the one who proposed these specific changes, and honestly, the amount of mana Trillon has, means that she can read my emotions without casting a spell, it will do me no good, and only harm her oppinon of the Diciplines if I lie or attempt to hide anything from her. This ability of hers, that I suspected, but didn't know the extent until I came into the room, is exactally why I wanted to do this in person, Ms. Fern."

"So, how did I cause these changes?"

"Your nightmare in the hospital." he answers plainly. "My son was one of the wizards who helped with the star barriers that night." his smile appears more bitter than proud, but both emotions are fairly strong. "It made me, us, realize exactally how powerful you, as a Wilder, are. It also told us that if we were to force you into a dicipline, it would only hamper your growth. So the first change, is that we will no longer force Wilders, who stay out of trouble with the law, into a dicipline, they will remain free." I felt that he had an ultirior motive here, but his words were true. "So for the foreseable future, we will only 'recruit' from jails, as long as a Wilder remains a law abiding citizen, they will not meet with one of our recruiters." by recruiters, he means someone who forcibly enrols a wild magi into their diciplines.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"And my nightmare, nearly killing the mages that prevented the hospital collapsing, was the direct cause of this?"

"Without a doubt." he pauses and looks at beth, then back to me. "I won't ask that this next statement gets hidden, but I will ask that if it gets released, the channel thinks about the consequences first. I won't lie and say that this decision is altruistic, it is more of a fight or flight response of the Grand Magic Council.  Some of the sects are planning on using even a peace disturbance arrest as a reason to bring in recuiters, but that wasn't the goal or purpose of this change, it was more meant to keep mages accountable for their actions, and aid the police in protecting the non-magic public. In my oppinon, this is a good trial run to see if the diciplines are still required to regulate the Magic Society."

"And, the reason, you are telling me this first?"

"I want you to be present at the press conference when we release this information. Specifically, I want you to be there to publicly ask something of the mage council; keep in mind, I will have to be sitting at that table."

"What are you wanting me to do?" I can tell he is leading me, and his pauses are to force me to ask these stupid questions.

"I want you to ask the council to appoint two representives to the council to represent Wilders. The needs of the Wild Magi, or their wants, has never been accounted for on the council before, because their isn't a leader for Wilders. We are entering completely new ground here, and if there is a sect of The Society that isn't represented, then that needs to be rectified. All the other branches' represenitives are based on power and ability, the Wilders have been forcibly recruited into the other diciplines for as long as man has traveled the stars, never before have we agreed to leave them alone, even for a trial run. We don't even know what challenges Wilders will face, we need someone on the council to represent that."

"Now I see why you wanted the cameras off." Beth said. "Trillion, he is basically telling you that whoever these two represenitives are, will be able to directly petition the council for anything, as well as have a hand in directly controling the Mage Society for the foreseable future."

"Beth, if I propose this, at that press conference, they will appoint me to that post. you know that right?" she seemed to have missed that point. "If the Wild Magi need a powerful representive, and one quickly, they will have one sitting in the conference, right there, that everyone in your broadcast area will know as a Wilder. If they don't appoint that person as a represenitive on the spot, then it will show that they aren't really commited to letting Wilders live publicly, and the policy is a ruse. Dean, here, is counting on that, and wants to force the council's hand in the matter.  What I haven't been able to figure out, is why."

"As long as the cameras are rolling, I am under a magical oath that will prevent me from telling you the reason, I can say, without violating the oath, that I have my reasons to specifically ask 'you' to do this."

The way he pointedly refered to me, told me enough that I would agree to do it.

"What other changes are they announcing?" I asked instead of telling him my desicion.

"The qualifying exams for the mid level ranks are being eased a bit, too many people are stagnating, and not becoming full memebers of the branches; the restrictions on inter-branch romantic relationships are being eased up, and we will also allow training at any branch school for Wilders without forcing them to join; however they won't be able to take the promotional exams to get into the advanced courses without doing so, they will only be able to take classes for basic control."

"I am guessing that a Wilder representive to the Magi Council would be there to explain how a neutral school would be needed, so that Wilders wouldn't feel overly pressured?"

"I can't answer that, but it seems like you would fall into the roll of a council member nicely." he stands, rather abruptly. "I have been here too long, and I need to go. Please don't tell me wether or not you will be there, or if you plan on asking the council this. I need to be at least moderately surprised at the conference." With that, he stepped forward, and disappeared.

"Teleportation magic. Its shotty, he just teleported to the lobby." I say aloud.

"You can tell where he went?" Beth asked.

"It felt like a child using the spell to me.  Almost like he wanted me to know where he went. But, I can tell that someone with the same mana capacity, and control as him, wouldn't be able to feel the spell." I let out a sigh as I fall back into the chair. "I know he is the highest ranked Wizard in this region; but the spells he cast while he was here felt, to me, like they were cast by a fledgling attempting magic for the first time.  Its scary how much control I have." I tell Beth truthfully.

"Are you going to go?"

"If I don't then someone else will probably make the demand, and take one of the spots. If I go, I may fall into a trap, as it is, either way, its bad. Being on the Magi Council means I have to take the time to actually learn about all the nuances of Magic Society, plus listen to the requests of Wilders who will be able to live in the public eye for the first time in generations.  Likewise, not being on the council means that I have to depend on someone else making desicions that directly effect me; Dean just nicely baited a double-switch trap for me."