4 The Council of High Sages

Atlas hated meetings, he really despised them, he found them boring and pointless, especially ones where all the other High Sages gathered. Anything that was said in a meeting could have been summed up and sent in an email, with new technology allowing that to happen he didn't understand why he had to go to this stupid meeting, after all, there were two of the High Sages for the U.K, two, and out of all two of them he was the one chosen to go. Though, one plus was that he got to travel to wherever the meetings were for free, this time he travelled to America, which he didn't mind, he liked the Colorado Springs.

Well, I am the most reasonable and level-headed he told himself as he made his way forward through the sleek, executive hallway, on his left he saw doors leading to rooms with closed doors and off limits to even himself, to his right were windows overlooking the crystal blue sky and fenced off beautiful garden that spanned acres, Atlas always did like observing pretty flowers, he had an eye for pretty things.

"Meeting for the High Sages this way, sir!" a young lady wearing a delicate white dress smiled and gestured ahead.

He inclined his head in a small bow and followed her directions.

The young lady draped a stray brown hair behind her ear "The meeting hasn't started yet and you aren't the last to arrive." she opened the door for her superior to enter, he gave another shallow nod before walking in.

There was a large round table in the immaculate room, around the large round table were prestigious men and women sitting and talking to one another, some wore similar robes as himself with varying colours, others wore differing styles, a few chose not to wear robes at all and instead dressed business-casual, it wasn't frowned upon to not wear one, it was more of a status and authority symbol.

He walked around the table, scanning for his assigned seat with a plaque that read U.K Territory.

When he got to around two-thirds of the way around the table he spotted the plaque and took his seat, brushing his hand over his forehead and slicking back his dark hair.

Looking beside him, he noticed he was between the Swiss High Sage Coco Ziegler, a youthful blonde woman with a dimple under her bottom lip, and the Egyptian High Sage Medjay Siwa, a gentleman with skin that glowed a caramel brown, though his vitiligo was noticeable, mostly around his cheeks and what was visible of his arms from under his robes, he wore it with pride.

There were faint murmurings from the roundtable of important people, all surely with important things to say, but the majority of the conversations were speculating what the meeting was about, nobody would know for sure until the American Territory leader turned up, he was late to his own meeting, not a great start.

That's when High Sage Mavis wandered in, striding with his short, heavy-set legs until he reached his seat at the head of the table.

He blew out a puff of air from his red face. "I'm glad you all came, you know how traffic is around here."

After a few eye rolls and whispers he realized that he didn't get the chuckles or pats on the back that he wanted "Anyway, the reason I called this meeting is because of the crisis going on with the Mortals."

He was interrupted by High Sage Alexios Valentino, the Territory leader for Italy, who wore an expensive suit which didn't quite match his messy raven hair. "Which crisis are we talking about this time? The Mortals that think the world is flat or the Mortals who learned to stop dragging their knuckles on the ground?"

An eruption of laughter filled the room until Jakob managed to quieten the leaders, those laughs belonged to him, that's what he deserved after all. "The crisis regarding Mortals detaining Mages against their will. As you all know over the last few months there have been increasing cases of Mages going missing. The number of missing Mages that we know of has now reached One hundred and nine."

High Sage Alonzo Dante of Spain piped up "How do we know Mortals are targeting us specifically? Do you have any proof of this?"

Jakob cleared his throat, "Actually, we do and that's why this meeting was called." he clicked a button on his desk, a projector lowered from the ceiling and turned on the exact same time the lights were turned off, the projector beamed light against a solid white wall behind.

A video began playing, it was out of focus for a few moments before the video became clear, a young Mage strapped down to a table, tape covering his eyes and a gag shoved into his mouth, his muffled shouts were all that could be heard until three men in hazmat suits walked on screen with surgical equipment wheeled beside them on a trolley, talking amongst themselves and narrating what they were doing.

They didn't bother with anesthesia or muscle relaxants, one of the men simply picked up a scalpel and began hacking away whilst the other two men pinned the Mages arms and legs down as he tried thrashing around and screaming.

"Suspected Mage is Male, thought to be mid-30's, he was detained following a domestic incident."

"Suspected Mage conjured and threw a fireball at Police officers on the scene, thought to be used as a way to attack."

The Mage's muffled screams were agonizing, he writhed in pain until he died on the table. The room of High Sages watched in horror until the video stopped and the lights turned back on.

"This was obtained through a digital feed from the internet. The message boards are conspiracy theorists that are dedicated to trying to prove magic exists." Jakob gave a sorrowful look to Atlas "He was one of yours."

Atlas hesitated, "They experimented on him? On one of the Mages of my Territory?"

"Unfortunately yes." Jakob sat back down in his seat "We don't know the reason why, but my suspicion is that our world may not stay a secret for much longer. The Mortals are figuring out that we exist. So, they're resorting to experimenting on our Mages for some purposes; either to eradicate us entirely, figure out our biological differences for research and find a way to use it against us… Or to wage a war against us."

At the mere mention of war panic flooded the room, chattering, shouts of suggestions and even some calling for retaliation against the Mortals. High Sage Serpen Rouge of the French Territory became impatient, he snapped out his hand flicked his fingers to his palm and pushed the air against the table, disorientating everybody there for a split second, he sighed as he leaned back in his seat and scratched at the stubble on his cheek "Are we forgetting the laws that we put in place to protect Mortals? No harm comes to them."

"Why should we give them that courtesy?" Alexios snapped. "That's going to happen to all of us!"

Jakob gathered his thoughts "Or… We could let them."

"Let them kill our Mages?!" was echoed throughout the room.

The High Sage of Australia, Zephyr Serene, was calm and collected throughout, though that demeanor quickly changed, he was one of the younger leaders, about as old as his country, that blessed him with gorgeously tanned skin and dirty blond hair, he had suddenly recoiled into unfathomable anguish after seeing the video. "My Son is one of them. He's been missing for weeks and you all know this! Hell knows whether he's dead or alive!"

Jakob looked remorseful. "We are stretching our efforts to find him, Zephyr. I promise you that."

"Not good enough." Zephyr could do no more than sink back into his seat.

"Mortals have started what could only be described as war crimes, right?" High Sage Mavis continued, "We're clearly stronger than them otherwise they wouldn't be scared of us. We let them continue doing what they're doing in secret. Soon enough they'll pick the wrong Mage to pick a fight with. The Mage will either be strong enough to fend them off and cause a riot, exposing themselves and creating panic, or said Mage will be killed and will start a backlash."

"What makes you think a war can be started by one Mage?" High Sage Sun-Xiang of China called out.

"If you all remember rightly a World War was started by the death of one person," Jakob continued "we don't like having our Mages being backed into a corner like this and being made scared to visit a land that is open to both of our kind, we have a rule not to harm Mortals but they don't know about that. That rule can be made with exceptions, for example in self-defence."

Medjay managed to be heard throughout the chaos. "What if we are wrong about the Mortals? What if these are just a few bad apples amongst Mortals who wouldn't treat us in the same way if we approached this carefully?"

Jakob gave the most unconvincing fake laugh he could. "And you'd want to risk yourself or anybody else for stupid fantasies?"

"The times have changed, the new generation of young Mortals may not feel the same way, they may even be accepting and tolerant towards us."

"And who is to say that they haven't learned the same as the generations before them? To hate and destroy what they don't understand, what they can't grasp. Mortals find any shred of something good in that world that they consume and they destroy it for their own selfish worth and reasons. They are far beyond reasoning and they are too far gone to expect or ask for acceptance as we are."

Atlas stayed silent for a few moments until he saw the opportunity to speak up "So if we have nothing to fear from the Mortals since the very beginning, why do we hide from them? Why not reveal ourselves? If we really are stronger and smarter than they are, as you claim, then we could rule over them."

Jakob shook his head "It's the way it's always been. Our Mages being killed for being Mages is the exact reason we can't come out of hiding."

"Remember Talim-" Coco hummed but was quickly silenced by High Sage Erik Faxe of Denmark, who gave a hushed whisper. "We don't bring him up, especially not here."

"Then why not kill the Mortals that are a threat to us?" Atlas questioned.

"Well," Jakob rose from his seat and walked towards Atlas, looking him dead in the eyes "that would be a mass extinction to the Mortals."

Atlas felt not only humiliated for asking what other Mages deemed 'stupid questions' he felt an unentitled sense of rage that his thoughts and ideals weren't being treated with as much respect as he gave them, but he couldn't unleash that anger.

That would further humiliate him and hurt his cause.

Instead, he sat there in complete silence until the meeting was over, stewing in his own feelings of pure fury and disregard for anybody else's opinions. He had a plan that was beginning to sprout in the back of his mind and he didn't care who it would cost to make his plan become a reality.

Time, that was all he needed for now.