A Fine Line: The Wisdom of Jhinto

Jhinto had been alive for over five hundred years. It was something common in the Magus class. With so many enchantments and runes on their bodies, a very good mage could enhance their life to greater extents than possible. It was rumored that the High Mage in the Fae realm was over 100 thousand years old.

...but it was just a rumor...

Jhinto himself was the longest living Magician in their kind, and had knowledge of magic, and the wisdom of life behind his belt. He was excellent at playing dumb, coy, and obedient - but in truth, the mage was anything other than that, in fact it was he who knew there two Goddesses of the moon - not one. People thought him crazy, though and dismissed his claims.

He had spent so much time protecting Metas as a youth from poisons, assassinations, and unfortunate 'accidents' the Alpha and Luna would set up. He had also protected Myranda and her siblings, whispered good things in the ears of the right people, and was the true mastermind behind Jyriah's recruitment.

With Syrana being too close to Silas, he had failed many times to protect her. Not because Silas was smart or a step ahead -- he was just controlling and preferred to gaslight his own spouse in his own special, shitty way.

There wasn't much he could do without blowing his cover any further, and the Goddesses assured him she would be rewarded grandly in her next life. His dreams hadn't lied before, and the times he did not follow the advice he received in sleep - things always went poorly.

'Protect Metas and Myranda' Ophelia had told him.

'Protect Metas - the other isn't as important,' Lilith came to correct her other half.

It was a very good thing he had gone with Ophelia's advice - because as Jhinto suspected - no one else would have been good for the stubborn prince.

Metas needed someone to chase. Myranda needed someone to pursue her.

His cool, calm nature needed a fireball to temper the waters, for sometimes Metas could be far too forgiving.

Myranda never put up with shit from anyone once her parents died and she felt far more empowered. She had been a great foil for him, and he for her tendency to burn-it-all.

Jhinto smiled at his notes, and burned them in the green fire that was burning in the hearth that did not emit smoke nor a sound of any kind. The last thing he needed was someone catching on. The younger Mages were happy under Harbinger who kept them rich and comfortable.

All Jhinto had ever cared for was using magic for good and for the course of what was right. It made him many enemies.

Luckily, the old man looked so weak, and so incapable that anyone who came after him ended up losing their life, or their honor.

It's why he knew that revealing Harbinger for who he was would never work out. He was humble, and hubris was far from his personality or MO.

Patience was a virtue to some of the humans back in their time, after all. It was excellent advice he lived by, and it served him well.

Even with evidence, Harbinger had enough support, control, and manipulation of the upper crust, that no one would even care. Mose life-forms lived in the here-and-now, and they were no different. In order to keep their comfort today, they were willing to sell out the future (because they were going to die, what did they care?).

In fact, for a race that hated humans so much, they sure did behave like the dead species once did. Almost all the creatures of the present were; save for the Chimeras who were notoriously apathetic to most things. He found it comical most days.

Today was not one of them. He was so enraged at Harbinger's thought process that there was nothing funny about the situation. The General slash "Alpha" was mad with power and insanity, and this time the newly born tyrant was going to go too far.

As he went over the lie he needed to tell in his head, the male mage packed a small satchel with what seemed to be an abnormal amount of things for it to be able to fit. It must have been enchanted.

Jhinto went down the list again of what Ophelia and Lilith had told him a few nights prior;

- Silver Neutralizer

- A powerful charm of protection (but not for a werewolf).

- A collection of medical supplies for Veltar such as sleeping draught, pain killers, blood clotting agents, and a bottle of 'wound sealer', something hard to come by and make since it needed a precise balance of herbs, enchantments, and werewolf blood.

- A few elemental crystals - light and fire to be precise. The Goddesses were specific.

- A rather heavy blanket that had been weighed down with some fine glass beads.

- One small stuffed toy at Ophelia's request.

- Two books - one on advanced mathematics, and the other on powerful runes of protection. He wanted to add more, but when he had asked Lilith, she shook her head and told him to trust her. Which he absolutely did. He honestly wanted to aid Joss further, but orders were orders. He was assured the scholarly wolf would use both for purposes he could never imagine.

- A letter for Ajax and Lara from her parents, collected as a guise to help them 'move on' from the loss. "What would you say to them if they were here? Tell me, and I will send it to them in the afterlife" he had told them. What a lie. There was no way to contact the afterlife. There was a distinct line between life and death that the wise dared not tread between.

- Incense of Purple Haze (he didn't want to think about the reason on that one).

He took in a deep, calming breath as he tried to recall everything. He was sure he had, but with dreams being what they were, sometimes he wasn't able to write it all down before it faded away. He was not a God after all...and sometimes there were things that prohibited the information of those above to those below (but that is a story for another day, and another place).

There was one last thing he had to pull off - delivering the package.

No one was allowed to go in or out of the mountain, and he was no different. Harbinger was knowledgeable like Jhinto, and he knew that any contact from the inside to the out would destroy everything he was working towards: supreme order.

However, Jhinto was well aware that there was a very fine line between order and tyranny, and risking his life was worth preventing one soul from trying to control all the others.