Continuing on, she ascended the stairs at the end of the hallway, taking her up to the next level where the offices of several members of the Witches’ Council were located. Navigating carefully, she avoided several small groups of anxious magic users waiting for an audience with the head of the Council, whose office she needed access to. Standing to the side of the door, Mystia waited for it to open to admit the next sycophant.
~/~/~/~/~
Reading through the long list of names Brady gave him, Zane asked, “Which ones would most likely be involved with the plot to harm my brother and Remy?”
“Well, this one for sure,” Brady said, pointing to a name.
“Zohar Stone…hmmm.” Turning to his keyboard, Zane quickly typed in the name, and started the search.
“Anyone else?” asked Dylon. “Or does he work alone?”
“Not on something of this magnitude,” Brady murmured, “but he’d have to be very careful when enlisting co-conspirators.”
“Why? I’d thought everyone on the Council would be in on it,” said Dylon, “especially since the laws pertaining to the low-magic users were passed unanimously.”
“That’s a reasonable assumption,” Brady said. “However, passing a law is far different than plotting to kill the leader of the magic realm. You’ll find the stomach to do that is restricted to only a few who have the most to lose by Remy remaining in that position.”
Handing the list back to Brady, Zane said, “Circle the ones I should focus on first…other than the leader of the Witches’ Council.”
“Okay, but as I told Dylon, I doubt there’ll be anything to find.” Picking up a pencil, Brady slowly went down the names, thinking about each before making a decision. When he got to the end of the list, five names were circled.
Taking the list from Brady, Dylon began reading. “Thayer White…why did you pick him?”
“These are just my guesses. Please understand I could be totally wrong since it’s been many years since I had any dealings with these magic users,” Brady explained.
“I know that, but I doubt they’ve suddenly changed,” Dylon said.
“Right…Thayer and this one…Niam Graves…were early supporters of Zohar’s plan to identify and register low-level magic users at birth.”
“Supporters? In what way?” asked Dylon.
“Maybe supporters isn’t the right word…more like fanatical followers,” Brady said. “Zohar, Thayer, and Niam believed low level magic users were part of the mystic realm for one reason only…to serve the ones who were born with top level magic.”
“How many levels are there?” asked Zane.
“Four, including the low-level,” Brady answered.
“Why only the top level?” asked Zane. “I’d think the other two would feel pissed off they weren’t included.”
“Oh, they were very angry. Zohar finally gave in and included the first three levels of magic users in order to gain the support he needed to pass the laws. But in the end he achieved what he originally wanted, because a substantial fee was levied on any magic user who indentured a low level user and with very few exceptions, only first level magic users could afford it.”
“You gotta be kidding me,” Zane sputtered. “Weren’t there any objections to that?”
“Not that I know of. At first I couldn’t understand why, but finally concluded the second and third tiers didn’t care about the price; only that they’d also have equal rights to buy a slave if they wanted to,” Brady said, bitterness resonating in his voice.
After a moment of stunned silence, Zane shook his head in disbelief. Then, glancing at Dylon, said, “Well, let’s get on with it.”
