Useless. They were all useless.

Julia Karalis paced back and forth in front of the school’s atrium. It would shave time off of the departure if she waited in the atrium itself, but no fucking way was that happening. It was bad enough that she had to wait on a minion, but waiting in the chilly box between the sets of exit doors? Just to make things easier on a minion that was already late?

Get fucking real, Julia thought to no one in particular.

There was part of the fault that she had to own, she knew. Julia had caught Lindsay alone in the hallway, where no one could hear the command but her. The situation where her magic’s effect was at its strongest. She knew there was no chance Lindsay would be able to disobey the command, not when she was isolated under the effect, but Julia had been unspecific. “Take me home after school,” she’d told her. She’d thought the implication would have been enough, should have been enough for anyone with a brain, but the fact that the girl had not yet arrived wasn’t necessarily a sign that she was resisting the compulsion. She was just operating under an unspecific time window.

Useless.

Augustus leaned up against the brick wall of the building, next to the door, and was watching her with a smug look on his face. She could force him to remove that look with a word if she wanted. Her compulsions were layered on her brother so deeply that he couldn’t even remember commands when she gave them. They appeared as organic thoughts, too natural to ever be doubted. Periodically, she’d feign giving him a command, just to give him the illusion that he was fighting off her influence, but for all intents and purposes he was at her mercy at any given moment.

“Control yourself, sister,” Augustus said, the irony of the statement almost unbearable. “Impatience isn’t a good look on you.”

“Speak for yourself,” she snapped. “Threaten to burn anyone’s face recently?”

Augustus snorted. “You sure love your little army of tattletales.”

“My network,” Julia said, stressing the word, “hears everything that goes on in the school. Nothing happens inside these walls without it making its way to me eventually. So when I hear that you’re still playing your sad little games with tiny freshman girls, it adds credence to the rumor that you might have been adopted.”

She could see the effect that particular jab had on Augustus. Their heritage was incredibly important to her brother. It probably had something to do with his general impotence, but being of high birth, belonging to one of the oldest noble lines in Avalon, was one of Augustus’s greatest prides. His largest vulnerability.

His face darkened with anger, but he at least knew better than to get into a shouting match here. He’d lose face regardless of how it came out, and he knew his tongue wasn’t as sharp as hers. Julia smiled. Her father had once told her that the mark of a truly skilled mesmer was in learning to control people without using magic. Augustus wasn’t exactly a good example of a difficult mark, but it was something.

She thought about needling him again, something speculative about which lowborn family he might hail from, when she spotted something better walking through the commons toward her.

Marika Takahata, one of the senior girls that she hadn’t yet had a chance to interact with, was heading out for the day, her hood already drawn up around her long black hair. Her network had told her that Marika was a member of Emily Browman’s group, and Julia still had plans for the girl. It wasn’t often she exited a social interaction feeling like she’d lost, or at least feeling like she hadn’t won as much as she originally intended. It was a sour taste in her mouth that she’d yet to wash out.

Julia stepped out to meet her, a winning smile on her face.

“Hey,” she said, pulling a lock of her silky brown hair behind her ear in a maneuver she’d learned was rather endearing to either sex. “Mari, right?”

Julia had heard the nickname through her network. She knew a lot about what nearly every student liked to be called, didn’t like to be called, wanted, hated, loved, or feared. It was truly amazing the depth of information a person could get access to just by talking to enough people.

“Oh...Hey, Julia,” Marika replied, surprise on her face.

“I hadn’t had a chance to talk to you, yet, but I’ve been meaning to,” Julia said, leaning in to close the distance between the two of them, one of the easiest ways to build familiarity when you had a countenance most people didn’t mind being close to. Plus, it made it a lot easier to isolate the application of her magic.

“Right on,” Marika said, smiling shyly.

“I’ve heard a lot about you from some of the girls, and I think we could probably be pretty good friends.”

“Really?” Marika asked, and her tone spoke of more incredulity than doubt. Julia smiled. She had her right where she wanted her.

“I was wondering if you could tell me some of Browman’s secrets,” Julia said, leaning in and whispering the last words into the side of Marika’s hood. The command came out layered with magic, the tones of her voice so enchanting and intoxicating that anyone who heard it would be nearly possessed by the words. There wasn’t a chance she’d be able to avoid the effects now. More ammunition for the-

“Haha, that’s so interesting,” Marika said, an excited expression on her face.

Julia frowned. “What’s interesting?”

“If you say so,” Marika replied, after only a moment’s hesitation.

What the hell? Was the girl insane?

Just as Julia was gathering her will for a second attempt, Marika sighed. The girl reached up into either side of her hood and produced a pair of earbuds. Julia could hear the music from almost two feet away now that they weren’t in Marika’s ears, which meant…

She hadn’t heard her at all. From the start of the conversation.

“I messed up, I guess,” she said, without even a hint of remorse.

“How dare-” Julia started, but Marika reached up and planted two of her fingers on Julia’s lips, smushing them together in a shushing gesture. Julia was stunned speechless by the audacity of the Mundane girl, but before she could pull away and bark a command at her, Marika was already talking.

“Yeah, I don’t think I want to be brainjacked by you,” she said, anger and just a tinge of malevolence glinting in her eyes. “Though, in the future, if you want to play this sort of game with me, I invite you to fuck off.”

With that she replaced the earbuds in her ears, shoved the door open, and exited the school without looking back.

Julia seethed, though there were enough people still in the common area that she wouldn’t kick or punch or rant at anything. She would save those expressions for when she was at the domicile, in the privacy of her room. Appearances were everything, and to anyone who was watching, it appeared like the Japanese girl just strode up, effortlessly disrespected Julia worse than anyone had in her entire life, touched her face, and left just as easily.

There would be dire consequences for this.

Naturally, this was the moment that Lindsay chose to pull up to the curb outside, rolling down the passenger window so Julia could see it was her. Augustus had a wide grin on his face, and Julia knew that, left alone, he would be regaling Xander and Heinrich and pretty much any other wizard who would listen about the event he’d just witnessed. He made to leave but she moved forward and caught him by the shoulder as he reached the door to the atrium.

“Forget what you saw,” she whispered fiercely to him. He nodded twice, the implanted sign that her compulsion and all of the layered contingencies were still in effect, and made to continue out the door to where Linday’s SUV was waiting.

Julia thought for a moment, then stopped Augustus again.

“On second thought, I think you should walk home.”

She watched with cold, dispassionate eyes as Augustus, without another word, marched off down the street with nothing but a thin, long-sleeved shirt and a pair of pressed slacks between himself and the bitter autumn. She shook her head to herself as she watched him go.

Useless.

*********************************

Heinrich met her at the door to the domicile, and she knew from his expression that something had gone wrong. His normally jovial, friendly face was flat and expressionless, and his demeanor upon greeting her was unusually official.

“Ms. Karalis,” he said, his English still bearing the unusual cadence of the recently learned. “Your presence is requested in the audience chamber.”

That didn’t bode well. A small projection array had been added to the hotel along with the other bits of magical security that had been necessary for the domicile to meet the bare minimum standards for a facility that was both meant to foster youths and serve as the center for a local government exercise. Julia sighed. She didn’t feel up to chatting with the old pencil-pushing bitch who had been assigned as overseer to the Haden exchange. It shouldn’t be hard to understand the kind of touch that was required to change and mould the opinions of the youth of an entire city, but Dobbin was as heavy-handed as she was interminably dull when it came to keeping Julia bogged down in as much bureaucracy as she could manage.

“Shouldn’t that hag have better things to do than hound me?” Julia asked bitterly.

“I do not believe it is Vengeant Dobbin that you will be speaking with.”

Julia paused halfway to the door that led to the audience chamber. Dobbin was the only official she ever spoke with regarding exchange business, and usually then just to make reports and argue over the best course of action moving forward. There wasn’t any higher official before…

Her mouth suddenly felt dry, and she nervously licked her lips. “Lady Violet?”

Heinrich shook his head grimly.

The blood drained from her face. “Not the whole Council?”

“I hope you know what you’ve been doing,” he said, motioning for her to continue walking. He joined her in what felt like a march to the gallows. Julia hesitated on the threshold, as though the fear that was building in her gut might suddenly dissipate if she gave it one moment more, or two.

“A word of advice, Ms. Karalis.”

Julia nodded silently. At this point, she’d have taken Augustus’s advice.

“Do not play games with them. Do not lie, do not dance with the truth.”

If only, Julia thought, and crossed into the audience chamber. The rich, thick carpet of the hotel’s entryway was replaced by the gray, featureless magisynth that was the standard building material in Avalon and the other Rainbow Nations. A single unadorned chair sat in the room, the headrest covered with the modified Transmission runes that would project her into whichever office the audience would take place in. She gulped.

This time it would be the Rainbow Citadel.

She had only ever seen the Citadel at a great distance, towering above Avalon. Some of the members of her age tier claimed to have seen the mighty gates that led into the Citadel itself, but Julia didn’t believe them. No one had climbed the Rainbow Stair since the rebellion, and since then only approved transport could fly to or from the Citadel’s landing platform. There were rumors about the ancient magics and horrifying creatures that still inhabited the hallowed halls of the Rainbow Mage. Julia took a deep breath, trying to center herself.

She climbed into the seat and put her head onto the headrest.

In an instant, she felt the world around her drop away, an imagined movement that had left her with vertigo the first couple of times she’d experienced it. In reality, her body wasn’t moving at all. Her consciousness had simply been snatched away, summoned across half the world. When the scene around her settled back into focus, she was in a dream-like chamber, the walls and ceiling hidden by an ethereal fog. The only details of the room she could make out were the seven seats arranged in a circle around her, and the seven powerful wizards that occupied them.

Julia had witnessed the use of an audience chamber before, once when her father had been communicating with a junior officer, during the war. She knew she would appear as a small, semi-transparent projection of herself, usually dressed according to the subject’s self-image. In this instance, Julia was wearing a formal gown, the colors muted, the cut and length respectful. Directly in front of her, a man wearing a full-length red robe, its hood and sleeves embroidered with brilliant gold thread, cleared his throat.

“Julia Karalis,” Lord Red said, in a voice that was somehow both quiet and commanding. It wasn’t any louder than a normal conversational tone, maybe even a touch softer, but she hung on every word. “You have been summoned into the Chamber of the Prism Council. Any information you receive is to be considered a secret of the state, and any testimony you deliver will be either truthful or treasonous. Do you understand?”

Julia nodded silently.

Lord Red gestured to the man on his left, taller and thinner and wearing orange. Lord Orange produced a sheaf of papers which he thumbed through briefly before speaking.

“Ms. Karalis,” he intoned, his voice dry and slightly bored-sounding. “Please make your report on the state of the integration efforts, in regards to the Haden Cultural Exchange.”

Julia wondered how her mouth still managed to feel so dry despite her being an astral projection. She felt their eyes on her, seven sets belonging to the seven most powerful wizards in the world. Lord Red and Lord Yellow were apparently soldiers in the old world, but had been at the head of the rebellion that had defeated the Rainbow Mage only four years previously. Julia had been young when the regime fell, but the importance of the change in society wasn’t lost on her. Lord Blue, Lord Indigo, and Lady Green were from the Rainbow Mage’s old Execution Corps, meaning that they were pretty much just glorified assassins, but everyone in the world recognized Casper Scholz, even before he donned those shining blue robes. He was like the bogeyman in stories, an unstoppable force, directed at the whim of the Rainbow Mage. Lady Violet, she knew, was her age, if not a touch younger, but she wore her mantle with dignity and poise. Unfortunately, this was about the only thing Julia knew about her. She’d appeared out of nowhere, in the aftermath of Lord Red’s rebellion.

And then there was Lord Orange. The world’s most powerful necromancer, a prodigal wizard who had been admitted to Scholomance when he was twelve, and had been headmaster of it by the time he was twenty. There were rumors that he could bind people’s souls to his service, animate corpses, lash bone and blood to make awful, life-draining weapons. Every member of the Prism Council was formidable, but there were few forces on the world more terrifying than necromancy.

Or the focused attention of a necromancer.

“Things are proceeding smoothly, Lords and Ladies of the Council,” Julia said, bowing her head as she responded. “I estimate seventy percent of the school’s student body and faculty are now willing to accept wizard integration, and many of those are highly enthusiastic. Around twenty-five percent remain indifferent, with the resistance to integration efforts being in the small remainder. They are my current priority, of course.”

“Have you begun extending your influence to the parents of the student body?” Lady Violet asked, her head tilting to one side with the question.

Julia shook her head. “I was hoping to silence the dissent among the students before expanding. I felt it would-”

“Should you not be listening to dissent, Ms. Karalis?” Lady Green interrupted. She had a motherly face, pale behind large glasses, but Julia knew better than to judge her based on appearances. One didn’t become a professional assassin by being kind. “This isn’t a hostile invasion, we’re not trying to hold Mundane cities. We’re trying to convert them. Convince them.”

Julia bit her lip, then immediately relaxed her face. She didn’t want the frustration to show on her face, not when she was dealing with wizards of this caliber. It was bad enough that she had to dance around such a dangerous group, but to have to sit here and listen to this kind of sophistry-

Lady Violet’s eyes and mantle glowed suddenly, a light in her namesake color briefly eclipsing Julia’s vision. She clicked her tongue afterward, a mocking smile on her face. “Ah, it would seem that Ms. Karalis has her own ideas for how to go about this, Green. She knows better than you.”

Julia felt a chill run down her spine as Lady Green frowned, first at Lady Violet, then at her. Was Lady Violet a mind-reader? No, it couldn’t be that. If she were a true telepath, they’d know exactly what she was up to, exactly how far she’d stepped over the line in Haden. She was probably just an empath, picking up on the notes of dissent that had been running through Julia’s mind. She carefully blanked out her thoughts before continuing.

“I mean no disrespect, noble Council,” Julia said, her head bowing again, “but I wonder at the reason for this interrogation. It was my understanding that progress in Haden is significantly ahead of schedule, far ahead of any of the other exchange cities.”

“You are certainly doing a good job of changing local opinion, at least among the students.” It took Julia a moment to realize that it was Lord Blue who was speaking. His voice was quiet, sibilant, scarcely more than a whisper, and he spoke from a relaxed position. She noted that he was the only member of the Council that currently wore their hood, and his eyes shone a brilliant cerulean from the shadows that hid his face. “Among the heads of the other cultural exchanges, you are moving the fastest by far.”

Julia felt a swell of pride at the approval, but it shriveled into nothing with Lord Blue’s next words.

“Unfortunately, it also seems as though you are making the most enemies as well.”

Julia opened her mouth to speak, but her voice caught in her throat. She coughed uncomfortably. “Enemies, Lord Blue?”

The man nodded, a single slow dip of the head. “My Shepherds have intercepted no fewer than eleven complaints, four aimed at the school administration and seven sent directly to the local government. All about you or your brother.”

She felt fury bubble up through the fear. She had her own people in the school’s administration, so she knew about the four complaints Browman had attempted to file since the exchange program had started. She’d assumed that after the total lack of success, she’d have learned her lesson. But seven more to the mayor’s office?

Julia took a deep breath. Now that she had all the information, she was able to work out a plan, a way to get herself out of this dangerous situation. This was where she was strongest.

“I believe the record will show that I was opposed to Augustus’ being cleared for the exchange,” she said. “You were warned as to his behavioral tendencies, even among his regular peers.”

“Do you seek to admonish the council?” Lord Red asked, a dangerous edge to his voice.

Defensive. Julia suppressed the urge to smile. “Not at all, Lord Red. But I am not responsible for Augustus’ brutish behavior, as much as he shames myself and my family. I would argue that the lack of real incident is the result of a commendable effort on my part.”

“And the reports of you using your power to subjugate, humiliate, and otherwise emotionally abuse your position among the Mundanes? The claims that you’ve placed yourself at the head of a hierarchy you control using magic and fear?”

“Slander,” Julia said simply. “Misconceptions born out of xenophobia. The girl in question has been highly opposed to the exchange and wizardkind in general from the beginning. I won’t deny using my power, but I have never produced a compulsion or issued a command without the interests of the exchange and the nations of Avalon foremost in my mind.”

Lord Red was silent, but glanced to his right, where Lady Violet sat. She stared evenly at Julia for a moment, then nodded almost imperceptibly.

“Very well,” Lord Red intoned. “You are dismissed, Ms. Karalis, but be warned: You and your operation are now under scrutiny, and you would be wise to ensure that your Ledger is incredibly accurate.”

Julia bowed her head once more, deciding it was probably best to leave silently, though it was hard to resist the urge to get the last word in. As she raised her head, waiting for the Transmission magic to return her to the audience chamber in the domicile, her eyes fell on Lady Violet, who was still regarding her with a curious expression. The last thing Julia saw as the Council Chambers fell away was the wide, almost hungry grin on the face of the Mage of Connection.

She opened her eyes, taking a few moments to restore her equilibrium. As she stared at the darkened ceiling, the anger that she’d suppressed during the audience returned to the surface.

Browman.