Nazareth Awakened - Chapter 02: Wives of Solomon

[Rubberneck]

Law decides to speak as well.

"I know you have a sort of plan on what you want to teach us. Maybe only what you think is important. But it would be super if you explained what that was all about?"

 

[TillForPie]

"You must have some sort of recourse? I mean, you discovered them, so you should have some sort of rights. Or someone you can appeal to. Or, or what if you already occupied them?"

"Rights? What rights? This might as well be Nazi Germany." He's clearly exaggerating, but none of his students have seen him this histrionic before. Magellan had said Penrose avoids Council politics - now he seems to have been dragged into it unwillingly.

"Surely someone in the Mysterium could do something?" asks Faye.

"The Council's vote was unanimous!" Magellan had described the Council as being made up of representatives from the four orders: Mysterium, Silver Ladder, Adamantine Arrow, and Guardians of the Veil. If the Council voted unanimously to strip Penrose of the Nazareth hallows that would include the councilor from the Mysterium - Penrose's order.

"I know you have a sort of plan on what you want to teach us. Maybe only what you think is important. But it would be super if you explained what that was all about?"

"The Council's carving Nazareth up. 'Four hallows is too much for any one man to own.' They're overpopulated in Phoenix - not enough hallows to support all the cabals - so they're sending their riffraff here. That," he thumbs toward the exit, "was their flunky." Penrose paces back and forth before the counter, arms crossed. "We don't even know why the hallows have been opening. Do they care? Of course not." Entire cabals of mages in Nazareth would clearly be all of Penrose's fears realized.

 

[GlassEye]

Harper, Thyrsus mage

[section]

Harper looks from Chance to Law to Agnasci helplessly.

"I don't understand ninety percent of what you're talking about," he says to Penrose, perhaps a bit more snappishly than he intended. "Maybe you could explain who this Council is and who the Mysterium is and why they get to decide this stuff and how this is going to affect us. What about the wards you planned? I lost a good amount of blood last night for those wards."

​

[/section]

 

[Rubberneck]

"He brings up a good point. If we get them set up can it keep out the riff raff? I know that being a mage comes first, but I did take an oath to keep Nazareth safe. I don't think having a bunch of mages running around. I think 5 and a f*****g vampire is enough. Any way we can go to the council, say that we are the cabal running this town? That there isn't enough room here?"

Law is obviously displeased with the situation. Maybe not as much as Penrose is but that's probably only because he doesn't fully understand the storm on the horizon.

 

[Mosier]

Agnasci doesn't have much of an opinion to add. The hallows don't belong to him anyway, and he gets the (all too familiar!) feeling that he's in over his head.

"If there's anything we can do to help, tell us," Agnasci says. He knows there isn't, otherwise Penrose wouldn't have been bullied in the first place. Really, Agnasci doesn't care too much which mages own which real estate. Unless the mage in question is himself, of course.

"What if we told them the hallows aren't all yours?" Agnasci suggests boldly. "There's more than enough of us to claim all the hallows, and the Council would lose the excuse about them being too much for one man to own."

 

[TillForPie]

Penrose looks at his students as they start asking questions and making suggestions. He'd clearly rather not deal with them at all right now. But his attention is grabbed by something Law says.

"Any way we can go to the council, say that we are the cabal running this town? That there isn't enough room here?"

Penrose waves a hand in annoyance to silence everyone as he stares into empty space, working something out internally. The older man exchanges a quick look with Faye.

"I've got to make some calls." Penrose turns to disappear through the Employees Only door with a renewed focus. "Tell them whatever they want to know."

Faye sighs as she watches Penrose go and then turns her gaze on the others.

"The Council," she begins in answer to Harper's questions, though it's directed at everyone, "is at the center of awakened politics. There's one councilor from each of the Orders, plus the Heirarch, who's like the president." This is in line with the information Magellan provided them. "The Orders are..." she trails off to think before continuing with a shrug. "They're like special interest groups or political parties. Penrose and I are Mysterium." Penrose has described the Mysterium as a mage community, though up until their encounter with Magellan his students likely took this to mean the whole of awakened society. Apparently it's just a fourth of it - if that.

"The Mysterium is dedicated to magical research. And they've just thrown Penrose under the bus." She might have been exasperated with Penrose's behavior but she's still firmly on his side. "As for the wards, well, that's up to Penrose to work out with Magellan."

"Look," she folds her arms, "I know you're all starved for information. But he was just trying to spare you what he went through. I don't think there's any stopping that now - I'm pretty sure he plans to have you all introduced as a formal cabal."

 

[Shayuri]

"I get that he's tryin' to look out for us," Chance says soothingly to Faye, "but keepin' us in the dark ain't doin' us any favors. It's just makin' sure we ain't ready to face the deep dark world when it finds us. And it will."

She glances at the others.

"Maybe it already has."

 

[Mosier]

Agnasci hates asking questions in circumstances like this. Doing so just announces his own ignorance and puts him in a position of weakness. But he can't help himself.

"Faye, what's a cabal?"

 

[TillForPie]

"Cabals are partnerships recognized by the Consilium. The members are united either by geography or ideology. Wizard," she glances toward the door in a way that indicates she's talking about the recently-departed guest, "is in the Treasury of Elements. Their territory is north Tempe." Tempe is a city in the southern Phoenix Metro Area - a generally nicer place to live than central Phoenix. "And they're all Silver Ladder."

Faye looks back at the group. "Cabals tend to have more pull in the Consilium than solitaries. I think Penrose hopes he can call in enough favors to get you guys one of the hallows here. That'll mean introducing you at the next Council meeting."

 

[Shayuri]

"Wizard?" Chance asks, a huge grin splitting across her face. It's not just the name...the idea of finally getting in on the larger society of Awakened has her very happy. "That's his shadow name? Wizard? What does he call his familiar? Cat?"