Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King

Mary looked much happier than usual that morning, which was an accomplishment in itself. But she was seated next to Reiko, having pulled a chair up next to the Coven Leader at the head of the table, and the petite witch had Pup’s head in her lap while the staff served her an entire plate of cream puffs for breakfast.

The Coven Council was not happy with the seating arrangement, as one normally the husbands, who had been brought out for today’s meal, would sit arranged around her, but Reiko had moved them to a separate table, while she sat at the main table with Mary beside her and Wolfe along the side of the table to her right.

Reiko tapped her glass to gather everyone’s attention. Unnecessarily, as everyone was paying attention to her, both for the seating arrangement and for her sudden change in power levels.

“I am certain that you have noticed that there have been some changes made this morning. First, I will address the seating issue, as it is the easier of the two. I have honoured guests with me today, and they will take pride of position above my various spouses, who hold no official responsibilities.

Once they have returned to their homes, the seating will be rearranged again.

Next, with the assistance of Saint Noxus, I have indeed broken through to Rank Three, and I am very close to reaching Rank Four. If there is time this evening after the negotiations, I hope to request his assistance to finish that process.

It will gain us respect in trade negotiations, and having a more powerful Coven Leader may be enough to convince some of the villages to rejoin our embrace.

Finally, I will not be accepting proposals for pet projects, personal enrichment initiatives or other self-serving reasons to be added to the negotiations. If you had intended to propose them today, please keep them to yourself.”

If the first points had been a shock, the final one was like dropping a nuclear bomb in a room full of politicians. They had hundreds of proposals requesting specific items in the renovation, improvements to areas that their families had interests in, and even punitive measures against specific villages that had displeased them when they had broken away from a Council Family’s influence.

“How can we negotiate a fair bargain if we are not allowed to propose additions?” One of the Council advisors asked.

“The bargain was fair to begin with, there is no need to expand it to specifically include your desire to bring back your Family’s monopoly on shipments into the city from the western villages.” Reiko replied.

The woman spluttered with rage, but as Reiko glared at her, she didn’t dare to say out loud that it had been precisely her intention.

“Many of you are not yet aware that this agreement includes linking us into an international highway system, run underground for efficiency. Many shipments will now be moving through that corridor, using magic-driven cargo trucks, similar to the ones used in the city.

However, there will also be an airport built for overnight shipment of bulk freight. The maximum travel speed in the tunnels is sixty kilometres per hour for safety reasons, so it will take half a day to get goods here from Forest Grove, or roughly five hours from Sylvan City, with the detours that the road takes through the territory.

The details are all in the package if you wish to read them.

Now, let’s finish our meal and we can get to work.”

The Council Families realized then that they had been played, and that the Coven Leader had allowed them all to gather here not to allow their amendments to be added, but to call them out publicly for their self-interest, and to shut them down evenly, with no clear winner in the power plays.

Not allowing the additions would be a huge blow to the Council Families, who had evenly portioned everything that they had anticipated to come of this deal, with no room for anyone else to gain advantage. They had planned to handle all goods coming in and out of the city, impose their Family markup on them before allowing them to be put up for sale, and monitor all new production, to ensure that there were no others managing to take advantage of something that they had missed.

But if it couldn’t be codified into the agreement, then the rest of the city, with the assistance of the Crime Families, would be able to do business outside the city walls for the first time.

That was Wolfe’s plan, and Reiko’s intention.

The Coven Council did not need to exist for the Coven itself to function, as their magical rituals were established enough for a single leader, and they had the Inquisitors for misbehaviour. They were entirely a political entity that ruled the city, and Reiko intended to change that role from ruling to managing once again, as it had been in the original founding documents of Morgana Fortress.

“There is one more item that I should bring up right at the start as well. Seated to the left of Mary is my new Advisor, who has been hired to assist me as Coven Leader and to represent the city in matters of defence and international negotiations.

This is a new custom of the continent, and every notable village and city has a Fae or Demonic guardian or protector working with their local leadership. She is the one I have chosen, and you may refer to her simply by the title of Advisor.” Reiko added, and the Fae waved happily.

Her gentle voice pulled everyone in when she began to speak. “It is a pleasure to meet you all, and I look forward to the renovation effort of the city. I will personally be leading the team to revamp the interior of Morgana Fortress from the top down, and I have already brought in a few of the specialists that we will need to upgrade the city’s systems.

When we are done, not only will the city be more beautiful and sustainable, but there will no longer be power shortages and rationing. It is in the agreement with Forest Grove and I will see it done with their assistance.”

Wolfe knew that meant that she wanted a mana gathering array for the barriers and the electrical grid, but that shouldn’t be an issue, even for a city this size. The actual electrical usage was miniscule compared to the amount of wasted energy in a lightning attack.

The electricity in a lightning bolt used to burn a team of attackers or an armoured vehicle to ash was enough to power the entire city for over an hour. So, the amount of mana that needed to be gathered to keep everything running smoothly in the power grid wouldn’t cause any disruption to the area’s mana flow at all.

Once he had upgraded the city’s power plants to use more efficient arrays based on his understanding of Lightning Magic, it would be an even lower draw, and not a problem to have the power price eliminated.

That part was going to chafe the council even harder than the refusal to hear their schemes.

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