Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King

"Now that we're past the political niceties, I should probably mention that the first team that came here revealed that all of the humans left on this continent after the war were ordered killed, and the Witches were supposed to sterilize themselves, on order of the World Government," Wolfe announced, catching the attention of all the General's soldiers again.

"That's not right. They must have misunderstood." The General declared, waving off his comment as hearsay.

"We have evidence of what happened at the end of the war, a live recording from one of the last Saints, and another from an official biographer, both stored in intact memory crystals," Wolfe added.

"Fuck."

Wolfe chuckled. "Yeah, I thought you'd say that. We know now that they are going to invade the Frozen Wastes. The Minister on the other end of your portal confirmed it. So, my question is, what are they planning to do to the rest of the people living on this continent? The law enforcement team that showed up called them all Unsanctioned Residents and in violation of the Progeny Creation Act or some such nonsense."

"So, you know that the whole Continent is a quarantine zone by Global Law, you know about the culling and the zero children order, and yet you let us live?" The General asked, shocking her troops.

"Of course I did. Those are all in the distant past, and there is some hope, at least at my end, that your people will see sense. I doubt that you want to start another Great War, and there is a lot of leftover firepower here on this Continent." Wolfe explained.

"Is the continent that heavily armed?" The Sergeant asked in shock.

"The human nations still have their entire stock of military equipment from the war. This was the last stand of the Magi before their defeat, and everything that it took to drive them to that point is still sitting on this continent, stored away and waiting for a reason to be pulled out and dusted off."

That might be an exaggeration, but it might not. Wolfe knew that the human nations had a lot of old gear stashed away somewhere, and there was no good reason they would have destroyed their best stuff.

The soldiers all looked somewhat panicked at the thought. 

"Even the big stuff?" One of them asked.

"Perhaps not all of it, but most of it. They used a fair bit for the last push, but they've still got enough in storage to wipe out a continent again if they put their minds to it." Wolfe shrugged.

That glowed green on the General's lie detector. Wolfe was sure they had at least that much. One single country was enough to run roughshod through the Frozen Wastes, after all, and they didn't even start with the dangerous stuff until they got to the Covens.

The Sergeants were taking notes, while the Rank Two Witches were doing their best to pretend that this conversation didn't involve them. If there was going to be a fight between the Seniors and the Demon, they wanted no part of it. They saw what he cast through that portal, and there was no way they were surviving that.

The conversation died down for a few minutes after that. What did you say after the rescue team that thought you had been ambushed nearly got wiped out before they could even enter the Continent?

"How about we show you around a bit? You can get a good view of what things are like here, and then you can report back to your superiors, and we can hope that they see reason. We're not a threat to them, and we didn't even know they existed until recently. They just need to get over their ideas that this is an uninhabited War Memorial."

The Sergeant closest to them shook her head as if that were an impossible proposition, but Wolfe could see that she also thought it made sense.

"I get the feeling that there is no changing their minds," Cassie commented as she noticed the general reaction.

The Sergeant cast the General a cautious look, making sure that this wouldn't violate their rules, though the General was sure to write this all off as confessed under interrogation, and then began to speak.

"The last time a law was changed, it was the Vegetarian Diet Act. In order to reduce the attacks on the cities around the world, it was determined that the magical gardens had to go. The negotiations took just over seven years, and that was with most of the world in agreement at the start.

But they all support the War Memorial being preserved in its postwar state as a memoir of the horrors of the Magi. Asking them to suddenly change the law to let people live on it? I just don't see it happening. 

In the rest of the quarantine zone, I can see them ignoring the residents, as the generation that actually disobeyed the orders is dead, but any more than that would require a change of laws.

The incident today with the defence minister isn't going to help. They will decide that the leftover Demons make it too dangerous for anyone to live here, and that will only strengthen their resolve not to let anyone move in.

I just don't see a good end, and getting the military leadership to change their orders and cancel whatever enforcement action they have planned for the region will be just as difficult.

It's all standard operating procedure set by the Saints. If they want to try anything new that isn't decided by the Saints, it takes a lot of political will."

The Witches from Forest Grove facepalmed in unison, and Wolfe sighed.

"I should have known it was something like that. Tell me, are your leaders picked by raw power, or are they voted in?" He asked.

"They are selected by their peers and predecessor, with a list of minimum requirements."

That made sense, but it didn't lead to a great deal of flexibility.

"Well, in that case, we will warn the others and see what we can do to move the innocents to safety. I would ask what they're planning to do for the enforcement of their rules, but you don't know, do you?" 

The General shook her head. "No, that's not my department. If I were there right now, I would likely be at the meeting, but I'm not." 

The lie detector stayed green, so Wolfe assumed that was most of the truth.

"Where will the response be coming from?" Cassie asked.

"Camra Province, to the north of Luangan. They are responsible for large-scale enforcement actions. They have three Generals in the enforcement department there, so don't think that they will be a pushover if they try to push your people out." The General cautioned.

"I will keep it in mind."

Wolfe looked around the room at all the frightened young faces and sighed before rising to his feet.

"I think that we've learned enough for the day. We can talk to the next group that comes through to visit us. Here is your portal device. It is my most sincere hope that you can convince your government to stay at home and not send troops to the War Memorial. 

Because I can promise that if they do, they will find that there is still war waiting for them."