"We cannot let this be gotten away with!" A man dressed in ornate fineries spoke to a large group of men and women in the same guard uniform "Mages must not use their magic without government consent! We have taken steps in the right direction under queen Nasuada yes! But in my opinion, it is not enough!"
Nasuada looked at the proceeding with feigned interest. Her gaze wandered to the chairs besides her, a few had the lords and ladies of different cities and provinces in her kingdom, but the vast majority were enchanted mirrors connected to the lords in their homes. Lord Bradburn looked on with interest at the proceedings. He had come quickly from Belatona to attend this meeting. Like Nasuada he had a dislike for the power a magic user had over normal citizens, but he took it to an extreme, he and Lord Tarrant, the ruler of Gilead, wanted even stricter control of magic users throughout the kingdom. Lord Tarrant was still in his home, ever since the war ended, he has maintained constant vigil of his walls and borders with Du Weldenvarden. She turned to her other side; a few newer dignitaries were along that side. Roran, looking slightly haggard had simple farming cloths, the only thing denoting his nobility was his cloak and crest, Nasuada assumed he had been farming before the meeting. To the left of his magic mirror sat Lord Redbeard, governor of Dras-Leona, Martland for his part had a vague distaste for magic users, as Roran did, though they were currently satisfied with the restrictions on magic users. She shared those views. At the left further was Lord Jaya, and his Council, Lord Jaya had been one of the first of Galbatorix's court magicians to swear fealty, and he had led the majority of the rest to swear allegiance as well, Nasuada disliked him but had to respect him for his strength and prowess in magic. He was a staunch supporter of increasing the rights for magic users.
"It is true that this is a true affront and abuse of power, but how do you know it was one of our mages?" He looked at the speaker, his piercing eyes unnerved the man as he replied.
"A-are you saying a mage was able to slip past the defenses of this kingdom? Slip past your people?"
"My Queen may I have permission to ask him a few questions?" Lord Jaya turned to Nasuada, who waived her hand the go ahead. Thanking her, he stood and faced the group. "Let us go over the basic gist of the regulations. A mage cannot use his magic to attack a fellow mage or citizen except for a few circumstances, such examples include the apprehending of dangerous individuals, killing is of course extremely forbidden unless in the direst of circumstance."
"We know, we want your question." The orator spoke angrily. Lord Jaya merely smiled.
"Fine, isn't the searching of a citizen's mind considered harming them and their privacy?" The man nodded. "Then we aren't allowed to examine their minds, merely observe what they have on their person."
"I don't get your point."
Lord Jaya sighed, "There are about 25 different phrases in the ancient language that can kill someone extremely easily. One of my personal favorites is the snapping of the brain stem, cutting off connections of the mind to the body, causing the victim to almost immediately lose conciousness and die. Quick, painless, and less taxing than the snap of my finger." As he snapped his finger a few members reached for their swords, he grinned. "What makes you think that a mage needs to look like what you think a mage needs to look like to be a mage? Any old farmer could possibly have magical ability, and any skilled mage could pretend to be an old farmer, can you tell me that it is entirely possible to find every single mage?"
The man scowled, "Well no, but-"
"And tell me did not a contingency of mages infiltrate us a few short months ago? While we intercepted them, they got past our guards because we do not have permission to screen the minds of citizens, as that is overstepping our bounds. We can't expect citizens to learn and use the ancient language because most do not know magic, and many still fear it." He turned to the council, "How will increasing regulations on the legal use of magic stop this illegal usage, this isn't a mere weapon we are talking about, this is something people can be born with, all it takes is a single strong person outside the rules to come and destroy those within the rules wouldn't you say? I agree to the regulations we have currently because they are a fitting compromise, as long as citizens do not fear that registered mages could kill them, the chance for more superstitions to form and occur are limited. You argue that the regulations are not strict enough, and assume that the killer was one of our mages. When any mage could have done the same or more outside our already limited control."
Nasuada felt he had a point, she despised the power a magic user could have over normal citizens but she couldn't deny that it was something hard to control, it was times like this that she wished Eragon had given her the name of the ancient language, but at the same time she couldn't trust it to someone like Lord Jaya, or even Trianna. She turned further along to look at Lord Rembrant and Lady Morngale, they were a powerful political couple who had led the counter attack against the late Lord Hamlin, in exchange they received Ceunon, they were one of the few mages who wanted increased regulation, they also wanted leadership in the mage's council.
"You forget Lord Jaya; we have a member of the council who has the ability to sense magic due to a gift from our esteemed friends from the mystical forest of Du Weldenvarden." He turned to Sona, who nodded. "We can easily use that device to screen the main entrance, anyone with magical abilities will be confronted if they do not have the proper documentation."
"Even children?" Lord Jaya asked in incredulity. "I assure you that if we make things any stricter, even children wouldn't escape undue scrutiny." The council members grudgingly nodded.
"So, if it were proven that it was a child and one of our own who committed these atrocities, would you then concede your seat to me?" There was a bit of silence, before Lord Jaya replied slowly.
"Perhaps, but I'd need proper circumstance."
Rembrant's smile unnerved Nasuada as he turned to the guards at the floor. "Bring them in."
The council all looked on in interest as a group of soldiers entered the room. A young woman with surprisingly grey hair walked in, whatever her clothes had been, they were rags now. What was worse were the number of horrid bruises all over her. In toe, but also in chains was her daughter. A few members gasped at her extremely pale complexion and pure white hair.
"What is this?!" Nasuada stood angrily. "Are we breaking into citizen's homes now?!"
"My queen, give me a moment." Rembrant frowned, "This woman is connected to those 25 deaths." She sat down; arms folded. Jörmundur would yell at her for this outburst later, but right now, they all needed to understand what exactly was going on. "As I'm sure you are aware, an aristocrat's kidnapped child was recently recovered. Her tale was of being in a harrowing and painful journey, kidnapped by disgusting and evil bandits. We discovered that these reprehensible monsters come from the western grey district the former old imperial soldier location. And in the very same warehouse and barracks we found the 25 corpses we found the graves of more children, kidnapped, brutalized, and left to die and rot. Gaining the correct papers and permission we searched the girl's mind, and we saw several other children."
"And so?" Lord Jaya continued, "So they turned on themselves?"
"No," He chuckled, "They were rescued. By a mage, a child mage, a certain upstart rising child mage who seems to be a favorite amongst your mages in your council, and from you my queen."
Lord Jaya frowned. "Hmmm… and what does this have to do with this woman?'
"After finding the children, we discovered that one of them had a father who recently joined the guard, and he was one of these criminals." He waited a few moments to let it sink in. "After interrogating him and confirming that the mage child is the same one, we are all thinking off. We also discovered what exactly happened." Another mage walked in and bowed.
"Hello, I am commissioner Gaudier, I was the one in charge of interrogating the members of this kidnapping and extortion ring, 40 different men were found, all people living in the old slums." He pushed his glasses to his nose, his brown eyes large and inquisitive looking. "Their minds all revealed an interesting scene. The suspect, Faris, entered the building at some point, he had infiltrated pretending to be a lost child, he then subdued the men effortlessly, and while they were under his power, he murdered 30 of them through immolation."
"That…" Rembrant spoke, "Is several breeches of the mage code of conduct, and from a mere student."
"But he rescued those children?" Roran spoke. "Ultimately, he did wrong, but he saved some children correct?"
"Well yes, but we have reason to believe there is more to this than what we may know." Gaudier spoke again. Another man, beaten up came forward. "This is one of those men." He was severely bruised, broken teeth, bloody eye, and completely shaven bald. "We have reason to believe Faris may have had a deeper connection that we thought." He turned to the albino girl, "He had rescued her at some point on her way to an academy, paid for with money gained from extortion." The woman hung her head in shame. "And from this woman, we found that Faris had made several visitations, and had broken another law, he had taken the memories of those he killed and those who died, and shared one of them with the woman." An audible gasp could be heard by those in the room.
"Is this true?" Nasuada turned to the woman, who glanced up before looking down.
"…Yes."
"And why did Faris choose to spare you? What was his reasoning?" Rembrant spoke, smiling savagely.
"That, he felt responsibility for our lives after killing my husband."
"Yes, he let himself be compromised by the lives he killed, and in equivalence took in their conciousness. The elves warned of this, they warned of riders who had done such things, and lost their minds. The tampering of the mind is a dangerous thing, because it is our identity, a child so flippantly abusing it should not be allowed to go unpunished."
"No! He's a good boy! I don't blame him! I!"
"Silence! You have turned your eyes from the crimes you committed far enough." Gaudier turned to the beaten man.
"Ladies, un gents, uh, I thankye for allowing my confession." He bowed hurriedly and painfully. "I um, I were one of Uglauw Bartstone's top lieutenants."
"And what did he say to you a week before Faris attacked?"
"That uh… he wanted to get out of everything, that he wanted to back up, pack his things, and hightail it. Most of us, we sorta agreed, but a few of us wanted to keep going, we were too deep in, an' he knew it too. We had these two guys, Nog and Jaspen, they kept talking about this brat who attacked them when they tried to hold a sting."
"Was this child the same child who attacked you?"
"I think so, Nog and Jaspen certainly recognized 'im, and I remember they told me that Uglauw was planning on getting rid of 'is worst guys, so that the rest of us could go straight." He swallowed nervously. "When the boy came, he killed all tha guys who didn't wanna quit, but then he killed Nog and Jaspen, and Uglauw."
"It's our assertion that Faris was paid by Uglauw to get rid of the dissenters, but that he wanted Nog and Jaspen, his closest confidants and privy to his plans gone as well, Faris then decided to kill Uglauw to seal the deal."
"Can you attest to believing that?" Lord Jaya asked.
"Yes" He replied in the ancient language, which caused Lord Jaya to frown.
"Why?"
"Because Faris chose to kill a convenient amount of men who either had no families who could request to find them, or were part of Uglauw's hit list, we are left to question whether he was truly just about rescuing those children, because it would make more sense for him to kill them all, or none at all that being the case."
"No! He wouldn't have, he didn't take money from Uglauw!" The woman cried out.
"How? Because he didn't take it from you? Because he 'shared' a child's life experience with you? Are you sure he didn't trick you? A boy that capable could make anyone believe what he wanted them to believe."
"That boy's no liar, you!" She widened her eyes as she spoke but no sound came out.
"Take her away." He announced to a loud chorus of anger and shouting as the councilmen began to argue.
"Silence." Nasuada spoke, quieting them. "While you state you have definitive proof over what happened, the context of Faris's actions are up for debate, it does not help his case that the only ones who could provide the context to his actions were slain by his hand. Have some men apprehend and arrest him, but make it discreet, from what you've said he's a single actor and it would be undue to rile up the students.
"Surely that can't be all you'll do! We need to be stricter! If a child can be so corrupt!"
"We!" She rose her voice, "Are treading new ground, I do not know about you, but I do not expect a ten-year-old boy to be capable of killing men in cold blood in as cruel a way as setting them on fire without a reason. We must bring him in for his account as well."
Rembrant scowled, "But my queen! He killed! He broke so many rules! That should be death immediately!"
"Lord Rembrant, I have reason to believe there may be more to this story than you believe." Lord Jaya spoke, "You yourself dislike Faris. And one of your own people attempted to assassinate him. Of course, you had nothing to do with it."
Gaudier narrowed his eyes, "Hmmm… I was never made aware of this. The theory of what Faris did, while somewhat logical, could be compromised in part due to the actions recently taken."
"What!" Rembrant puffed up angrily. "How dare you! I am a man of the law!"
"Regardless, I agree, Faris should be apprehended." Lord Jaya frowned and sighed, "Have guards and some mages go apprehend him."
Sona smiled worriedly, "I believe that may be a problem."