The Schism (The Broken Prism Book 4) by V. St. Clair Page A

Lands would be thrilled to see the Council of Mages abolished. Having two governments ruling over the same groups of people in each land is a nightmare, which results in a lot of arguments over which group is responsible for each issue that comes up.”
    “I’ll bet the High Mayor is laughing his head off in his office right now,” Asher added cheerfully. “He probably loved watching you purposely circumvent the Council and bring in his people instead. It’ll give Valay—and by extension, the Mayor—some leverage with you in the future to ask for favors or insight into what the magical community is doing.”
    Hayden already knew most of this, since Magdalene and Edgar had debated it with him at length over the last few weeks, so he simply shrugged and said, “So be it.”
    They stopped talking as the Council members began filing out of Chamber Four, the last group to leave the room. Calahan was the first to pass them, and gave a stiff nod of acknowledgement to the three Masters present without sparing Hayden a glance. Most of the remaining members followed his lead, pretending as though Hayden was a piece of furniture not worthy of attention, but this hardly bothered him as he’d had to endure much worse in his life so far. A few of the Council members gave him appraising glances though, and Hayden made a mental note of who these people were because it seemed likely that he might be able to forge alliances with them in the future.
    Look at me—I spend a winter holiday at the Trout estate and I’m already strategizing like them.
    Magdalene was towards the end of the line of mages, and she walked past with a look of cool displeasure on her face, stopping long enough to shake hands with each of the Masters and again, pretending like Hayden wasn’t even there.
    She’s a terrific actress, he couldn’t help but think.
    When she shook Master Asher’s hand he gave her a winning smile and said, “Thanks,” under his breath so that Hayden could barely hear it.
    “For what?” Mrs. Trout looked at him flatly, walking away without waiting for a response.
    Asher waited until she was out of earshot before he said, “I’ve always admired that woman,” to Hayden. “So hard to find a good strategist who is also refreshingly candid these days.”
    Hayden was fairly sure that he knew who had been helping him out all winter, and his thoughts were confirmed when Asher winked at him and said, “Lunch?” to the group at large.
    It felt odd being invited to lunch with a group of Masters, and he expected them to spend the entire meal discussing things that were way beyond his understanding: politics, advanced magic, maybe even the finances of Mizzenwald and Valhalla…
    He was surprised when they took him to the cafeteria in the mayoral compound and sat at a regular table amongst the people who worked here, and even more so when they began talking of trivial things like lesson plans and whether there was supposed to be a snowstorm next week.
    The only really serious issue they discussed was the battle in the Forest of Illusions that had taken place some months before.
    “Are they any closer to declaring the Forest safe for occupancy again?” Mandra asked conversationally. “I’m sure I’m not the only one looking forward to resuming my research in there, if the Council would just decide whether or not the place is stable enough for reentry.”
    Asher chuckled and said, “The Council of Mages can hardly agree on whether the sky is blue, and you expect them to come to a consensus on whether the Forest of Illusions is stable, or if it’s likely to jump locations again in the near future?”
    Mandra gave a groan of acknowledgement of the truth of this, and Hayden asked, “Have the schisms that opened up from the Forest moving locations all closed themselves yet?” even though he thought he knew the answer.
    Master Willow turned a sympathetic eye on him as he answered.
    “Most of the smaller ones have, yes. Unfortunately,