"Where's the message?" The young man, who had been identified to the others as Luke Moore, asked the anti mage after returning through the door that led to the stairway up his tower.

Artemus held out two envelopes to the man. Luke's courier service was trusted for its efficiency and integrity but it was paramount that the messages reach without any delay. Thus Artemus held onto the envelopes even as Luke attempted to take them. "Make sure there are no problems with the delivery," he said to the young man. "No mistakes, no accidents."Â

Luke smiled, wondering what devious and delicious secrets were in the innocent-looking envelopes that were so urgent for delivery. It was unfortunate how tight-lipped the Sanguine could be, particularly the gorgeous one he was talking to.

"Would you like to watch me send the bird?" He asked Artemus. "Satisfy yourself that I didn't take a peek?"

Not for any such reason but the anti mage did desire to see Luke's famous birds. The duo headed through the door and up the staircase that wrapped around the tower like a long snake.

"So it's really true that you resigned. Why did you?" Luke asked curiously.

Artemus walked a step behind him, listening to the sound of Luke's voice get muffled by the wind that came through the rectangular openings on the sides of the tower. From these large holes, he could see out across the forest and beyond where a field of golden wheat undulated hypnotically with every gust that swept through the stalks.Â

"It was a good time to resign," Artemus responded. "I had some personal matters to take care of."

"But here you are, still sending letters to your HQ."

The anti mage did not respond to the subtle probing.

"You won't believe my surprise at hearing you'd left the Sanguine. I'd suspected an injury of such degree that left you unable to perform your duties," he regarded Artemus from the corner of his eyes. "But I see that I was mistaken."

"As nosy as ever," the anti mage dryly replied. "I'll throw you a bone if you tell me something interesting I haven't heard about."

Luke was an interesting character that Artemus had been introduced to by a fellow mage hunter who made use of his courier services. Not to be fooled by his youthful face, Luke was a prodigious aviculturist who bred rare and beautiful birds at his tower of flight. The Courier services, Luke had claimed, were only a means to earn bread for himself and his birds. But Artemus knew that to be a lie.

"What makes you think I have anything interesting to impart?" Luke playfully asked.

"Oh, I don't know. I was just asking."

Luke the courier and bird enthusiast was much more than he seemed. Artemus wasn't a listener of the pond's whispers but Luke had to be. It was the only way he knew so much despite never leaving the tower where he had everything delivered to him.

"Hmmm. Maybe I have something for you, after all," the young man began. "Did you know that your colleague and friend, Rowan Windwalker, has been responsible for the collapse of not one nor two, but eight monarchies across the known world? And such quick work too in the span of a few years."

Artemus raised his brows in surprise. That was news to him. "What do you mean by collapse?"

They'd stopped ascending the stairs. Luke was leaning out of an opening, letting the breeze ruffle his soft brown hair.

"Rowan has forced the rulers of those kingdoms to abdicate in favour of a strange ruling arrangement which I can only refer to as a stratocracy," Luke said as he turned to smile mysteriously at Artemus.

"That can't be right. Why have I not heard about this?" Artemus asked, unable to accept the words that he was hearing. The news of such an event would have spread like wildfire if it was true.

"Because the clever little anti mage made it so that his involvement in the coups remain a secret. Each instance of collapse appears unique, a consequence of an internal struggle that has nothing to do with outsiders. It helps that these kingdoms are geographically separated far enough that a connection cannot be drawn. And we would be none the wiser about this if there wasn't someone at the pond, pointing to the signs that lead to him. A part of me suspects that Rowan is his own rat, tattling himself out for some reason that we haven't been able to make sense of."

A stratocracy implied military rule. What could Rowan possibly be up to? It couldn't be the Sanguine's orders though they were trying something similar at Coop Island. Artemus was suddenly struck by the coincidence of increasing demonic activities on one hand and Rowan's strange actions on the other hand. And then there was his lover, Syryn, a half-demon full of secrets about a demonic invasion orchestrated by an emperor named Traxdart. There was a connection there, Artemus suspected. He just had to dig deeper.

"You're telling me that so many kings have been deposed and not one kingdom has had a rebellion against the usurpers?"

Luke shook his head slowly at the anti mage. "Power changes hands all the time, Art. Why should the common people care so long as their needs are met?"

"Eight royal families," Artemus pressed on. "What did Rowan do with them?"

"Had them executed, perhaps, or living on a fat pension and a knife hanging above their necks if they dare to retaliate."

Artemus just couldn't believe it. To have carried out such a great upheaval, Rowan would have had to be planning it for years, working secretly behind the scenes with no one the wiser. What the hell was Rowan planning? Had he misjudged the blond all this time?

"Does he have any allies?"

"Not that I know of. Rowan wasn't news till he did that thing at Nua. Now he's the only topic that's being discussed by the watchers. Nobody knows what his grand scheme is but I don't doubt that if he continues to brazenly dislodge rulers from their thrones, there will be a reckoning for him."Â

Artemus was a mask of deep thought as several questions sped through his mind. Was Rowan doing the same at Clearwater? Was he working to dismantle the ruling group and install his own soldiers? How had he secured their loyalty in the first place?

"Artemus, would you like an invitation?" Luke asked the man whose face he was studying with interest.

"You'd waste it on me," the anti mage replied. Every watcher in their lifetime could only give out one membership to the secret grouping that spied on the world. And it came with the high price of providing the others with a secret that they'd never heard about before. "Besides, I don't have any interesting secrets to tell."

"I doubt that," Luke said with another inscrutable smile. A sanguine of his status surely had interesting stories that were only recorded in the archives of their organisation. It was a pity that the anti mage had no interest in politics. "But if you ever change your mind, you know who to ask."