All the High Sages from the different territories had gathered once more, aside from High Sage Remus of Germany and High Sage Zeigler of Switzerland due to their conflict between territories, they were not allowed to attend until their conflict was resolved.
Surprisingly, both Atlas and Alisha attended this meeting, though neither were happy about it, being dragged all the way back to America again.
"Why do we have to come here? Online calls are a thing." Alisha mumbled.
"The Mortals might be beneath us but their technology is still vulnerable to attacks and it can't be risked, supposedly." Atlas whispered back.
"I want answers!" Jakob snapped as he glared at them from across the round-table.
Atlas jumped in his seat at the sudden question being hurled his way. "Answers? To what question?"
"One of my Mages was supposedly killed on your territory and under suspicious circumstances."
"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about." Atlas spoke coily.
"Security feed from your Astoria shows the Mage in question, Anthony Barnum, was there the night before he was supposedly killed."
Atlas and Alisha watched each other silently for a few seconds, "Ah," Alisha nodded "The young lad who ran that little Circus of his."
Jakob scowled "Yes, these rumours-"
"Where have these rumours arisen from?" Alisha questioned. "Any reliable source?"
Jakob faltered ever so slightly "That's why I'm asking, word of mouth spreads quickly in the Realms. Is it true?"
Atlas chuckled "I assure you that this is just a rumour made to create conflict between territories."
Jakob flopped back into his seat, "Allegations like this aren't taken lightly, because this involves someone from another territory who hasn't been seen since this allegation arose we'll have to investigate."
"Oh, no need to investigate," Atlas boasted "Mr. Barnum was found dead. But, since he was on our territory when it happened we obtained the post-mortem results and cause of death." He fumbled into his jacket pocket and produced an authentic-looking Certificate of Death, though he knew it was fake. One of his many talents was forging documents, when the time came to renew documents such as Passports, Driving licenses and Birth certificates every half-century or so to suppress Mortal suspicion, if the time ever came to use it.
Jakob held out his hand, creating a momentum of wind that carried the paper to his hand, he glossed over it "Death caused by head trauma?"
"It's apparent that some Mortals correctly assumed he was a Mage and he was murdered for it."
"Do you have any proof of this?" High Sage Rubeus Jones representing the Canadian territory spoke up, he was a fairly tall man, appearing to be reasonably younger than the majority of territory leaders, although he dressed smartly for meetings he would be mistaken for a Hipster when he would walk around his territory.
Alisha was quick to answer "I took the liberty of doing my own investigating, since this happened on our territory, we went to ask around what happened. It was fairly straightforward and the same story given by everyone I asked, including his friends and work colleagues." She was a very convincing liar.
Jakob let go of the certificate, which the artificial wind carried back to Atlas "And his body?"
"As far as we're aware his family took care of proceedings not too long after it happened."
"I see," Jakob hummed "this should come to no surprise, since there have been a number of similar cases recently, though this was the first to have a High Sages name attached….But your evidence does look kindly to you."
Rubeus inquired "So what happens now? This is getting out of hand to the point we're all being dragged here."
Atlas saw this opportunity to highlight his ideals discreetly and didn't hesitate to strike "You are right, Rubeus. This is getting out of control. Which is why, once again, I have to make the suggestion to unveiling ourselves-"
"What good would that do?" Jakob asked.
"Well," he sat upright and puffed out his chest, "I believe the death of Mr. Barnum was a warning from the Mortals," he hid his smirk well', 'it was apparent that Mortals found out about him being a Mage through his own fault. He used his magic to entertain through his Circus that he produced. That was the reason we called him to talk to us at the Astoria, we gave him a slap on the wrist, if you will. To tell him to stop with the nonsense, but he was headstrong and, well. We put the pieces together as to what happened."
"I don't think any Mage would be brave or stupid enough to expose our community to the Mortals and act as if it was not a problem." Jakob scoffed.
"That's how he gained an audience. Not a big one, but an audience. We warned him once he was still alive that no good would come of his antics and this is what happened. We need to let both Mages know that this is no longer tolerable and will have consequences."
Never before was there so much hesitation to speak in one room.
High Sage Takahashi Ueda of Japan was the first to speak "I have to admit," he brushed his thick, dark hair from his equally dark eyes "something needs to change."
Atlas nodded and agreed "Yes! These laws and rules about us having to hide is outdated. It's becoming a matter of time before Mortals stop seeing the ones murdering Mages as 'conspiracy nuts' and start making their own laws about executing us on sight because they are intimidated by what they don't understand."
There was a lengthy pause before Jakob decided to speak "We'd need to have a plan in place for all that could go wrong. This is a delicate situation that needs to be handled with care, a lot of sorcerers could be in danger if they are outed in the wrong way, especially those who are half Mortals and their families. Some Mages may not want to be revealed at all. If some old enough to recall the Salem Witch trials, a lot of sorcerers were murdered for feeling comfortable enough to reveal themselves. We do not want a repeat."
"Then that's their right to do so," Alisha retorted "but we're talking about letting the Mortals know we exist and if they retaliate with mass culling and more Witch hunts then we need to assert ourselves. We are not scum, if anything we're a higher being than Mortals-"
"Equal." Serpen Rouge snorted "We are equal, nothing above or below Mortals, regardless of our status in their eyes. We are equal."
Atlas grumbled "Yes. 'Equal'." he quoted, though it pained him to do so.
"So, it's decided that we reveal that we exist," Rubeus reiterated "how do we go about doing this?"
"This isn't going to be an overnight thing. This will take a lot of planning and the right timing."
Alisha smiled "I do know about one Woman, if you all remember Vixen and Charity Rue?"
There was an echo of groans throughout the roundtable.
"Those troublemakers?"
"Those 'political prisoners' were just lawbreakers!"
"They were warned not to push too far."
"Yes, yes." Alisha nodded. "They were troublemakers who had to be dealt with, but it turns out that they had a daughter, a daughter who happens to be a journalist. I was aware of her when I saw an article from her not too long ago, I knew Charity and Vixen had a child but seeing the last name Rue was a long shot. After doing some digging it turned out to be her, so I kept a distanced watch on her."
"What's your point?" Serpen questioned.
"My suggestion is that I approach her to present us to the Mortals in a way she would know how to appeal to them. She wins by having a huge boost in her job by breaking the story and we win for no longer having to stay secret."
"I don't think that's the way to go right now, but we will take it into consideration." Jakob faltered "This will take time. During the meantime our top priority is keeping our Mages safe."
Everyone was in agreement, the meeting drew to a close and the High Sages returned to their own territories one by one, only High Sages Siwa, Ueda and Rouge stayed to talk to one another.