He was called the Advisor, but he'd been called many other things.
"Master," came the voice from next to him. Master was one of his many other titles. He glanced to the side. His blue flames hovered around his chambers. He was further into his caves than the place where he usually met the Emperor. It was a place beyond human sight, his sanctuary.
A device that could be mistaken for a mirror was next to him. However, instead of his reflection, the image of another human was looking at him. The outline of the man was fuzzy and indistinct and his voice echoed a bit.
"What should I tell the new recruits?"
The Adviors stirred the smoldering leaves in the silver pan in front of him. He always smoked the leaves of the Ignas Tea. It had to be just right to serve a human. The secret of this tea was that it was not tea at all, and the leaves were actually something very different. If he gave the Emperor even the tiniest bit too much of this "tea" he could kill the man instantly.
Since he was being very careful not to ruin the leaves he didn't look at the man's image as he answered. "I don't understand why you're asking me this. There is already a protocol for indoctrinating new recruits. What's the problem?"
The man seemed more and more agitated. "It's not working like it used to. These recruits...they're not like they used to be."
The Advisor sighed, "The younger generations sure are stupid." He mumbled under his breath.
"What was that?" The man asked.
He shook his head. "Tell them they don't have a choice. They can either go along with our ways or die. It's a simple choice and always has been."
The man hesitated and then nodded. "I will do as you say."
"Have you heard any whispers yet?" He asked changing the subject.
"Yes, they aren't trying to hide anything, that human is the talk of the Nest."
He scoffed, "So he's still alive? How annoying, what is that old bat doing why isn't it dead yet?" He growled.
The man was wringing his hands at this point. "It appears the Elder keeps wavering on whether to kill him or not. I'm not really sure what her case is for keeping him alive but we both know that it would be better for her to kill him. He's an abomination to them. From the report, he was almost killed on sight for the markings when he was discovered on this side of the barrier."
"What annoying creatures, can't they do anything right? After all, I went through to get him over there." He growled. "Just keep me informed if you hear anything else."
The man nodded and bowed, and then his image shimmered out and faded away. The Advisor's own reflection replaced the man's image. The tea was perfect so he removed it from the head and into a pestle to grind it.
His hands moved more aggressively than they probably should have, decreasing the quality of his tea but he didn't care. He'd had to do so much work to get that boy on the other side of the barrier once he'd received that report for another one of his subordinates years prior. It had taken so long to manipulate the barrier, so many sleepless nights and sacrifices to get the spells just right to get that nuisance into the hands of those the Advisor had been certain would dispose of him on sight.
He'd found out about Tate Delmont's abilities over the dragons from that report years ago and knew then that he'd needed to take drastic action. However, the boy had been useful for his plans at the time so killing him instantly was not a good option either. He'd had to bide his time and make his plans.
He'd paced around his domain for days pondering what to do. If Tate Delmont could exert some control over dragons that were not bonded to him, that could only mean one thing. Tate Delmont must be a mage. There was no other explanation for it because he, the Advisor, should have been the only mage in this realm. Tate needed to disappear from this realm and quickly. The Advisor feared that if Tate grew too much it could threaten his plans.
Sending Tate through the barrier was a risk. He'd not been sure if the idiots he'd enticed into the kidnapping plot would manage it. He'd not been sure if the Shadows would have their intended effect. He'd not been sure of anything and he'd had countless backup plans.
He'd even thought of just disposing of him in this realm but just killing him or having him disappear only benefited him on this side of the veil. However, if he went to the other side and was killed over there, well that was poetic satisfaction in that as well as achieving all the other wonderful benefits of sowing distrust and discord in the places he needed to.
Still, now that he had heard the report he was unsatisfied. He'd been so sure that the outcome was guaranteed. A human on the other side of the veil was going to be killed on sight. Humans were too "dangerous" to the wider world. He rolled his eyes at the notion but the entire reason he was here now was because he thought that belief was a stupid and limiting one.
He alone had a vision for a brighter future and he alone had sacrificed everything for it. Had he really miscalculated? Surely Tate Delmont would die soon.
The tea was finished and he put it aside to cool. He then went to the opposite side of his sanctuary and sat at a luxurious desk that had been given to him by the current Emperor's grandfather. The thing was massive and ornate and the Advisor always admired it when he sat down.
He pulled out a new bundle of parchment and a quill. His hand flicked up like he was throwing a ball into the air and a new ball of blue flames appeared to light his desk. He began to write.
The latest experiment 2045, was a failure. The subject was a young male of four years old. He was kept in a controlled environment with artificial sunlight, adequate food, and his comfort seen to. A simple mind-altering spell was used to keep his mind content.
He died on day five of the extraction process. The gain from the extraction was only seventy percent of capacity.
Experiment 2045 Failure.
He put down the quill and looked at what he had written. He glanced up at the notes for 2044, 2043, and 2042, and so on. The subjects in the 2040s were being kept under very strict control conditions and were all four-year-old males. He had hoped, as he did every time, that this would be the solution. He had five more subjects to go but from so many years of experience, he knew that it was unlikely to be a success. He was a mage and a scientist though and he would follow through with this portion of the experiment. Once he reached the 2050s if nothing satisfactory or out of the pattern had occurred then he would change the control conditions.
Once he may have been disappointed by failure but now he was far too old for that. After all when he'd started the experiments he'd only been getting forty-five percent. He was on the right track but just hadn't found that perfect formula yet.
He stood and walked out of his sanctuary and turned to the left. He was still in the part that the Emperor would never see but this tunnel led to a completely different place.
The tunnel opened up and he looked around. As a researcher, he had to be vigilant that all was well. These were his precious experiments, each one of them was a precious opportunity to discover the answer he was looking for.
The room was large, square, and lined with cells. Each side had ten cells and in the back of the room, there were three. On the left was the 2040s experimental group. In each cell was a clean and happy four-year-old boy. Their eyes were glassy from the enchantment that kept them happy. In their minds, they were with their families having a wonderful and peaceful life. In the back were his three control subjects. Three, four-year-old human males who were not given anything but the basic needs of a human. The three children sat listlessly in their cells or drawing with rocks on the walls. Those three were a resourceful bunch. He'd been impressed at their ability to figure out their own entertainment. They were not thriving humans but they were not dying humans either.
The right was a different story. They had been the subjects of the 2030s. There was only one left now and even though the boys had given him a wealth of data and been very valuable to him the one boy that was holding out was starting to get on his nerves.
He needed the boy to die already so he could prepare the ten cells for the 2050s. The 2030s had been subject to the opposite treatment of the 2040s. He'd used torture and starvation as his method of extraction with them. It had yielded mediocre results and he was through with that line of experimentation. This one boy just wouldn't die though. The pitiful creature was even now curled on the floor, naked, with every bone of its body on display. It could barely move its head so why was it hanging on so tenaciously?
He sighed and opened the cell door. Maybe this would be the day, maybe they could get this over with. He walked in and crouched over the small figure. Large pale blue eyes looked up at him. This boy's eyes had always had such a spark but today the spark was barely visible.
He put a hand on the boy's shoulder and said kindly. "It's time."
He began to pull the little boy's life force out of him. Humans had a strong will to live so it was extremely difficult, well impossible really, to do it all in one go. That was what his experiments were for. He was researching the method to do a full extraction at one time.
This little one was the perfect example of why the Advisor's task wasn't easy. However, this time he felt the cup run dry. That flicker in the boy's eyes extinguished and just like that he joined his 30s comrades as just an empty shell.