Decisions, part one

"Are you all right?" asked Elyssa. "You seem... I don't know, different, this morning."

"Yeah," said Chris, who was feeling surprisingly bright and alert considering how little sleep he'd gotten and the fact that his dreams had been overwhelmed with glimpses of events that he'd never experienced. He closed his throat against saying anything else; he still had to keep his secrets, no matter how much more comfortable he was feeling with them. "I'm good."

"Good," she said. "I'm glad. Any idea what we're doing now?" 

"None," Chris told her. "Antoinette?"

Their magus was waiting at the edge of one of the training areas, the one set with fake buildings and other obstacles. She'd seen them coming, and stopped to wait. "No idea," she said. "Magus Frummelt said he wanted us to try another approach to training, but he didn't explain." 

The magus at the edge of the training area wasn't Frummelt, but Chris still recognized him; it was agent Spencer, the one with the aggressively square face who'd brought him to Frummelt after Julius Thornblade had been killed. For all that he'd looked cold and authoritative then, he looked friendly enough now. 

"Magus Gillespie," he acknowledged. "Magus Frummelt wants you and your people to practice working at as a team. For this scenario, a child from one of the families has been kidnapped by by a group of rogue magi and their unregistered outsiders. They're still in the Mundus, but they have access to a portal."

Antoinette glanced at Chris, who asked: "Do we know how many magi and how many outsiders?"

"For this, you do: three magi, and three outsiders. The information you have suggests that they aren't close with each other, but they're united in their desire to  take the child and use him as bait. They want the head of the house to come so they can ambush him; you have to get there before that happens."

Antoinette turned her head the other way and looked at Elyssa, who swallowed and said: "That sounds like we're operating with prejudice. Are we allowed to kill them? Do we need to keep any of them for questioning?"

Agent Spencer smiled approvingly. "The child's survival is your top priority, but the Ministry would be appreciative if you could keep at least one of the magi alive for the truthspeakers. We've put some enchantments in place to prevent -- but mark -- things that would have been serious injuries, so you can treat this as if the threat were real." He hesitated. "We're not using an actual child, obviously, but the doll representing the hostage has been similarly enchanted. We'll know if it's 'injured'."

"How much time do we have?" asked Antoinette. 

"You don't know for sure, but... some. Enough to approach strategically. You'll be uninterrupted until the head of the house decides to come, or sends agents of his own. Hypothetically. The rogues might decide to dispose of the hostage, but not before that happens. Is all of that clear?"

Antoinette glanced at Chris, and then at Elyssa. "Do we know where they are?" she asked.  

"Somewhere in the training quad," agent Spencer told her. "Good luck."