In a secret underground facility deep within the depths of the slums, several people were gathered around a table in a dimly lit room, illuminated by no more than candles.
Enchanted items and artifacts left traces.
Even though the entire secret underground facility was sealed with profoundly intense anti-divination enchantments, it was still far too much of a risk for the Colohen Mafia to have enchanted lighting and increase the chances of them getting caught by intense anti-black market investigation and enforcement agencies that were on a hunt for them, eagerly waiting for a moment where they messed up.
There were senior mages on the guard in and outside the room, who were on the highest alert as they monitored the environment with divination magic constantly. There was an entire mafia security team that also monitored the environment with powerful divination artifacts that could catch even the a fly entering the perimeter of the hidden underground base of the Colohen Mafia.
Infiltrating the base without being detected was almost impossible, even for elite espionage operations.
It was only in such a degree of safety, certainty, and caution did the leaders of the Colohen Mafia dare to gather in one place.
The air around the table was tense.
The atmosphere was electric.
The darkness of the dimly lit room only further exacerbated the dark mood that hung in the air between several individuals gathered around a round table.
"The Elendir Institute of Magic has begun its talent acquisition in the slums in earnest."
A stern male voice emerged from one of the hooded figures with his finger steepled as he leaned forward on the table.
His eyes were sharp with displeasure.
"They want to take away our talent, and they are succeeding more than we could have ever thought they would. The amount of expenditure that has gone into maintaining security is rather high," the man continued with a chilling tone. "And this is just their preliminary security for some of the less dangerous districts, they will on doubt be strengthening their security measures the deeper they go. Frankly, I did not expect that the Elendir Institute of Magic would be willing to invest so much into acquiring talent from our territory."
The other leaders around the table stirred mildly as flashes of displeasure appeared on their faces.
"It's Headmistress Lenolia," an older woman grumbled with a venomous voice. "She is determined to get her hands on the untapped talent within the slums for her oh-so-noble goals of equitism."
Her attire was markedly different from the others around her. Her revealing red top was comprised of a scant cloth, leaving very little to the imagination, while her skirt barely went past her hips. She leaned back, folding her legs while she puffed a smoking pipe, blowing smoke in the air.
Another man snorted at her words. "You give her too much credit, Limindir. That witch doesn't give a rat's ass about the people of the slums or equitism, it's all about extracting talent so that she can outperform the other branches in the upcoming Magic Contest. That's all she cares about."
Several others around the table nodded in agreement.
"Her motivations don't matter," the hooded man remarked with a sharp tone. "What matters is that she is stealing away from our talent pool. If this continues, getting our hands on stellar mages will grow harder and harder. We will be squeezed of any and all options in the future when we seek to expand our ranks within the Colohen Slums."
The other leaders nodded as their expressions grew graver and more severe.
They understood what was at stake.
For now, it was just one or two elite talents with each district, but if this movement among the magicademic sector took off, then they would lose all access to untapped latent talent within the depths of the slums.
"The damage, to a certain extent, has already been done," the hooded man's expression crumpled with a hint of wrath. "They have recorded the talents of all the people in the slums who weren't talented to enough to get into the Elendir Institute of Magic but were talented enough to be mages and have begun selling them to magicademies around the city, enabling the magicademies to harness the talent in the districts that the Elendir Institute of Magic has visited."
The hooded man found this to be a particularly frustrating if ingenious tactic that allowed the Elendir Institute of Magic to build up powerful support.
The magicademics sector in the Democratic Republic of Elendir was a powerful interest group with great capital and legislative influence due to the fact that they were responsible for producing by far the most valuable human resource in all of human civilization: mages.
So long as they produced this priceless human resource, their collective political will was extraordinarily difficult to oppose.
By selling the talent data to magicademies around the city, Headmistress Lenolia had managed to unite the magicademic sector within the city to be in favor of tapping into the slums to get more talent. By uniting the sector within the city, she had managed to gain powerful political support to continue her talent acquisition.
"This makes it harder to get rid of her as the Headmistress," the hood man clenched his steepled hands into balled fists as he controlled the anger that boiled within. "Now, a simple fiasco will not be enough to pressure her to stop. We will need to inflict much greater damage on the talent acquisition team to make sure that the failures are so devastating that she will have no choice but to step down."
The greater the political support she garnered, the more she could afford to get away with, and the harder it became for them to crush the Outer District Slum Talent Acquisition Program. The worst part was that the initial successes were validating to her efforts, even though it was just a measly two elite talents across two districts, it was still a good defense.
After all, each elite talent was very likely to become a senior mage and of all the master mages that existed in the country, almost all of them were among the elite talents. Thus, they were golden eggs with the potential to strengthen the nation.
"It's not just that, Mordir," Limindir remarked, blowing another puff of smoke after inhaling from the pipe. "She also has the pesky Mendel Administration on her side. Mayor Elewin is eager to support the slum talent acquisition program so that he can use it to appeal to voters from slum districts. She has planned this well. So much so that not even upper-class families of the inner city…"
She directed a sharp gaze at several individuals around the table on the other side. "…can easily curb this initiative."
On the other side of the round table were a distinctly different group of people.
Unlike the secretive leaders of the Colohen Mafia, they didn't wear hoods to hide themselves.
Nor did they conduct themselves in a particularly clandestine manner.
Instead, they took space as they indulged in leaning forward and folding their hands atop the table authoritatively.
Their chests were puffed and their chins were raised, never once allowing the hooded leaders of the Colohen Mafia to be looked down by them. Their attire was extravagant, from the magic fabric that they were hand-woven from to the quality of the craftsmanship that went into them.
Their appearances were immaculate, groomed to perfection by a team of professional groomers who ensured that every last strand of hair on their body was perfectly in place, painting a suffocatingly picturesque visage for people who merely represented the wealthiest families in the city.
"My…" the refined and elegant feminine voice emerged from the representative who sat at the very center of all the elite family representatives seated at the table. "Pardon me if I may be mistaken, Miss Limindir, but I couldn't help but note that you seem to be implying that we have been ineffective."
Her tone contained an edge of peril while her eyes were chillingly cold.
Her attire was the very polar opposite of the scandalously revealing clothing of Limindir, with ample cloth all skin across her entire body, including her hands which were enveloped by luxurious leather gloves custom tailor fit to her hands.
She comported herself in a modest and graceful manner contrasting sharply with the revealing and provocative conduct of the mafia woman who questioned the efficacy of the elite families Colohen City.
"That was exactly what the fuck I was implying," Limindir snorted, blowing another puff of smoke upwards. "After all…"
Limindir's black eyes narrowed.
"Y'all've been ineffective, haven't you? Your attempts at infiltrating and compromising the members of the task force have all failed, foiled by Headmistress Lenolia's measures, haven't they?"
The graceful yet chilling smile of the representative of the Karjakin Family remained unperturbed.
"Your crude parlance notwithstanding," the Karjakin representative continued with her formal manner of talking. "The actual veracity of the fact that you assert are unfortunately false. We have not been ineffective at all. We understand the gravity of the situation and the stakes that are involved. And we have been taking measures to ameliorate the situation."
Limindir snorted contemptuously. "Oh? And what measures have you taken, pray tell verily?"
She mocked the manner of speech of the Karjakin Representative, who appeared unfazed by the pettiness that the Colohen Mafia leader exhibited.
"We have begun rallying the other twelve great families of Elendir," the Karjakin Representative continued. "While they may be in different cities and more involved with the branches of the Elendir Institute of Magic in their respective cities, they understand that they won't be able to stop this powerful movement from infecting their own universities if it gets too much steam. They have already begun lending us magicapita and other resources to strengthen our efforts against the Headmistress and the task force."
The leaders of the Colohen Mafia stirred at those words with a hint of approval. Even Limindir simply grumbled but kept quiet, unwilling to continue pushing back against an obviously good contribution out of nothing but ego.
The hooded man at the center of the Colohen Mafia leaders nodded with approval. "That is good. That will allow us to strengthen the operations to turn one of the task force members into a saboteur and to increase our militaristic assaults upon the task force in the coming future as they are soon to enter deeper into the slums. It is unfortunate that there are no upper-class students from your families have been prohibited from entering the task force. Headmistress Lenolia is shrewd for ensuring that they never got in."
The family representative of the Karjakin Family narrowed her blue eyes as she leaned forward. "Actually, that was not a decision of the Headmistress, according to our scion, who is also the President of the Student Council. We have heard that that decision was taken by the director of the talent acquisition program."
The hooded man narrowed his eyes.
"Director of the talent acquisition program. Isn't that just a student? Are you telling me that a student is invested with the authority to make such important decisions?"
"The Student Council of the Elendir Institute of Magic is very autonomous and powerful as the executive wing of the institute; they take a radically extreme approach to forging leaders to ensure that the Twilight Rebellion never happens ever again," the Karjakin Representative mentioned. "I am told that the director of the program is responsible for not just the decision to exclude the noble students, but also is responsible for the idea of selling the slums' data to other magicademies."
The hooded figure narrowed his eyes.
"Who is this director?"
The representative of the Karjakin Family smiled.
"His name is Cæ."