“Eventually,” said Danny. “Maybe soon. But this isn’t the week to decide, because marriage and having kids, that’s the only thing that feels as important as killing Set and liberating the Sutahites.”

“I hate it when you’re sensible,” said Pat. “I want to always be the sensible one.”

“That means you always have to be sensible,” said Danny.

“No, it just means I always have to be more sensible than you.”

The visits to the Families went reasonably well, meaning that none of them had any idea about Set or the Sutahites, and all they cared about was Great Gates and what the Norths were going to do now that they had control of America’s whole war machine. “We have no choice but to go for China,” several of them insisted.

Danny didn’t bother arguing with them. As he told Pat, “They don’t speak Chinese and they’re idiots.”

“So you’re saying they should only try to take power in a democracy, where those are regarded as qualifications.”

Stone and the Silvermans did understand what they had accomplished, but they refused to offer any advice. “We can’t undo the fact that all the Families and all the Orphans that we know about went through a Great Gate,” said Stone. “Most people aren’t aware yet that there’s been a massive power shift, but the stories of great mages are spreading.”

“Nothing in the grocery store tabloids,” said Leslie.

“Which means that they actually do have standards of credibility,” said Marion. “Who knew?”

“Maybe if we leaked it to them that we Mithermages are all aliens from another world,” said Leslie.

“That would do it,” said Stone. “So please don’t.”

Finally, it came down to a summit meeting of all the mages who could go anywhere, with or without gates. The same group that had gathered by the oak at Persimmon Knob. Only this time, they met in a clearing in Westil, with Ced and a half-dozen treemages watching and listening.

And it was Ced who offered the first serious proposal. “Look, I’m the one who screwed up big time when I first got here,” he said. “But here’s the thing. Everywhere I went, trying to make up for the destruction my tornados caused, everybody already understood that a windmage had done it. They couldn’t prevent what I did, and it shocked them that I would come and try to help clean up the damage. But they knew about magery. They knew about affinities, they watch their children to see if they have some kind of potential.”

“Doesn’t work that way in Mittlegard,” said Danny. “They believe it if and only if they see it, like what my parents did with choppers and tanks. But then they treat them like irresistible … superheroes. Or supervillains. Like Zod in Superman.”