“I guess you do need to know,” Caldera said at last. “But get something clear. This does not get spread around. I know you like to chat with your friends and those magical creatures of yours, but you get caught discussing this, I’m not going to bat for you.”

I nodded.

“All right,” Caldera said. “Let’s start at the beginning. The baseline law for mages is the Concord. Under that are the national laws.”

“Okay,” I said. The Concord is the international set of laws that all mages are required to follow. They’re pretty useless if you’re not a mage yourself, but breaking them is still a fairly big deal, as long as the victim is someone the Council cares about. Underneath that there are the national laws, passed as resolutions by the ruling Councils of each magical nation, and those vary from country to country. They aren’t allowed to conflict with the Concord, and the penalties for breaking them are a lot less serious, but it’s still a good idea to know what they are.

“Now, a bunch of those laws regulate how mages are allowed to deal with other humans,” Caldera said. “There’s the prohibition on slavery, and the laws against harming normals and sensitives and adepts.”

“Uh, yeah, in theory. I’m not sure how much they actually get followed.”

“Light mages and independents follow them most of the time.”

“When it suits them.”

“I said most of the time. Yes, those laws get broken. Yes, we don’t always catch the ones who do it. But the fact that they follow those laws is the big difference between Light mages and Dark ones. How many Light slave traders do you know?”

“Maybe they don’t do it publicly, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.”

“And do you know for a fact any Light mages who do it? With evidence?”

“You aren’t seriously telling me you don’t believe it ever happens.”

“I’m not a moron, all right?” Caldera said. “Of course it happens. But the laws are there, and they do have an effect. It’s like the speed limit. Yes, everyone knows people break it, but if they get caught breaking it there are consequences. And so they don’t push it too far. You get me?”

I wasn’t particularly happy with having slavery and murder equated with breaking the speed limit, but I knew arguing about it wasn’t going to accomplish much. “I get you.”

“So, if you want to be a Light mage, especially if you want to work with the Council, you have to follow the national laws. You have to play nice. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“A certain fraction of Light mages are not nice.”

“You don’t say.”

“They want to be part of the Council and have all the perks. They also want to get to do all the same kinds of things that Dark mages get to do. They have a problem. White Rose is an organisation that specialises in solving that problem.”

“So White Rose provides a nice discreet brothel service?”