“Okay,” Caldera said. “When I told you they were a brothel, that’s not the whole story. The kind of guys who go to White Rose . . . if they wanted sex they’d just hit up an escort agency. White Rose does the kind of stuff you can’t ask for out in the open.”

I was starting to see where this was going, and I didn’t like it. “You mean kids like Leo.”

“Kids, heavy-duty sadism, snuff scenes. The workers are slaves, obviously. Then you start bringing magic into it. Let’s say you’re a client of White Rose. There’s some new pop singer you’ve got your eye on, you see her in her music videos. You decide you want a piece of that. White Rose is happy to help. They’ll find one of their slaves with a good physical resemblance, maybe get themselves a new one if it’s a special order. Then they’ll get to work. Flesh-sculpting or glamours to make her look the part, mental control to make her act the part. They soften them up first, then do most of the heavy lifting with mind magic. By the time they’re done, the girl thinks she is that person. They can put in other bits too. Make her in love with you, switch her programming so she has to do whatever you tell her, set it up so she goes for your fetish. Whatever you like.”

“Jesus,” I said in revulsion. “I knew Dark mages did stuff like that, but . . . They make a business out of this?”

“Yeah, and their business is booming. They don’t just sell to mages either: they’ve got a whole regular client base. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you how much they make off those custom orders.”

“I don’t think I want to. The Council knows about this?”

“Yeah.”

“Then why—?”

“First, White Rose isn’t staffed by Light mages. They’re all Dark or independent. And they’re careful never to break the Concord. Their slaves are all normals or sensitives, never mages. They even steer clear of adepts.”

“Screw the Concord. That’s not just violating the national laws, that’s breaking them over your knee and stamping on the bits. Did you just say it was like—?”

“Second,” Caldera said, cutting me off, “most of White Rose’s clients are normals with a lot of money. But a few of them are Light mages who don’t pay in money. Guess what they pay with instead.”

“They’d . . . oh, fuck. White Rose wouldn’t want money from them, would they? They could get that anywhere. From the Light mages they’d want influence.”

“And they get it,” Caldera said. “A whole ton of blackmail material.” Her face was unreadable. “This is the fourth time I know about that we’ve tried to get an indictment against White Rose. The last three times the answer was no. They’ve got too much dirt on Council mages.”

“And that’s what I’m going into the middle of,” I said, realising suddenly how this was going to affect me. “Do you think it’s going to be different this time?”