More Than One Way to Have Skin in the Game

 Here we are again, and the circle of effects grows wider.

The...space, because it wasn't really a room just the volume between supporting slabs of stone, was swirling with woodsmoke as well as the smoke from the torches and candles.  Illusion was certainly a skill held by many of those present but at this meeting the use of illusion would have been considered several sorts of insult, and so the space was just a space and the occupants were themselves, revealed as they rarely were even to themselves.   The swirling smoke and patchy, flickering light repeatedly veiled and unveiled a multiformed gathering, united only in the possession of a magical nature.

It wasn't the seniormost or the most powerful among them who spoke, but the one who had chaired such meetings ever since they had become necessary.  It was a matter of tradition and custom, and those things were important in this meeting.  Almost as important as blood and contracts.  "The Guardian and Keeper of the Stone has died," said the small, brown skinned, white haired figure, "and the new one has not yet been chosen."

"Was it by violence?"  The question came from a tall figure leaning against a stone slab, just on the edge of a pool of torch light.

"Nay."  The bogle shook his head and the wispy white hair floated around him in its agitation.  "Old age.  He was a hundred and six, which is a great age for a human."

"Indeed," the tall figure inclined its head in acknowledgment of this truth. "And he held the Stone well for a long time.  Do we know when a new Keeper might be picked?"

"It will depend on when they hold the funeral rites," remarked a female voice.  The speaker was both far older and far sharper than she normally allowed the world to see.  "Once the formal acknowledgment of the last Keeper's death has been completed, the Stone will choose the next Keeper."

"Can we influence that choice?"  The speaker was one of the youngest of the assembly, a youthful being of leaf and roots.

"We cannot," replied the sharp female who had spoken earlier.  "The nature of the binding on the Stone means that it must choose a Keeper, but it also means that we cannot guide or steer that choice."

"If it was still in this country," said the tall lean figure, "we could...remove potential Keepers we did not care for."

"If it was still in this country, then it would be far closer than any of us would be comfortable with," barked out a dark, low slung figure that had a tail and went on all fours.  "The wisest thing we ever did about the Stone was make sure that Johnathen Wishart took it with him when he went to the other side of the world.  If it was still here, then there would be very little we could do to stop a Keeper from finding what else it can make us do.  The ones who access it now are happy with what it gives them - let's not wish for things to change."

"True," said the bogle.  "They call upon every compact we have ever made with man, but they understand that there is price to be paid for each service and they do that willingly.  In the main."

There was a murmur of assent from the assembly.

"If I might ask," this speaker was male, maned and gilled, "has anyone here been tasked to harm a human by anyone reaching out through the Stone since the third Keeper after Wishart died?  Or heard of such a task?"

"Not even the darkest of the unseelie," replied the tall lean figure.  "Mostly the requests are for a little extra power to push into a spell that does something we could do."

"Or to help them find something," added a dry voice.  "A sharing of skills to the other side of the world.  Can these human practitioners have become afraid of hurting each other through magic?"

"Or lost the knowing of how to protect themselves from their own actions," put in another voice.  "On the other hand, humans can believe many strange things, and these ones are on the other side of the world - who knows what they're doing?  Perhaps it is a religious thing?"

"Humans and religion," went on the low slung speaker.  "What did the gods ever do to deserve them?"