Preparing to Depart

"The seven seals of the Jordan Valley are distributed across zones controlled by four magical regimes that do not recognize one another."

Kingsley took another folded map from his coat pocket and spread it out beside the duty roster.

"There are no formal diplomatic channels between the four, and in the past ten years, none of their Auror units have ever entered the other three's areas of actual control."

"Minister Ozkan received representatives from all four in Amman last week," Morel said. "He used the Jordanian Ministry of Magic's territory, favoring no side. The four representatives stayed in the same room for an entire day, and when they came out, they signed a joint security memorandum. The four will not support our deployment of protective spells, but they won't obstruct us either."

"Not obstructing us is enough." Vivi placed the duty roster and the map side by side on the table. "We're not asking them to provide Auror escorts, nor are we asking them to open military restricted zones. The Confederation advance team only needs a route that can safely reach Node Seven, along with passage permission to ensure we won't be stopped by local magical law enforcement during the operation."

Kingsley took an extremely slender silver message tube from his pocket and placed it on the table.

The message tube spun on its own several times, projecting a three-dimensional holographic map—the full view of the Jordan Valley, from Mount Hermon to the Dead Sea, including the Golan Heights, the Sea of Galilee, and every disputed boundary in the surrounding area.

The seven seals were marked with red points of light, and Node Seven was circled in a blue halo.

"This is a precise topographic map generated by the Confederation technical team based on the coordinate data in Cohen's duty