Chapter 27
T he long rides back to Calida in Wrenley's gilded carriage gave xer plenty of time to tell me about xer dalliance with Asmond, as xe lovingly called the King of Lamida.
Both of us slept on the last leg of the trip. While the weeks in Lamida had been a wonderful reprieve from the stress of everyday life, it had also been exhausting.
When the carriage finally pulled up to my house, we were both slumped against each other, snoring loudly. Wrenley had been using the polka-dot stuffed horse xe'd taken from Lamida (although, technically, I think it was a gift from xer boyfriend).
It was much later than we'd originally meant to arrive. We'd left late because Wrenley had taken so long to pack, and then we had stopped for lunch. Xe was the direct reason for both delays. Xe ordered three mimosas and dessert as xer mood kept cycling through giddy delight, uncertain terror, and utter sadness at being apart from Asmond.
Still, I didn't mind the delays, and not just because xe paid for the carriage and the extensive lunch.
The last time I saw my mother, we were in the midst of a cold war. Adora had been furious about the way I behaved with the important Warlock Herve Chaunter, and she blamed my recent insolence on my poor placement in Lamida.
I loved Adora dearly and hated to upset or anger her, but she never seemed to believe that. It was as if my every mistake or minor disagreement was a personal attack against her.
The time apart made it easier for me to see how hard it was to relax around her. Throughout my life, I had spent very little time away from her, except for when I was sleeping, taking classes to be a better muse, or practicing.
When I was very young, I never spent any time apart from her. We rented one-room flats and shared a single bed by necessity until I was nearly twelve. She took me to classes and waited for me in the back, or she'd teach me herself, making me practice my letters at the table for hours or reciting sonnets until my throat was raw so I would learn my spelling and diction like a proper lady.
Eventually, Adora was forced to give me more space when enchanters and other muses began loudly commenting on how strange it was for me to be sixteen years old, with my mother following around at my heels.
Still, it wasn't until this year, at the age of twenty, that I traveled without her at all when I went to the Kingdom of Sudamon for the Ashoralida. But I had spent two weeks there and just now three weeks in Lamida. Five weeks, and not only had I not died without her, but I had so much fun and had so many new experiences.
I had missed Adora, but not how I imagined it would be. I still distinctly remember the first time that she had left me alone with a stranger. I was ten years old, and she'd entrusted me with an enchanter who took my magik. She had known he would, and there wasn't anything strange about it.
Starting when I was maybe five or six, she had taken me to meet enchanters, warlocks, and sometimes even other, much older muses. Our clients were often men, but occasionally a woman or enby. When I was small, I would sit on Adora's lap, and the patron would sit close to me and draw my magik from me, pulling it from my body and into theirs, the same way that Herve had done. When I was ten, she began leaving me alone with them, claiming that her chaperoning made our clientele uncomfortable.
Afterward, I had always felt so tired and intensely ashamed for reasons I could never articulate. But Adora would be so nice to me, telling me that I was a good girl and getting me something to eat and buying me a doll or necklace. Before I could get reliable paying work as a muse, that was how we paid for the rent, my education, and our clothing.
For a long time, I had done whatever was needed to survive, and that started changing when I turned sixteen when my options as a muse opened up. I had thought that that would finally make Adora happy, but it only opened new crevices in our relationship. Things with us had been growing increasingly tense ever since, but I never understood why.
The sun had just set when I unloaded my luggage from the carriage. Wrenley promised we’d talk soon, and I thanked xer again for the ride and wished xer well.
When I went inside, the house was dark. I called out, but no one replied. Heloise the housekeeper would be off work by now, but I had thought that Adora would be home.
It was a chilly night in early autumn, so I got a fire going in the hearth. I was warming my hands over it when I felt the hair stand up on the back of my neck, and then there was a knock on the door.
Adora wouldn't knock, and Heloise would've stayed late instead of returning later. My best guess was that I had forgotten something in the carriage, and the driver was returning it.
So I hurried to answer the door with only a glance at my appearance in the hall mirror: my hair had come loose from the travel updo, my dress was wrinkled and dusty, and 9my cheeks were flushed. In short, I looked affright when I answered the door.
Soren Tomoleo was standing on my doorstep, and he had inexplicably grown more attractive in my absence. His hair was a bit longer, so it curled more. His sharp jawline was clean-shaven, and his eyes were dark and enchanting, framed by long lashes.
The last time I saw him, I made a fool of myself by kissing him, only to have him reject me for a second time. He made it painfully clear that our relationship was purely platonic.
And it wasn’t as if he didn’t have good reason. He wanted to protect our relationship as enchanter and muse. Romantic entanglements between people in our positions went against the Regula, so there would be serious repercussions if we were involved.
The Regula de Magik: The Laws of Practicing Magik in the Six Kingdoms of Wespen – more commonly referred to simply as the Regula – was the book of rules governing the magik class of the entire continent.
It was a thick book, typically bound with plain leather and a solitary golden R embossed on the front. It contained hundreds of pages of rules, procedures, practices, and incantations. In the most literal sense, it was a book of civil, physical, and magickal laws and a code of conduct for the magik class. Some things could not be done in magik because they were taboo – such as raising the dead or forcing someone to love you – and there were things that could not be done because they were impossible – such as transmuting straw into gold.
The Regula was written hundreds of years ago, after a dark period of war and bloodshed. Magik was being used wantonly, and the lands of Wespen began to rot. Once the six kingdoms were settled, a tense peace was created.
Each of the Kings met on a council with the wisest warlocks, enchanters, and muses. They wrote the complete set of rules, and thus, the Regula was born.
All that knowledge and understanding changed nothing about how I felt when I saw Soren there. My breath caught in my throat, and I wanted nothing more than to fall into his strong arms.
“Izzy,” he said with a soft smile since I was only gaping at him. “Do you mind if I come in?”
I should tell him, It's late, I'm a mess, it's improper, and I have no idea when Adora will return, so no, you cannot come in.
But instead, I heard myself say, “Please come in,” and I stepped back so he could enter.
He slid past me, walking into my house and casting a curious gaze around his surroundings.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I was in the neighborhood,” he said, then he shook his head and turned to face me. “That’s a lie, or at least not entirely the truth. I’ve been walking around, feeling restless, and I stopped because I could see the light in the windows.”
“How did you know that it wasn’t Adora?” I asked.
“Adora’s at the palace,” Soren explained. “Tonight was the big christening of the Crown Princess Cosetta’s son.”
A few months ago, Queen Kriselle’s eldest daughter had a son, Krispen, the first male heir born of the Marin Royal line in generations. Kriselle had five daughters, and her mother had four daughters, and her mother only had daughters, and so on and so forth.
It was cause for celebration in Calida, and I would not have been able to forget if I hadn’t been in Lamida.
“Oh, that’s right. Were you there?” I asked.
“I performed there.” He seemed oddly nervous. “Word had already gotten to them about the spectacular aerial show you did.”
My cheeks burned. "I was only a small part of it. Wren was the real start, and Madge Lanceas, the enchantress, choreographed it and coaxed it out of us."
“I’m sure you were all fantastic in your parts,” he said. “But Queen Kriselle became enamored with the idea of an aerial conduction, and she asked Herve Chaunter to put on something for Samonend.”
“It’s a month away. He has time to prepare,” I said, but I already felt a tightening around my heart.
“There aren’t that many muses in Calida who know how to perform on silks,” Soren went on. “And Adora stepped up and offered you to Herve as an expert in aerials.”
I shook my head, not because what he was saying didn’t sound true, but because I didn’t want it to be. “Adora never wanted me to do the silks. She thought they were too dangerous.”
“Queen Kriselle was very enthusiastic about the idea, so perhaps that – along with the word of your newfound success with silks – pushed Adora to set aside her previous concerns,” he said.
“Is that why you’re here?” I asked. “To warn me of my fate?”
“No, I came to see if you would perform with me at the Samonend instead,” Soren explained. “Kriselle has given me a small stage, and it’s not the main event like Herve’s. But I know that we can create something spectacular.”
“And if I commit to performing with you, I won’t be pressured to perform with Herve,” I finished for him.
He nodded. "That is the idea." He stepped closer to me. "And if I am being honest, I'm being selfish, too. I know you'll be magnificent, and I want you to be magnificent with me."
We stood in the sitting room, only inches apart. The glow of the fireplace warmed us, and the front door opened as Adora walked inside.
"What in the world have I walked in on?" my mother asked, haughty and aghast. She stood in the open doorway for a moment, letting the chilly autumn air in around her, and her heavy cloak billowed in the wind.