Chapter 12 #2
“How do you know they don’t?”
Selly took a moment to absorb that. “Wouldn’t they have acted, if they did?”
Cillian considered. “First, they may have been acting, but subtly. Recall that House Hanneil is still prohibited, under pain of dissolution of their house and execution of every wizard beholden to the house, from using psychic magic except in extremely circumscribed ways. The interdictions that were the outcome of the last conflict laid out those severe consequences should House Hanneil break the terms. Many historians predicted at the time that these strictures would simply drive the Hanneil conspirators underground, that they would build strength in secret until they could deliver a decisive coup.”
Selly stared at him. “That’s not terrifying at all.”
He grimaced in wry agreement. “I can tell you that Gordon Hanneil was one of the most powerful and unprincipled psychic wizards I have ever encountered. And he was basically an errand boy for them. They planted him as a proctor at Convocation Academy and used him in an attempt to prevent Alise from recovering the Phel archives. It was an important task, but he was just following orders.”
“He failed in that task,” Selly pointed out in a try for optimism.
“Yes, but just barely and only because the right set of circumstances and people fell into place to stop him. And remember that he worked for the real leaders, which means they are much more powerful than he.”
Cillian lapsed into silence, his magic rustling, smelling of ink on parchment and wax melting at midnight. Selly thought he must be using his library magic to sort through his memories.
“I don’t know,” he abruptly said. “If Gordon was a lackey, an errand boy, and he had unstoppable ability to control minds, I don’t know how we can fight that.”
“But he wasn’t unstoppable,” Selly argued, unwilling to give in to despair. “Alise resisted his mental attacks. She was able to shield herself and expel him from her mind.”
Cillian contemplated Alise’s face, stroking her cheek tenderly.
“Alise is a powerful wizard, it’s true. But she herself would tell you that she only succeeded and survived because she had help from three very important sources: Professor Morghana Seraphiel taught her to use the dark arts to combat the Hanneil psychic magic, the only defense we know of.
Provost Uriel defeated and contained Gordon.
And Convocation Academy Healer Jonathan Refoel was able to rid Alise’s mind of the loops and traps Gordon planted there. Without them…”
“And without you,” Alise said, stirring, and smiling warmly at him. She lifted a hand and caressed his cheek, much as he had hers, and Cillian clasped her wrist, turning his head to press a fervent kiss to her palm.
“How are you feeling?” He murmured the question.
Selly looked away, needing to give them privacy, faintly embarrassed by the intimate display.
She wouldn’t trade Jadren for all the world, but his brand of affection was considerably less…
sweet. And, he wasn’t waking any time soon, though the missing chunks looked slightly better. Less gaping, anyway.
Doing her best to ignore Alise and Cillian’s quiet conversation, the exchange of mutual reassurances and so forth, Selly considered Cillian’s revelations.
Particularly what bearing this theory might have on Gabriel and her.
They had popped up as powerfully magical—almost self-destructively so in her case—after generations of nothing.
The same elapsed generations that Hanneil had been increasing magic in their progeny had seen the utter lack of it in the diaspora of House Phel, almost inverse mirrors of each other.
She doubted anything was going on as nefarious as them actually sucking magic from Phel to amplify Hanneil.
Was that even possible? But if Anciela’s research had indeed been bent to the purpose of making children with magic potentials more powerful, then couldn’t it have been used to make Phel children less magical?
If so, perhaps that technique had been reversed to cause her parents to birth Gabriel and her.
“Cillian?” she asked, hesitant to break into the little reunion. “I have a question, while it’s in my mind.”
“Sorry, Seliah,” Alise said, blushing as she sat up. “That was rude of us.”
“Not at all.” Selly smiled at them, both so adorable. “How are you feeling?”
“Amazing,” Alise answered, glowing with vitality indeed, though her expression clouded when her gaze fell on Jadren. “I’m deeply sorry that Jadren compromised himself healing me though.”
“Oh no,” Selly replied breezily. “He did this to himself playing meat shield.”
Alise looked the question at Cillian.
“We’ll catch you up in a moment,” he told her. “What’s your question, Seliah?”
“I’m not sure how to ask this without sounding vain, but I think it has bearing on what we’re dealing with.”
“Go ahead,” Cillian prompted.
“You’re the least vain person I’ve ever met,” Alise added.
Selly steeled herself. “Cillian, you were talking about the increase in MP scores of the House Hanneil children and how high they were going. I know that Gabriel and I supposedly have very high MP scores—how do they compare?”
“Not supposedly,” Cillian answered gravely, and with a glimmer of interest. “Top tier. The MP scoring system isn’t linear.
It’s designed to have no upper limit and because the tests assess potential rather than a demonstrated result, the assessment qualifies the density of magic, for want of a better term, rather than quantity.
So, while we put a number to it, a ‘score,’ truly we’re predicting on a logarithmic scale what the ultimate potential will be.
After a certain point, the limit doesn’t exist.”
“I didn’t understand any of that,” Alise complained.
Cillian hugged her against his side, smiling with affection.
“What I suspect is the important part here is that Seliah is thinking that whatever House Hanneil has been up to with creating super-wizards and familiars, let’s call them, that the same techniques could have been applied to make her and Gabriel as gifted as they are. ”
“Yes,” Selly said. The idea made her uneasy, like she was nothing more than a lab experiment. “But you have no idea what Anciela Phel found that could unlock magic this way? Like the actual physical or mental tool or whatever.”
Cillian shook his head. “I don’t. Since Anciela’s data is all in code, we don’t have any way of knowing exactly what she was using.
It could be that Han and Iliana have discovered the key to unlock the code since I left Harahel, but until then we only have those meeting notes that give us an indication of the topic of her explosive research. ”
“How were Han and Iliana to contact you should they make a discovery?” Alise asked Cillian. “Given that there are no Ratsiel couriers at House Harahel.”
He looked at her blankly and she rolled her eyes. “No plan?”
“I didn’t think of that,” he admitted sheepishly. “I was consumed with getting to you and getting you out of Elal.”
She softened, interlacing her fingers with his. “Well, I suppose I can’t fault you for that. I’m sorry I worried you so.”
He tapped her on the nose. “You should be.” Then laughed when she wrinkled it at him and turned back to Selly. “As for the actual technique or tool—it could be anything. A kind of Refoel healing, perhaps, or a physiological intervention.”
“An herbal treatment,” Alise posited, “or something else chemical, maybe. Why are you wondering, Seliah? You’re thinking something.”
“I’m thinking that, if whatever unlocked the Phel magic again is the same as what Anciela was working on, then I really need to talk to my mother.
” Daisy had never said anything strange or untoward had happened when she conceived her two children, or during her pregnancies, but if Hanneil were involved, she might not remember either.
“That’s a really good point,” Cillian replied thoughtfully. “If she remembers,” he added, echoing Selly’s thought.
“It depends on whether the person who may or may not have unlocked the Phel magic again was a Hanneil wizard or working with one,” Alise mused.
“Or had some Hanneil magic without being associated with House Hanneil,” Cillian pointed out.
“One question I have is,” Selly put in, “did whoever did that—if someone did interfere—were they acting against the interests of the conspiracy?”
“It seems likely,” Alise answered when Cillian only looked thoughtful.
“If we assume the conspiracy’s initial goal was to suppress Anciela’s research and destroying House Phel was the ultimate solution for ensuring that data would be lost and never resurrected, then why would they want to bring back House Phel?
Arguably, the Convocation would have continued to roll along in the same path as always had Gabriel not bonded with Nic. ”
“Which Nic thinks our father pushed her into doing, by possibly inducing the Fascination in her so that the bonding would be inevitable.” Alise frowned. “But if he’s in the conspiracy, then why would he have wanted that?”
“Tell me,” Selly said, thinking it through. “Why does Nic think it was your father?”
“Several hints he dropped. Some evidence that the Fascination is induced via an Aratron potion that our father could have put in the wine Nic drank to bolster her courage before Gabriel arrived that night.”
“Could it have been your mother, instead?” Selly pressed, following that idea down its logical course.
“Maman?” Alise sat back, looking puzzled and surprised. “But why would she have wanted to trap Nic that way? She helped Nic escape Gabriel.”
“Not very effectively,” Selly replied, then winced at her bluntness. “I don’t mean to be unkind—and I do realize the strictures she labored under, but only part of the plan worked, right? Nic made it to Wartson, but then the money and contacts your mother supposedly arranged failed to appear.”
“Because our evil father put her in alternate form and kept her there as a punishment,” Alise retorted, color high. Cillian soothed her with a caress, but she ignored him. “What are you getting at Seliah?”
“I’m just spit balling. I didn’t mean to upset you. And I’m not sure what I’m getting at, but I’m thinking, what if your mother was involved in some way? We’re of an age. It’s not impossible for your mother to have met mine.”
“And then what? Even if she’d been somehow colluding with whoever wanted to reawaken and re-empower House Phel, as a familiar, she couldn’t have exercised her Hanneil magic regardless.”
Oh, good point. “I don’t know.” Selly shook it off. “I’m probably just imagining connections where there are none.”
“That’s the problem with fighting conspiracies,” Cillian said philosophically. “It’s easy to imagine them where they don’t exist and then, when you do find compelling evidence of them, it all seems so complicated and crazy that you doubt your own reasoning.”
“Then how do you fight them?” Selly asked.
“Good question,” Alise said with a nod.
“Why are you both looking at me?” Cillian demanded.
“You’re the scholar,” Alise answered blandly. “You’re supposed to have the answers.”
“Well, the only way I can think of is to fight fire with fire. Conspire in return.”
Alise smiled. “My sweet librarian, I think you may have given us the perfect solution.”