Chapter 13 #2
“Me?” Iliana squeaked, her fair, freckled complexion turning bright red. She looked to Nic for help, but Nic only returned the look coolly. She had no intention of crossing the provost, yet. The time might come for that, but not until they ascertained how Provost Uriel took the news they brought.
In the end, they all ended up contributing pieces of information to the tale, including Bertie, to Nic’s surprise, who had apparently been far more aware of Cillian’s research—particularly prior to Han and Iliana’s arrival—than anyone had realized.
Possibly even Lady órlaith Harahel, who’d supposedly walled off Cillian and the folded archives from anyone else in the house.
When Han asked about that, Bertie smiled and cackled softly.
“I remember when órlaith was born. Taught her every trick she knows—and kept a few for myself.”
Tandiya had long since kicked back in her chair and now stared thoughtfully out the windows at the splendid campus of Convocation Academy spread out below.
“All the research done in these halls,” she murmured, more to herself than anyone.
“All the funding we’ve devoted to the problem.
All of the horrific experiments on familiars back in the day before we—with great difficulty—outlawed them…
” She cut her gaze to them, making it suddenly clear that she had been speaking to them after all.
“Am I to believe that no one, out of all of my distinguished faculty and those of my predecessors, none of them stumbled upon this technique that an obscure Phel wizard discovered centuries ago?”
She sounded so personally incensed that Nic felt compelled to answer. “House Phel was hardly as obscure then as it is now.”
Tandiya Uriel cut her a sour look. “No offense intended to your house, Lady Phel.” She emphasized the honorific just enough to remind Nic that her title was recently come by and not without its measure of scandal.
“No, I’m furious that we’ve let House Hanneil run circles around us all this time.
Planting spies in my academy. Continuing to suppress this research, no doubt in collusion with any number of high houses. ”
“You mean, you think Hanneil knows about this?” Han blurted, then tried to backpedal.
“Of course they know,” Tandiya said scathingly.
“And, forgive me for any aspersions to the central role of House Phel in cutting edge research, if Anciela Phel discovered this technique working with chicken eggs in her farmhouse kitchen, then others with state of the art equipment and unlimited access to funding and the archives have also done so.”
“And Hanneil operatives erased memories, buried the data, and kept generations of familiars from being able to control their own magic and lives,” Nic noted, marveling at her calm.
Being back in this place, the site of her downfall and disgrace, where her closest friends had turned against her for being a mere familiar, this discovery should send her into a rage.
Gabriel apparently thought so too—or thought she might need comforting—because he set a hand on her, his magic cool and soothing.
Oddly enough, though, sitting there with her breasts aching with milk for her tiny, precious daughter, and thinking about where the wrenching turn of her life’s path had led, she couldn’t be angry or sorry at all.
If she’d become a wizard then, she’d be at House Elal plotting with her father.
At some point, she’d have been let in on this secret, probably as happy as any of them to take advantage of the unwilling bounty of magic familiars provided.
The only point of anger—and it was admittedly an intense ball of burning rage that could easily billow into a conflagration worthy of the Wizard Sylus who destroyed the world in bringing down his enemies—was that surely her father had known the truth.
She had been his golden child, his pampered and petted heir, the one he raised to follow in his footsteps to head House Elal.
And he’d let her designation as a familiar stand unchallenged.
He had known her fate could be changed and he’d chosen not to do anything about it.
Instead he’d married her off with the gift of a pretty gown and a pat on the head, then turned his attention elsewhere.
Bertie and Tandiya were discussing next steps, Gabriel seeming to listen with half an ear while keeping an eye on her. Han and Iliana weren’t going to speak up unless spoken to in such august company.
“I think we have three prongs of action here,” Nic said, and everyone paid her gratifying attention.
She ticked them off on her fingers. “We need to decode the data and test it, proving that the Anciela method works to convert familiars into wizards. I suggest bringing Healer Asa from House Phel to do the testing. We’ll need volunteers, of course, but we can trust him to be neutral and ethical. ”
“We need to find Cillian if we hope to decode anything,” Bertie put in. “He has an intuitive feel for the documents from that archive.”
Provost Uriel looked momentarily perplexed. Good to know she didn’t know everything. “I understood my archivist was at House Harahel, working on the folded archives. Have you lost him?”
“Your archivist?” Bertie retorted pointedly. “You fired our boy, Tandiya. Don’t play games with us.”
She waved that off. “For appearances only. And to give him and Alise a plausible reason to leave the academy. So that they could discover what they did discover. I’d say that means my ‘game’ worked.”
“Except that Cillian left Harahel to go after Alise,” Iliana said with soft despair.
Tandiya cocked her head. “He what the what?”
Nic sighed, shifted. She’d need to release her milk soon. “Putting all the cards on the table. My father extorted Alise into returning to House Elal to apprentice as his heir. Cillian went after her. We don’t know anything since then.”
“Very romantic,” Iliana whispered.
“Very stupid,” Tandiya snapped.
“That’s what I say.” Bertie chortled. “But young love and all. What can you do?”
“What I can do is call Ferdinand Elal to my office,” the provost said, sending an interoffice message to Priyan. “We’ll find out what he knows. Would you like to remain and speak with him, also, Lady Phel?”
Nic didn’t particularly wish to see her little brother, but it was her responsibility to the house.
Both houses. House Elal may have rejected her, but she still owed loyalty and responsibility to all the people encompassed by the house of her birth.
She also realized the implicit part of Tandiya’s offer: that the provost would eavesdrop mentally on Nander and sift out the information he didn’t speak aloud.
She nodded. “I appreciate that. And then I’d like to speak with Professor Morghana Seraphiel.”
The provost gave her an arrested look. “Might I inquire why?”
“No doubt having to do with the other two prongs you have yet to detail,” Gabriel prompted with a quirk of his lips.
“Yes. Number two is that we need to discover who on the council can be swayed to vote to implement the Anciela Method and change the laws regarding citizenship for familiars and mundanes.”
“If the method works,” the provost cautioned.
“It works,” Nic said firmly, wondering in her heart of hearts if her certainty came more from wishful thinking than logic. No, she was as sure of this as anything. “No one invests centuries of effort in suppressing a technique that doesn’t work.”
“And that amount of effort means that swaying those houses will be that much more difficult,” Tandiya murmured, but didn’t argue.
“I can guess at the third prong, given your request to speak with Morghana. You want to discover where House Seraphiel stands regarding the use of the dark arts against Hanneil, should it come to that?”
No surprise that the provost knew that already. Some of it could be mind-reading, but Nic supposed that it was most likely the same logical path she’d followed. “I have reason to think they will. Is it true that the dark arts are really the one truly effective defense against psychic magic?”
Tandiya cocked her head. “Is House Elal asking House Uriel that question?”
Gabriel twitched beside her and it was Nic’s turn to put a staying hand on him.
She understood the question, and the reason for it.
“I have no intention of pitting House Elal against anyone. While I maintain responsibility to the house of my birth, my loyalty is to House Phel. If we’re counting up votes and sides in the certainly coming conflict, I—and I believe I speak for Lord Phel, as well—and House Phel will stand with House Uriel and the side of right. ”
“Even against Elal?” Tandiya pressed.
“Even so.”
“Even if Alise is Lady Elal?”
Nic hesitated only fractionally. “I know Alise. If she is Lady Elal, then she’ll be on our side as well.”
The provost eyed her a moment longer, her magic lightly probing the truth and conviction of Nic’s words.
Nic found she liked and respected the Uriel wizard even more for making certain of this.
They would have to be careful going forward, assessing the strength of the alliances.
A single high house switching sides could spell disaster.
“And if Seraphiel agrees?” Tandiya pressed.
Nic smiled, feeling the grim stretch of it. “We prepare to fight.”
Gabriel and Bertie went to find órlaith Harahel, who’d apparently been allowed to borrow an office to interview any House Harahel archivists for their role in concealing the Phel archives.
Han and Iliana went to arrange for a message to be sent to Asa.
Nic and the provost awaited Nander’s arrival.
Tandiya asked Priyan to bring them refreshments, solicitous of Nic’s wellbeing, and even offered her privacy to express the breast milk.
“I had six babies,” the provost noted with an expression part sentimental nostalgia and part weariness. “I remember—vividly—what it’s like to be away from a newborn.”