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~24~
It took therest of the day to simply reestablish a semblance of normality.
They released the prisoners in the workshop, and Nic made Gabriel sit down right there for Asa to heal his wounds.He was covered, head to toe, in shallow slices and angry burns.How he’d stayed on his feet, much less unleashed that storm of magic on her father, Nic would never know.Though he fretted at having to sit, he yielded to her insistence.
While Gabriel was being taken care of, she set teams to work, cleaning up the blood from the library, confining Sabrina to her assigned room, and disposing of Sergio’s corpse by sending him back to House Sammael in the carriage he and Sabrina had taken to House Phel, much as her father was sent, bleeding and broken, back to House Elal.Alise happily instructed the air elementals to travel without pause to deliver their passengers, along with the implicit message that House Phel was not to be trifled with.
As soon as Alise finished with that task, she joined Nic in helping settle Maman.Alise gave over her spacious rooms to Maman, saying she could set herself up elsewhere.Maman was nonresponsive.Not asleep, but also not seeming present at all.Her cat’s eyes stared vacantly at the ceiling and, when Asa arrived—greeting Nic’s raised brow with the assurance that Gabriel was fine and had gone to deal with the mess in the arcanium—he examined Maman.After bolstering her vitality, he pronounced nothing else physically wrong with her.
“Her magic is already regenerating,” Asa explained, “which is, of course, an excellent sign.The impact of alternate form on her psyche, however—well, there’s no precedent that I know of.Perhaps with time and rest, she’ll recover on her own.”He met Nic’s eyes, his own full of reticent sorrow.“She’ll suffer, though, being parted from her wizard.I know you know that, but we can’t pretend that’s not the case.”
Nic nodded thoughtfully.“If I told you that I have an idea, something that might sever the wizard–familiar bond, would you be willing to let us experiment on the bond you have with Laryn?”
Asa sucked in a breath, eyes going wide.“How would you do this?”
“Not me,” Nic answered, then turned to her sister.“Alise would do it.”
Alise, who’d been sitting on the bed, holding Maman’s hand, jerked her head up.“Me?”she squeaked.“I don’t know how to do that.”
“I think you can do it,” Nic said.“I had a lot of time to think in that tower, and I mulled over some of the things we’d been talking about, pieces coming together.I can sense Elal magic, and it seems to me the method you use to bond spirits and elementals is very much the same as the wizard–familiar bond.”
Alise slowly stood.“They dolookthe same, but that doesn’t mean…”
“We don’t know, do we?”This was her opportunity to convince her small audience to give this serious thought.“Have you been taught yet how to bind a familiar?”
Alise exchanged a look with Asa, then nodded.“We’re sworn to secrecy—and placed under a geas that won’t allow us to speak of it, so I can’t tell you details—but it’s one of the first things we’re taught when we advance to the wizard-only training.”
Just as Nic had suspected.“I knew enough of the basics to tell Gabriel what to do for our bonding, but it occurred to me since that our father was counting on the bonding being inadequate or nonstandard.Because only wizards are taught the key.It has to be an embedded spell, if any wizard, regardless of magical type, can trigger it, and I’m betting it’s embedded in the familiars.”
The way both Asa and Alise had their lips clamped firmly shut, black eyes wide in astonishment, told Nic she was right on target.“I remember when I was categorized,” she told them.“It’s a vivid memory, as you can imagine, made sharper by the emotional intensity.I recall everything—the proctor, the oracle head, the words that changed my life… and then there’s a small gap.That’s when they do it, I’m guessing.They embed the spell in us that a wizard later triggers.”
Neither of the wizards moved, almost holding their breath so as not to activate the geas.“Gabriel and I created a bond between us,” Nic continued, “but it looks strange, and acts differently from other wizard–familiar bonds, because he never triggered that spell.He simply didn’t know how.”
Alise relaxed slightly, experimentally opening her mouth.“That explains a great deal.”
Asa nodded judiciously.“I would not argue with that conclusion.”
With a surge of excitement, Nic smiled at the healer.“I think we should try.The spell should only affect Laryn, if my conclusions are correct.If it works, then we can sever Maman from her wizard, too.”
She held Alise’s dubious gaze.“It would be worth it, if this can be done.”
“It would change everything,” Alise breathed, pale with the enormity of what Nic proposed.
“I know it.Familiars will be able to elect to leave the partnerships they were forced, arguably tricked, into.”
“We’re talking about a world filled with unbonded familiars,” Asa warned, brow furrowed.
“A world where familiars canchoosewho to share their magic with,” Nic returned crisply.“You don’t have to agree to this, Asa, but I’m offering you an opportunity to be free of Laryn.It’s an alternative to seeing her executed,” she added more gently.“If it goes wrong, then we’ll know—and the fallout will likely be less than whatever punishment we or the Convocation would sentence her to.”
Asa scrubbed his hands over his scalp, then nodded.“Only if she agrees.She is a traitor, but she should have the choice: execution, delivery to Convocation Center for them to do as they see fit, or this.”
“If it works,” Alise put in, “then what do we do with her?”
Nic looked to Asa for the answer.He looked pained.“House Refoel will take her in, at least until the child is born, and they’ll see to it that she doesn’t cause trouble.No one will question that, and my house will expect it.After that, well, then we’ll have to see.”
Alise and Nic nodded sympathetically, and Nic found herself laying a protective hand over the flicker of life she carried.She wouldn’t want to be the one to separate a mother from her child, but given what she’d observed of Laryn, the other woman hadn’t seemed excited about the pregnancy.Perhaps she’d be willing to give the child up to Asa, so they could be raised by a parent who wanted them, in a loving home.
Every child—no, every person—deserved that much.
