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“You won’t have to,” Asa promised.“You have all of House Phel.And, as Lady Phel, mother of the sole possible heir to the house, you can always opt to bond to a new wizard, one ofyourchoosing this time.”He smiled in what he likely thought was a reassuring manner, quickly fading in light of whatever he saw in her face.
“You don’t understand,” she told Asa emphatically, trying to restrain her anger.“IloveGabriel.”
He relaxed and actually patted her arm.“Of course you do.It’s in a familiar’s nature, and in the nature of the bonding, for you to feel that way.But there are other wizards in the world.”
She shook off his hand with enough force that he reeled back, shocked.“I like you, Asa,” she said in a harsh whisper she hoped wouldn’t carry.“We’ve always been friends, so I hope you’ll take this question in the right way.Do you think Laryn loves you?”
Blinking, he actually looked to Laryn, who stood brooding by the window, waiting to be called on again.“Laryn is my familiar.We’re bonded.And we’re having a child, also, as you know,” he said, as if that answered anything.
Nic couldn’t help laughing.“Do you even hear yourself?That doesn’t answer my question.”
Asa stiffened, clearly offended.“You know as well as I do, Lady Phel, that the wizard–familiar relationship isn’t based on something as transient and subject to whimsy as love.It’s a working relationship, not a romantic one, which makes it all the stronger.”
“No wonder you don’t understand what I’m telling you,” she replied with sincere pity, though she was acutely aware of her turnabout.She’d spent a great deal more time with Gabriel and his radical ideas than anyone else, so she shouldn’t expect others steeped in Convocation brainwashing—as Gabriel had once accused her of being—to automatically open their own minds.“Give it some thought,” she suggested.“Remember, you’ll be joined until one of you dies, raising at least one child together.Consider what your life might be like if you two developed at least an affection for each other, as opposed to not.”
“I’m terribly fond of Laryn,” he protested.“I take very good care of her.”
“That’s lovely.How does she feel about you?”Nic was afraid she knew the answer, and that she was sowing seeds of discord by pushing this.Still, she looked over to Gabriel, standing back slightly as his parents spoke softly with Selly.He’d want her to point these things out.
Asa looked at Laryn again, considering.“I assume she’s fond of me also.”But his voice held a note of uncertainty.
“But not that she loves you?”Nic persisted.
Asa frowned.“As I said, the wizard–familiar relationship isn’t—”
“Yes, yes, I know,” Nic interrupted, brushing that absurd argument away.“You also told me that the reason I think I love Gabriel is because it’s in a familiar’s nature, and in the nature of the bonding, for me to feel that way.How can both be equally true?”
Asa’s frown deepened.“I’m sure there’s a logical fallacy in your argument.”
“When you find it, let me know.”
“Wait.”Asa stopped her as she went to move past him.“Why are you concerned?I was under the impression that you and Laryn were not particular friends.”
That was true.Indeed, Laryn glanced over just then, expression set in smoldering dislike.Or, perhaps, in general unhappiness.Who knew how much of Laryn’s resentments sprang from her own misery, simply latching on to those who seemed to have it better than she did?Though Nic had to concede that she did have it better than Laryn.She’d been fantastically lucky in finding Gabriel—or, rather, in him finding her.She could be generous enough to wish that for everyone, even the people who hated her.“I don’t have to be particular friends with Laryn to wish her well,” she explained to Asa.“And it seems to me that she’s not happy.”
“She has a serious nature,” Asa explained, then paused.“And the pregnancy affects her emotional state, as you’ve experienced.”
Nic raised a brow and waited.
“All right, she also wasn’t happy about leaving Convocation Center,” Asa allowed.“She’s too diligent in her duties to complain, but I knew she enjoyed the whirl of the city and society there.I think she could learn to like it here, though, and I had to take the opportunity presented to me.It’s good for both of us.I wouldn’t have gotten a position this good, so high up in the hierarchy of a new potential High House this quickly anywhere else.”
“Did you discuss that with her?”
“She understands.Laryn knows how the Convocation works as well as either of us.”
Nic restrained a sigh.“That’s not the same as including her in the decision, Asa.”
Asa studied her, his keen intelligence evident as he sorted and rearranged his thoughts.“And you think that, if I include her in decisions, it will encourage her affection for me?”
“I think that, if you treat her like a thinking, feeling human being who has an equal say in your lives that it will, if not encourage her affection for you, at least mitigate resentment that will build to utterly destroy it.”
Asa looked vaguely green.Clearing his throat, he said.“This brave new world of yours and Lord Phel’s is not an entirely comfortable one.”
“And you’re saying the Convocation is?”Before he could answer, she pressed.“Or is it that the Convocation is comfortable foryou?”
He clearly didn’t like that, his posture going rigid as he gave her a formal bow.“Lady Phel.I’ll be at your service when you and Lord Phel are ready.It needs to be soon, while she’s still calm.”
He strode off with a stiff gait—but he did go to Laryn, at least, saying something to her that had a surprised look lighting her face.Nic turned away, giving them that much privacy, and went to Gabriel’s side.In deep conversation with his parents, he enfolded her under his arm, an absentminded gesture of welcome that meant everything.“You can’t be here,” he was saying.By the tone of his voice, it wasn’t the first time, either.“We’re moving out the other patients and will be warding the room.We can’t risk anyone being hurt by the magical backlash.”
