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Inota knew exactly what she deserved. And it certainly wasn’t happiness.
Chapter 13 - Callan
After everything he’d learned about the Mage’s Guild from Kaya last night, Callan had been worried he wouldn’t be able to keep a neutral demeanor when he went to the chapter’s headquarters to meet with the representative the Dean had been liaising with on his behalf. For obvious reasons, Kaya declined to come with him, saying she’d meet up with him after he was finished at the Guild. Part of him didn’t want to leave her alone in a city that could be so hostile to her, but he had to remind himself that she’d been taking care of herself this long. She was strong enough to stay safe without him. From what he’d learned about her last night, she was a force to be reckoned with.
He had just enough time to take in the curiously unassuming edifice of the Mage’s Guild building, almost crowded out of the street altogether by the much larger shopfronts on either side. It looked a little older than the rest of the street, thoroughly weathered though well-maintained. The humble appearance was deliberate, he suspected. With the power mages possessed, an ostentatious display of wealth would have been well within their abilities. But there were benefits to being underestimated.
The mage who met him introduced herself as Shekia. She was a slight, unassuming woman with the now-familiar gray eyes he’d come to understand as a mark of magic use in humans. Cato’s were the same shade, and he’d noticed that the color shifted and changed when he was actively drawing on the power in his artifacts. Callan felt himself smiling, the automatic mask of friendliness coming up to hide his true feelings about the organization that had been hunting his soulmate for what sounded like decades. New determination was burning in him now. This project had originally been nothing but a flimsy excuse to spend time with Kaya, built up around vague suggestions of building a stronger relationship between two very different organizations with a shared interest in the study of magic… but now he had a third motivation that burned stronger than either.
If he could learn enough about the Mage’s Guild, maybe he could find a way to give Kaya the freedom she deserved.
They spent a while discussing the intentions of his project, and though Shekia was perfectly polite, he took note of the careful way she spoke, how little information she revealed with each statement. He was being tested. That was how mages tended to operate, from what Kaya had told him… you were always being tested, even if you didn’t know it yet. Especially if you didn’t know it yet. But his explanation about his interest in inter-organizational relations seemed to please her, and he could tell she was intrigued by the potential to learn more about magic from the dragons’ perspective. He found himself thinking about Devere, the mage Kaya had referred to as her teacher. Where was he now? Held in some cell somewhere for the crime of teaching more than he learned?
Their conversation last night had come at the perfect time, Callan realized now. It gave him an invaluable perspective on what was really going on here, underneath the representative’s well-chosen diplomatic language and careful smiles.
By the end of the day, he’d been invited into a part of the Guild’s on-site library, with signage making it abundantly clear just how far he was allowed to explore. Still, there was more than enough in this room to keep him busy. It was the Guild’s governing documents he was most interested in, though he took a few books about the Guild’s history, too, aware that part of his proposal had included an analysis of the development of Guild law. He spent the rest of the afternoon making a start on the books, surprised when Shekia’s quiet voice interrupted to advise him that it was getting late. He wasn’t permitted to take the books with him, of course, and he didn’t miss the careful way Shekia looked over the notes he’d taken before she handed back his notebook with a smile.
Well, that was fine by him. He had nothing to hide… not in his notebook, at any rate. And as he headed back to the hotel along the busy streets of Margrav, he was already itching to see Kaya again. He’d felt a strange distance between them in the weeks leading up to the trip, a kind of strange suspicion bordering on distrust of her, which he hated. But he could see now exactly why that had been. And when he saw her waiting in the hotel room for him, a faint smile lighting up those eyes, he’d never felt closer to her.
And so the trip wore on. They quickly settled into a comfortable pattern, with Callan spending his early mornings and afternoons at the Mage’s Guild, before returning to the hotel to spend long evenings in bed with her. They even spent some of that time talking about his project and what he was learning at the Guild, which made him feel like a good student. Kaya admitted to him that she’d exaggerated her academic credentials a little, that she didn’t feel especially confident about her ability to supervise his project in the academic sense, but his conversations with her about it were enlightening nonetheless.
Still, his mind returned again and again to the bizarre interaction he’d had with Professor Reine on the day of Kaya’s last lecture. He’d assumed, after Kaya had come clean to him about her past, that that had been what the eccentric professor had been referring to when she’d warned him about Kaya. But somehow, what she’d said kept niggling at him. It was resolved, he kept telling himself. Professor Reine had wanted him to know that there was more to Kaya’s past than she’d been letting on… but she’d come clean, now. It was fine. So why couldn’t he stop thinking about it?
Intuition, he kept thinking, disgruntled. Intuition was overrated—or at least, far too easy to confuse with simple anxiety.
In the end, Margrav was their first and only stop. A few days after they’d arrived, an apologetic message came through from the other chapter of the Mage’s Guild that they’d been planning to visit, advising that it was no longer possible. Thankfully, Shekia was able to arrange for a longer period of study in the Margrav chapter, and the hotel was happy to extend their stay. Callan didn’t mind. If anything, he was a little relieved. Knowing what he knew now, he was mindful that Kaya’s safety would be under threat whenever they traveled. It would be easy enough to shift the focus of his project to a single chapter of the Guild.
Besides, what he was really interested in was the organization’s disciplinary procedures… and he wouldn’t get any more insight about that from a different chapter.
He felt a little wistful on their last night in Margrav, knowing that they’d soon be returning to Brisant, to at least another term of secrecy. Kaya was trying to keep his spirits up, but he could tell she was preoccupied about it, too. At least she’d be safe at Brisant, he told himself. Mages had never visited the insula, let alone the school itself. That had been why she’d applied for the job there in the first place. A permanent position there would ensure her safety indefinitely, even if they couldn’t do anything about the fact that the Guild was still hunting her. Still, he’d prefer to clear her name. She hadn’t done anything wrong. She deserved to be completely free, not restricted to a single insula that happened to be beyond the Guild’s reach.
One more term, he told himself as they checked out of the hotel. One more term, and then they’d know where they stood.
“I’m going to clear your name, you know,” he told her as they walked through the Hub, headed for the boat that would take them back to Brisant. “One day, we’ll be able to walk together through any city in the world.”
“That’s sweet,” she said, but the smile on her face struck him as a little forced.
“I’m serious.” They’d reached the pier, and he took her hands in his, finding her eyes. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Kaya. The Guild might be stuffy and rule-bound, but they’re not completely mad. I think we can make an argument—using their own documents—that they shouldn’t be hunting you.”
Her eyes slid away from his face, darting around the pier with the hunted expression he’d come to know well. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said in a low voice. He nodded.
“Right. Once we’re back at Brisant, we can—”
“I don’t want to talk about it atall,” she snapped, a sudden flash of real anger on her face. He took a step back, shocked by the strength of it, feeling her hands slip out of his as he went. And then it was gone as quickly as it had arrived, replaced with a look of weary contrition. “I’m sorry, Callan. I’m grateful that you’re so interested in… redeeming me. Really. But I don’t … I can’t go down this road. I’ve spent too long trying.”
“But—”
“Please,” she said, and there was a warning note in her voice that made him shut his mouth. Unbidden, Professor Reine’s voice rose up in the back of his mind, whispering to him about danger. He put it firmly out of his mind. Of course Kaya didn’t want to think about the people who’d been hunting her. That was perfectly reasonable. He was in the early stages of preparing her defense, anyway. He needed to go over his notes more. Once he was a little further along in the process, he’d raise the subject with her again.
And then they were home. He realized he’d missed the humidity as it closed in around them like a comforting blanket. What he hadn’t missed, though, was the careful way Kaya ensured there were a few feet between them as they walked up the pier towards the stairs leading up towards the school. Back to secrecy, he thought with a sigh, gazing after her and remembering how it had felt to come home every night to her. They’d have that again, he promised himself. If it took him the rest of his academic career here, he’d find a way that they could be together again.
It was late afternoon by the time he’d unpacked, and he heaved a sigh at the realization that classes would be beginning again in just a few short hours. The break hadn’t exactly been a restful one—not that he’d have changed it for the world. Callan smiled to himself as he settled in on the couch in their common area, his mind already straying back to those delicious long nights in that enormous soft bed with her.
His reflections were disturbed by a tap on the door. Expecting his roommates, he was surprised instead to see Morgan and Archer, arm in arm. They’d gone back to the Valley for the break, as was their habit, and he felt faintly jealous of the pleasant, restful holiday they must have had. They certainly looked a lot more refreshed than he felt right now. He readied himself to be teased mercilessly for doing something as nerdy as embarking on an extension project during their mid-semester break, but he was pleasantly surprised.
“I think it’s great,” was all Morgan said, shrugging her shoulders. “You’ve always said you’re here to learn about the world outside our insula, what better way than to take advantage of the resources we have here?”
“And I’m hardly going to make fun of you for working over a holiday break,” Archer said wryly. “What do they say about glass houses and throwing stones?” Callan chuckled. During their first year, Archer had been forced to stay back at the school over the break to make up for the work he’d been shirking. He’d improved considerably as a student since then, thanks in no small part to Morgan’s good influence.
