~8~
By the timethey returned to the manse, several more groups of applicants had arrived.Some were hoping to serve House Phel as junior wizards, and a few were new graduates from Convocation Academy, responding to their call for apprentice wizards with measurable MP scores in water magic.It would be interesting to see the results once Convocation Academy began measuring moon magic, too.
Of course, once the Convocation, and Houses Elal and Sammael, were done with them, they wouldn’t be seeing anything at all.But Gabriel deferred their planning conversation yet again, saying they should deal with the onslaught of business, and she didn’t have it in her to break their restored harmony by insisting.Also, the more minions they had, the more people to fight for House Phel, should it come to that.And if they were destroyed, at least she wouldn’t have to make payroll.Bracing thought.
A virtual army of Ratsiel couriers had also arrived, delivering correspondence of varying importance.Nic volunteered to handle the correspondence while Gabriel interviewed the hopefuls.Handing him a stack of blank NDAs, she reminded Gabriel to get them to sign first.She promised to send more once she’d gotten them copied.She really needed that copying gremlin or—perhaps there’d been truth in the lie—a secretary.She and Gabriel could share someone, if they could find a person with the requisite skills.It wasn’t standard practice for the lord and lady of a High House to share a secretary, but—given how Gabriel just loved to share equally with her—it would likely work for them.At least to begin with.Quinn Byssan had offered her help, of course, but her first allegiance and priority would have to go to assisting her wizard.
Gabriel grimaced at the prospect of dealing with more people, but he agreed to the plan, also acceding to her reminder that everyone needed to sign contracts that day or be gone.She soothed him with the prospect of being able to rage and kick out the contract-hesitant, then left the library to him so he could have the privacy for his conversations.Since the sky remained blissfully clear and the sun had continued to warm the day to a delightfully balmy temperature, she carried the stack of correspondence with her up to the balcony sitting area off the master suite.
And she sent for her sister.Along with a carafe of wine.Though it wasn’t yet noon, she figured they’d need it.At least this one thing Nic could attempt to resolve.
Alise arrived quickly enough that Nic figured her sister had been awaiting the summons.Well, that and Alise likely didn’t have much else to do.Alise meandered through the suite, making soft comments to the page who led her out to the balcony, then stood awkwardly a moment, nodding a cautious hello.
Nic gestured to the other rocking chair.“Please, sit.Wine?”
Alise sat, perching on the edge of her chair warily, and accepted the glass Nic poured.“This is lovely,” Alise said, gesturing at the view of the river, the low, lush hills beyond.“In fact, Lord Phel seems to have ensconced you in the best part of the house.”She didn’t quite make it a question, but Nic set aside the stack of correspondence—along with her supreme irritation that House Iblis had counter-offered yet again, further stalling the resolution of the Narlis problem—and lifted her own glass in a toast.
“To family,” Nic offered, rather amused by the suspicious glimmer in Alise’s dark eyes.“It’s not Elal wine,” she said by way of apology when Alise pursed her lips at the taste, giving the glass a dubious look.“And yes, this is the core part of the house that remained standing even after the family abandoned it.We’ve made more progress on this section, and Gabriel—Lord Phel, that is—was concerned that I be housed in comfort, if not in Elal style.”
“And are iron collars de rigueur for House Phel?”Alise bit out.“Because I know that’s not Elal style by any stretch.”
“How did you even hear about that?”Nic demanded, half in irritation and half in resignation for the ways of the Convocation.“I think maybe five people saw me wearing that cursed collar.”
“Then hedidput you in one,” Alise pounced on that morsel of information, expression hard.In that moment, she looked just like Papa, full of righteous indignation, Elal magic sparkling in the air around her.
Despite her frustration, Nic’s heart warmed.Apparently, Alise cared about her, acting out of that concern, even though Nic hadn’t managed that apology yet.“No,” she replied firmly.“Gabriel abhors collars of all kinds.Here is the truth, though I am asking your discretion in sharing this information.”Her gaze strayed to the NDA template she needed to copy over, knowing that she should ask Alise to sign it but somehow unwilling to risk the tentative peace between them by broaching the topic.Besides, where their father was concerned, his might would trump any NDA.
“When I escaped, the Convocation sent hunters after me.”She held up a hand when Alise frowned, opening her mouth.“No, I’d never heard of them either, but the people on the escape conduit who helped me had.Though they’d never seen a hunter until the creatures came after me.The hunters aren’t visible to anyone without magic, but they are physical beings, after a fashion.They’re clearly a combination of Ariel animal magic and Tadkiel justice-seeking.Perhaps some Hanneil psychic manipulation is in there, too.”And Sammael’s cruel punishment, she wondered.
“That is very disturbing.”Alise looked both stricken and intrigued.“I wonder why this is such a secret?”
Nic snorted.“Aside from the fact that wizards are paranoid and pathological about keeping secrets, even if there’s no good reason?”
“There is that,” Alise admitted with a wry smile.
“I only know that the hunters cannot be killed by physical means, only magical, and they regrow entirely from small pieces.They have rudimentary intelligence, enough to pursue a task with single-minded relentlessness, and some of them can even speak.They can employ canned enchantments.They tracked me all the way to Wartson, captured me, and put that iron collar and chain on me in order to take me back to Convocation Center for punishment and retraining.”
Alise stared at her, face pale, her shock and horror apparent in the very stillness of her body.“But what happened then?”she finally asked.
Nic shrugged for the force of nature that was her wizard.“Gabriel happened.He also tracked me, then fought off and destroyed the hunters.After we returned to Convocation land, Gabriel hired an Iblis wizard to remove the collar, and he brought me home to Meresin rather than turning me over to the Convocation or to Papa’s wizard enforcer, who…” The realization struck her.“Jan.”
“DisgustingJanfound you?”Alise made a face.
“Yes, he and Daniel found me at an inn right when we arrived.I’ll bet he’s the one who told you about the collar.”
Alise shrugged a little, a mirror of Nic’s.“He told Papa, anyway, who contacted me.If he hadn’t, I wouldn’t have known about any of this.”She lifted her chin, meeting Nic’s gaze, accusation in her wizard-black eyes.“You could have trusted me to help you, Nic.I know we haven’t always been close, especially in the last few years, but you couldn’t have thought that I would have turned my back on you.Or turned you in.”
Shaking her head, Nic picked up the box holding her correspondence and blank stationery, found the letter she’d started to Alise, and handed it over.
Clearly bemused, Alise took it and read the bare two lines, the second hanging in eternal forlorn inadequacy.She lifted her gaze to Nic’s.“Forgive you for what?”
“For not writing to you before this,” Nic answered.“I should have told you what was going on, should have trusted you, and I’m sorry I didn’t.But also for everything else.”She ticked them off on her fingers.“I haven’t been a good sister to you.I know I was insufferable when we were growing up.I was unkind when I banned you from our company when my friends visited.I wasn’t kind to you for our whole lives, really!I was so self-involved and snooty about being Papa’s heir, so full of hubris.And then, when I discovered I was a familiar, I cut you off.Because I was ashamed of myself, but that wasn’t fair to you.I never congratulated you on your wizard status, which is unforgivable.I really am happy for you, by the way, and I think you’ll be an amazing Lady Elal.But I don’t blame you for being angry at me, and I don’t expect you to forgive me for any of it.”
Alise narrowed her eyes.“What about the time you threw my doll in the fireplace?”
Nic groaned, rubbing her forehead.She’d forgotten that one.The House Beatrix doll could blink its eyes, cry, say a few words, and actually pee, which Nic had found disgusting, especially after Alise left it, diaperless, on Nic’s pillow one evening.In a fit of pique, Nic had thrown the wretched thing on the fire, where it proceeded to scream with unnerving realism.Alise had fished the poor doll out of the fire and swathed its bald head in bandages borrowed from their in-house Refoel wizard.Only three years old, Alise had been utterly despondent, carrying the burnt carcass around ceaselessly.Unfortunately, the fire had also damaged the magic, so the doll only made horrible slurring noises.Maybe Nic had blocked out the memory of that particularly grisly event.
“I amsosorry about your doll,” Nic said, shaking her head at the memory.“That was cruel and intolerant of me.”