Guild Mage: Apprentice

It ended up being Matthew who came down to find Liv, and by that point she'd cried herself out.

"Thought you might be down here," he said, clomping on down the last few stone steps. Liv scooted to one side, putting some distance and open sand between her and Cade. She glanced over and noticed that his shirt was obviously wet and wrinkled where she'd been crying. Matthew didn't look happy, and Liv didn't know if that was because of the scene back up at Acton House, or because he'd found her with Cade.

"Are they still arguing?" Liv asked.

Matthew shook his head. "They settled down after you told everyone off. I think you embarrassed them. I might have said a few words, too," he admitted. "Got to look after my sister, don't I?" He shot a glance at Cade when he said that.

"I don't know if I'm going to sign the paper," Liv said.

"Rust the papers," Matthew exclaimed. "I don't care what they say. You've been a big sister to me my entire life, and as far as I'm concerned that isn't going to change. Even if you are smaller than me, now."

"Thank you," Liv said, and couldn't help but sniffle a little bit. "I should go back up."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Cade offered.

"I suppose you just happened to be down here," Matthew said.

"If you're asking whether I was hoping to catch Liv, yes I was," Cade said. "And then I heard her scream, so I came running. Is there something wrong with that?"

"Don't you two start fighting now," Liv said. "Give me a hand up, Matthew." She reached out, and he yanked her to her feet. Liv cast about for her staff, and realized that she'd left it next to the stone steps. That was stupid of her. She needed to be more careful. Cade turned to walk away, but she reached out and grabbed his hand to stop him. "Wait," Liv said. "Come up with us. If I'm going to sort through everything, that means making a decision about you, also."

They found Baron Henry, Lady Julianne, and the two Elden men in the library, talking quietly. Liv paused in the doorway, but having Matthew and Cade to either side of her at least made it feel like she wasn't alone.

"Liv," Julianne said, "I apologize. We shouldn't have acted like that - at the very least we shouldn't have let you see us arguing."

The ambassador nudged Keri, the younger of the Eld, with his elbow. "We also owe you an apology," he said, as if at a signal. "I am not a diplomat; I've spent years fighting. That doesn't excuse how I've behaved, but perhaps it explains why I don't back down easily."

Liv looked around. "My staff?" she asked.

"Here." Baron Henry motioned to the hearth, and she saw the length of ashwood leaning against the stone. Liv walked over, took it in her hand, and then chose a chair only large enough to seat a single person, rather than a bench.

"First of all, I am going to meet my father if he comes," Liv said, gathering her thoughts. "I won't make a decision about whether to go north or not until after that. Now, I've always planned on going to college at Coral Bay." She turned in her seat to address the Eld, "You say there are things I can't learn there, that I can only be taught by our people. But are there things I can only learn from the mages' guild?"

"Aluth," Julianne spoke up. "If you choose to stay with the guild, as an adult, they will help you to imprint Aluth. And if you impress the professors - particularly Master Jurian - there's a second word of power, as well."

"I remember he taught it to Master Grenfell," Liv said. "Do you know what it is?"

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"Cei," Lady Julianne answered.

"To Dream?" Keri said, leaning forward, with a frown. "I wasn't aware anyone knew how to use that."

"It is a recent development," Ambassador Sakari said. "A team including Court Mage Arundell brought it back from Godsgrave twenty-five years ago. Aluth, we could find you a teacher for," he decided, after a moment's thought. "But not Cei. That is something no one has shared with us."

"Alright," Liv said, making up her mind. "A few years at college isn't very long, especially for me. And I'd been planning on going anyway. I'd like to see Master Jurian again, and I can learn a word there I can't find anywhere else, apparently. I'm going to be doing that. I've also agreed to visit Al'Fenthia and spend a bit of time with Airis Ka Reimis Kaen Keria, once I'm done with college. What happens before I leave, and after Al'Fenthia, that I won't decide until I meet my father."

"Airis knew about you, and didn't tell me?" Sakari frowned. "I'm going to have words with him. Very well, he can teach how not to kill yourself with mana-sickness, if your father doesn't do it first."

Liv nodded. "I presume there's going to be a vote on what to do about the cults up north," she said.

"That's a reasonable guess to make," Henry said. "Unfortunately, after what happened at Godsgrave, there's a lot of families who think we shouldn't get involved in fights outside of the kingdom's borders. Too many promising young nobles and mages lost to rifts in Varuna."

"Then," Liv said, "Here is my proposal. I won't make a decision on adoption until I've spoken to both my mother and my father. It wouldn't be fair to them." Baron Henry and Lady Julianne nodded, accepting her decision. She turned to Cade. "Does that change your plans?" she asked. "If you don't want to court me anymore, no one here would hold it against you." A snort from Matthew put the lie to that, but Liv could deal with him later.

Cade only thought about his answer for a moment. "My father's already been sold on the idea once; if you're going to be recognized as the daughter of an Eldish house, that's as good as the adoption so far as he is concerned. I may have to argue with him for a bit, but I can handle that. As far as what I want?" He shook his head. "No, it doesn't change anything. I've told you already, it isn't merely political. I like spending time with you, Liv. I said I wanted to spend more time with you, and I do."

"Three votes," Liv said, before she could think better of it. "Three votes from your father, if you want to court me. The two for Lady Julianne, and one for the Eld. And courting isn't a guarantee. If you still want to ask for my hand after we're both done at Coral Bay, you can ask, and I'll decide then."

"That isn't a good idea," Keri said.

"Agreed," Cade broke in, shooting the Elden man a hard look. "I agree to your conditions. Three votes. We can make it public by attending the masque together."

Ambassador Sakari sighed. "Matches between human and Eld rarely end well," he pointed out. "You are going to live a great deal longer than Master Talbot will."

"And if I married an Elden man, he'd live longer than me, wouldn't he?" Liv asked.

"It's a bit more complicated than that," Keri grumbled. "For one thing, we don't promise to remain together for life. It's a ridiculous idea when 'for life' is measured in centuries. We also aren't necessarily exclusive in the way humans are. But you're actually likely to last even longer than the average Vakansa."

"That is a conversation that should be more private," Sakari pointed out.

"Alright," Liv said, rising and lifting her staff in her hand. "Let's take a walk, then, just the three of us."

"I need to go and speak to my father, anyway," Cade said, rising. "It may take a bit of shouting back and forth, but I'll bring him around. I'll bid you good afternoon, then, Liv."

"Good afternoon, Lord Talbot," Liv said, and extended her hand to him. His dark eyes lingered on hers when he bent and kissed her knuckles. She was fairly certain that the touch lasted longer than it ever had before, and she felt her cheeks and ears getting hot, but when it was over he turned and left. Liv curtsied to Baron Henry and Lady Julianne, then led the two Elden men out to the garden. There, she found a stone bench beneath a trellis of roses, though they were no longer in bloom with winter coming.

"We're alone now," Liv said. "Everything my chirurgeons have found seems to support the idea that I age at about half the speed of a human. If you know something different, let me have it, please."

"We don't speak much about it to humans," Ambassador Sakari began. "But there are actually two distinct groups of Vakansa."

"That's an understatement," Keri broke in.

"It is, but leave it be for now," the ambassador said. "Like humans, we were created - or at least changed to suit - our Vædic masters. They often designed us to suit their tastes - which is why your hair is white, Liv. Celris' sense of aesthetics leaned toward the snow-capped mountains and open blue sky, and he wanted his slaves to complement their environment. Most of our houses descend from a particular group of slaves, who were in service to a particular Vædic lord or lady. And for us, it hasn't been nearly so many generations as for the humans."

"The issue is this," Keri said. "Some houses carry actual Vædic blood."

"Like Miriam," Liv broke in.

"Exactly," Ambassador Sakari agreed. "Except that there've been so many generations, now, that even humans descended from her don't have enough Vædic heritage to matter. That isn't the case among the Vakansa. Your grandfather, Auris Ka Syvä, is the son of Celris."

"Is?" Liv asked. "But the old gods died a thousand years ago. I thought even the Eld weren't that old."

"Those like me, with no Vædic heritage, no," Sakari told her."I'm likely to reach my third century, but not much past that - though even that statement isn't entirely true. Think of it as a base, before we involve magic. Keri here, on the other hand, is partially descended from one of the Vædim."

"Bælris, Vædic Lord of Light," Keri told her. "And my aging has already slowed, even relative to other Vakansa. Call it another thirty or forty years, perhaps. And you'll get something similar. By the time you're leaving Coral Bay, you might begin to notice it."

"You said magic could change things?" Liv asked, numbers swirling in her head.

"Certainly." Ambassador Sakari nodded. "Look at Archmagus Loredan. He's not that much younger than his brother, but King Roland is practically on his deathbed while Caspian shows no signs of slowing down. Everyone expects him to run that college for decades yet. Most humans never learn enough to pull it off, but once you're able to properly channel mana through your body, Liv, that will slow your aging as well. And there's no reason you won't learn it: after all, you'll have plenty of time."

"So what can I actually expect?" Liv asked. "A hundred and fifty years? Two hundred?"

"Well over two hundred, I should think," Sakari said. "Though it's hard to say."

"Let's say you do marry that boy in ten years," Keri said. "You have a few children, maybe you're even happy for a while. And then he starts to get old. It won't even take very long - by fifty or sixty, everyone who meets you will think you're his daughter, not his wife. And you'll look like his daughter when you're standing over his grave, listening to the priest. Perhaps you can even take burying him, but what about burying your children? Your grandchildren?"

"Airis told me some of this," Liv said, after thinking for a moment. "Why our people call humans fireflies. It didn't feel quite real to me at the time - though I think I'm starting to understand. My friend, Emma? She was a little girl, younger than me. We used to play with dolls together. Now she's found a boy and they're getting married this flood season, while I'm not allowed to leave for college yet. Cade looks like the same age as me, but he isn't. Everyone is either older or young in some strange way, and I don't fit anywhere."

She took a deep breath, and let it out. "Courting isn't wed. I've got you a vote, and I'll see about getting you the rest of Lady Julianne's block. I hope you'll remember that when you hear what I have to tell you."

The ambassador and Keri shared a glance, and Liv told them the story of the woman who'd come to Castle Whitehill, eighteen years before, and stolen an idol. By the time she was finished, both men were leaning forward, listening intently.

"You're certain it was an idol of Ractia?" Sakari asked.

"Of course it was," Keri said. "I've seen enough of them, and they match the description. And only fools believe in coincidence. And that woman, Wren - you said she turned into a bat?"

Liv nodded. "Yes. But it wasn't instant - it was like there was something else, first. Like she collapsed into blood, and then that took a new shape."

"The Great Bats," Ambassador Sakari said. "The children of Ractia. It has to be. But I thought they were all killed in the war."

"A lot of things survived that we don't like to talk about," Keri said. "And we left Varuna for its own devices for a thousand years. I hear there's even a wyrm that's been sighted, and you know how much work was put into hunting those things down."

"She wasn't evil, though," Liv said. "She was kind, and she saved my life."

"Not even all the Vædim were what we might call evil," the ambassador pointed out. "The trinity sided with us, while Bælris simply left. But Ractia's children would have a hard time living beside any other people, due to the nature of their magic."

"I assumed they had a word of power that manipulates blood," Liv said.

Keri shook his head. "No. The Great Bats had a different kind of blood magic," he explained. "They were created during the war, to be soldiers, like Antris' machine soldiers and Iravata's wyrms. Instead of using mana, the Ractians fed on blood, and drew power from it."

"Fed on?" Liv asked.

"Drank," Sakari clarified. "They needed it to change shapes. At first they were designed to be scouts and skirmishers. They could track their prey in the darkest night, and drop down in a great flock, taking their human forms before anyone knew what was happening. While Antris' mechanical horrors held the front lines, the Great Bats would raid supplies, assassinate commanders, harry retreating troops."

"But as they started to lose," Keri said, "Ractia enhanced them. Made them more fearsome in battle. Her first experiment was Ghveris, the Beast of Iuronnath."

Liv shivered: Gretta had told her a few stories about the man-eating wolf monster. "Thankfully, he died a long time ago," she said. "But the rest of them can do that, also?"

"We don't really know," the ambassador admitted. "It was toward the end of the war, and both sides were getting desperate. If she'd been able to snap her fingers and make a thousand of those, they might have won. But this is an important thing to know, Liv. Thank you for telling us."

"Do you see why I think this boy is a bad idea, at least?" Keri asked her.

"I do," Liv said. "But I'm not sure I understand why you care so much."

The younger Eld turned away, looking about the garden. "You're important, Liv," he said. "I don't know how yet. But I saw you, years ago, in a vision. Don't ask me about it," he interrupted before she could open her mouth. "It's a sacred thing. Your mother should be the one to explain it to you."

"My mother is human," Liv pointed out.

"Yes, and your aunt is dead," Ambassador Sakari said. "Your father will decide what to do, but I suspect he will direct you to your grandmother."

"Another thing to speak with him about when he arrives," Liv said. She tried to keep her voice calm and not show how much her belly roiled at the thought of finally meeting him. "Is there anything else?" she asked. "I'm a bit exhausted."

"Yes." Keri turned back to her, reached into his robes, and extended his hand, with a necklace resting in his open palm. It was made of gold, set with a mana-stone, and on it were inscribed Vædic sigils. "We would like you to wear this."

"What is it?" Liv asked.

"A single use, triggered enchantment," Sakari explained. "Prepared by Inkeris. It will send up a signal if you are wounded, so that we can find you."

"My maid is going to have a fit," Liv said, before she accepted it. "Gold hasn't really been my color." It took a minute of fiddling to get the clasp open, but she needed Keri's help to close it again at the back of her neck.

"Good," Sakari said. "I'd like to do more, but there's only so much we can protect you, unless you come and stay with us at the embassy - which I assume you do not wish to do."

"I don't, no," Liv confirmed. "You'll send someone when my father arrives?"

Keri laughed. "I don't know the man, but I have a feeling we won't be able to stop him from coming as soon as he arrives in the city. You're the daughter he never knew he had."