“Just took a little strong-arming from Seliah and Jadren,” Nic acknowledged.
“If you’re not fighting evil, youareevil,” Han pronounced solemnly.
“But how do we know we’re on the side of good and not evil?”Iliana asked, blanching a little when everyone speared her with incredulous expressions.
Bertie closed his book and nodded.“Iliana asks an excellent question and one worth exploring.”
Gabriel groaned inwardly.He liked Bertie, but his tendency to fall into long dissertations on obscure subjects could get wearying.However, they had slowed considerably in the tangle of traffic around Convocation Central and would not be at Convocation Academy for some time.
“It’s often said,” Bertie continued in his professorial tone, “that history is written by the winners.This has the effect of spinning the side of ‘good’ or ‘right’ in favor of those winners, regardless of the inherent effects of their actions.”
“I don’t understand,” Iliana said, frowning.
“Too many big words,” Han confided in a loud whisper, grunting when she elbowed him sharply.
“No, no, Iliana is correct that I’m obscuring rather than explaining what is a fundamentally simple concept, if we accept a basic premise that we are all human beings with equivalent value, that we each possess the right to lead our lives as we see fit.”
“But…” Iliana looked around the carriage.Two wizards.Three familiars.“We don’t all have equal value.Wizards have more value than familiars, because they can work magic and we can’t.”
“Is that why you ran away from Convocation Academy?”Gabriel asked, pointedly, but not unkindly.Few things annoyed him more than the complacent assumption within the Convocation that human value depended on ability to generate and wield magic.“If you believed that, Iliana,” he continued, “you wouldn’t have run away with Han so you could be together.You’d have given up your life to do what Sabrina Sammael wanted of you.”
Iliana leaned into Han.“I loved him too much to contemplate what Sabrina would do to him.”
Han kissed her hair.“I feel the same, love.”
“An excellent example.”Bertie nodded approvingly at Gabriel and he experienced an unexpected flush of pleasure at the praise.“If we accept the premise that every human being has the right to live their lives as they wish, then I posit that anyone who tries to take that away from them is evil.”
“But what if it’s for their own good?”Han asked thoughtfully.
Bertie shook a finger at him.“Ah, but then you are assuming you know better than they do, giving your opinions more weight than theirs.You’re valuing yourself and your ideas more than theirs.”
“What if I know something they don’t?”Han debated enthusiastically.“Like, what if Iliana is about to eat a poisoned apple, so I take it away from her so she won’t hurt herself?”
“Why didn’t you tell her that the apple is poisoned and let her decide?”Bertie fired back.
Han frowned.“But what if she doesn’t listen to me?Iliana can be stubborn.”
“Then you failed to make your case,” Bertie answered.“And it’s her life to live or lose, not yours.”
“I think we can all agree,” Gabriel put in smoothly, to get the conversation back on track, “that if there’s a way to allow familiars to wield magic on their own and not be dependent on wizards for their lives and freedom, that this is an ultimately good thing and anyone who acts to prevent that from happening does not respect the rights of non-wizards to lead their lives as they wish.”
No one argued.
“So,” Gabriel continued into the quiet, “if we’re toting up which houses fall on which side of this equation, I make four on our side, if we count Ratsiel.El-Adrel is off their team and now on ours, thanks to Jadren and Seliah.Six, if we count House Phel.Half and half.”
“Except House Phel isn’t a high house,” Nic corrected absently, clearly thinking about something else.
“I thought we were on probation to regain our previous high house status,” he replied.
“We are.”She brought her focus back.“But there are always twelve high houses.Did you think they’d leave Phel’s spot open in case the impossible occurred and your house recovered, against all probability?”
He actually hadn’t thought about it at all.This was one of the many gaps in his understanding of the Convocation, as he lacked the proper education.Now that Nic said it out loud, that did sound ridiculous.The Convocation abhorred a power vacuum.
“Who moved up when Phel dropped out then?”he asked.Here was a potential motivation to bring down House Phel that he’d never considered and no one had suggested.Could it have been purely ambition and all the rest of the conspiracy thinking simply red herrings and window dressing?
Everyone paused, thinking, some people ticking the houses off on their fingers.
Bertie heaved a huge sigh, shaking his head.“What do they teach at Convocation Academy these days?House Seraphiel.”
