“I didn’t understandanyof that,” Alise complained.
Cillian hugged her against his side, smiling with affection.“What I suspect is the important part here is that Seliah is thinking that whatever House Hanneil has been up to with creating super-wizards and familiars, let’s call them, that the same techniques could have been applied to make her and Gabriel as gifted as they are.”
“Yes,” Selly said.The idea made her uneasy, like she was nothing more than a lab experiment.“But you have no idea what Anciela Phel found that could unlock magic this way?Like the actual physical or mental tool or whatever.”
Cillian shook his head.“Idon’t.Since Anciela’s data is all in code, we don’t have any way of knowing exactly what she was using.It could be that Han and Iliana have discovered the key to unlock the code since I left Harahel, but until then we only have those meeting notes that give us an indication of the topic of her explosive research.”
“How were Han and Iliana to contact you should they make a discovery?”Alise asked Cillian.“Given that there are no Ratsiel couriers at House Harahel.”
He looked at her blankly and she rolled her eyes.“No plan?”
“I didn’t think of that,” he admitted sheepishly.“I was consumed with getting to you and getting you out of Elal.”
She softened, interlacing her fingers with his.“Well, I suppose I can’t fault you for that.I’m sorry I worried you so.”
He tapped her on the nose.“You should be.”Then laughed when she wrinkled it at him and turned back to Selly.“As for the actual technique or tool—it could be anything.A kind of Refoel healing, perhaps, or a physiological intervention.”
“An herbal treatment,” Alise posited, “or something else chemical, maybe.Why are you wondering, Seliah?You’re thinking something.”
“I’m thinking that, if whatever unlocked the Phel magic again is the same as what Anciela was working on, then I really need to talk to my mother.”Daisy had never said anything strange or untoward had happened when she conceived her two children, or during her pregnancies, but if Hanneil were involved, she might not remember either.
“That’s a really good point,” Cillian replied thoughtfully.“If she remembers,” he added, echoing Selly’s thought.
“It depends on whether the person who may or may not have unlocked the Phel magic again was a Hanneil wizard or working with one,” Alise mused.
“Or had some Hanneil magic without being associated with House Hanneil,” Cillian pointed out.
“One question I have is,” Selly put in, “did whoever did that—if someone did interfere—were they acting against the interests of the conspiracy?”
“It seems likely,” Alise answered when Cillian only looked thoughtful.“If we assume the conspiracy’s initial goal was to suppress Anciela’s research and destroying House Phel was the ultimate solution for ensuring that data would be lost and never resurrected, then why would they want to bring back House Phel?Arguably, the Convocation would have continued to roll along in the same path as always had Gabriel not bonded with Nic.”
“Which Nic thinks our father pushed her into doing, by possibly inducing the Fascination in her so that the bonding would be inevitable.”Alise frowned.“But if he’s in the conspiracy, then why would he have wanted that?”
“Tell me,” Selly said, thinking it through.“Why does Nic think it was your father?”
“Several hints he dropped.Some evidence that the Fascination is induced via an Aratron potion that our father could have put in the wine Nic drank to bolster her courage before Gabriel arrived that night.”
“Could it have been your mother, instead?”Selly pressed, following that idea down its logical course.
“Maman?”Alise sat back, looking puzzled and surprised.“But why would she have wanted to trap Nic that way?She helped Nic escape Gabriel.”
“Not very effectively,” Selly replied, then winced at her bluntness.“I don’t mean to be unkind—and I do realize the strictures she labored under, but only part of the plan worked, right?Nic made it to Wartson, but then the money and contacts your mother supposedly arranged failed to appear.”
“Because our evil father put her in alternate form and kept her there as a punishment,” Alise retorted, color high.Cillian soothed her with a caress, but she ignored him.“What are you getting at Seliah?”
“I’m just spit balling.I didn’t mean to upset you.And I’m not sure what I’m getting at, but I’m thinking, what if your mother was involved in some way?We’re of an age.It’s not impossible for your mother to have met mine.”
“And then what?Even if she’d been somehow colluding with whoever wanted to reawaken and re-empower House Phel, as a familiar, she couldn’t have exercised her Hanneil magic regardless.”
Oh, good point.“I don’t know.”Selly shook it off.“I’m probably just imagining connections where there are none.”
“That’s the problem with fighting conspiracies,” Cillian said philosophically.“It’s easy to imagine them where they don’t exist and then, when you do find compelling evidence of them, it all seems so complicated and crazy that you doubt your own reasoning.”
“Then how do you fight them?”Selly asked.
“Good question,” Alise said with a nod.
“Why are you both looking at me?”Cillian demanded.
