She felt oddly cranky contemplating the question.Most of the time she didn’t think about not being a wizard, or being “only” a familiar.She was happy to be bonded to Jadren and be his partner.She loved her alternate form.And she was really happy not to be crazy anymore.Maybe it was because her mother had wound her up with the grandbaby talk, but Selly felt an unusual sense of frustration, even as she tried to wrap her mind around Jadren’s question.What didsheknow about using magic?
Nothing.Which was pretty annoying, now that she thought about it.That made her sound like a pretty, potential baby-maker of a walking magic-reservoir.All right then, how would you use the magic to do this?Put some thought into it!
Though she’d asked herself the question, Jadren watched her with sparkling wizard-black eyes, as if knowing full well what she struggled with internally.He probably did.From the beginning, even when he’d been entirely snarky and insulting, he’d seemed to know her better than she knew herself.Avoiding his knowing gaze, she turned away and studied the stupid blank wall.
Water magic couldn’t do anything, could it?Gabriel used it to make rain—sometimes whether he wanted to or not—and he could purify water it, heat or cool it, or move it making the water like a weapon with the force of it.And even the most minor wizards could generally move water.Water magic had persisted in the denizens of Meresin even after the fall of the more powerfully gifted members of the Phel family, with many householders able to wick water out of their homes, a useful skill in the damp and humid climate.But she didn’t see using it to disguise a door.
What about moon magic then?It seemed like the most usual manifestation of Gabriel’s moon wizardry was how it solidified in to silver—again, often without his wanting to—but they’d found useful ways to apply the moonsilver.He used moonlight as illumination at times, bending the light and… Hmm.
“I know you didn’t feel anything,” she said, “but what if Gabriel somehow used moon magic to bend the light so we can’t see the seams?”
“Excellent insight,” Jadren replied with such warm approval that she blushed.His approval shouldn’t matter so much, but… well, fine.It did.“Let’s see if we can change things so we can at leastseethe door, then go from there.”He held out a hand to her and she placed hers in his, appreciating the affection squeeze he gave her before turning his attention to the wall.“See if you can concentrate on feeding me only moon magic.”
They’d been practicing this kind of technique, at least, neither of them officially educated in wizard–familiar dynamics.Jadren thought that gave them a creative advantage.Commonly accepted wisdom was that familiars were entirely passive, requiring a wizard to draw magic from them, but Nic and Gabriel had found that she could deliberately push magic into him, so Selly had been working on doing the same.She thought about that now, the feel of the moon magic in her, that silver white light, so much softer than the sun, but reflecting the sun’s intensity with a kind of refined purity.
“Good,” Jadren said, his clockwork magic ticking with well-oiled precision down the bond, partly drawing from her, partly receiving what she offered.It was sensual and sexual, the magic intertwined with her passion and desire for him.His hand heated in hers, a finger tickling her palm to show her he felt it too.
He couldn’t actually wield the moon magic, but Jadren plucked out a lens of glass from one of his many pockets, using his El-Adrel magic to enchant the artifact, blending the moon magic into the disk.Jadren held up the lens—and a stream of moonlight played upon the wall.Selly caught her breath in amazement and Jadren threw her a pleased grin.Then they both emitted yips of excitement when a round door manifested, silvery white against the whitewash, seamlessly flush with the plaster.
“Like magic,” Jadren crowed.“Is it moonsilver?”
“Not exactly.”Selly, still holding onto him, laid the palm of her free hand on the door.It still felt like the rest of the wall.“It might be just… plastered over?”
“Then there’s some sort of trigger to open it, like with any physical door.”
She looked, the moonlight shimmering over the surface as Jadren changed the angle of the lens to better illuminate the section she studied.“Aha!”
It was a simple bolt, also flush with the surface, this one made of moonsilver.“I think you have to use wizardry,” she said, “but it’s a simple device.”
Jadren shook his head.“I can’t see it.Where your finger is?”
“Yes.A horizontal slide.”She traced the outline.Jadren handed her the lens to focus the light on the right part, then touched the bolt.A small spark of wizardry, a miniature El-Adrel lightning bolt that was the house crest, and the bolt sprang back, the door opening inwards.
“We are the champions,” Jadren declared, giving her a swift kiss.“After you, my lady.”
She stepped inside, still carrying the lens, because they needed the light to illuminate the shadowy stone tunnel.It was both as she remembered from her childhood and completely different.It was dry, for starters, with no water dripping from the ceiling as she recalled, though the scars of moss persisted in places, darker stencils against the scrubbed stone.A raised walkway traveled down the center of the tube, which sloped downward.
“Are we under the lake?”Jadren asked in a hushed tone after securing the door behind them.
She calculated.Shook her head.“Not quite yet, but we will be.”
“It’s kind of creepy,” he noted.“I’m glad we don’t have a subterranean arcanium—though that sounds cool to say.Subterranean arcanium.Subterranean arcanium.We could set it to music.”He began crooning to a popular tune.“Subterraynnneannnn arcaynnniummmm.”
She only half-listened, knowing his chatter was partly to soothe her nerves.Selly didn’t do well with enclosed spaces.All that time in her youth when her well-meaning family had tied her up to keep her from wilding off into the marshes for days on end had left her with a dread of being trapped.This didn’t feel the same, but she appreciated Jadren’s thoughtfulness and concern so much that she didn’t say anything.They were nearing the end, the silvery light from the lens showing the tunnel pinched closed.Very like House El-Adrel did with the hallways she didn’t want anyone to traverse.
“Looks like a dead end,” she observed doubtfully.Had she led them wrong after all?
“There must be a way to open it,” Jadren replied with easy confidence.
“I don’t know.Seems like it could just be what it looks like: a dead end.”
“Why would anyone build a tunnel that goes nowhere?”he asked reasonably.“And why would the notoriously practical and efficient Lady Veronica Phel go to the trouble and expense of maintaining a useless old tunnel?This place has been obviously fixed up, cleaned, and kept dry.It’s just another hidden door.Besides, you had the intuition that all of this was here and you were right.”
“I was guessing.”
“Intuition,” he corrected, taking the lens from her and examining the join of the stones.
“That’s a wizard thing.”
