“Indeed.I did not expect to have a parade of Elal progeny someday.”
A parade?“Has my brother been to see you also?”
Morghana’s expression didn’t change, but she almost seemed as if she rolled her eyes.“A parade of two,” she allowed.“Ferdinand Elal has other haunts.”
Nic very much wanted to ask what Morghana knew about how Nander spent his time, but she couldn’t afford to be derailed.She decided to go for direct.“Why did you help Alise?”
Morghana regarded her with opaque, wizard-black eyes.“That’s my job.”She made it clear she felt that was the obvious answer.“As a professor of the dark arts, I teach students here.”
Nic wasn’t falling for that deflection.“Alise was not a student of the dark arts.And you and I know full well that House Seraphiel is not inclined to help House Elal.Yet you went out of your way to do so.Why?”
The professor raised her steel gray brows, considerably darker than her white skin.“I was under the impression that Alise owes her fealty to House Phel now.Am I mistaken?”she very much made it sound as if that was an impossibility.
“So, this was a favor to House Phel then?”Nic pressed, staying on target.
Morghana regarded her with the same implacable expression, but Nic caught a tinge of… was it disappointment?The subtle earthy magic, woven with smoke, fresh air, and a hint of water grew stronger.“Lady Phel, I am not the head of House Seraphiel, nor do I speak for my house.”
Which wasn’t a no, Nic noticed.“Did you know that documents regarding the fall of House Phel, indeed anything to do with Phel and a great deal of Meresin, had been removed from the Convocation Archives?”
Morghana returned her gaze steadily.“Have they?I don’t believe that’s common knowledge.”
Clever, clever.What was Morghana’s game?“We’ve recovered and unlocked the hidden archive that contained all of the missing texts.”Nic delivered that information and waited, watching Morghana keenly.
The wizard didn’t move, except that her preternatural stillness somehow quieted further.The fire snapped.The waterfall trickled.Nic even fancied she heard the hiss of the candle flame under the teapot.Reminded, she sipped her tea.
“So,” Morghana finally said, and very softly, “Hanneil failed to prevent that much.”
Nic dearly wanted to ask what Morghana knew, but that would only lead to more verbal fencing and ultimately didn’t matter.“Yes,” she replied simply.And drank her tea.
Morghana smiled faintly, toes curling in the soil.“House Seraphiel doesn’t use familiars, did you know?”
Nic concealed her surprise—at the information, that she hadn’t known that despite her extensive research, and at the implication that Morghana knew or guessed at the explosive information the files contained.“I did not know,” she answered simply.
Morghana beckoned for Nic’s mug and refilled it.“It’s a bit of a misnomer,” she said conversationally, “calling Seraphiel magic the dark arts.Truly, it reflects a judgement leveled by the rest of the Convocation, most of whom employ arts that can hardly be called ‘light’ or ‘bright’ or whatever one believes is the opposite of dark.The practice of our magic comes from and affects the natural world, the very core of life.What amounts to the socially sanctioned slavery of familiars is anathema to our practice.”
“I’m surprised Asa bonded a familiar then,” Nic said, realizing as she did that she’d have done better to withhold the observation.
Morghana, however, inclined her head in acknowledgment.“Asa, while talented in the dark arts and interested in the practice, is but a dabbler—and one under pressure from his house to be ambitious.”
Nic understood the professor’s point.Gabriel had bonded her for much the same reasons.The Convocation ran on power.Without it, one couldn’t compete.Which was potentially a reason House Seraphiel declined to participate in power struggles.“Ambition drives a great deal of what occurs in the Convocation,” Nic allowed.
“Indeed, from some more than others.House Seraphiel remembers what others do not.”
That was as clear a statement on the issue of what House Seraphiel knew of Anciela Phel’s research as any Nic was likely to get from the cryptic wizard.But the implication was clear: the dark arts were the most effective, possibly the only effective, defense against the psychic manipulation practiced by House Hanneil.If House Seraphiel remembered what happened to Anciela and House Phel, then they’d escaped the pervasive memory erasure Hanneil wizards had employed to cover their tracks.Which wasn’t exactly a surprise, but it heartened her to know.
Only two questions remained in Nic’s mind.“If Seraphiel remembers, and is against the use of familiars, why bide your time all these years?”
Morghana tipped her head, as if allowing a point scored in a game.“Myriad reasons, Lady Phel.We are not without our own internal politics is one answer.That we are careful, as all houses are, of crossing other high-houses in another.The primary answer, however, is that we were waiting.”
“Waiting,” Nic echoed, posing the question obliquely.
“Waiting,” the professor confirmed, then relented, waving a hand.“Though not necessarily idle.But waiting, yes, for what’s occurring now.All things in due time, in their proper season.House Seraphiel stands ready to serve the dawning of a new age.”
And that answered Nic’s second question.
~20~
Alise regarded theirapproach to Convocation Academy with a sense of jadeddéjà vu.She’d returned to this place—the one she arguably hadn’t been supposed to leave—far too many times and in varying states of shame and dread.At least this occasion, while not exactly a triumphant return, was one where she was sure of her welcome.After all, she’d been summoned.
