“Chancellor, is—” My throat wanted to close around the words. “Is their conflict violent?”
“No, no. Nothing like that. Well…” He seemed to think about his answer. “Not exactly. But their constant disagreements must cease.”
“Lord, the way you say it… It doesn’t sound like I have a choice.”
“Your family won’t suffer,” he said simply, a phrase so coldly efficient it might as well have been a threat. “Your father lost his leg in our employ. He is receiving a good sum every month. That will continue.”
That made me pause. Mother had always collected his retirement but never said how much.
My face must’ve given me away because he spoke again, answering the question I hadn’t yet formulated. “Ah, I suppose you don’t know about your sister?”
My stomach dropped. “What?”
“The one in the south is pregnant again. A blight affected their farm last season, so your mother has been sending coin.”
My jaw dropped in shock. “How do you know that?”
“We intercept magical correspondence, Mage Isca. Tracking money and information is invaluable when someone becomes interesting. Someone likeyou.”
My parents hadn’t told me. I’d been scraping coins together, working day and night, like it was all on me. My throat felt tight. The part of me that felt betrayed warred with the part that understood and accepted their deception.
My parents hadn’t told me about my sister’s troubles because I’d only worry. I’d only push harder than I already was and wear myself down even more, to make more money.
“Okay…” I said slowly. “But you still haven’t told me whether I have a choice.”
He looked at me without blinking, and there was another layer underneath his cold stare. One that told me that if I failed at this impossible task, I wouldn’t be the only one to suffer.
So that was my answer. Finally, I was on familiar ground with the Assembly.
“You expect me to do what your best diplomats failed at? Is that all?” I already felt the rope tightening around my neck.
“No,” he said, and there was something quieter in his voice now. “You have more flexibility in the other matter. But we would…greatly appreciate it, in a monetary sense, if you returned home pregnant.”
I stood up so fast the chair scraped on the stone floor with a horrible screeching sound. “What?”
The chancellor’s hands moved in a soothing gesture. “It would be acceptable if you became a long-term mistress,” he said softly. “But our expectations are not that high. You’re beautiful, untouched, as far as we know, and unwed. Magical inheritance doesn’t care about stations.”
I couldn’t believe he would mention my virginity so casually. Sex wasn’t something that the peasantry hid, but the upper classes acted like it was a secret that only happened in the marriage bed after legal contracts were signed. I didn’t regret my innocence, but I also wasn’t guarding it like some sacred treasure people seemed to think it was. I simply hadn’t found the right person to share that part of myself with yet.
But I shouldn’t have been surprised. To the chancellor, my body was nothing but an item in a ledger. “Why me?”
“Your mother produced seven healthy children with a mundane. Six are gifted. The seventh… We’re optimistic. Your sisters are also prolific breeders.”
“You’re comparing my mother and sisters to broodmares.” I barely controlled my tone. “And hoping to make me one.”
“Yes.” He didn’t flinch. “But if you do this, your mother will be a well-fed broodmare. Your father, a comfortable cripple. Tegil would receive schooling.”
I clenched my fists. I’d had only one year of proper magical training before too many siblings to care for had pulled me away. Now the Assembly dangled a better future for my baby brother like a carrot.
I was too angry for my voice to crack. It came out as steel. “Would I even get to be this child’s mother?”
“Yes. But the child must be raised within the fortress, under our tutelage. That is non-negotiable. You will live here and continue to work for us.”
Another pair of shackles clamped around my ankles.
I didn’t need to ask why they wanted me to bring home a child. If the stories were true, magic had dimmed all across the world. When Avanfell’s empire still stood two hundred years before, mages had controlled our island, Wynth, and the mainland for over a thousand years. Back then, a mage could be touched by the powers of the gods.
That was why the Assembly was so insular, and why my family was rejected by them. They wanted their magic to breed true.
