Isabel
???
I hadn’t evenfinished breakfast by the time the node’s magic began whispering at me, pulling me toward an unknown goal. I continued eating, wondering if this would be like the time Felix had unintentionally summoned me to the archives or like last night. While I had read Demeret in the spire room, the power had briefly tightened, but the tug had disappeared before I made it down even a single flight of stairs.
The power didn’t fade. I swallowed my last sip of tea and left my sitting room. Removing just that single wingback chair had already made the space much more useable.
The power led down, so I made my way to the stairs. When I reached the ground floor, the pull leveled out. I knew exactly where it was taking me, because the magic flowed in the same direction as the nearest ley line. I headed into the great hall.
“It might actually be easier if you summoned me the way I did you,” I told Felix when I spotted him curled up on the seat of one of the two chairs. “That way, I don’t have to figure out where the magic is leading me.”
“Damn it.” The duke uncurled, arching his back and stretching. “I was going to wait until after you left your rooms before asking you to join me here. I didn’t mean to summon you.”
“Well, the node must have decided differently. Why did you want to see me?”
“A few reasons. First, I have two contracts I’d like you to sign. If you are willing, of course, but they are meant to make things easier for you, so if you have any objections, I’ll gladly alter them.”
I sat on the chair facing Felix. “What kind of contracts?”
He plucked at the air with a claw twice, and two pieces of paper fell onto my lap. I picked up the first one. It was an addendum to the contract my father had signed. “I thought you said we needed my father to change my contract, since he signed in his own name as well as mine.”
“To make changes, yes. But this isn’t a change so much as a clarification. And since the terms being defined only affect you and me, I think we can sign without your father and the node will recognize it.”
I read through the contract. The goal was obvious. Felix was trying to limit the hours I would be forced to work toward breaking his curse. Since the node currently allowed me to eat and sleep, it stood to reason that there was wiggle room in those terms.
Without thinking about it, I listened for a familiar strand of node magic, humming to match it. I envisioned the copy of the contract I had seen once before, and it materialized in my lap. I looked down at it and realized what I had done. “That is a very useful spell. And very easy to get accustomed to.”
“You summoned without the invocation.”
“I recognize which whisper of power goes with that enchantment. I told you it was a talent of mages to start enchantments without using the programmed triggers.”
His tail flicked. “I know, but it took me months to do that.”
I rolled my eyes. “You didn’t even know you were a mage.”
He sighed. “It is still annoying to see how quickly you mastered the skill. Though, I suppose I should be thankful, because the better you are at magic, the higher your chances of breaking my curse.”
I made a sound of agreement, most of my attention on the contract and addendum in my lap. Another hum provided me with a pen and ink. I began marking up Felix’s addendum.
He craned his neck, as if that would give him the ability to see the paper from where he was. “You don’t approve of my terms?”
“I’m trying to make sure the addendum works as intended. Given the original terms of the contract, some of your phrasings don’t make sense.”
“You summoned the original contract?”
“Just the copy Marc already showed me.” I paused. “Why didn’t you summon his copy of your contract before? You can’t summon the original, but you didn’t have to resort to physically digging through his desk.”
“I didn’t summon it because I wasn’t certain exactly where he had it stored. If I didn’t know where it came from, I couldn’t send it back. The enchantments on the castle won’t move it while it is in his desk, but if I left it out, who knows where it might have gotten filed?”
“Ah.” I read over the addendum once more, then signed my name on the bottom. I held it out. “Here, see if you have any problems with my changes, then you can sign and pass it through the node.”
Felix hopped off his chair. He looked up at where I had the inkwell balanced. “Ink please. I’ll sign this.”
“You haven’t even read it.”
“I doubt you could do much damage altering this addendum without encountering the issue of needing your father to sign before it could work. Even without reading, I trust that you improved my phrasings and nothing more.”
I placed the paper on the ground with the inkwell next to it. Did he truly trust me, or was he simply confident that I could cause no harm? Hadn’t he learned by now that even seemingly straightforward statements left plenty of room for interpretation? “The whole addendum is about defining terms of service and expectations. Icould have attempted to slip in a clause about remuneration. That might have worked. Then you’d be stuck paying me half a gold for every week I’m here.”
