“I thought we’re too valuable to kill,” someone quipped with quiet anger.
“You are, but there are worse things than death,” Professor Tracy replied darkly. “The Convocation has ways of dealing with recalcitrant familiars and they are not pleasant. You all have relatively good lives. Your families can afford your education here, or your MP scores are high enough that the Convocation has given you a scholarship to attend. You are the most privileged of familiars. Appreciate what youdohave and don’t jeopardize your relatively comfortable lives for something considerably harsher.”
Everyone absorbed his words, the silence lasting an uncomfortable beat too long. Professor Tracy cleared his throat and continued. “Any other questions, specifically on the first right of familiars?”
Though Iliana tried to pay attention to the discussion of their—sadly few—rights as familiars, the rest of the class passed in a blur. Even her next class, her animal husbandry elective, which was her favorite and chosen on the off-chance that she’d be bonded to a House Ariel wizard, didn’t brighten her spirits.
She worried about Han’s testing the whole time. She worried that he might be a familiar like her. And she worried about what would happen if Han finally manifested as a wizard. She hadn’t been saying that to reassure him, or not only for that reason. The simple fact that they were calling him in for daily testing indicated the proctors suspected he’d manifest at any moment. Late-blooming wizards had a tendency to manifest their suddenly active magic in dramatic fashion. For the safety of the academy, they wanted to catch that early and contain it. Han had all the theory of wizardry, but as the praxis and practicum courses emphasized, there was a considerable leap from knowing to doing. Han would have to practice intensively to get his wizardry under control.
No matter what happened, though, Iliana couldn’t see any happy outcome for herself. All the sparkling lights and cake in the world couldn’t change that.
Her afternoon practicumran long, though thankfully Professor Angela gave the familiars a light assignment of practicing meditation as a technique to replenish magic, while the wizards were tasked to perform workings using only their native magic. It had the wizards in such a cranky mood, Sabrina throwing vicious looks Iliana’s way at every opportunity, as if Iliana had somehow orchestrated the lesson, that Professor Angela dismissed the wizards early. Before they left, she reminded them that it might be considerable time before they earned the right to a bonded familiar, if they ever did, so it behooved them to learn to maximize their skills with only their own magic to draw on.
The caution fell on deaf ears, however. Wizards, by nature, were an ambitious lot, and no wizard could truly rise in power without a familiar to augment their magic. They all planned to secure a familiar for themselves, one way or another.
Once the wizard students left, Professor Angela kept the familiars for another hour, coaching them on tricks to replenish their native magic quickly. Meditation helped, but couldn’t be counted on during stressful situations.
She didn’t mention the erotic methods of replenishing magic, though she alluded to their future wizard masters having some tricks up their sleeves that would help. But it was incumbent on the familiars, she stressed, to be ready at all times to provide their wizard with the magic they required. A good familiar wouldn’t want to leave their wizard powerless during a major working or, worse, a pitched fight.
It made Iliana wonder if her two professors had been discussing her. Coming on the heels of Professor Tracy’s warnings, this lesson only distressed Iliana more. She wasn’t the only unhappy one, however, the familiars all a decidedly glum group as they shuffled out of the lab. If she hadn’t promised Han to meet him at the sleighing tournament, Iliana would’ve been tempted to grab a plate from the dining hall and eat in her room. Besides, it was Founders Eve and people would notice if she wasn’t celebrating.
She didnotneed a proctor checking on her emotional state.
Gamely, she pasted on a smile and, after grabbing her fur cloak and muff from her room, she joined the stream of students, staff, and faculty heading for the frozen lake at the center of campus. No sign of Han, yet, and no one had news of the results of that day’s testing. She didn’t have to ask—the fact that every other person she encountered stopped to askherabout it confirmed that much. If Han had gotten a result, he hadn’t told anyone.
Well, whatever he’d found out, she’d do her best to be cheerful and a good friend to him. She owed him that, due to their long friendship. But she also had to make it clear that they could only ever be friends.
And that was that.
~ 6 ~
Han spotted Ilianabefore she saw him. She wore her blue velvet cloak with the hood up against the chill, the white fur contrasting with her bright hair, freckles sprinkled like stars against her pale cheeks. She looked tired, her eyes shadowed with unhappiness, a patently fake smile pasted on her pretty mouth.
“Bad day, again?” he asked, stepping up beside her.
She smiled—still fake, but brighter—and shook her head. “It was fine. What about you—any results?” Her magic had an odd feel to it, kind of fragile, brittle still, not shining with her usual good-natured cheer.
“The candidate cannot be categorized,” he creaked out, mimicking the oracle head’s awful whisper. Iliana laughed, a hint of her usual humor in it, which was at least something. He’d been looking forward to seeing her again all day and something in himself settled at the sound of her laughter. Now if only he could do the same for her. He could make her happy, he just knew he could. “For you,” he said, adding a gallant bow, and presenting her with a cone of piping hot sugared nuts, her favorite.
“Han, you didn’t have to.” But she immediately plucked one out and popped it in her mouth. “Ooh, they’re hot!”
Didn’t he know it. It was the fifth cone of them he’d bought, since she’d arrived so late and the previous four had gone stone cold while he waited and watched for her. “You always say they’re not nearly as good when they’re not piping hot.”
“It’s true. Thank you, that was thoughtful.” She smiled, something of her usual sparkle in her eyes, and he congratulated himself for finding his way back into her regard. The way she’d begun to watch him warily, like he might turn into a Sabrina… well, he couldn’t take much more of that.
“I got us a sleigh,” he told her. “We’re in the fifth race. For familiars and uncats.”
“You do it,” she said, the cloud of unhappiness settling over her again. “The sleigh will be faster with one person. I only came because I promised, but I’m going to head back to my room, now that I’ve made an appearance.”
“Founding only comes once a year,” he protested. “Tomorrow’s a rest day.”
“Yes, and I plan torest,” she retorted.
“It’s a holiday, Iliana! Come on—we always do the sleigh race together, and this will be our last one at the academy.”
“True,” she acknowledged, gazing around at the vast outdoor party.
The second race had lined up on the ice, sleighs of laughing newly minted wizards calling taunts to each other. Alise Elal was in one sleigh, good naturedly waving off the attempts to derail her concentration. Since Elal-trained air elementals powered the sleighs, she was favored to win this race with her natural affinity for the little spirits, despite her raw skills.
