Guild Mage: Apprentice

"You need to take a bath," Liv complained to Matthew as their carriage returned to Acton House. "In fact, I think your mother should just sell the carriage and buy a new one."

Matthew sprawled across the opposite bench, his clothes covered in dirt. His leather fencing mask rattled about on the carriage floor whenever they took a turn, and his left wrist was tightly wrapped in linen bandages. "Blood and Shadows that girl can fight," he exclaimed. "I think I'm in love. Can you cool down these bandages again, Liv? This really hurts."

She rolled her eyes, leaned across the carriage, and touched the linens with two fingers. "Celet Co," Liv intoned, allowing only the tiniest sliver of mana to make its way out of her finger. She didn't know the word for bandages or linens, so she used the singular pronoun for this, and shaped her intent to affect only what she touched. Frost spiderwebbed its way across the surface of the linen wraps, and she immediately withdrew her hand and cut off the flow of mana.

"That's better," Matthew moaned, closing his eyes.

When the carriage rolled to a stop in the drive, Liv didn't wait for him. Instead, she opened the door herself and jumped down. "Remember," she called back into the carriage. "Clean yourself up and get changed."

Thora was waiting for Liv on her way in, but Liv didn't let her get a word out. "Before we go upstairs, I need you to show me to the kitchen."

"We need to do your hair, m'lady," Thora protested.

"After the kitchen. The Eld have very particular needs when it comes to food," Liv explained. "And there's no one in this house who understands that better than I do."

Thora sighed. "This way."

A wall of smells hit her as soon as the maid opened the door, and for just a moment Liv could almost believe that she was back at Castle Whitehill, and that when she walked in she'd be able to give her mother a hug, or sing a cooking song with Gretta. But she knew it wasn't true, so she walked on.

"Lady Liv!" one of the cooking maids exclaimed, and the cook himself spun around. He was a portly man with a neat mustache and close cropped black hair, wearing a linen apron.

"None of you have done anything wrong," Liv said, walking over to the space between the massive hearth and the table. "And I apologize for interrupting, I know you must be very busy preparing lunch. I wanted to say that you've all done a wonderful job with my food over the past couple of days, and that I appreciate it, because I know it's been extra work."

"Nonsense, it's been our privilege," the cook said. "We should apologize that the house wasn't properly stocked the moment you arrived."

"Lady Julianne hadn't visited in years," Liv said. "There's no reason it should have been. May I see what you're preparing for our guests, Master...?"

"Calvert, m'lady," the cook said. "Come over here, please." Liv came over to the counter and stood by while he showed her dish after dish: some finished and cooling, others still in progress. "To begin with, we have wild Courland hens wrapped in bacon, which is of course sourced from butchered wild boar, both animals hunted in the shoals of a rift. I couldn't tell you which one, m'lady, my apologies. They aren't fresh, but preserved in the enchanted cold boxes the guilds use for shipping."

"Those will be good," Liv said, nodding. "And these?"

"Roasted conies, also from shoals. Then we have a platter of nuts and cheese. The cheese is not enriched, sadly, but all the chestnuts, walnuts, and hazelnuts come from forest rifts. For dessert, a variety of berry tarts. The dough is just that, but all the berries are mana-rich."

"Excellent. You've done a wonderful job," Liv said. "Thank you so much, and I'm sure everyone will be delighted. I'm sorry to have interrupted you."

"Not at all," Calvert said. "The rumor is you know your way around a kitchen, m'lady."

"I started as a scullion maid," Liv told him, with a grin. "And my mother's the cook at Castle Whitehill. Maybe I'll come down and help you out sometime."

"If Basil hears about that, he'll die of scandal," Thora said. "Alright, you've seen the menu. Come along upstairs now, m'lady, and let me get you fixed up."

As Thora had been a good sport about taking her to the kitchen, Liv tried not to give her any more trouble, and even agreed to wear a set of combs in her hair that were set with pearls. Apparently, it had been decided that pearls were her jewel, and silver her metal, by some combination of Lady Julianne and the ladies' maids.

Every time Liv saw her closets, chests, and drawers opened, there appeared more and more dresses, shoes, bracelets and necklaces. If she hadn't known better quite well, she might have believed her new wardrobe was magic.

Finally, she made it downstairs and to the library, where the buzz of conversation greeted Liv out in the hall. "Ah, excellent," Lady Julianne said, coming over to meet her at the door. "Ambassador, Lord Inkeris, please allow me to present Apprentice Liv Brodbeck of the mages' guild - or Livara, I suppose, now that it's out in public."

Liv recognized the younger of the two Elden men, though Inkeris was no longer wearing armor or carrying that great spear he'd had down on the beach the night before. The older of the two she judged to be the ambassador, and both were wearing similar gray brocade robes. While Keri's long hair was blonde, the ambassador's was black, streaked with gray. Liv wondered how old he must be to show such visible signs of age.

"You are a welcome sight, again," Keri said, clasping her hand in his own. "I had thought that Ambassador Sakari and his guards would be the only Vakansa here in Freeport. I don't believe you had a chance to meet the Ambassador after the duel."

"I did not," Liv said, extending her hand to the older man. Unlike Keri, he greeted her in the human way, bowing over her hand.

"Livara Tär Valtteri Kaen Syvä," Ambassador Sakari said, releasing her. "Forgive me - you look so much like your namesake."

"You knew my aunt?" Liv asked, suddenly finding herself breathless. "And - my father?"

"I did," Sakari said. "Or I do, in your father's case. I can see him in you, also. If you looked differently, more human, there might be some doubt. But the blood of Celris is so clear in your eyes, your hair and face, that there can be no question of your ancestry."

"Come, why don't we all have a seat by the fire," Baron Henry suggested. Liv noticed that Matthew hadn't arrived yet, and she hoped that meant he'd taken her advice about cleaning up seriously. She found herself seated on one of the benches next to Lady Julianne, facing the two Elden men.

"Can you tell me about him?" Liv asked. "I only know what my mother has said."

"I met him thirty-one years ago," Sakari said, accepting a cup of wine from Archibald. "When he led a delegation on behalf of your family here, to negotiate with the guilds. It wasn't long after his sister had died, and I could tell that her loss affected him greatly. He did his best to put on a show of good cheer, but when he thought no one was looking there was a great sadness that lingered about him. Loss will do that to a man. We knew that he'd stopped first at Whitehill, and then in Courland, on his way here."

"Why didn't he use the waystones?" Keri asked. When Liv turned to look at him, he shrugged. "Thirty years ago I wasn't an adult yet," he admitted. "I heard about the disaster at the Tomb of Celris, of course: everyone did. But trade negotiations were not the sort of thing I was paying much attention to at the time."

"It was an opportunity to build relationships," Sakari answered. "Travelling by land. It meant that he was feasted at every court along the journey, in places where people could not remember the last time one of our people had visited. And I suspect his father also wanted to extend the journey, as a distraction."

"He must have loved his sister a great deal," Julianne remarked.

"That's how Mama knew to give me her name," Liv said. "He told her all about it. Well, some at least. She said he was very sad, and that she felt like he needed someone to talk to."

"I don't envy you the task of living up to that name," the ambassador admitted. "Inkeris here has built a reputation storming back and forth across the north over the past decade, but she was the kind of talent that comes only once a century, if that."

"Has there been fighting in the north?" Baron Henry asked.

Inkeris frowned. "I will speak about it during the council," he said.

"Is my father involved?" Liv asked, but before the young man could answer, Matthew burst through the doorway.

"My apologies," he said. "I had to get cleaned up after a morning of fencing."

"Matthew," Lady Julianne said, in a very even voice that told Liv she was an inch away from giving him a tongue-lashing, "why do you have a black eye?"

"Well, I didn't think it would be this bad," Matthew said, throwing himself down into an empty chair. "But it swelled up a lot since we got back. Triss got me good."

"Luncheon is served," Basil called from the doorway, and everyone rose. Julianne took the handles of her husband's chair, and led the way out of the library and over to the dining room.

"That was excellent timing," Liv told the steward as she went by him.

Basil's eyes twinkled. "All part of my duty, my lady," he said.

☙

Liv didn't find a chance to steer the conversation back to whatever Keri had been doing north of Al'Fenthia until dessert.

"When do you leave for Coral Bay, Matthew?" Ambassador Sakari asked.

"After the masque," Lady Julianne answered. "All of the students will go at the same time, using the waystone. But Matthew will be presented to my father first."

"Coral Bay is the college of magic?" Keri asked, taking a sip of his wine.

"Yes. Liv will be going in six years," Julianne said. "So far as our chirurgeons could tell, we'll consider her an adult at thirty-six years."

"That young?" Keri looked Liv over. "How old are you right now, then? Thirty?"

Liv nodded. "How old is one considered an adult among the Vakansa, then?"

"Seventy-two is the usual number," Ambassador Sakari said.

"And how old are you, Keri?" Liv asked.

"One hundred this winter," he answered. "But surely you'll come north, now?"

The sound of Julianne's fork on her desert plate was suddenly quite loud.

"I don't know," Liv admitted. "I have - a lot of choices to make, it sounds like. But I certainly wouldn't want to go north until I know what you've been fighting up there." She looked Keri in the eye firmly, determined to hold his gaze until he gave her a straight answer.

"I think that's only fair," Matthew said. "If there's some sort of war going on, she'd be putting herself in danger."

"Not a war," Ambassador Sakari said. "Merely a small bit of trouble."

"If it isn't important, then it shouldn't be a problem to tell me," Liv insisted.

Keri sighed and set his wine down on the table. "I've been hunting a cult dedicated to the worship of Ractia, Vædic Lady of Blood," he said. "Sometimes known as the Great Mother. At first we thought it was just a few worshippers, but now I've smoked out cells all across the north."

Liv's throat was suddenly very dry, and she reached for her wine. She did her best not to think of a wild-haired woman at a window, holding a white statue in her hand.

"Does this have anything to do with these monsters cropping up everywhere?" Matthew asked.

"I believe that it does," Keri said. "On the day it happened, I was leading a raid. They must have been making sacrifices before the altar, because there was blood everywhere once we got inside. It all rose up, at once, and began lashing out at my men. I lost three good warriors that day."

"It was like that in Whitehill, too," Liv broke in. "Not the sacrifices, or anything, but - we fought one at an inn, when the innkeeper cut himself. And then there was one out in the fields that I had to fight, as well."

"Then you know how dangerous these things can be," Keri said, leaning forward. "I believe this is all connected. It can't be a coincidence, that this cult is active at the same time monstrosities of blood begin wreaking havoc all across the east. We don't have word from Varuna yet, but I expect the council will have news from Lendh ka Dakruim. We need to work together to find out what caused this, and whether it's actually over, or if it will get worse."

"House Sherard controls the trade out of Lendh ka Dakruim," Julianne said. "Which means they control the information, as well."

"The queen controls it," Henry said. "Might as well say it out loud."

"Surely they'll agree this is important," Matthew said. "Won't they?"

"They care about the succession," Julianne said. "Which means they're more focused on the threat they believe me to be than anything else. It was my father who called the great council, not her."

"Which brings us to another point," Keri said, pointing at Liv. "She is far too wrapped up in a human succession. It's already risked her life once."

"I'm sitting right here," Liv snapped at him.

"I've already sent word to your father, Livara," Ambassador Sakari said. "I expect him within a few days. He will use the waystones, and come as fast as he can."

"My father's coming here?" Liv had a hard time breathing. She wasn't ready for this. Would he want her? Would he be angry that she'd been kept a secret from him? Maybe she looked too much like his dead sister, and he wouldn't be able to bear being around her.

"Of course Liv should meet her father," Julianne said. "But she's grown up at Whitehill. Her mother is there. You can't expect her to instantly go running off north the moment he appears in her life."

"You believe it would be more appropriate for you and your husband to adopt her?" Ambassador Sakari asked. "And after she goes to Coral Bay, I suppose that she can marry the Talbot boy who's been sniffing around her? I have my sources of information, don't look so surprised, Lady Julianne."

"I'm not marrying anyone," Liv said, but they all kept right on talking over her.

"Coral Bay is the best place for her to learn to use her magic," Julianne argued. "Archmagus Loredan is there."

"Our people have forgotten more about magic than your mages' guild has ever known," Keri shot back. "It isn't safe for her to be here. Have you had mana-sickness yet, Livara?"

Everyone turned toward her, and Liv froze. After a moment, she nodded.

"There it is," Keri said. "And the chirurgeons carved it out of your flesh, didn't they? You need to let us teach you starting immediately, before they hurt you any worse than they already have."

"That isn't your decision to make," Julianne hissed. "She's still a child."

"Who makes her decisions then? You?" The ambassador snapped. "I notice those adoption papers haven't been signed and returned yet."

"Stop!" Liv shouted, shoving her chair back and standing up. "Just stop, all of you. Do any of you even care to hear what I want?"

She looked up and down the table, and felt tears welling in her eyes. This wasn't how anything was supposed to be. Her father was coming. This should have been happy, instead of - whatever was happening.

"You clearly don't need me here," Liv said. "So I'll leave you to it. I suppose you can tell me what you've all decided when you're finished." She walked over to the wall, snatched up her staff, and stormed out of the room.

"Liv!" Lady Julianne called after her. "We just want what's best for you!"

Without answering, Liv rushed out into the back garden, then down the stairs toward the sea. When she got down to the beach, she paced back and forth for a moment, feeling that she might explode - like lightning against ice. Finally, she just screamed, as loud and long as she could, and then sat down on the dunes.

"Liv?" She jumped when she heard the voice, and turned to see Cade Talbot hurrying up the shore. "Are you alright?"

She sat there on the sand, trembling, and didn't object when he put an arm around her. Mama wasn't there, and Gretta wasn't there. Not even Emma, or a castle mouser to scoop up and squeeze, and Liv needed someone.

"I just," she gasped, wiping at her eyes with her hands. "None of them will listen to me, not a single one. It's like they don't care what I want at all."

Finally, Liv gave up and let the tears come. She wrapped her arms around Cade, and cried into his shoulder. He may not have been her mother, but at least he was here when she needed him.