Page 10 of Rogue Familiar

Seliah laughed, sounding a little watery, and held onto Alise a moment longer. “He left a note. Seems to think he’s doing the noble thing. Protecting me.”

Alise nodded, but looked confused. Nic didn’t blame her as none of it really made sense to her either.

“I’m going after him,” Seliah added. “But whether I’ll have to murder him remains to be seen.” She seemed about to say something more, but closed her mouth over it.

“Well,” Alise said briskly, dusting her hands together. “To answer your question, Nic, as I understand now how it’s especially pertinent—I don’t know if Maman’s condition is due more to the severing or from being trapped in a cat body. The eyes indicate lingering effects of the feline form.” She gestured uselessly at their mother. “Wizard Asa says the eyes are resistant to healing, stemming from her own magic and not something he can alter. As for the severing, well, that may be a factor. Laryn is still listless and seeming very low.”

Nic sighed for that. Asa’s former familiar was an enduring problem, complicated by the fact that Nic hadn’t liked the woman before she betrayed them all. “Asa did examine her, which I’m sorry he had to do, and says that she seems to be fine physically. It could be that she’s depressed.”

“When one’s evil and treacherous plans are foiled and one is facing a possible death sentence, I doubt it makes for a happy attitude,” Alise noted. “She’s alive. She doesn’t need to be happy.”

Nic smiled at that. She and Alise understood one another. “No doubt. At any rate, Asa says that he isn’t feeling any negative effects from the severing himself—aside from not having access to Laryn’s magic—so if Seliah decides that she’s better off letting Jadren go, there shouldn’t be a concern about his health.”

“If we even care about his wellbeing,” Alise said, glancing at Seliah, “as he’s the one who violated one of the Convocation’s most sacred and solemn responsibilities by carelessly abandoning his familiar.”

Seliah’s mouth set in a mulish line. No, she didn’t like having any aspersions cast on her wizard. That, more than anything else, had convinced Nic of Seliah’s feelings for Jadren. Gabriel could storm and protest all he liked, but a familiar’s attachment to their wizard went beyond enchantment, deeper than the softer emotions of love and affection, and drilled its way into their very soul.

Out of sympathy for Seliah’s struggle, Nic went on. “The severing option is on the table—depending on what Seliah decides, but that’s not the only reason why we’re here. I wanted her to see the results of the severing and what Papa did to Maman, yes, but we also came to fetch you. Seliah needs to practice with a wizard.” Nic frowned, not liking the idea of asking Alise to do any magic work in her exhausted condition. “But maybe I should ask someone—.”

Alise interrupted with some impatience. “I can do it. I’m fine, really. What do you have in mind?”

“Let’s go somewhere else,” Nic suggested, not really liking being in the room with Maman and treating her like a piece of furniture.

Glancing at their unmoving mother, Alise nodded. “We can go to my rooms.” She led them to the suite next door. Though Alise hadn’t yet graduated from Convocation Academy and thus wasn’t a full wizard, she’d been granted official status in House Phel as their resident Elal wizard. They needed Elal magic badly and Gabriel had drawn a firm, bright line against bargaining with House Elal for anything at all. And that was before they’d sent the lord of the house home missing an eye and a familiar—and nursing an enormous grudge.

In alignment with Alise’s status at House Phel, she’d been given several large, interconnected rooms on the top floor, the windows open to the honeyed, midday sun, the lush lawn below rolling down to the lazily flowing Dubglass River. Through the doorway to Alise’s bedchamber, Nic noted that her sister’s bed was neatly made in such crisp lines that she doubted it had been slept in for days, if ever at all.

Two birds with one stone it would be then. “Let’s begin with passive sensing of magic,” Nic announced. “I can absolutely sense that Alise’s magic is worn thin to the breaking point.” When Alise opened her mouth to protest, Nic held up a hand to stop her. “I’m sure Seliah can, too, can’t you?”

Seliah looked briefly startled, her amber eyes going so wide they dominated her solemn, fine-boned face. “I… think I should be left out of this argument between sisters.”

“But Seliah,” Alise said sweetly, while glaring at Nic, “you’re our sister by marriage now. All in the family.”

“Speak freely,” Nic prompted Seliah. “This isn’t about me being Alise’s sister as much as me being Lady Phel.”

“As a wizard, I outrank you, Familiar Veronica,” Alise sniped.

“You’re not a grown wizard yet and don’t make me sic Gabriel on you,” Nic retorted, planting her fists on her hips. She jerked her chin at Seliah, giving her a hard look. “Tell me what you sense. This is part of what you need to learn.”

Though Seliah looked a bit like a deer facing an onrushing elemental-powered carriage, she gamely faced Alise, a line between her dark brows as she scrunched her face in concentration.

“Don’t force it,” Nic coached her. “Remember that being a familiar means your magic is, by definition, passive. You can’t reach out to Alise, but you can sense her, take in the field of magic emanating from her—or that should be, if she weren’t neglecting her health. Were you able to feel Jadren’s magic, perhaps gauge his mood, even a sense of his thoughts?”

Seliah’s face cleared in surprise. “Yes. I wasn’t sure if that was normal or if…” She trailed off uncertainly, an unhappy twist to her mouth.

“You couldn’t trust your magic for a long time,” Nic told her gently. She didn’t know what it had felt like to Seliah, to be trapped in that stagnant magic that had built up inside her for far too long and distorted her perception of reality, but Nic had tasted some of it, via Gabriel and Jadren as they worked to purge Seliah of the accumulated poisons. The magic had bent and twisted back on itself, like something that had grown out of Seliah but became a thing that wasn’t her at all. “It’s not surprising that you don’t have a precise sense of what strong, functioning magic feels like. How did Jadren’s magic feel to you?”

“Like well-oiled clockwork ticking against the inside of my skin,” Seliah answered. “Is that right?”

“There is no right or wrong,” Nic replied promptly, though she’d never heard anyone describe magic that way. That wasn’t how Jadren felt to her, but these things could be very subjective. “What matters is what your senses tell you. Describe what you sense from Alise.”

Seliah moved closer to Alise, who sighed in resignation—or, more likely, utter exhaustion—and sat in an armchair. “Her magic feels like yours,” Seliah said, “like roses in the hot summer sun.”

Nic nodded. That was how Gabriel described her magic, too, so it made sense that another member of the Phel family would perceive it the same way. “What else?”

Seliah hesitated, but Alise waved her to continue, sitting back and closing her eyes. Her lids showed blue veins, her dusky skin was that translucent. “I understand why you say brittle,” Seliah continued, casting a glance at Nic. “Alise’s magic feels like… a transparent sheet. As if I could put my hand through it in places.”

Nic shot a significant glare at her sister, which was utterly lost as Alise hadn’t opened her eyes. “That makes no sense,” Alise said wearily.

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