Guild Mage: Apprentice

By the time market day arrived, Liv had run her students through two days of duels, along with a few other choice ideas she'd had. She conjured soldiers of ice, like she had for Matthew years ago, and sent them charging. Tephania, Alan, Milo, the girl with the frizzy blonde hair – whose name, it turned out, was Gratia – and all the others had to scramble away from Liv's creations, flinging blades of mana back at their attackers using the class wands.

A different morning, Liv tasked half the class with trying to hit her, while she practiced summoning mana-shields to defend herself. It was good practice for Liv, as well, mouthing the incantations as quickly and quietly as she could. She couldn't cast the shields silently yet, but the thought of how many ice blades she'd melted in the bath chamber of the High Hall suite kept her from being discouraged.

Once, Liv would have thought that without classes to fill her day, there would have been plenty of time to do whatever she wished at Coral Bay. Between taking her friends out on a rowboat to practice at the edge of the tidal rift shoal, tutoring Celestria Ward in silent casting and then suffering under the oppressive weight of the other girl's Authority, and enchanting new wands for her students, Liv's days rushed by without pause or hesitation.

The sheriff of Coral Bay had set up a gallows at one end of the market down by the docks, and by the tenth bell of the morning a crowd had begun to gather. Liv had always detested crowds.

"I can't see a thing," she complained, bouncing up onto the toes of her boots in an effort to get her head above the people in front of them.

"You aren't missing anything yet," Rose assured her.

"I'm still not confident we're going to learn anything valuable from this," Liv grumbled. "Other than what it sounds like when a man's neck breaks. Something I'm perfectly happy to have avoided until this point in my life."

"You grew up at a castle and never once saw a criminal hanged?" Sidonie asked, glancing sideways at Liv.

She shook her head. "Whitehill is a small town, really. We never had much trouble except for when some of the men drank too much."

"I've never seen anyone hanged either," Arjun broke in. Everyone turned to look at him, including Tephania.

"I've seen plenty of people hanged," she said. "My father's a knight. Whenever we'd get bandits in the foothills, he'd get sent up to drag people in."

"Shush, here they come, finally," Rose said.

She was the tallest of them, though Liv had never paid the fact much mind before. Everyone was taller than her, after all. She got back up onto her toes, but still couldn't see. Finally, Liv muttered an incantation under her breath, creating a rectangular plane of mana about four inches off the ground. She stepped up onto it, wobbled for a moment, and had to reach out and grab Rose and Arjun's arms to either side in order to steady herself. Wren, of course, was probably perched up on a rooftop or in a bell-tower somewhere, with the best view of them all.

In front of the gallows, a man in jack of plate, with an arming sword at his side, and thinning hair, faced the crowd. Two other men, dressed in the royal colors of purple and gold, stood at attention off to one side, while the sheriff's assistants wrestled a middle-aged, overweight prisoner up onto a wooden stool, and his thick neck into the loop of the hangman's noose.

"Just over a month ago," the sheriff began, addressing the crowd in a gravelly voice that carried easily to where Liv and her friends stood, "our town was attacked by criminals and mercenaries. Lawless men who sought to loot the tidal rift for their own profit, with no regard for the sanctity of law or the safety of our kingdom. This man, Obediah Cartwright, conspired to aid and abet the criminals, up to and including smuggling an ancient war machine into our town to be used in the assault. Do not think that such acts escape the notice of our good King Benedict, who has sent two officers in the new royal army to join us here today."

One of the two soldiers, a fit young man with close cropped honey-blonde hair and strikingly elegant brows, stepped forward to stand beside the sheriff. "I am Lord Lieutenant Bennet Howe of the Lucanian Royal Army, in service to King Benedict."

"Howe," Liv murmured. There'd been a Baron Howe at Benedict's side during the negotiation between him and Julianne, six years ago - and Milisant's second had been a Howe, as well. That man had been middle aged: would this be his son, then? There was something about the young officer that looked familiar to Liv, even though he didn't have much resemblance to his theoretical father.

"The king will not permit lawlessness to go unpunished," Lord Lieutenant Howe continued. "His reign will be one of stability and safety for all of our people. Let today serve as an example of the king's justice, and of the end that awaits those who betray our kingdom." Howe stepped back, and at the sheriff's order, his assistants' kicked the stool out from under Obediah Cartwright's feet.

Liv flinched, and suddenly felt that she didn't need to see above the crowd, after all. She stepped down from her platform of mana and allowed it to dissolve into a cloud of glowing motes that drifted away and dissipated.

"So, did we actually learn anything?" Rose asked. The small group of friends turned away from the macabre display and began to pick a path back out through the crowd. "Aside from the fact the new soldiers have very snappy uniforms."

"Yes," Liv answered. "More than I'd expected to, actually. I recognize that name, Howe. There was a Baron Howe standing with Benedict six years ago. I'm wondering whether that lieutenant is his son."

"I can answer that for you," Sidonie said. "Bennet Howe is the heir to Lingdale. He was at the coronation with his parents and his younger sister. She's due to begin here this coming Harvest, I believe."

"Spent a lot of time with the new king, did they?" Liv guessed.

"There are rumors he's courting Princess Milisant," Sidonie confirmed. "Trinity help him. She's always been a real piece of work, even before you beat her."

"So we know that the king is stocking his new army with loyal supporters," Rose said, as they turned out of the market and began making their way up the bluff toward the campus. "Is that any real surprise, though?"

"No," Liv admitted. "Not a surprise, exactly. But not welcome news, either. Notice neither of them gave Jurian, or even the guild, the slightest bit of credit for fighting off the attack? It was all about the king's justice, safety, security, loyalty - not a word of praise to the man who actually stood up and fought."

It was a grim beginning to the day, and Liv couldn't help but stew over the events long after.

☙

Still, life at Coral Bay proceeded along its frenetic pace.

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As the hottest part of the year baked the sandy beaches, Rosamund proved as good as her word, testing up into Advanced Healing and Guild Law and History. Each examination was accompanied by late study sessions with her friends, particularly Sidonie and Liv, though they all helped. Arjun was drilling Rose on anatomy right up until the very moment she walked into the infirmary, throwing out the names of bones and organs one after as they walked across the courtyard.

The combat courses had never been Rosamund's difficulty, and she immediately took the guild oath with Archmagus Jurian, accepting the imprint of Aluth. "I was never going to inherit anything, anyway," Rose told them all, after she had her new word of power. "That's my brother, not me. Now I can practice mana shields with you, Liv."

Teph was the first to challenge out of Liv's remedial combat class, after two weeks of brutal training that seemed to give her a boost of confidence. She was not, surprisingly, the last: Milo and Gratia followed just before flood season turned to harvest season. Alan made two attempts, failing on each occasion, but Liv was already satisfied that a full quarter of her supposedly hopeless students had passed on from her care.

Thora had been sent to Whitehill and back, carrying Liv's letters, and by the time of the solstice a package arrived from Al'Fenthia, as well, delivered by an Elden woman in armor who carried curious students behind her across the courtyard like a swirl of wind-blown leaves in autumn. Though Liv invited her, Soile – that was her name – refused to remain for an evening meal.

Wren and Thora were the only ones in the room when Liv opened the package, revealing a polished comb of teakwood, inscribed with Vædic sigils and set with polished mana stones.

"You already have a comb," Wren pointed out.

"This is different," Liv said. "It's to be worn when putting my hair up. Let's see how it looks. Thora?"

By the time Liv's hair was piled up on top of her head in artfully arranged white strands, and the comb set in place, she could feel the magic of the enchantment taking effect. Unlike the boots from Lendh ka Dakruim, or the wands Liv made for her students, the comb was intended not to release a spell in a single burst, but to protect her the entire time she wore it.

"There's no way to test it, is there?" Wren asked her.

"I could ask Jurian," Liv said, with a sigh. "I'm almost certain he would know the technique to check for imprints." For her part, she was certain it would be something other than a simple incantation: her father had done it, after all, and she didn't think he had a single word of power in common with Archmagus Caspian. Still, it wasn't taught to the students.

"Of course, the moment I asked him to check, I'd already be confirming things he shouldn't know," Liv continued. "If my father wasn't in Varuna, I'd go to him. But I wouldn't even know how to begin tracking him down at the moment, and it would probably take months. No, I think we'll just have to take it on trust."

As the number of different wands in the remedial class' chest grew, Liv found that she needed to devote less and less time to creating more. Her students had exhausted the easy ideas, and their dueling now often revolved around experimenting with the wands they already had, and trying out different combinations.

Liv used the time to begin work on a piece of eel bone that she acquired during the second king tide of the year. This time, she was put in charge of her own team, and she took Arjun, Rosamund, Tephania and Wren with her. She'd half expected to be told she needed to add more students, but Jurian had just shrugged as if he'd already been expecting her list.

Without having to worry about a band of suspicious mercenaries, Liv found she actually enjoyed herself. None of the sea creatures they hunted could really present a threat to her, at this point – compared to the waves of corpses she'd fought in the Well of Bones, the entire event felt almost too easy. Still, neither Teph nor Arjun had participated in the first tide of the year, and she knew the practice would be good for them. By the end, they'd found three pearls between them all, earned a good bit of coin from the meat they returned with, and Liv had hauled out a dead storm eel nearly as long as she was tall.

Most of it she didn't care about, but she did remove an oversized piece of vertebra, which she brought to dinner at the Crab and Gull with Captain Athearn. The Annie Gallant was in port for the king tide, just as promised, though with the mercenaries and the attack already dealt with, Liv found that she didn't need a crew of head-cracking sailors, after all. Still, Coram Athearn had news from all across the kingdom.

"Trade with Varuna's down," he said. "Sea trade with anywhere beyond the kingdom, in fact. The king's duties make it hard to run any kind of profit on foreign goods."

"How do the sailors and captains feel about that?" Liv asked.

"The more adventurous are going to Dakruiman ports. Some have even tried to weigh anchor at Soltheris," the captain said. "It's tangled everything up something fierce, though. No one's very happy about it. Supposedly the merchants' guild is going to petition the court to change things."

"Is there any word from Varuna?" Liv asked, even though she knew it hadn't been long enough for word to come back of her father's arrival.

"Bah," Athearn exclaimed, and tossed back a cup of wine. "The ships leaving Calder's Landing now won't even have heard of the duties yet. They're not going to find out until they get back to a Lucanian port, and they'll be furious. But it means that hardly anyone is sailing west."

In the enchanting workshop, Liv spent days carving and polishing her bit of mana infused eel-bone into the shape of a button. On the back side, she carved sigils that she hoped no one would see, as small as she could. She chose times to work when most of the students were in other classes.

For the final step, she and Wren rode out north along the beach one night, and the huntress stood watch while Liv roused Luc and used it to resonate with the eel-bone button. Once she was certain the enchantment had settled in, she slipped the button into her pocket and brought it back to High Hall, where she gave it to Thora.

"Cover this in fabric to match the other buttons on my blue dress," Liv instructed her lady's maid. "Then use it to replace the top button on the bodice." She was quietly accumulating a selection of enchanted tools and protections, none of which Liv wanted anyone outside her small circle of friends to be aware of. Duels were near as often won by surprise as by skill.

By a week into harvest season, the college was busy preparing for the arrival of new students. Edith and Cade were not the only students who had gone home, as the year went on. Save Sidonie and the others who seemed content to teach classes, most of the journeymen who'd been at Coral Bay when Liv arrived had departed to cull rifts and earn their rank as full mages. Many of the young women, having accomplished their goal of snaring a husband while at the school, had departed for married life. The elder sons of the aristocracy left as well, for they would not give up their inheritance to take the guild oath. All in all, there was no shortage of empty rooms waiting to be filled by new arrivals.

Liv only happened to be eating in the great hall when the royal proclamation was delivered because Archmagus Loredan had let it be known that he intended to address the student body, and everyone had best be present. That had turned out to be only a matter of routine: the duties of the older students during the beginning of the new academic year would be posted inside every hall, next to the door. Liv expected that she would be helping to oversee combat examinations with Archmagus Jurian.

When the door to the hall opened, and two soldiers in royal colors entered, conversation dwindled, but did not stop. King Benedict's proclamations had continued through the heat of the year, mostly a series of tax reforms that were as uninteresting as they were specific. Only the students from merchant families seemed to understand the point, and they mostly agreed that old and archaic laws were being given a long needed overhaul.

This time, however, Liv recognized Lord Lieutenant Bennet Howe, from the execution months before. After a brief conversation with Archmagus Loredan at the high table, the young man called for attention.

"This feels planned," Rose murmured.

Howe unrolled a large piece of parchment, though he did not read from it directly. "King Benedict has proclaimed," the young officer announced, "a reorganization of the guilds. It has been decades or, in some cases, centuries since the royal charters were approved, and there is much overcomplication and archaic language. Therefore, to bring the guilds into the modern day, rather than the past, each guild shall now be headed by a single guild master, to be appointed by the crown."

An immediate upwelling of noise nearly drowned the soldier's voice out, as students and professors alike all began talking at once. "It is my pleasure to announce to you," Bennet Howe continued, practically shouting to be heard, "that Genevieve Arundell, Court Mage to King Benedict, is hereby appointed Guild Mistress of the Watchful Guild of Magim."

He turned, and inclined his head to Caspian Loredan. "Archmagus Loredan remains chancellor of the college, of course, subject to the guild mistress' review of guild regulations and ranks."

Liv looked to the archmagus, sitting at the center of the high table at the head of the great hall, and saw that Caspian Loredan was utterly still. She wondered what was going through his head, right then. Was he regretting not siding with Julianne outright? Was he regretting getting involved in the power struggle at all? Perhaps if he'd stood at Benedict's right hand, he would have been named guild master right now.

"As Archmagus and chancellor of this college," Caspian said, rising from his seat, "I hereby summon all mages of Lucania to meet here in conclave."