Guild Mage: Apprentice-Chapter 108: Authority

The first few weeks at Coral Bay, with the giddy joy of new friends, evening meals at the Crab and Gull, and the pleasant distraction of Cade Talbot, now seemed to Liv like not only a dream from which she’s woken, but in fact a waste of time that bordered on irresponsible. While she’d been drinking too much wine and giggling, her people had been attacked and killed.

From now on, Liv resolved, there would be nothing but work. If her father and grandmother didn’t think she was ready to be part of the fight against the Cult of Ractia, she would simply show them that they were wrong.

After a quick dinner, she spent the warm dusk down at the training grounds with Rosamund, Arjun, and Tephania, working with blunted weapons or wrestling in the dirt. Sidonie brought a blank journal down to the stands, and began to outline the organization of their project on the wildlife of the far north, hounding Liv for material in between every bout or demonstration.

Wren joined them as the sun touched the horizon, painting the clouds in shades of scarlet and purple. The purple streak in the huntress’ hair had begun to fade out, and she smelled of a pungent combination of sawdust and mildew. “Where’ve you been?” Liv asked, taking a gulp of watered wine: very well watered, she’d had Thora see to that: from the leather skin she’d brought along.

“Watching and listening,” Wren said. “I told you that I’d see to things while you were gone. I’ve spent most of my time in the rafters of a certain warehouse, since you left. Only came back in the mornings to check in with Jurian, and when I needed to get a bit of food or to sleep.”

“The mercenaries,” Liv guessed, collapsing onto the bench next to her supposed bodyguard. As if the conversation was an excuse to take a break, the others gathered around, as well.

“That’s right,” Wren said. “That warehouse has been turned into something like a barracks for them. They’ve got bunk beds framed in green wood, cheap mattresses and pillows, and cheesecloth tacked up to keep the bugs off. They didn’t bother fixing the windows or anything, and the roof leaks: we got a bit of rain yesterday.”

“That sounds perfectly miserable,” Tephania said.

“And not safe for any length of time,” Arjun added. “Sounds like the sort of place that’s crawling with rats, and rats bring disease.”

“I’m less worried about their well-being than what they’re actually doing,” Liv said. “Particularly the one with the mustache, he seemed to be in charge. What was his name, Rose?”

“Bill Skinner,” Rosamund said, plopping herself down on the bench next to Liv. “He didn’t seem like he cared much what happened to his men, honestly.”

“These are the ones you met out during the king tide?” Sidonie asked. “I heard a little bit about that from Venetia. It sounded like they didn’t know what they were doing.”

“More they didn’t care about getting a good catch, I suspect,” Liv said. “I think they were looking for something out by the reef. Did you manage to learn anything, Wren?”

“The merchant who hired them - Cartwright - is using them to escort deliveries, guard his stores, that sort of thing,” Wren told them. “Skinner’s got them going out in shifts, two at a time. But I really got the impression they were just killing time until the next king tide.”

“That’s an awful long time to be waiting around,” Tephania said. “Which is funny to say, because it seems like a very short time to get out of all our basic classes.”

“Just over eight months,” Sidonie said. “Who’s going to pay these men to just sit around and do busy work that entire time? It’s expensive.”

“I asked Jurian if we could just round them up,” Wren broke in. “But he said nothing they’d done was against the law.”

“Can you continue to keep an eye on them?” Liv asked her.

“It’s easy enough,” Wren said. “No one notices one more: no one notices me up in the rafters.”

Tephania leaned forward. “Are you some sort of spy?” she asked.

“She’s my bodyguard,” Liv broke in, before Wren could answer. “And she’s pretty good at not being seen. Let’s leave it at that, for now. It sounds like we can’t do anything until either Wren overhears something we can take to Master Jurian, or unless we can figure out what they’d be looking for. Sidonie, do you know anything about Vædic ruins in the bay - out by the reef?”

“Advanced Guild Law and History,” Sidonie said. “None of you are in it, are you?” The rest of the group shook their heads. “Alright, then. Coral Bay was a food production site over a thousand years ago - the waystone was used to ship shellfish and the like as far as Varuna, for the Vædim and their servants. But of course, the old gods didn’t just send slaves to go fishing - they used magic to bolster production. That’s why there’s a rift out in the bay.”

Liv nodded along as she listened. “Like how Bald Peak was a mine for mana-stone,” she said, then frowned. “And something about power.”

“Right,” Sidonie agreed. “So the reason the Blackstones settled here was two-fold. First, to manage the rift, so that it wouldn’t endanger everyone in the area:”

“Standard reason for setting up a barony,” Rosamund broke in.

Sidonie nodded, then continued. “There’s been a few research projects into the whole thing, but it’s difficult to actually get into the ruins and get a look at anything, given the entire thing is, first of all, underwater for most of the year, and then it seems like the coral has actually grown on top of the ruins.”

“That’s why they were poking about,” Liv reasoned. “They were looking for a way in.”

“Indulge me for a moment,” Sidonie requested. “What are the odds these people really are just a bunch of mercenaries hired as guards, and being out so far during a rift is due to incompetence, not anything nefarious?”

“When I find a jaguar’s track in the mud,” Wren said, “I don’t tell myself, ‘oh, it probably came by yesterday, I’m fine.’ I check.”

“Everyone’s been assuming that nothing was going to happen to them,” Liv said. “The Eld assumed it at the Hall of the Ancestors, and look what it got them. Attacked. I’d rather look into this and find nothing, than wait around and watch the college burn.”

“When a patient complains of a symptom, a good chirurgeon listens,” Arjun said. “If you ignore the signs of a disease, you miss the chance to catch it early, and that makes it even harder to save someone’s life. Which is to say, let’s not dismiss a symptom. Let’s figure out what’s going on.”

“I’ve got a feeling those guys were up to no good, and I tend to trust my feelings,” Rose said.

Liv looked to Tephania.

“Oh!” the blonde girl exclaimed, upon realizing that everyone was waiting for her to speak up. “Well, I’ve really got no experience in this sort of thing. But my father’s a knight, and he always said it was better to be too cautious than to be dead. So let’s do that.”

“Alright, then,” Liv said, looking back to Sidonie. “Sounds like we’re agreed. Is this research in the library?”

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“I believe so,” Sidonie said. “We should probably begin by speaking to Professor Every. She’d know where to begin.”

Liv had only really seen the professor once or twice; at the convocation that welcomed the first years to Coral Bay, and when she’d eaten at the professors’ table. She had never actually spoken to the woman, and only had the impression of a face both thin and severe, and dark hair. “Could you introduce us?” she asked Sidonie.

“Probably best not to bring the whole group,” the girl in the spectacles decided, after a moment. “Let me approach her first, and set up an appointment, and we can go from there. Give me a day or two.”

☙

Liv slept well that night; whether it was from being worn out by Rosamund’s exercise and sparring session, emotionally exhausted by her grandfather’s death and funeral, or some combination of the two was difficult to tell. As Thora helped her to dress in the morning, she resolved to not simply slide back into the routine of her first few weeks of classes, but to turn every waking moment toward moving forward.

When she came out for breakfast, Edith immediately pushed her plate aside and stood up. Without a word, she walked across the landing and headed down the staircase, pretending that Liv didn’t exist.

Digging into a breakfast of sausage and crab cakes, Liv decided that she couldn’t have cared less. In fact, it was far more pleasant to have the other girl out of the room than to have her in it. Florence and Helewise were a bit awkward and quiet, afterwards, but Sidonie and Tephania made up for it. When Liv headed out for her basic Armed Combat course, Teph walked along with her, and Wren met them in the courtyard, already drenched in sweat.

“Are you going to keep meeting Master Jurian in the mornings?” Liv asked her, and Wren nodded.

“For an old man, he can fight,” the huntress admitted. “Starting to slow down, though. If he doesn’t win quick, I can outlast him every time.”

The journeyman ran the whole crew of first years down the road and out into the country like usual, but once they’d made it back, and before the classes could split up, the last voice Liv wanted to hear interrupted.

“I’ve got a challenge to make,” Merek Sherard said. “To move up out of remedial.”

“Alright,” Gamel said, watching the blond boy with narrowed eyes. Liv knew what was coming even before Sherard had a chance to say it out loud: people like him were never content to just let things lie. Out of some misguided sense of self importance, her very existence was now some kind of affront to him.

“I challenge First Year Brodbeck,” Sherard said, lips curled in a cruel smile.

“No,” Journeyman Gamel told him immediately. “Absolutely not. Not after what happened last time.”

“I thought challenges couldn’t be refused?” Sherard asked. “Unless I misunderstood, Journeyman.”

“You didn’t misunderstand,” Gamel said, shaking his head on the treetrunk he called a neck. “She ain’t refusing. I’m telling you no. Challenge someone else.”

“I accept,” Liv said. Murmuring broke out among the other students, and she found both Arjun and Tephania by her side, as if they were trying to protect her. “It’s my choice, isn’t it?” Liv asked Gamel. “I accept.”

The journeyman ground his jaw. “A moment, Brodbeck,” he said. “Sherard, you get your gear on and find a weapon.” With only three steps, Gamel had covered the distance to Liv, taken her by the elbow, and pulled her away from the crowd, leaving the other journeymen to hustle the lower classes onto the stands. “You looking for revenge?” he asked her, once they were out of earshot.

“Something like that,” Liv said. “Just a little. More that I need to move up to the advanced course, yesterday. If I can’t beat a rat like Sherard, how am I ever going to do that?”

Gamel released her arm, and reached up to massage his temples. “You’re going to cost me all my hair before I’m thirty, aren’t you? Fine. But now you know what sort of little shit he is, don’t let him catch you off guard again, you hear me?”

Liv jogged over to the trunks where the practice equipment was stored, and found herself a blunted rapier and a leather fencing mask. The girls helped her strap her armor on, and not five minutes later, she was once again facing Merek Sherard across a space of beaten earth in the center of the training yard.

This time, hers was the only match happening, and even the advanced students with Master Jurian had paused in their exercises to watch. Liv ran her eyes over them, nodding once to Rosamund, and tried to pick out which of them she’d challenge when she was ready. Then, she forced the thought aside and settled into the same stance she’d used against Merek the first time: First Guard. She wasn’t overconfident enough to think she’d gotten better than him in such a short time - but she did have an idea.

“Begin!” Gamel shouted. For a moment, nothing happened, so Liv let the tip of her sword dip, just a little bit. Merrek lunged, but this time she was ready for it. Again, Liv used the same parry as she had on the day the boy had broken her arm, then lunged.

There it is, she thought, with no small amount of satisfaction. Perhaps Sherard believed she’d only trained enough to know a few rote exchanges; perhaps he simply wasn’t thinking at all. Regardless, she’d lured him into the same exchange as before. When he stepped inside her guard to disarm her and take the arm, she dropped her sword immediately, continued forward, and kneed him between the legs as hard as she could.

Merek Sherard’s eyes bulged out like those of a particularly panicked frog, and he made a sound like the hiss of steam escaping a boiling kettle. He dropped his sword, clutched his hands to his groin, and fell to the ground.

“I believe that’s match?” Liv asked Journeyman Gamel.

“The challenge is failed,” Gamel announced. “Sherard remains in the remedial course. In your groups, everyone! Back to work!”

As Liv walked over to the chests of equipment and stripped off her borrowed fencing mask, she couldn't help but smile when the journeyman called for a healer.

☙

After her shift with Arjun in the infirmary - during which Liv quite deliberately did not chill a compress for Merek Sherard - Liv walked up to the second floor of Blackstone Hall to join the archmagus for lunch. When she knocked on the door to his office, Caspian Loredan answered immediately.

“If that’s you, Apprentice Brodbeck, come in.”

Liv opened the door and slipped inside. The archmagus’ desk had been cleared: well, mostly cleared, save for a stack of papers off to one side, weighted down by a small book. Two sets of bowls and spoons had been set out, as well as a bottle of red wine and two goblets. There was a steaming loaf of fresh bread, a plate of butter, and a pot of what smelled like rabbit stew.

“You’ll find,” Archmagus Loredan said, spooning out a generous helping of stew into each bowl, “that you can get sick even of seafood, if you have it everyday. Lobster, especially. Those things breed like: well, like rabbits. I thought we might enjoy something that ran around on land, for a change. Have a seat.”

Liv tucked her skirt in, settled herself in the chair at the front of the desk, and tore off a hunk of hot bread, which she slathered with butter. When she took a bite, she recognized the warmth of mana spilling into her body. “Grain from a shoal, or was it an eruption?” she asked.

“Eruption,” Loredan said, having finished serving the stew. “It’s too dangerous to have farmers constantly in the shoals trying to grow a crop.”

“We sold a good deal of this sort of thing to the Eld, the harvest after Bald Peak last erupted,” Liv said. “The timing wasn’t good this time around, though. I wonder how that will work out.” For a moment, she pictured Duchess Julianne, Baron Henry, and even Matthew and Triss gathered around the high table at Whitehill, planning what to do with the year’s crop. She tried not to miss being there with them too much. “Anyway, Grandmother told me to ask you about Authority.”

“Your grandmother tasks me,” Loredan grumbled. “Not only to keep you safe, but now this. You’re certain the word she wanted you to ask me about was Authority?”

“Yes,” Liv said, then paused to take her first spoonful of stew. It was all she could do not to let her eyes roll back in her head at the taste. “Mmm, this is good. She told me to show her a silent spell next time I saw her, and to ask you what Authority was.”

“Not normally the sort of thing I would discuss with an apprentice,” the archmagus said. “It’s of no practical use until you have more control.”

“I don’t intend to be an apprentice for long,” Liv told him.

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“Test out of those three basic courses before you talk like that,” Loredan advised her. “Alright. When you form your blades of ice: what do you call the spell?”

“Frozen Shards,” Liv answered.

“Your shards, then. When you form them, they appear in front of you, and then are propelled forward at your target, yes?”

Liv nodded.

“Have you ever wondered why they form a foot or so in front of you, and not, for instance, thirty feet away, behind your target?”

Liv shrugged. “It just feels comfortable. But I can create things far away - my flowers and vines, or the soldiers. And I can launch shards from something I’ve already created.”

“But if I asked you to form one down in that courtyard,” the archmagus said, pointing at the window, “I doubt you could hold it there, hovering above the ground. Do you know why?”

“Well, first of all, I haven’t tried,” Liv protested. “So I don’t know if I could do it. But alright, you’re clearly going somewhere. Why?”

“Because that courtyard is outside of your fledgling, very weak, unconscious Authority,” Caspian Loredan explained. “The extent to which you are most easily able to take control of mana external to your body. The further away from your Authority you work your magic, the more difficult it is, the less control you have, the more mana you waste. You’ve never been taught to wield it, to strengthen and extend your Authority, so you use it only out of instinct. But with training, it is one of your most powerful weapons: or defenses. Tell me, have you ever wondered how your aunt managed to control all those swords?”