Guild Mage: Apprentice

60. The House of Syvä

Slight Trigger Warning (In Spoiler Tags for those who like to avoid them):

Nothing graphic, but there is some reference to HOW the Eld got Vaedic blood, and it's about what you'd expect from a relationship between slavers and the people they have enslaved.

"He didn't seem very upset to be imprisoning his mother," Liv observed, following Lady Julianne into the first carriage, along with Baron Henry and her father. "In fact, it didn't feel like he gave us much trouble at all."

"Pull the door closed while they load the chair," Henry said, and Liv followed his instructions.

"Benedict doesn't get upset," Julianne said. "If he does, you can be certain that its because appearing upset gets him something. Think about it, Liv. What did he get out of this?"

"Well, he gets peace," Liv said. "And not just with you, but with my father, as well. The guilds get to keep their contract."

"That is only keeping what he already had," Valtteri said. "What has changed?"

"There's a third duchy. But how does that help him?"

"Two smaller duchies in the place of one larger means they each pose less of a threat to his power," Julianne explained. "It's to our benefit, or I wouldn't have pushed for it. I expect that as the years pass, we'll find anyone who disagrees with Benedict will gravitate to us. We can use that manpower, and the lure of new baronies, to develop the north. What else has changed, Liv?"

"Other than his mother being exiled to an island, I don't see anything," she complained.

"There it is," her father told her.

"Wait, what?" Liv was confused. "He wanted his mother gone?"

"With her out of the way, and my father unwell, Benedict is effectively king. He no longer needs to worry about his mother splitting his power base or working for her own aims," Lady Julianne explained. "He won't be blamed for moving against her, because he has a crime to lay at her feet. And with a public declaration that I'm relinquishing any rights of succession, he will now be utterly unopposed."

"It sounds like we just lost," Liv said.

"Only if you thought winning meant Julianne sitting on the throne," Henry explained. "Which was never what we wanted. We wanted assurances of safety for you and Matthew, and a greater degree of independence for Whitehill."

"Benedict is smarter than his mother ever was," Julianne said. "He'll leave us be unless we give him a reason not to. In the meanwhile, we aren't forced into a war we can't win. Victory for us has always been about survival, Liv. As long as we're still here, we're winning."

"Did he plan it, then?" Liv demanded. "Did he set his own mother up?"

"I doubt we'll ever know that for certain," Henry said. "Does it matter?"

"If she didn't give the order, then it isn't really justice, is it?" Liv complained.

"No. It's politics." Julianne slumped back against the cushioned bench, looking rather exhausted.

"I don't think I like it," Liv decided.

☙

As promised, the princess' bracelet and ring set arrived that evening, in a fine box of polished cherry-wood. Thora brought it up to Liv's room, where they examined it together.

"The stones are all dull," the lady's maid said. "Not like the one you have."

"She probably emptied it of mana before sending it over," Liv said. "I'll have to experiment to see how much it can hold. When I've filled the stones up, they'll look like you're used to." Careful to avoid twisting it, Liv removed her guild ring from her left hand and put it on the ring finger of her right hand.

It turned out that Princess Millie's fingers were just a little bit thicker than Liv's, but once she'd gotten the bracelet and the last ring on, the entire set of jewelry shuddered for just a moment and then shrank until it fit her perfectly. "This feels very odd," Liv remarked, holding her hand up and turning it around to watch the silver chains sparkle in the light of the oil lamps. "Let's see then..."

Carefully, she pushed mana into the large stone set in the middle of the golden bracelet. The faintest spark of blue and gold lit inside the polished gray rock, flickered, and grew, like coals flaring when someone blew on them. By the time Liv had all six stones in the set lit, she'd emptied half the mana she could hold.

"He raped her," Liv realized.

"Which is why we honor her, and not him," Valtteri confirmed. "He doesn't deserve to have his memory honored. Syvä was my grandmother, but unlike her children, she had no Vædic blood herself. She passed about four centuries after the war, leaving my father, Auris, to take her place on the council of elders."

"How old is your father?" Liv asked. They'd reached the top of the bluff, and the guards opened the gate to let them into the back garden.

"Over twelve hundred years old," Valtteri told her. "He is half Vædim, and on top of that sustains himself on the dense mana from the rift at the Tomb of Celris. But even he will not last forever, Livara, and he has been growing frail for many years. I think he would like to meet you, before he passes from the world. My older sister was meant to be his heir, and he loved her very much. You look so much like her - I think it would be a comfort to him."

"Maybe we could visit?" Liv suggested.

"It is very far north," her father said. "But we have time before you go to Coral Bay. I believe we could make that happen, yes."

By the time they reached the front of the house, Master Grenfell was waiting with a carriage and two guards on horseback. In Whitehill, they'd never needed guards just to move about in town, but now Liv found that she didn't think only two men would be enough. She kept her staff close to hand for the entire ride, but with everything that had happened, she still couldn't feel safe. However, the carriage made its way across the city of Freeport without incident, to the same neighborhood where the mages' guild hall was located.

"Are all the guildhalls together?" Liv asked.

"They are, and it took some doing to find a lot for sale when we were granted our royal charter," Grenfell explained. "The difficulties of coming along late, I suppose. Here we are."

The guildhall of the Most Noble Bankers Guild was fronted by columns of white marble, and Liv saw a steady stream of people both coming and going through the massive double doors. There were guards there, though they seemed to do little but watch those who passed. Liv's father led the way inside, and before long they'd been ushered into a quiet office where they were served tea, as well as slices of a very moist cake made with cinnamon from Lendh ka Dakruim.

"It is always a pleasure to welcome a member of the House of Syvä," a woman in the plain gray dress of a merchant said, after Liv's father had put his hand to a plate of enchanted metal and given his name. Liv was amazed at how painted the banker's face was: she didn't think she could see a single sliver of natural skin beneath the powder, rouge, and kohl.

"I wish to grant my daughter access to the house account," Valtteri declared, while Liv spread fresh butter on her piece of cinnamon cake. She could tell there was no mana in it, but the treat smelled wonderfully all the same.

"Of course," the banker said. How did she manage to keep that broad smile, even while she was talking? "Your name, dear?" The woman pushed the enchanted metal plate across the table to Liv.

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"Mmm." Liv swallowed her bite of cake, then set her palm down on the metal. "Livara Tär Valtteri Kaen Syvä," she said. "What would happen if I was lying?"

"The sigils would light red," the banker told her. "Would you like to set a limit on your daughter's ability to withdraw funds, Lord Valtteri?"

"Call it five crowns in a month," Liv's father decided, after a moment. "That should be enough to get you out of trouble, if you ever need it. This is for emergencies, mind you."

Liv coughed, spraying crumbs everywhere. "I can't even imagine how I would spend that much money," she admitted.

"You haven't asked Lady Julianne how much she's paid for all those new dresses, have you?" Master Grenfell asked, with a smile.

"Make certain that your people in Whitehill and Coral Bay have her added as quickly as possible," Valtteri instructed. "Oh, and Al'Fenthia. Everywhere else is less urgent."

"Of course, my lord," the banker said. "Is there anything else we can help you with, today?"

Liv's father thought for a moment. "When you contact the Whitehill hall, inform them that I may be purchasing property there in the near future, and I would appreciate it if they were prepared."

When they left the bankers' guild, Liv's pocket was five gold crowns heavier, at her father's insistence. "Better to have it, in case you need it," he told her, and then they piled back into the carriage.

By the time they'd arrived back at Acton House, Lady Julianne and Baron Henry had returned, and the entire building was a mad-house with all the packing. Liv gathered that there'd been no further surprises at the council, and the plan to leave in the morning was unchanged. That left her with only one thing to do.

"I'll see you in the morning," she told her father, giving him a quick hug. Valtteri would be staying the night at the embassy. In the morning, he would collect the few things he'd brought to Freeport, and meet them for the trip across Freeport to the waystone.

Liv slipped through the house and out to the garden, avoiding all the commotion, and from there down the stairs to the beach, with one of the guards posted at the garden gate trailing behind her.

She turned left and walked along the strand, keeping high enough up the beach so that her shoes didn't get wet in the surf. She walked until she recognized the lower bluffs, and turned up the trail that led to the Talbots' menagerie and practice yard. Liv walked between the cages, then straight up to the back door, where she raised her hand and knocked.