Bound (2 page)

If it had been anyone but her father in front of her, she would have turned around in shock at Ganson's words. They hinted at communications she had never heard of before, and a side of her father she knew nothing of. But before she could even remind herself to ask the professor about it later, her father said, "You have no idea what you're talking about, Samell. I wish to help her find her place in the world, that is all."

Calder turned his eyes on Fay. She waited for his tirade about the embarrassment he had suffered at the ceremony because of the child's words, perhaps another lecture about finding a suitably strong and well-bred partner or an exhortation that she must listen to his advice above all others, as he had told her in several letters. When he did speak, his words were so counter to her expectations that it took a minute for her to make sense of them. Even his voice, softer, more of an entreaty than a demand, confused her. "It's time for you to come home with me, Faylanna. All else must wait. Go gather your things. I can help you with that if you need, but we must leave for Iondis tonight."

As she tried to digest this strange request, Ganson said, "There's no need for such haste, Calder, particularly as it's already dark out. The morning should be soon enough for her to pack and begin such a long journey, if she wishes to go."

Her father ground his teeth and then answered stiffly, "Faylanna hasn't been home for years. Of course she wishes to go. However, none of this is your concern. She is and always will be my daughter, Samell. I will thank you to leave while I have a private word with her."

Fay finally shook off her confusion and responded before Ganson could speak. "I would prefer he stay, Father. Anything you have to say to me can be said in front of Professor Ganson. If it can't, then it isn't something I care to hear."

Calder's eyes bulged slightly. She had never spoken to him like this and found it refreshing to assert her own will with him. When he finally found his voice again, it was the tense, unhappy tone she had heard so often in recent years. "I am your father, Faylanna, and you will obey me. Now go pack your things. Or we can leave right now and have the academy send your things on later. Those are your choices."

She picked her words carefully, but not to avoid offending her father for once. Her voice was stiff with anger. "While I didn't see you at the ceremony, Father, I'm sure you were there. Even if you somehow missed that I have now graduated, this," she pointed up to the new markings around her hairline, similar to his own, "is not something you can ignore. I am now a fully qualified Magicia, with all of the rights and privileges that entails. It means that I do not, in fact, have to do what you tell me. I am, under Imperial law, now responsible for myself. Do you understand?"

The explosion she expected didn't come. Instead, her father returned to the same quiet tone of entreaty he had used before. "I need you to come with me. It is time for you to prepare. All of these years, the sacrifices, now is when it all comes to fruition, Faylanna. There can be no further delay, no deferral. Now is the time."

She had to fight the urge to shake off the hand Ganson placed on her shoulder as she frowned at her father. "I don't understand, Father. Prepare for what? What are you talking about?"

"This is a matter for private discussion. You need to trust me in this."

She laughed bitterly. "As you've trusted me? Why won't you tell me what this is about?"

Calder didn't speak, only stared at her with those anxious, now-pleading eyes. It was Ganson who broke the silence, his voice uneasy. "Fay is not going anywhere with you, Calder. Not tonight, certainly, and not ever if she doesn't want to. I mislike anything you might have to say that is intended for no ear beyond hers, and I will not let you endanger her."

Fay thought she heard something, almost like a hidden message in the words, but didn't understand what it might be. She saw her father's jaw muscles flex as he ground his teeth in frustration. His eyes became tight, but she thought she saw an edge of something entirely unlikely there: fear and pain. "You have no idea what you're risking, either of you. If you won't come with me, Faylanna, then at least come to Iondis. You must come, you must be ready. I can help you, make it easier for you."

Fay felt bewildered again by his words. It seemed like they should make sense, but they didn't. "Make what easier?"

"You need to do this my way. The alternative... No, mustn't go that route. The risk if you do that, you've no idea." As he spoke, the words came faster, almost running together. "Come along, Faylanna, you must come with me."

"No."

She read a strange panic in his eyes at her simple refusal. He spun on his heel and strode from the hall, seemingly oblivious to the many people watching him leave. Fay gave him several long minutes to depart entirely from the building before turning to Ganson.

"I think I've had enough of this party. I'd like to leave now." Her hands and voice were shaking and she wasn't surprised this time. "Could you please escort me to my room?"

He looked into her eyes, his own concerned and disturbed, and then nodded. They left the room together, his arm around her shoulders, and everyone around them pretended not to watch. Such a wonderful graduation day, Fay thought to herself with bitter sarcasm as they departed.

Chapter 2

Two nights after her graduation, Fay mounted the steps of Professor Ganson's tower to take him up on his dinner offer. The last of her belongings were packed, though she still had no idea what to do with them. She was sure that the headmaster would give her more time if she asked for it, but she knew it couldn't be forever. She put questions about the future aside and turned her mind toward the more pleasant prospect of dinner in the professor's apartments.

The Academy had been built to resemble a castle, in order to remind the nobility of the empire of the privileged place Magicia held in their society. There were four towers, two occupied by the headmaster and deputy headmaster, the third reserved for any special meetings that might take place at the school. Granting the fourth tower to Ganson when he came to Voleno was a mark of respect, an acknowledgment of all he had done for Magicia and the Empire in his many years as an ambassador for the Imperial Throne before he had turned to teaching.

Fay knocked on the large wooden door at the top of the stairs with the heavy bronze ring. After a moment, a small older woman opened the door. Ivanne smiled and said, "Ah, how excellent to see you, Fay. Please, come in, my dear. The professor has been expecting you."

Fay nodded a greeting and tried to pass Ivanne as quickly as she could, but the other woman laid a gentle hand on her arm, surprising her and nearly causing her to flinch. The gesture itself was unusual. Though she tried to hide the unease she always felt around her mentor's assistant, she often wondered if Ivanne was aware of it. Normally, the older woman kept her distance where possible and never touched her like this. Ivanne wasn't to blame for the reaction, but neither could Fay help it. She worked instead to minimize the outward signs of it. Across her years there, she thought she'd become good at it. Certainly, she'd had plenty of practice. Ivanne had been Ganson's assistant for over forty years, and Fay had witnessed how much he relied on Ivanne. This had, unfortunately, made Ivanne a frequent part of her education, and Fay had been unwilling to ask for that to change, not when her reasons were so selfish.

As if sensing her reaction, Ivanne withdrew her hand quickly. In a kind voice, she said, "I was sorry to hear how things fell out with your father at the ceremony. I've always hoped he would come around for you, even at that last moment."

"Thank you, Ivanne," Fay responded, trying not to sound stiff but hearing it in her voice anyway. "But I think that was too much to ask for. I see Professor Ganson has left the door of the study open. I'll see myself in."

She pretended not to see Ivanne's disapproval of her curtness while she walked over and slipped into the room that was like a second home to her within the academy. Her eyes roamed the shelves, aware that she might not see them again for a long while, if ever. So many artifacts of the professor's prior life were arrayed around the room. Although she knew many of their stories, some were still mysteries to her. Awards and gifts from the three Emperors he had served in the one hundred and forty-three years since his own graduation sat beside other artifacts collected during years of scholarly research. She knew that her mentor's life had taken him across the length and breadth of the known world, beyond even the vastness of the Rianzire Empire. She had never understood why, in the prime of his life, he had given it all up to teach, but she was grateful for it.

As her eyes swept the shelves, she found herself staring at a particular object, the strange pendant covered with a glass bell jar. She knew the special glass such jars were made of held protective enchantments, and this one hummed with extra spellwork she suspected was designed to seal it. She didn’t understand why such lengths were taken with this particular object, nor why it held such fascination for her above everything else in the room, drawing her eye every time. All she knew was that it seemed familiar, as if she was on the verge of remembering where she had seen it before and that she often experience a desire to hold it. She'd never asked, of course, nor mentioned her reaction to Ganson. She didn't know how to explain it to him. The pendant itself offered no clues either. It was made up of two lengths of silver shaped to look like folded ribbons looped through each other, one covered in obsidian crystals, the other with white enamel. The interlocking loops were further bound by a ring of polished iron. A delicate silver chain was attached to either end of the obsidian ribbon. It was pretty, but it was far from the most beautiful piece of jewelry Fay had ever seen. Even so, she found she had to work to keep her eyes from it whenever she was in this room and even that wasn’t working at that moment.

"I'm so glad you were able to join me tonight, Fay. I won't have you going off to live the rest of your life without a chance to say goodbye."

Professor Ganson had been sitting at a small table set for a formal dinner, but now he stood and came over to her, distracting her from the pendant. They embraced and he led her over to the table without a word. After settling her into a chair, he resumed his seat. Rolling his sleeves up to keep his green linen shirt from getting dirtied, he uncovered a small basket of still-warm rolls and offered them to her. As he buttered his own, he continued speaking.

"It feels so strange to not be your teacher anymore. The past four years have gone so quickly, and I find myself unprepared for their end."

She laughed and said, "You will always be my mentor, Professor. I don't think it matters how far I go or what I do. You've left your mark on this humble student."

He harrumphed. "Humble, ha! You're the most brilliant student I've ever met, Fay, with both intellectual acuity and magical strength to spare. You've no need to be humble."

She frowned at this. "Don't I? I appreciate your admittedly biased opinion of me, but we both know that isn't the point. I still have no prospects now that I'm graduated. As I said at my graduation, nothing seems to matter except my unbound status."

"Well, that's their idiocy, this idea that only bound Magicia are worthy. You're stronger than many I've met even when they were working directly with their partner, let alone on their own after the bond has had its effect. I've a mind to see if I can't arrange something. You know that I am not without influence and there are a number of people I could get in touch with to-"

"No, thank you," she said softly, cutting him off. This was not a new topic and there had already been too much mutual stubbornness in their previous discussions. "I'll find something on my own, Professor. Please, could we talk about something else?"

Ganson watched her as he chewed. "Then tell me what your immediate plans are. I would like to know where to find you once you leave. I want to be able to keep in touch with my favorite student, after all. And when are you planning to leave? Speak to me of these things, if we can't discuss the others."

"Tomorrow. I'm leaving early in the afternoon. Before I go, I have to see Professor Siveth and ask him about storing my belongings in my old room for a little while longer, at least until I have some idea of where I'll need them."

"Then where are you going?" he pressed. Given the years together and the close relationship they had shared, his insistence about knowing her plans should have seemed natural, yet it didn't entirely. This was the same man who had once told her that she should live in the moment more and worry about plans less, that the future would always be there for her.

"In spite of what I told my father, I thought I might go back and collect some things from Iondis that I-"

"No!" he said forcefully, his face alarmed for a moment before he regained control of himself. "No, I don't think that's a good idea." He seemed to grope for something more to say as she stared at him, shocked by the outburst. "What I mean is that Calder would likely misinterpret it as you being there because he wants you there. I don't believe that would be in your interests, as you'd only have to fight the same battle with him regarding your independence all over again when you wanted to leave."

Ganson had his equanimity back entirely now, but the slip was the first she had seen in her four years with him. He looked uncomfortable with her scrutiny. "Have you given a thought to what professional pursuits you would be interested in, Fay? I know you don't want me to help you secure a position, but perhaps I can offer some guidance, advice on a path."

She pushed aside her misgivings about his outburst. "I haven't made any decisions, no. I've considered my options, the things where I might be accepted as an unbound Magicia. Maybe I'll teach others, pass on the gift you've spent these years giving me. Or research. Surely there's need for researchers who can go anywhere they might need to, free from any partner's obligations. I'm not really sure. I'll admit that none of the ideas that occurred to me are my first choice, but it's clear the things I might wish aren't an option without a partner."