Mari thought Alain sounded regretful but also resigned, as if speaking of something which might have been but was forever lost. “You didn’t love her? Even a little?”
Alain glanced at Mari. “I was too young to think of such things. I had no sister, but I felt as if she were one.”
“A sister? You think of a woman that gorgeous as a sister, but you fell in love with me?”
“You are more beautiful than Asha. I see this inside of you as well as outside.”
Mari shook her head. “Have I told you that you sound totally crazy sometimes? You expect me to believe that she never lit any fires in you, and I did?”
“Yes,” Alain replied, his tone faintly bewildered as he looked at her. “Asha never changed the way I saw things, as you have.”
That reminded her of something. “What did you tell her about me? That I define your world or something? I couldn’t believe you said that.”
Alain nodded. “You define the world I see. Yes. I needed to explain what you mean to me in terms another Mage would understand.”
Mari could feel her lips quivering but tried to fight off laughter. “Alain, I ‘define the world’ for you? That’s too much.”
“Too much?”
“It’s so sweet, it’s nauseating.”
Alain pondered her words. “What is wrong with that statement? I see the false world through my own illusions. You are now my reference for those illusions. Why should that make you feel ill? You define the world I see.”
Maybe it was relief that the meeting with Asha had gone well, or at least had not turned into an ambush. Maybe it was also relief that Asha and Alain hadn’t betrayed any romantic feelings for each other—not that they had betrayed many feelings of any sort. Maybe it was Alain’s apparently sincere inability to see how his words sounded to someone who wasn’t a Mage. Whatever it was, Mari couldn’t stop it any more, breaking into open laughter. “I can’t stand it. Oh, Alain. It’s just…just…sickening!” Mari kept laughing all the way out of the park.
The long walk to the home of Professor S’san gave Mari time to sober up except for an occasional giggle, which appeared to be a relief to her companion. “Alain, you do know that I never laugh at you, right? I always think of it as us sharing a joke.”
Alain had a serious expression as he nodded. “This is part of what love means, is it not? To share things? But sometimes I do not understand why you find something humorous. Is that also part of love? To not understand everything about the one you love?”
“My Mage,” Mari said, “truer words were never spoken.”
Mari’s former teacher lived on a hill in an apartment facing the waters of Lake Bellad. The building itself looked to be a little more than a century old, but that could be deceptive, since the simple, clean lines of its two stories and balconies facing the lake were of a style which had been used off and on for hundreds of years. From the top of the hill, those on the balconies could look down across the rooftops of a stretch of Severun until the lake’s bright blue waters began. The surface of the vast lake continued on to the horizon, vanishing into a gray haze in the distance.
“Nice spot,” Mari commented. “Professor S’san used to talk about Lake Bellad sometimes. She really liked Severun, so I wasn’t surprised when I found out she had retired here. That she had retired was a surprise, but not that she came here afterwards. No, the odd thing is that she’s not living in the retirement area of the Severun Guild Hall. There aren’t many Mechanics who live among commons when they retire.”
“They are like Mages, then?” Alain asked. “Elders live in the Mage Guild Halls until they pass from this dream.”
“Right.” Mari looked around, evaluating the neighborhood. “This looks like a decent area to live in, but still, it’s odd. Why choose to live here after spending your entire life in a Guild Hall? It’s lucky for us, though. If Professor S’san had chosen to retire inside a Guild Hall, with no reason to go outside it, then talking to her might have been impossible.”
“Perhaps that is why she chose to live here instead of in a Guild Hall,” Alain suggested.
“But that would mean…that Professor S’san expected me, or other Mechanics, to need to talk to her without the Senior Mechanics knowing. Alain, can you see any sign of danger?”
Alain shook his head, looking around carefully. The neighborhood was a quiet one, with little foot or wagon traffic at midday. “I can sense no Mages near. Neither my eyes nor my foresight warn of danger.”
“I can’t see any sign that my Guild is watching the place, either. The bureaucratic wheels inside the Mechanics Guild leadership must still be turning slowly, and haven’t gotten around to tracking my former teachers.”
Inside the building, they went up the single staircase and then walked along a narrow corridor lined with doors until they reached the apartment with the number Mari was seeking. “I don’t know how she’ll react to you, Alain, but Professor S’san always struck me as smart and open-minded.”
“I can pretend to be a common.”
Mari hesitated, then shook her head firmly. “No. I’m not ashamed of you. If Professor S’san is the person I think she is, she’ll accept you. If she doesn’t accept you, that’s her loss.”
Mari knocked, waiting.
“You are worried,” Alain murmured.
“Not worried. Nervous.” Before Mari could say anything else, footsteps sounded, then the door opened and an older but still vigorous woman dressed in casual clothing and a Mechanics jacket looked out.
Professor S’san rested her eyes on Mari, not speaking for several seconds, then nodded. “Mari. This is a surprise.”
Mari felt a strange combination of affection, respect and anger as she gazed at her old teacher. “I thought for once that somebody besides me ought to be surprised.”
S’san twisted her lips in an ambiguous expression, then focused on Alain. “And who is this?”
“The only reason I lived long enough to get here.”
Professor S’san nodded once more, looking unhappy. “It wasn’t supposed to happen that way, Mari. You know that there is an arrest order out for you?”
“Yes.”
“I have no intention of acting on that order, Mari. Please come inside, if you still trust me enough to accept my hospitality.”
Mari nodded, beckoning Alain to follow. The apartment wasn’t spacious, but Mari saw that Professor S’san had set it up to mimic her old offices at the Mechanics Guild Academy. A desk dominated one side of the living area, facing a couple of comfortable chairs and a sofa. Beyond the sofa lay a small kitchen with a coal-fired stove for cooking and heat, and past that a door doubtless leading to the bedroom. Just as in S’san’s old office, everything was in subdued earth tones, with straightforward lines and angles rather than elaborate decoration. Missing from the walls, though, were the Mechanics Guild citations and technical drawings which the professor had once displayed. In their place, the apartment walls held only a few paintings showing the ancient port of Landfall and some ships at sea with all sails set.
Mari stood stiffly in the center of the living area, realizing that faced with her old teacher she had fallen right back into her habits as a student.
S’san gestured toward the sofa. “Please sit, you and your nameless companion.”
“His name is Alain,” Mari said.
“Just Alain? A common, then? A hired bodyguard?”
“He’s not a common and he hasn’t been hired!” Mari replied, her voice sharp.
S’san raised her eyebrows at Mari. “Did I insult you, or him?”
“No. Not exactly. But…how much can I trust you, Professor?”