“The first time we met,” Alain added, “Mari was preparing to…what is the word? Preparing to shoot me.”
“He was a Mage,” Mari said. “I wasn’t exactly looking at him as boyfriend material back then.”
“I see,” S’san replied. “Mari, most girls trying to discourage a boy wouldn’t go so far as to shoot him and throw him out a window.”
“It didn’t work, anyway,” Mari said, torn between irritation and fascination at the way Alain and S’san were almost joking about her. The last thing she had expected was for S’san and Alain to not just get along but actually seem to have some kind of rapport.
“It’s just as well,” S’san observed. “I was worried for a while that you might end up with Professor T’mos, but as I expected you dodged that bullet.”
Mari felt heat in her face and wondered how badly she was blushing. “Professor T’mos? He was at least twenty years older than me. He could’ve been my father!”
“Wiser women than you have looked for second fathers when they should have been looking for partners,” S’san said. “And more than one older man has looked for a girl they could regulate rather than a woman who could partner them. It was very foolish of T’mos to think that Mari of Caer Lyn could be regulated by anyone, but T’mos always did let his ego override what intellect he possesses. What happened after you threw this young man out a window?”
“We stayed in touch, and after Ringhmon Alain helped me clean up the mess in Dorcastle, though as far as I know the Senior Mechanics have never realized his role in that.”
“The Mage was at Dorcastle, too?” S’san was thinking, her eyes intent. “The Guild has been busy seeking some mysterious other Mechanic they believe assisted you there despite your denials. The Guild Hall at Dorcastle has been turned upside down seeking the guilty party, and the maltreatment of anyone believed sympathetic to you is of course backfiring against the Guild leaders.”
Mari felt another one of those pangs of guilt. “People shouldn’t be suffering because of me.”
“That sort of sentiment is why you make a good leader and why people follow you. Unfortunately, Mari, there’s nothing you can do to help them at this time.” S’san made a face. “I heard that you had disappeared from Edinton. What made you decide to run?”
“I was ordered to Tiae,” Mari said, surprised that she could it so calmly. “On my own.”
“Tiae? Alone?” S’san shook her head angrily. “Smart girl. You wouldn’t fall for being sent into danger twice. But now the Guild is seeking you. At least they haven’t called out the assassins.”
“Assassins?” Mari asked.
“Yes. I know little about them, except that they exist.” S’san paused to think. “I can understand your fears, but from what I’ve been able to find out the Senior Mechanics aren’t trying to kill you now, Mari. At one time they wanted you to be killed by someone else, but now they want you alive. Safely in their custody, but alive, so that they can question you, find out what you’re doing, who your friends are, and what plots might be underway.”
“Plots?” Mari demanded.
“Oh, yes, Mari, they assume that you are out to overthrow them and seize control of the Guild.”
It took Mari a few moments to realize that she was staring at S’san, her mouth hanging open with shock. Mari managed to bring her jaw up again, but her voice was strident with disbelief. “I have never sought power. I have never—”
S’san was shaking her head again. “Mari, what matters isn’t what you think or are planning right now, it’s what the Guild’s leaders believe you are thinking and planning.”
“Yes,” Alain said. “Your professor speaks wisdom. The illusion your Guild leaders see is what guides their actions.”
“You have a fine mind, Sir Mage,” S’san approved. “That’s a very good way of putting it.”
“You know,” Mari said in steadily rising tones, “I was hoping that you two would get along, but I didn’t expect you to gang up on me!”
“Mari.” S’san had leaned forward, her old posture as an instructor. “I’m trying to help you identify the problem and come up with solutions. The first priority, as you have already concluded, is keeping yourself free and alive. But that, at best, maintains the current situation. What do we need for a solution?”
“A clear understanding of the problem,” Mari replied, feeling as if she were back at the academy.
“Exactly.”
“The Guild is lying,” Mari continued. “Lying about Mages. It’s also lying about or denying the existence of non-Mechanics who can do Mechanic work.”
“That’s true,” S’san agreed. “You ran into them at Dorcastle. You were doubtless placed under an interdict to say nothing about them. And, being you, you kept digging.”
“They tried to recruit me,” Mari reported. “In Pandin. They call themselves the Order.”
“Oh, yes, the Order. It’s been a good while since I heard that name spoken openly.” S’san cocked a questioning eyebrow at Mari. “And they failed, I assume.”
“They’re evil, Professor, using the Mechanic arts purely for personal gain.” Mari paused, a new thought coming to her.
S’san saw it. “Have you connected the dots, Mari? Did you consider the differences between the Order and the Senior Mechanics who run the Guild, and realize that at the current time the difference is purely one of scale? Oh, the Senior Mechanics claim they’re controlling technology and limiting it and charging as much as possible for it for the good of all, and many sincerely believe that to be so, but somehow ‘the good of all’ translates into wealth and power for them. They don’t want to risk losing that. I imagine that is very different from your Mage elders,” she said to Alain.
Alain shook his head. “An elder told me that most of the Mage elders seek only to preserve their own power, and will ignore or battle anything which threatens that power.”
“That shouldn’t surprise me,” S’san said. “Mage elders are as human as the rest of us, it seems. In any event, Mari, the Order is much smaller than the Guild. Its members live like rats in the woodwork, impossible to eradicate but constantly being hunted and slain.”
Alain nodded. “If they were strong enough, they would make their presence known openly, and your Guild could do nothing.”
“Exactly, but they’ll never reach that kind of strength.” S’san spent a moment looking closely at Alain. “Mari did choose someone with a mind as sharp as hers, though different it seems. But you’re as young as she is, surely.”
“I recently turned eighteen.”
“Impressive.” The professor settled back again. “I suppose you’ve come here looking for answers, Mari.”
“Yes,” she said firmly. “What is happening, Professor, and why have I been targeted by the Senior Mechanics?”
“It’s very simple, really, and yet also very complex. Mari, how do you keep a system totally stable and unvarying?”
“Totally stable and unvarying?” Mari shook her head. “You can’t. There’s wear and tear. You need to repair and replace. You can’t just maintain it in the same shape with the same components forever.”
“It’s like a living organism in that way,” S’san agreed. “What happens to a living organism that stops growing? It dies. The Mechanics Guild has been dedicating its efforts to keeping everything exactly the same. It wouldn’t allow change or growth. And so, for centuries, it has been slowly dying. You remember the ancient far-talker I once showed you? It was much lighter, smaller, and when it still worked it was far more capable that anything the Guild makes today. That is an example. The technology that lets us build such a device is crumbling, so the Guild is forced to use ever-cruder methods to try to achieve the same results. The tools to make the tools are failing. Keeping them working would require innovation, and as you are painfully aware, innovation is not permitted.”