"Why not?"
"A tree crashed through the roof of one of our houses when I was a child," Rennyn said. "And so to me a tree is linked to destruction, to being heavy, and dangerous. One of the reasons Symbolic magic frightens so many people is that it’s open to much greater variation from caster to caster, or even from casting to casting. But did you use this because you thought it the best solution, or simply quicker than expressing exactly what you needed to happen in sigils?"
Kendall only shrugged, her dark brows lowering into the suspicion she wore like a shield. But today it failed to hide the clear unhappiness in her eyes. She had been distracted enough by the problem to briefly forget whatever was troubling her, but now radiated go away in a manner that was not entirely safe for someone learning Thought Magic.
Searching for an opening, Rennyn looked about, then said: "This room was my mother’s."
The headboard of the bed had triggered a fragment of memory, and Rennyn—who had been standing too long at any rate—sat down beside the pillow and touched the carved wood, counting the feathers of the magnificent wings of an eagle. The correct two had ever-so-faintly more polish, though not yet enough to make the secret obvious.
"It opens!" Kendall pressed forward, but the space was empty, and she settled back, disappointed. "Your mother was one of this Surreive branch of your family?"
"Yes. Because of the danger of outsiders finding out what we were trying to achieve, there was a lot of cousin-marrying between the Claires and the Surreives. We ended having to be very careful who married who, to avoid too much inbreeding. Theoretically my parents' marriage was arranged, but my mother hated the idea, of course, and refused to go along with it."
"Was she a lot like you?"
"I look like her. A little taller. Seb is more like our father."
"I guess they went along with arrangements in the end."
"Oh yes. My father, who had been sent to Kole, obliged my mother by agreeing that he would do better to look for someone unrelated and trustworthy to bring some fresh blood into the family. She began matchmaking him to suitable women of her acquaintance, and found herself pleased when the matches fell through." Rennyn tried to smile, remembering in sharp detail being told this story. "My father always said he loved her from the day they met."
"Sorry. I know you hate talking about them."
That was Kendalclass="underline" stubborn as a mule, but full of sharp observation and unexpected kindnesses.
Drawing power, Rennyn formed a bubble of silence around them both, and watched the shutter slam back down on her student’s face as Kendall recognised the casting’s intent.
"Will you tell me what happened, Kendall?" she asked, and when the girl almost visibly settled in for a fight added: "You’ve been making me wonder if I should have Dezart Samarin arrested. And not only because it would be a salutary experience for him."
Kendall produced an expression of complete disgust. "I think he’d enjoy it if you tried." Her hackles had lowered a little, but she sidestepped. "You won’t have a day at all if you run around casting when you’ve just gotten up."
"The power cost of this is small," Rennyn said, truthfully. "I’ve been putting far more energy into trying to work out what has hurt you so."
She didn’t push further, just waited, and was gratified that she had reached the point with Kendall where the girl did, eventually, speak.
"That prat thinks the Kellian cast some kind of…that part of their magic is making people loyal to them. That we’re all just doing what they want."
Thoroughly astonished, Rennyn asked for Samarin’s exact words, and then was glad she’d sent the man away, else she’d be tempted to box his ears.
"There’s absolutely nothing in the terms of the spell that Solace cast that would give them such an ability, conscious or unconscious," she said firmly. "Nor is the symbology anything that would even suggest that. Solace used cobweb, dew, and dawn because she wanted deceptive strength, transparency, and speed. Just the tiniest hint of spider came along with the cobweb, which is why they are all so long-limbed. But the kind of glamour you are speaking of isn’t even touched upon, not to mention being a rather difficult casting even when you try it deliberately. And mages would be the least susceptible to it, since they have the strongest innate resistance."
"Which resistance?" Kendall asked, rather thickly. Having managed a terse but precise account of her conversation with Samarin, the girl now seemed to be trying to reject an accompanying revival of emotion through sheer force of will.
"All living creatures have some resistance to magic worked on them—even beneficial castings. Humans have more than animals, and mages the most of all. That’s one of the many reasons healing magic is difficult."
"Is that why it seemed to slip off when I hit Smelly with Thought Magic?"
Briefly wondering if Kendall had a nickname for her, Rennyn nodded. "Especially if he was a minor mage. Thought in particular is difficult to use on living people. Not impossible, but it’s like trying to hold a greased dish. It’s often simpler to work on the environment around a mage."
"I should have pulled the tent down," Kendall said. "I’ll remember that."
She did not look a great deal happier than before, but Rennyn allowed her casting to lapse, knowing that there would be no talking Kendall into a happier state.
"I can’t guarantee you that what Samarin suggested isn’t true," she said. "But I consider it extremely unlikely. And I don’t have a method for measuring feelings and deciding whether they are real. You can only choose how to react to them."
Leaving the girl to chew that over, Rennyn walked back to her bedroom, where Illidian sat cross-legged on the floor, finishing up some maintenance stitching on the leather-reinforced clothing he wore when expecting combat.
Settling in a chair next to him, Rennyn had no qualms re-establishing her minor silence and repeating Samarin’s words, finishing up with: "I recognised that the Dezart’s purpose in trailing us about was primarily to evaluate the Kellian as a potential asset for the Empire. I didn’t realise he might consider such a small group of people a threat."
Illidian, who had set aside his mending, said: "A small group of people commanded by one of the most powerful mages in existence? Or, if he actually credits that theory, a group of people who have bewitched such a mage."
"I’m not sure such a thing could even work on me. Not as current head of the Surclere family. It would go against everything Solace intended of that casting to have her heirs in thrall to her bodyguards. I wish I could have heard Samarin directly, to have a better idea of how seriously he took this theory."
"The idea of breeding for magic resistance is new, but it’s far from the first time we have been accused of unnatural influence. It’s the primary theme of Earl Harkness' campaign."
Illidian’s thin voice was entirely calm, but Rennyn had been learning the man she had so hastily married, and could read the slight shifts in his posture. He disliked this suggestion of the Kolan Dezart’s extremely.
"Would you prefer to not allow Samarin near Aurai’s Rest?"
Since their purpose in visiting the forest settlement was both a point of great sensitivity to the Kellian, and the only thing that had so far caused significant strain between Rennyn and Illidian, she was not at all surprised when he raised an equivocal hand, and said: "I have yet to form a suitable plan to keep him—or a replacement—away. And the Rest itself is no secret."