Book 4 Chapter 17: A Surprise

++The thing with magician families is that, since they make their own money, they have relatively little risk going into any new business, as their actual sources of revenue is always secure—their own children. This means that the ones who get an itch to expand tend to do so a lot.++

- Ruminations on the ‘business model’ of the Voret family.

I spent the better part of a minute watching the ship slowly sink and congeal into the water. Some sizable portion of it was now molten slag, much of it distributed across the riverbanks, while those pieces fortunate enough to remain with their state of matter unchanged were still generally warped and twisted by the blast, far past the point of staying buoyant.

But it was a large vessel, and the water did not wash over it quickly. Still, a full minute was not required for it to sink with all the damage I had done. One or two men emerged from the river, pinned or trapped among the wreckage, some forcing their way through with magic and some not. I considered taking prisoners to interrogate, then dismissed the notion.

Instead, I extended my magic all over again and heated the waters around them. With so many thousands of gallons being pushed up to near boiling, even my own reserves of mana were sizeably eaten into. It was worth it, though, to hear their screams and watch the blood misting into the steam that churned up over them. Like a group of lobsters I thought.

With that taken care of, I turned and flew back over to Victoria and Voret. The two of them were looking rather stricken by what they had seen me do, though Victoria’s own concerns were obviously more general than merely focusing on my chosen retaliation. The poor girl had been kidnapped. I still remembered the effect Agrian’s kidnapping had had on him all those years ago.

I rushed down to her side instantly, and Victoria rushed over to wrap her arms around me as I arrived. She said a lot of things, though none of it was especially coherent or legible. I did not much care, just held her in my embrace while the girl sobbed and sniffed and generally broke down.

She was getting nostril fluid on my clothes, like she used to do as a girl. I decided, after some thought, that I would tolerate it this once, even if it meant burning the dress.

I turned to Voret while Victoria continued her mental breakdown.

“Thank you,” I said to him after a moment, though the words were hollow. We both knew what today meant. I had attacked him in public, and within the centre of Garamon. There were too many witnesses, too much evidence, too many avenues of verifying what had happened. The Vorets would bring the full weight of the law down on me for this and I may well be ruined afterwards.

I briefly considered killing him now, to prevent that, but…no, an inquiry would be launched whether he instigated it or not, his murder would only make the consequences worse.

“There’s another hotel not far from here,” Voret told me abruptly. “Owned by my family. I can take you there if you want, have them put you up until you can arrange your own accommodations. I imagine you and your sister won’t want to run around trying to deal with room bookings and such now of all times.”

“That would be…convenient,” I answered warily. What was he playing at?

Well, there was no good opportunity to figure it out now. I was still racking my brains to think of how I might salvage this situation. My connection to Aryqatan had always been pure bluff from the start, and it would do little to actually help me here. I had no choice but to prevent the Vorets from trying to press these charges then. But how? Bluffing them out of it was tricky because the more clear it became that I wanted them not to, the more obvious it would be that such action was a chance for them to undermine me.

Voret and I flew through the air and I continued thinking, turning my brain over itself in the effort of dredging up some escape plan from the whole situation. It simply did not work. I had nothing by the time we arrived at his hotel, nothing as I followed him through it in a daze, still thinking while he barked out a few orders to get us situated in one of the nicer rooms, and nothing when he said his final goodbyes and prepared to leave.

Voret paused before he went, though, and turned back to me with a rather awkward expression.

“What happened today,” he said. “You…uhh, you attacking me.”

I braced myself for what was coming, the blackmail, the demands, whatever it might be.

“...I’ll try to keep my family from finding out the details,” he said.

I just stared at him for a moment, not quite comprehending what had just happened. A lich’s mind can be wrapped around just about any surprise, but this one was so thoroughly at odds with my expectations that it had functionally rendered me an idiot.

“Why?” I asked him at once.

“It doesn’t matter why,” he shrugged. “I just won’t, and I’m letting you know so you can rest easy.”

“No,” I snapped. “I need to know, why?”

He seemed to get annoyed then. “Because you’d just found out your damned sister was kidnapped, you weren’t thinking clearly. You were angry. I don’t know if I wouldn’t have done the same thing, and in any case…there was no harm done. The street was already evacuated from the explosion in the hotel, if anyone was killed there’d have been a far stronger search for you. I imagine we’ll both be questioned about this, but we were so high in the air and moving so fast that I don’t think anyone got a clear look at what was happening. As far as I’m concerned…there were more kidnappers in that hotel’s penthouse, not obliterated beyond any possible identification by our combined efforts.”

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It was one of the sorriest excuses I had ever heard, and were we both normal people it would not deter an investigation by even five minutes. But we were not normal people.

I had the sheer weight of capital to pull just about any string in Garamon, thanks to it being one of the most bribable countries in history, while this same country had been set up from the ground level to benefit Voret and his family. If he stayed true to his word and claimed that I was acting in self-defence, it was entirely possible that any inquiry would be dropped.

The only question was why. He had to have some particular angle, some reason to…ah. This was all part of his damned seduction. He had taken a leaf out of my mother’s book and was going for shackles of silk instead of steel, hoping to bind me with feelings of gratitude and a debt owed.

It calmed me to realise that. “...Thank you,” I said at last, knowing it was the proper response. Besides, I saw no reason to let him know that I had seen through his little attempt here.

He just shrugged rather than looking pleased to see it work.

“You don’t need to thank me, I should think. What my family would do if this came out, that would be utterly unforgivable. What they tried to do already was…anyway, I’m not owed any thanks for preventing that. It’s the bare minimum.” He took another step to the door, then faltered. “Would you…I’m sorry if this is an inappropriate time, but would you like me to call on you again?”

I blinked in confusion for a moment before I realised what he was asking.

“You wish to…continue courting me?” I could barely believe it, and was so surprised that I did not even know what to make of the fact.

“If you don’t mind,” Voret said hurriedly.

“I do not,” I frowned. “I am mainly just…unsure about why. I tried to kill you.”

He shrugged. “That’s actually one of the more normal things I’ve had a girl do when I took her out to discuss marriage.”

“What.”

He waved a hand, as if that remark was of no significance at all. “The Vorets marry for magical talent, not social skills. Believe it or not arcane geniuses tend to be rather maladjusted. You’re actually one of the more normal people I know.”

We were interrupted by a snickering, and turned to see Victoria as the source. The girl’s face was still wet with recent tears, and her laughter had more than a hint of hysteria to it, but it was good to see her express an emotion besides crippling fear.

“That is not funny,” I told her.

She giggled harder, and I sighed.

“You may call upon me again, Voret,” I told the man. “But I am not sure how much longer I will be in Laugrey for now, I have other matters to attend to regarding my business.”

“I’d figured,” he smiled. “Goodbye for now, Isabel Vornholt. Take care.” He drifted easily into the air and flew off, leaving me and Victoria alone together in moments.

“I like him,” Victoria said. “He’s nice.”

“People often seem nice,” I told her. “It is a good way to earn trust.”

She scowled at that. “You don’t trust anybody.”

“A good habit that you should learn to emulate,” I told her sternly. “He is probably heading off to make our hotel arrangements now, come with me and I will take you to our new residence.”

Victoria clung on a bit tighter than usual as I carried her through the air.

As Voret had warned us, we were investigated on the incident outside the hotel. I tentatively gave the story he suggested, seeing no better alternative, and was pleasantly surprised to find the police accepting it without much affair. That left Victoria and me to retire to the hotel Voret had directed us to, and once again I was pleased to see that he was as good as his word. There was a room for us there, free of charge.

Victoria threw herself on the bed as we entered, then blanched as she lay there in realisation.

“Oh, I’m filthy with debris. The sheets…”

“There’s a bathroom here,” I told her as I checked to verify just that. “You can clean yourself off. I will go and procure some replacement clothes while you do.”

I did not receive an answer at first, and turned to see Victoria was evidently trying not to cry again.

“I’m sorry all the things you bought me got destroyed,” she said.

“Do not apologize for something you did not do,” I told her with a frown. “It is not a good trait to have. You may think it makes you seem cordial or caring. It just makes you seem weak. Weakness is annoying, useless and a danger to those you care about, as well as yourself.”

She did not respond at first, except by very obviously redoubling her efforts to hold back her tears.

“Can we see Agrian?” she asked me abruptly. “I…I know he’s in Laugrey. I miss him. I want to see him.”

I paused at that, and felt a rush of emotions that I did not care for at all. Agrian. My great failure. My mistake.

Agrian, whom I had hoped to make strong and hard and independent and useful. Agrian, who I had almost left a ruin with my treatment. I made my way across the room to sit down beside Victoria and tentatively hold her.

“You may be able to,” I told her. “But I cannot, he…will not want to see me.”

Victoria didn’t reply to that, and I felt myself growing uncertain for the first time in a long time.

Ten thousand years. That was not my age, it was the amount of time I existed for after the time started to be recorded in a way that survived the generations. Even I did not know how old I was, except that it was far more than that.

But I did not have the experience to deal with this situation. Family. Little sisters. That was one area in which I had never allowed myself to acquire any learning at all. I was as lost as an imbecile here.