He pulled back an inch, just enough to meet my eyes levelly. “You mean how do I feel about staying with you now that the bond is gone and isn’t manipulating my emotions?”
Not how I intended to ask but… “Well, yes.”
Bannen stared at me hard for a moment. “Nope. Still like you.”
I snorted out a laugh and wasn’t that a miracle in and of itself, that I could still feel some sense of humor in this situation? “I’m glad to hear it but that didn’t really answer the question. You can like someone and not want to live in their pocket.”
“I’m used to orbiting around someone and protecting them, that part’s normal in my line of work,” he pointed out patiently. “You know that, too, I think. What are you really worried about?”
How could he read me so well in just two weeks? Even without the bond in place he seemed to understand where my insecurities liked to poke their heads up. I blew out a breath and found that I couldn’t look at him, staring sightlessly over his shoulder instead. “I just want to make sure you’ve got a clear head while making this decision.”
“In other words,” he sounded like a foreign translator, “you think that because you’re difficult, and your magic is strange, and I get hurt on a regular basis protecting you, that I should feel as if I’m getting the raw end of the deal, and I should be hesitant about staying with you.”
I tried to repress a flinch and more or less failed.
For a long moment he didn’t say anything, the silence between us oppressive. The suspense nearly made my heart jump out of my chest. I still couldn’t bring myself to look at him, though.
“I wondered, from that first moment I saw you, why I felt connected. Then I learned about the familiar bond, the effects it has, and understood that my desire to protect you, to stay close to you, to keep you happy, all of that is because of the bond. I always wondered how much of an influence it really was over my emotions.” Bannen’s voice dropped in register, becoming warmer and more affectionate. “And now the filter is off, I can see you exactly as you are. Rena.”
I found the courage from somewhere to lift my eyes back up to his.
His hand rose, brushing my hair back from my face, eyes gentle on mine. “Ask me to stay.”
Could I really do that? Could it be as much my choice to keep him as it was for him to be kept? I didn’t know, I just knew that if I didn’t ask, if I didn’t somehow seize this moment, I’d regret it for the rest of my life. I didn’t care how amazing my next familiar would be, he couldn’t possibly compare to the man in my arms. “Please stay.”
“Okay,” he said simply, a smile breaking out over his face.
I stared at him a little dumbly. Surely it couldn’t be that easy, that simple. “Okay?”
“What do you want me to say?” he asked, eyes crinkling up at the corners.
My mouth worked without a sound. “No, it’s just, you said before that thirty-five percent of you wanting to stay with me was because of the bond…” I trailed off, not sure what else to say.
“Sure. That meant the other sixty-five percent of me just likes you, wants to protect you, and has no interest in going back home. It can’t be that strange, can it? Can’t I just want to stay with you?”
“You really are a glutton for punishment,” I blurted out, then slapped a hand over my mouth, appalled at what I had just said.
Bannen laughed outright, his mirth vibrating through me. “I resemble that remark,” he agreed, not in the least offended. “Trust me, Rena. I have a perfectly clear head, even though my heart is smarting, and I know exactly what I’m getting into at this point. I’d still prefer to be with you than anywhere else.”
Relieved, I beamed at him and snuggled back in. As tense as having this conversation had been, I felt better for it. I now knew exactly how he felt and had no illusions to contend with. The hole the bond left behind still ached and I hated it, but I no longer felt like digging a grave and climbing in. A thought occurred and I asked, “Are you going to be up to arguing our case before the Council?”
“Trust me, I’m in the perfect mood to tear their figurative heads off. Just try to stay within reach of me for the next few days, alright? Otherwise I’m pretty sure I’ll have a panic attack, and I tend to break things when I panic. Like arms.”
I would have smiled and dismissed it as teasing except I was pretty sure that Bannen did get violent when he panics. Warrior based societies do that, or so I’m told. “I’ll try,” I promised. I didn’t think it would be much of a challenge because losing sight of Bannen would likely make me panic as well. “Do you think you can get up?”
“Yes. Just…don’t go far, okay?”
“I won’t,” I promised softly.
It took us hours to get off the floor and then another hour to leave my workroom. We weren’t stable, not yet, but we didn’t feel like we could just wallow in our mutual pity party either. We didn’t know when the Council would demand a hearing and we needed to have our preparations in place before they called us.
Bannen did indeed have an idea and the way he outlined it so readily to the masters and I indicated that he had been thinking about this for a while. His plan was simple: draw up a formal work contract binding the two of us as employer and employee with a clause in it stating that he would be sent home whenever he wished to go. It would satisfy the demands of the Council in legal writing, undeniable proof that we’d adhered to their stupid demands, but still allowed him to stay.
The way he rattled it all out without pause made me realize that he had literally been uncertain what I would feel about this. If I hadn’t reacted, if I had not shown how miserable I felt about him going, I would have lost him. He would have felt as if he should go. I’d always prided myself on being in control of my emotions, but in this case I’d almost sabotaged myself by trying to act like I was alright. Fortunately for us both he can read me well enough to know when it’s an act.
I hated to think of what we would be like now if he had really stepped through that portal.
Master sent formal word to the Council that Bannen would not be returning to Z’gher and requested an audience with them. They must’ve been hot under the collar about the matter as they sent back a reply within hours demanding a hearing the next day. It pushed our timetable up. Between the four of us—bless Master Vonda for helping—we managed to write up the contract by dinner, signed two copies, and then registered one with the City Court. That out of the way, we really only had one thing left to do: argue with the Council.
“Is this going to work?” Tarkington asked for what had to be the hundredth time.
Considering that we were in the front foyer of the Magic Council’s offices, waiting for a hearing, I felt the question a moot one. It either would, or wouldn’t, but we didn’t have time to come up with an alternative plan. Despite that, I still felt the urge to try and reassure the man. “I’ve used this exact contract for years. It’ll work. If not, we’ll go with my grandmother’s tactic. If I can’t convince them, I’ll confuse them.”
Rena radiated nothing more than a bundle of nerves, and her grip on my hand constantly squeezed. “Does that actually work?”
“A surprising amount, actually. It makes me worry about the human race somedays.” I eyed her sideways. Funny, I’d thought it the bond making her touchy-feely with me but breaking the bond seemed to make it worse. Or better. Was it better to have a beautiful woman constantly clinging to you when you couldn’t really take that relationship to the next level?
The door to the conference room opened and we all looked up. A very pious looking man with a hooked nose rolled out in a sonorous tone, “Magus Tarkington, Master Hach, Miss Rocci. Your case will be heard now.”
I think, given the choice, Rena would have bolted. Tarkington looked ready to join her but he was being more Adult About Things and so stayed his ground. Me? I’m more rebellious than both of them combined so I didn’t care if the Powers That Be agreed with my decision or not. My only goal was to make
this less of a problem for Rena.
Rena let go of me but hovered not an inch away as we stepped into a room that had a row of empty benches, a podium for the accused to stand behind, and a long table at the end of the room that sat on top of a slightly raised dais. Three men and two women were seated in plush chairs that made me think that was all they did every day, sit and pronounce judgments on people. Why make the chairs comfortable otherwise? They were all older, the youngest being in her late forties, the oldest in his late seventies at least. I had to wonder at the age disparity. Weren’t crotchety old men always the judges?
The woman sitting in the middle, who could’ve been my mother’s age, shuffled a stack of pages together and read the first one over moonshaped glasses perched at the end of her nose. “Master Hach, Miss Rocci, and Magus Tarkington? Yes? Good, come in, sit down. You have been called today to answer our questions regarding the alleged Human Familiar Summoning of Bannen Hach. I want to hear from Magus Tarkington.”
Holy Mother of Nope. We were so not doing that. Tarkington would fold like a flat sheet in seconds under this woman’s questioning. She had that type of personality. I shoved Tarkington into a chair and took the podium. “Sorry, let me do the talking first, as frankly you’re not going to get much from Tarkington anyway.”
She looked astonished and sat the papers down, giving me the exact look that my aunt always gives me when I’m being too ‘mouthy’ for her. “That is not for you to decide, Master Hach.”
“Actually, it really is. See, Tarkington was a good little boy and obeyed the order you gave him. He put up the portal to send me home, I was the one that refused to go through it, so you calling him over here to rip a strip off him? Pointless.”
None of the judges liked this. I frankly didn’t care if they liked it. I didn’t like them, so it was a mutual thing.
The judge at the far left, who looked bloated under those black robes, cleared his throat. “Very well, Master Hach. Do you realize the penalty for disobeying this Council? There are several laws that you have disobeyed—”
He kept blathering on, slipping into legalese that went straight over my head. In my (mostly misguided) youth, I had learned how to fake paying attention. All I really heard was “blah blah blah Bannen, blah blah blah trouble.”
His voice droned on and on, rising a little in pitch with each word, like a very annoying bee buzzing in my ear. Then abruptly it stopped and I snapped back to awareness. Oh, was he done?
“Doesn’t apply,” I retorted with a wide smile on my face.
“I beg your pardon?” he spluttered.
Seriously, did no one argue with these morons? “I can tell already, you haven’t really looked at me or Rena since we walked in, have you? Yeah, I can see you haven’t. Take a good look now, see something missing?”
They rustled like crows that expected a feast only to find it all eaten, turning and whispering to each other. I kept a smile pinned to my face although it physically hurt to do it. The absence of the bond had settled into this dull ache, not unlike a hot poker that had been stabbed into my chest and allowed to stay there, cooling. I felt it whenever I turned, whenever I lost sight of Rena, and it flared up again. Right now, I could feel her foot resting against mine, a gesture that they wouldn’t be able to see. I didn’t know what it said about us that even with the bond broken, we felt better being in physical contact with each other.
I hated the sensation of the missing bond, but I hated these people who caused it more. It was very hard to not launch myself at their throats right now, but nothing would be solved if I did that.
“The bond is gone. Rena followed your directions and dissolved it last night.” It took so much control to say that evenly, without screaming, or crying, or raging. I wanted to do all three. “I want it on the record that they both followed the orders that you gave them. The bond was broken, they had a portal open to send me home. Your laws have not been broken.”
The judge in the center took control of the situation again, laying her glasses aside. “Young man, I don’t know what you hope to gain by this.”
“What I hope to gain is nothing. Exactly nothing. No more messages from you, no more demands, no penalties because you think people aren’t obeying you. I am not magically bound to a mage, hence I am not under the jurisdiction of the Magic Council, and I can do what I wish.”
One of the judges gave me a look of pity. “Because Miss Rocci brought you here without your consent, she is responsible to send you home—”
“She is, if I wished to go home, but that is not the case.” From my breast pocket I pulled out a copy of our contract with a flourish, which I then unfolded. It required stepping around the podium, but I put a copy squarely on the table and looked the—mages? Judges? –dead in the eye. “We have a contract, mutually agreeable to both of us, that has me now in her employ.”
They were quick to snatch up the contract, leaning sideways in their chairs to all get a good look at it. One of them actually stood and peered over their shoulders to read it. It had taken a large portion of the afternoon to translate it into Swallin. I wrote it out in Trader’s tongue first, then both Tarkington and Vonda had re-written it. I hoped it was in enough legalese to satisfy this group but I admit I was holding my breath.
What I was becoming to think of as Judge 3 asked, “When was this contract drawn up?”
I had a feeling she’d ask that. “After the bond was broken I wrote up the contract.”
A different judge, one of the oldest in the room, cleared his throat and asked in a hoarse voice little better than a whisper, “Is there any way to verify that?”
The way he asked suggested to me that he wasn’t trying to be difficult, but had a desire to keep all of the legal ducks lined up in a row. Fortunately, Vonda had anticipated this. “There is a time and date stated under the signature line. I have a separate eyewitness report from Magus Vonda that states when the bond was broken. If you wish to see it?” At his nod, I drew it out of my breast pocket, unfolded it, and passed it over.”
He took it with a hand that held a fine tremor, reading it through carefully, then gestured for the contract to be handed to him so he could compare times. “The contract was written and signed some eight hours after the bond was broken.”
That wasn’t a question but I answered anyway. “Correct, sir. I believe you already have an eyewitness account at hand.”
More than one person gave me a bug-eyed look, startled and unnerved that I had spotted their watchers. I met them look for look. Yes, I saw your terrible shadows and they needed lessons on being sneaky because quite frankly, they sucked at it.
After that startled hesitation, a rustle went through the judges, some bending to whisper to each other. No one was going to comment on how I knew they knew, eh? Didn’t expect anything different. I waited it out, eyes darting between them, absolutely certain that some other objection would be raised. A few murmured something about eight hours being too short of a time, I’d still be influenced by the bond, or something along those lines. No one said it louder than a whisper which made me think that there was some internal debate going on about that.
If they didn’t want to air it openly, I’d let it lay, as I honestly didn’t have a good argument against that. Eight hours likely was too soon before making any lasting decisions. But then, I’d known mages that took eight years before they felt healed enough to summon another familiar after losing one, so time might be very relative in this case.
Judge 3 cleared her throat again, casting looks to settle people before addressing me directly. “Very well, the contract is technically valid as you were not under the influence of the bond when you signed it. I’m confused to what purpose it serves. Just because you are employed, you think that you can stay with her?”
“Is there a legal reason why I can’t?” I countered. “Every country, including this one, has nothing against one person being in another’s employ. In fact, they rather prefer people employed, something about it being g
ood for the economy—”
Judge 1 interrupted impatiently, “That is not the point, young man, and you know it.”
“The point is I was summoned by a young mage across half the continent, and for some reason you’re stuck on the idea that she has to send me back. I have no intention of going back, I quite like it here, I’m growing rather fond of the place, actually, even though I find your addiction to mash potatoes quite strange. It’s so mushy, why do you people eat so much of it? Anyway, the point is, I like it here. I like Rena. We have a perfectly legitimate contract between us naming me as a bodyguard and assistant. I’m not her familiar, we’re not bound magically, so what are you unhappy about?”
Judge 5—the one that had been a scarecrow in a previous life, I was sure of that—spoke in a patronizing, slow manner. “The point of summoning a familiar is so that a mage has the protection and help they need while working.”
“You ever seen Rena work magic?” I countered, not backing down an inch. “Because if you haven’t, let me tell you, a snail going uphill in a blizzard can get a spell off faster than she can. Her magic is very thorough, very amazing, kinda scary if I’m to be honest, but fast? Never. So if you think that an animal can understand enough to protect her, you’re very wrong, there’s no way; and if you think that just one familiar can keep up with her? Yeah, I doubt that too.”
Judge 1 was back in my face. “Are you making a case that she should keep you as a familiar?”
Well, yes, I could. “Not my point. My point is that if she feels she’ll need a bodyguard and a familiar, then she has good reason. Even if you don’t agree, what’s it matter to you? She is now free to summon another familiar whenever she wants to. She can do the Tests or Trials or whatever you call those things. I can stay for however long she wants me here whether she has a familiar or not, it’s no skin off my nose. If I stay, why do you care? You’re not responsible for paying me.”
The Human Familiar (Familiar and the Mage Book 1) Page 21