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?”
S’san sighed heavily. “That hurts a great deal, Mari. Not that you asked the question, for you have every right to do so. No, what hurts is that you have cause to wonder whether you can trust me or anyone else in the Guild. I am ashamed and angry that it came to that.” She met Mari’s eyes. “I will not betray you, Mari. I may have held some things back, but I will never lie to you or knowingly allow you to come to harm.”
Mari felt some of the weight come off of her, but found herself glancing at Alain.
“She does not lie,” Alain said.
S’san’s eyes glinted with anger. “I am not accustomed to having my word questioned or the accuracy of my statements evaluated by people unknown to me.”
“I’m sorry, Professor,” Mari said. “After everything that has happened, I don’t know who to trust anymore. But I know I can trust Alain.”
“And what makes this Alain such an expert on the subject of truth and lies?” S’san asked, her voice sharp.
Mari felt herself quailing under the disapproval of her old instructor, but stiffened her resolve. “I’ll introduce you, and that will provide your answer. Professor S’san, this is my friend and companion, Mage Alain of Ihris.”
A long silence stretched, then S’san took a couple of steps closer to Alain, studying his face. “A Mage? You show more feeling than I would expect.”
Alain nodded slightly. “Mari has reawakened my feelings.”
“Oh?” S’san fixed a demanding look on Mari. “What sort of feelings?”
“We’re in love,” Mari replied. “Don’t give me that look, Professor! This Mage, this man, has risked his life for me more than once and saved my life more than once. While the Senior Mechanics and others were plotting my death, this Mage stood beside me and protected me and stayed true to me.”
Her old professor nodded abruptly. “It’s not my place to judge personal decisions, Mari, but I will suggest that you avoid taking any impulsive steps. The odds are very much against it, but the Mechanics Guild may yet be persuaded to reinstate you. This all may perhaps be fixed, but not if you are consorting with a Mage.”
“I trust this Mage,” Mari said, putting all the resolve she could into those words. “I do not trust my Guild anymore. If I have to make a choice, I’ll stick with Alain.”
“You can’t make decisions like that based on emotions.”
She had never imagined talking back to S’san, but Mari did it now. “You sound just like a Mage yourself.”
“You’d certainly know, wouldn’t you?” S’san retorted.
“Yes, I would! Because I refused to accept what I had been told, I examined the problem, and I did my best to find out the underlying truth! Isn’t that what you taught me to do?”
S’san gave Mari a hard look, then nodded. She went to the door giving way onto the balcony, testing it to ensure it was closed and locked, then sat down, her expression changing to distress. “Yes, I did. I thought that would be for the best, for both you and for the Guild. Your professor failed.”
“You…” Her emotions tangled, Mari finally sat as well, beckoning Alain to join her on the couch. “Professor, I need to know what happened and why.”
“You have a right to that,” S’san agreed. “But there are things we shouldn’t discuss in front of a Mage, Mari. His Guild is an enemy of our Guild.”
“I no longer hold any allegiance to the Mage Guild,” Alain replied. “I follow Lady Mari.”
Mari nodded, feeling pride mingled with her anguish. “My Mage is threatened with death by his own Guild, his former Guild, professor. His loyalty is to me.”
“Your Mage?” S’san sat back and laughed shortly. “You continue to amaze me, Mari.” She watched Alain again. “Has he told you any of his Guild’s secrets?”
“Yes. He’s told me and…another Mechanic.”
“Interesting. And wise of you not to name this other Mechanic. If I don’t know who he or she is, I can’t be forced to reveal their name.”
“Professor, Mage spells really work,” Mari said. “You must have known that as well as I do now.”
“Of course I did. I’m not one of those fools who think that by ignoring reality you can make it go away. Though I suppose that’s a weak argument in the eyes of a Mage.”
Alain shook his head at S’san. “What you call reality does not exist. A Mage does not ignore anything. A Mage places a smaller illusion over the greater illusion.”
To Mari’s surprise, her old professor actually smiled at Alain’s remark. “You make it sound very simple, Mage. Excuse me, Sir Mage.”
“It is simple in idea, Elder,” Alain replied, “but very complex to apply. Achieving the ability takes much work and concentration.”
S’san’s eyebrows rose. “Elder? Isn’t that a term of respect among Mages?”
“Yes, Elder. Lady Mari has spoken often of you to me.”
Another smile. “Has she spoken of the Mechanic arts to you?”
“Yes.” Alain made a frustrated gesture. “She has tried to explain some things, and I have seen her at work. But I cannot understand how her arts work. They are very mysterious and complex, and endure much longer than any Mage spell.”
“Mysterious?” S’san glanced at Mari.
Mari nodded. “He can’t even figure out how to use a screwdriver, Professor. Something about Mage training makes them incapable of grasping the sort of things we do. But he can do things I can’t even imagine being able to accomplish.”
“Interesting.” S’san looked back at Alain. “You say the works of Mages cannot last a long time?”
“That is so,” Alain said. “A spell lasts only so long as concentration, strength, and power endure. Then the illusion returns to its prior state.”
S’san nodded thoughtfully. “Hmmm. Like an electric light. Shut off the current, and there is no sign it ever gave off illumination. That explains some things. One of the arguments used by the Mechanics Guild to claim that Mages are frauds is that it is impossible to point to any artifacts, to any permanent changes created by them. I had wondered at this myself. Mari, I wish I had a few weeks to pick the brain of this young man.”
“But why hasn’t the Guild already done that?” Mari demanded. She glanced out the window looking toward the lake, wondering how much warning they would have if the Guild were watching them here and preparing to charge in to arrest her. All she could do was hope that Alain’s foresight would provide some notice of the danger. “Why hasn’t the Mechanics Guild tried to understand how Mages work, instead of insisting that they are frauds against all of the evidence?”
“Why haven’t I done it? Because no Mage would speak to me. Why hasn’t the Guild ever done more? Because, Mari, they’re avoiding that which they cannot explain.” S’san gave Alain another long look. “Our technology cannot explain what the Mages do. There are two ways to respond to that. One way would be to research and to study, to learn more, to expand our knowledge or at least admit that there are things currently beyond our understanding. But the Mechanics Guild has clung to power for this long by refusing to allow new research and controlling all technology. I don’t know how the initial decisions about the Mages were made all those centuries ago, but it’s easy enough to guess. Our Guild leaders back then decided that what they couldn’t understand—the Mages—couldn’t be allowed to exist. But the Guild couldn’t destroy the Mages. Oh, it tried. That surprises y
ou? Yes, there was open fighting at one time. I know that much. But the Mages couldn’t be wiped out of existence, so eventually the Guild decided to pretend they didn’t exist. It’s been that way for I don’t know how long.”
Mari gripped the arm of the sofa. “Why did you tell me the Mages were fakes?”
S’san shook her head. “I never told you they were fakes, Mari.”
“You didn’t?” Mari frowned, thinking back. “No. You didn’t, did you? A lot of other Mechanics did, but you never talked about that, and when somebody else did, you didn’t comment on it. But then why didn’t you tell me the truth?”
“I was trying to protect you.” The professor took a deep breath, seeming to shrink in on herself as she exhaled. “How many lies could I expose without dooming you, Mari? You had to learn gradually, like other Mechanics do. I knew you wouldn’t be satisfied with official explanations, that you would be smart enough to navigate the dangers of learning the truth.” S’san’s gaze sharpened again. “At least, I thought you’d be smart enough.”
“My smarts were busy trying to keep me alive,” Mari shot back. “Despite the best efforts of the Senior Mechanics, I did manage to stay alive.”
“Do not doubt that I am very grateful for that,” S’san murmured, looking away. “Mari, I honestly did not know the lengths to which the Senior Mechanics would go. I feared you might be sent into dangerous situations, but no more so than any other Mechanic. I never suspected that you would be deliberately exposed to peril by setting you up to be kidnapped on that caravan to Ringhmon—”
“What?” Mari leaned forward, her body rigid. “Deliberately? The Guild wanted me to be kidnapped?”
S’san nodded, her expression hardening into anger. “They kept it very secret, but the Guild leadership had some knowledge of what Ringhmon was up to. They wanted to hammer that city, but claimed they needed more proof. So you were set up, placed in that caravan, alone, with the full knowledge of Ringhmon, bait for the commons who would see you as an irresistible target.”
“Bait?” Mari’s ears were buzzing as she stared at S’san in shock. “My Guild used me as bait?”
“Yes. I did not know, Mari. I swear it.”
“She speaks the truth,” Alain said.
Mari reached to grasp his arm with her free hand, grateful for that confirmation even through her growing outrage. “They wanted Ringhmon to kidnap me, to kill me, to give them the evidence they needed to put the city under an interdict. Stars above, Professor, no wonder the Guild Hall supervisor in Ringhmon was so unhappy with me! I wasn’t playing my role!” Mari knew her voice was rising, but she kept talking. “I hadn’t let myself be kidnapped! Or killed! When I was captured I escaped! I wasn’t cooperating with the Guild’s plans at all! The Guild wanted my dead body!”
“Mari—” Professor S’san began.
But Mari kept talking, overriding her professor, something she would never have imagined doing not long ago. “I trusted the Guild! I was loyal to the Guild! I never would have done anything against its interests. Yet the Guild was willing to sacrifice me like a cheap game token. If it hadn’t been for Alain…” She looked over at him. “How’s that for irony? My Guild’s own actions led me to know a Mage, and to learn some of the truth behind my Guild’s lies. I suppose I should be grateful that they tried to use me as bait. Otherwise I might have spent many years laboring loyally for people who deserve no loyalty.”
S’san nodded in the silence that followed Mari’s outburst. “You have every right to be angry, to feel betrayed. You were betrayed. The Guild didn’t need your body as evidence of wrongdoing by Ringhmon. The Guild doesn’t need any evidence to do whatever it wants. But it offered a way to get rid of someone who worried the Senior Mechanics.”
“Why?” Mari demanded. “Why did I worry the Senior Mechanics? What did I do?”
“You did nothing except what any loyal Mechanic should do. What worried the Senior Mechanics was what you were: smart, with an agile mind, a natural leader who acquires followers the way most people pick up spare change. They feared that over time you would gain enough strength to challenge them, to challenge the way they believe the Guild must be run. That’s why the Senior Mechanics tried to get rid of you in a way that would tar the commons with the guilt for your death, turning your death into a reason for anyone sympathetic to you to become more loyal to the Guild and also reinforce support for maintaining a hard line against allowing any change. Never forget that most of the Senior Mechanics are certain that they are right, and that makes them willing to do anything that they believe to be necessary.”
The professor bent her head toward Mari. “I am very sorry, Mari. If I had known, I would have warned you. I swear it, though perhaps you have little faith now in my own vows as well.”
Mari sat without speaking, emotions tumbling through her, finally fixing on one thing she could be sure of. “You didn’t have to admit that to me, what the Guild had done. But you did. You’re too honest for your own good, Professor.”
S’san nodded somberly. “Perhaps. You and I probably share that fault. Did you wonder why I had retired?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Once word got out of what the plan had been,” S’san explained, “there was quite a blow-up among the senior ranks of the Guild. Some, such as myself, were appalled. All too many others were willing to excuse the betrayal of you as necessary for the good of the Guild. I was outvoted, to put it mildly. But everyone in the senior ranks knew that if the rank-and-file Mechanics heard the truth, there would be very serious consequences. Most of them would be shocked by the betrayal. So, I was given the choice of retirement here, in exchange for swearing to say nothing, or retirement in a cell in Longfalls. I chose here, where I have been discreetly trying to find out where you were, and trying to come up with an idea to help you, though nothing has come to me.”
S’san covered her face with both hands. “I don’t consider myself bound by oaths forced under duress, so I’m telling you the truth, but I have failed you, and I failed my Guild. Its current leaders are too shortsighted, too ruthless. We cannot continue doing the same things, but they refuse to change. Perhaps we are all doomed.”
Mari didn’t know what to say, finally looking helplessly at Alain.
The Mage had been watching S’san. “It is not hopeless. A new day can come to this world.”
“A Mage offers hope?” S’san laughed harshly. “It’s come to that.”
“Professor,” Mari said, “the reason I didn’t die at Ringhmon, the reason the kidnap plot failed, the reason I was able to escape when the commons in Ringhmon imprisoned me, was because of this Mage.”
“Indeed?” S’san sat up a little straighter, intrigued. “I had heard something about a Mage, but as someone tangential to everything that occurred in Ringhmon.”
“He was central to it all,” Mari said. “I’m sure you understand why I didn’t report that to my superiors. I could scarcely tell them that a Mage had helped me escape from the dungeon under the city hall and helped me burn the place down.”
“He helped you escape from a dungeon? How very romantic.”
“Yes. That’s…probably when I started falling in love with him.”
“In love.” S’san bent a skeptical look on Alain. “And when did you start falling in love with Mari?”
“I have thought on this,” Alain said, “and decided it began when first I met her, but I did not understand what was happening to me until after she threw me out a window.”
“She threw you out a window?” The professor shook her head. “Mari has always been fairly awkward around boys, but throwing one through a window is a bit much even for her. Still, I suppose that might have been what was necessary to get the attention of a Mage.”
Alain nodded. “It did get my attention. I should add that Mari was saving my life when she did that.”
“Men tend to like that in women.” S’san raised an eyebrow at Mari. “I told you that you impress people. Even a Mage f
ound you memorable the first time you met.”
“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.”