Chapter Sixteen

“I really am alright, I was just overwhelmed for a moment,” Mira insisted, but let her sister plant her in an armchair. Actually, she was a little woozy. The silver lining was that she now knew what to do about the archmage. “I’ll contact Master Solvere this evening. She’ll have a more informed opinion on my situation. I’ve been given permission to contact her as needed.”

“This constitutes a need,” Vesper agreed. “Where is Adelram?” She was annoyed, Mira could tell, because she dropped the ‘mister.’ That must be how Vesper normally addressed him.

“I snuck off while he was on a call,” Mira told her and leaned back in her chair with her eyes closed. “Don’t blame him.”

As if summoned, the study door opened and Colvin stuck his head in. “Lady Coventry, is—there you are, miss.” He looked her over. “Are you alright?”

“Just a dizzy spell,” Mira assured him. “Vesper made me sit.”

“Is this common?” Colvin asked, examining Mira’s face. Whatever he saw, he must not have liked it because he frowned.

“It will happen periodically until I’m treated,” Mira told him. As comfortable as she was with a necessary lie, she also wanted to keep the number of falsehoods she had to keep track of down to the bare minimum.

“I understand,” Colvin said. “If that is the case, then please let me escort you next time even if I am otherwise occupied. What if it had happened when you were by yourself?”

She debated with herself for a moment whether or not she wanted to argue. She didn’t need to be supervised every minute of the day, but then she remembered the lack of warning she had before the aftershock seizure and her argument crumbled. Going off by herself, even in the safety of the hotel, had been foolish and they had a right to be cross with her.

“Alright…” she agreed at last with a defeated sigh. “…I’ll make an effort. This is frustrating,” she added the last in a huff.

“Things will be easier when the doctors finish your inscription,” Vesper promised her. “Adelram, would you escort my sister to the sitting room and get her something to eat? She’ll need to sit quietly for a short time whenever she’s been stressed. Ask Cecily to check her over as well.”

Colvin bowed and then they did exactly that. Cecily prescribed her a nap and an afternoon snack, which Mira went along with. She wanted a little bit of rest before dealing with the matter of her apprenticeship, which was a source of stress that Mira hadn’t anticipated needing to deal with at all. She’d thought she had complete autonomy over her role in the University Arc, but having an apprenticeship to an Archmage was very different from enrolling herself in a few freshman courses.

Once she was feeling better, Mira had Anna bring the large speaking crystal into her bedroom and sat it on a little frame in front of a chair by the salamander’s grate where it was cooler.

Mira’s memories of Archmage Solvere were a bit mixed. Violet had seen her viciously cutting and grandmotherly kind. It all depended on who she was dealing with and Violet, as her sole apprentice, had apparently earned some measure of softness from her master when they were in private.

Even so, Mira wasn’t expecting Archmage Solvere to answer her crystal quite so quickly.

“Call Achmage Orla Solvere,” she said out loud and one of the gems inset into the crystal’s frame began to glow. The image of a middle aged woman with salt-and-pepper gray hair bloomed almost as soon as Mira finished speaking. She looked, in a word, furious.

“Girl, where have you been?” was the first thing out of her master’s mouth. “You were meant to contact me every week to keep up with your summer readings! I was about to storm Fenby house in person!”

“Forgive me, Master,” Mira squeaked. It was pure physical memory that pulled her upright in her seat. “I’ve been ill.”

Master Solvere’s mouth twisted in displeasure. It’s likely she didn’t believe it, but even if she thought Mira was fibbing she still said, “Sick? Explain, now.”

She didn’t get any happier as Mira went through the entire ordeal over again, but she did relax a bit and her outrage simmered down to a level that didn’t feel directed towards Mira, personally. However, she did end up cradling her head in one hand as Mira got to the part about her damaged recollection.

“It’s bad enough that he tried to throw my apprentice away on a shit-heeled pig farmer,” Master Orla growled once Mira was done speaking. “What was your father thinking? Or was he at all?”

However, Mira was stuck on a different point. “Pig farmer?” she asked. “The Fenbys?”

“They own a sausage factory and pretend that they aren’t in trade by going to every party in town with open admission,” Master Orla said dismissively and flapped her hand at Mira. “You don’t need to spend effort on remembering them. They’re nobodies with the delusion of being somebody. Even so, I wonder where Hamish Fenby suddenly found the balls to doublecross Bertram Coventry, of all people?”

She paused and took the crystal with her over to a bar cart where she poured herself what looked to be a very stiff drink. Then she came back to the worn velvet armchair she’d been sitting in when she answered Mira’s call.

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“How bad is it?” she asked. “How much are you missing?”

“I remembered most of my schooling earlier today when my older sister happened to mention your name. I’ve generally been able to recall anything that was important to me or that I dealt with often enough. My language is unaffected and I can still read. One of my doctors has instructed me to visit a cleric of Syne if matters don’t improve by the time I’ve been treated for the seizures.”