Part 122 (2/2)
”They're twelve years old. They don't dare hate you.”
”Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
”I'm not terribly concerned about your feelings, Vi. However, given the difficulties of your case and that I discovered you, and most of all because I couldn't come up with an excuse quickly enough, I've been put in charge of your tutelage.”
Vi groaned.
”My feelings exactly. First of all, this room is entirely inappropriate for you.”
”I get a better room?”
”You get to share a room. You were given a single in deference to your age. That was a mistake. You're isolated enough as is. As of this afternoon, you'll have a roommate. In case you're curious, the room will be only slightly larger than this one.” Vi pitched back onto the bed. ”Now, since you are my responsibility, you'll go to lecture. Now. Elene will have to wait until later.”
Vi didn't move.
”Do we need to repeat certain lessons we learned on the trail?” Ariel asked.
Vi stood quickly.
”And by the by, lest you being put under my care be seen as a reward, all the punishments that your unfortunate floor monitor imposed will be carried out, as well as a few of my own. Follow.” Ariel left, and Vi had no choice but to follow her like a whipped dog.
The Chantry had been constructed with beauty and practicality as its first considerations. Cost had obviously been no object. Even here, in the tyros' area, the arched ceilings were ten feet high, incised with a different pattern in every quarter. The tyros occupied the lowest level of the Chantry, though storerooms, archives, and the like lay beneath the water line. Because it was housed entirely within the giant statue of the Seraph, the interior of the Chantry was arranged in circles: living quarters arrayed along the quadrasecting halls, and lecture halls around the outside to take advantage of the sunlight necessary for magic.
Though white marble predominated, the tyros' floor didn't feel austere. A castle with so much stone would be cold and dark, but here the floors were warmed to welcome bare feet, and the ceiling itself was luminous. The walls were filled with bright, cheery scenes to comfort girls away from home for the first time: rabbits, unicorns, cats, dogs, horses, and animals Vi had never seen played together. They were drawn fancifully, but exquisitely.
Vi touched a painted pink puppy curled in sleep next to an impossibly friendly lion. Its eyes opened and it licked toward her fingers, its pink tongue pressing against the wall as if it were just on the other side of a gla.s.s. Vi yelped and jumped backward, clawing at her belt for a dagger that wasn't there.
”His name's Paet,” Sister Ariel said. ”He was one of my favorites. He doesn't wake until noon.”
”What?”
”It's a timepiece. Watch this,” Sister Ariel said, stopping outside one of the cla.s.srooms.
Gently, the ceilings pulsed violet, red, yellow, green, and blue in succession as a bell tolled. Seconds later, several hundred girls between ten and fourteen poured into the halls in a flood of noise and motion. Vi saw more curious glances than frightened ones. Apparently the rumors hadn't spread to the entire school yet. She folded her arms and scowled.
”Cla.s.s starts in five minutes. Can you read and write?”
”Of course,” Vi said. Her worthless mother had done that much.
”Good. I'll collect you at noon. Oh, and Vi? If you have a question during cla.s.s, raise your hand. Sister Gizadin is a stickler. When called on, stand with your hands behind your back. If you don't, they'll think you're being disrespectful. Oh, and no magic. And remember everything. Lectures are arranged in triads to help with that.”
”Triads?” Vi asked, but Sister Ariel was already gone.
Five minutes later, Vi was seated in a too-small chair at a too-small desk in the front row of a lecture hall. Three walls were unadorned white stone. The east wall, however, was as transparent as gla.s.s. The late morning sun poured down, bathing Lake Vestacchi and the snow-capped mountains beyond in light. The lake was the deepest blue Vi had ever seen, and dozens of fis.h.i.+ng boats dotted the surface.
Vi barely noticed when her whispering cla.s.smates suddenly quieted. A squat Sister tut-tutted and the wall s.h.i.+mmered, becoming opaque white like the others in seconds. Without preliminaries, Sister Gizadin began: ”There are three reasons glamours should be used sparingly. Anyone?” Not a girl made a move. ”First, glamours are unpredictable. Second, glamours are unnatural. Third, glamours are unappreciated.
”Unpredictable. First, a glamour may affect only men or only women or only children. Second, a glamour may affect some people much more strongly than others. Third, a glamour will attract people according to their own predispositions. It may impart, particularly in men, an overwhelming s.e.xual desire for the caster. Or it may impart a slavish servitude, where the person finds in you every good thing they could imagine. Or it may impart a simple attractiveness and persuasiveness. First, a glamour may affect only men or only women or only children. Second, a glamour may affect some people much more strongly than others. Third, a glamour will attract people according to their own predispositions. It may impart, particularly in men, an overwhelming s.e.xual desire for the caster. Or it may impart a slavish servitude, where the person finds in you every good thing they could imagine. Or it may impart a simple attractiveness and persuasiveness.
”Unnatural. First, a glamour can operate by exaggerating a quality you already have. That could be exaggerating your inherent attractiveness, or it could exaggerate people's perception of your courage or honor or strength, or it could exaggerate a bond such as friends.h.i.+p that you share with the glamour's target. Second, a glamour may feign the attractive features of another person. Third and most powerfully, a glamour may tap the subject's mind for what he finds most attractive. One man might say the caster was blonde and blue-eyed whilst the man beside him would swear she was buxom and green-eyed. But this type of glamour is unusual and challenging to use. And obviously, if the two men talk after that maja leaves, they will notice the discrepancy. First, a glamour can operate by exaggerating a quality you already have. That could be exaggerating your inherent attractiveness, or it could exaggerate people's perception of your courage or honor or strength, or it could exaggerate a bond such as friends.h.i.+p that you share with the glamour's target. Second, a glamour may feign the attractive features of another person. Third and most powerfully, a glamour may tap the subject's mind for what he finds most attractive. One man might say the caster was blonde and blue-eyed whilst the man beside him would swear she was buxom and green-eyed. But this type of glamour is unusual and challenging to use. And obviously, if the two men talk after that maja leaves, they will notice the discrepancy.
”That leads us to the third reason glamours should be used sparingly: Glamours are unappreciated. First-” she stopped, irritated. ”Viridiana, stop fidgeting. You have a question?”
”What if you can control all that?” Vi asked, standing up and putting her arms behind her back, feeling like a child. ”It's not that hard.”
All the girls in the cla.s.s looked at Vi as if they couldn't believe she'd dared speak.
”Do you really wish me to believe that you have natural mastery of one of the more difficult relational spells?”
”I didn't say mastery,” Vi said defensively. The truth was, she was still off-kilter, the thought of having to go talk to Elene hanging over her like a death sentence-which, she realized, it might actually be.
”Unless you've actually cast this spell, sit and be silent.”
Vi paused, then scowled. ”I have.”
”Oh? Pray tell.” Sister Gizadin gave a condescending smirk.
Fine, b.i.t.c.h. ”I was f.u.c.king this guy and he was having trouble waking the snake,” Vi said. Sister Gizadin's eyes went huge. ”So I kicked in a s.e.x glamour. That usually does it in about five seconds. I mean, it's embarra.s.sing. If you use too much, they're done before they get naked. With this one, the glamour did nothing. In your terms, I guess I was exaggerating my natural attractiveness. So I played around with it until I felt something give. His eyes glazed over and he started talking about my boyish figure-while holding two hands full of t.i.t.” ”I was f.u.c.king this guy and he was having trouble waking the snake,” Vi said. Sister Gizadin's eyes went huge. ”So I kicked in a s.e.x glamour. That usually does it in about five seconds. I mean, it's embarra.s.sing. If you use too much, they're done before they get naked. With this one, the glamour did nothing. In your terms, I guess I was exaggerating my natural attractiveness. So I played around with it until I felt something give. His eyes glazed over and he started talking about my boyish figure-while holding two hands full of t.i.t.”
Sister Gizadin's mouth was open, but no words came out.
”Anyway,” Vi said, ”it wasn't hard. I mean, I'm most experienced with glamours for s.e.x, but I figured those out with a pointer or two from a courtesan, so with Sisters teaching me, how hard can the other glamours be?”
For a long time, no one said anything. Vi noticed belatedly that everyone was gaping at her. Sister Gizadin's mouth closed. She began to speak, and then stopped. Finally she looked past Vi to a buck-toothed twelve-year-old who raised her hand. ”Yes, Hana?” Sister Gizadin asked.
Hana stood with her hands behind her back. ”Please, Sister, what kind of mage is a courtesan?”
Vi laughed.
That snapped Sister Gizadin out of it. ”Sit, both of you!”
They sat.
”Unappreciated,” Sister Gizadin said. ”Even if people's perceptions of the caster are not altered, there is still a feeling of wrongness after a glamour. During the spell, they won't notice they're being manipulated, but afterward, especially if they were wildly manipulated, they'll realize that their reactions were out of proportion. The irresponsible use of glamours is one reason why magae have historically been distrusted. No one wants to Sister Gizadin said. ”Even if people's perceptions of the caster are not altered, there is still a feeling of wrongness after a glamour. During the spell, they won't notice they're being manipulated, but afterward, especially if they were wildly manipulated, they'll realize that their reactions were out of proportion. The irresponsible use of glamours is one reason why magae have historically been distrusted. No one wants to be manipulated, and in essence, glamours are all about manipulation. That's all. Cla.s.s dismissed.” be manipulated, and in essence, glamours are all about manipulation. That's all. Cla.s.s dismissed.”
<script>