Instantly, the situation Ennette had found herself in became way more complicated and awkward than she had initially thought. This wasn’t the Grand Wizard versus a delinquent—this was a delinquent facing down his powerful mother.
But isn’t this a good thing? Ennette wondered. If the Grand Wizard was Maziar’s mother, then shouldn't she also end up being more responsible for Ennette’s well-being?
“...I’m sorry,” Maziar said as if he were being forced to speak, turning his eyes away. Whatever else he might have been, at least the man knew how to apologize.
Yulda pursed her wine-colored lips as she looked back at Ennette. “First and foremost, I owe you an apology for the actions of my ridiculous offspring,” the Grand Wizard said. “And while he may not like it, I intend to share the blame and responsibility for what’s happened to you. He is the way he is, but that is also, in part, my fault.”
“I—I really just want to find my way home,” Ennette told her. “It wouldn’t be possible for that to happen, would it?”
“I’m afraid not without first breaking the contract unless you are both prepared for the consequences, but I’ll do my best to find someone who can help you once that happens,” said the Grand Magician. “We could attempt to break the contract forcibly, but that would be ill-advised—especially since we don’t know the contract’s contents. It could very well end up in the deaths of one or even both of you. As it is, we are already in a legal gray area with caster law, given that you are, at least to our knowledge, a human. I’m not sure if you are aware, but it is considered illegal to hold one of our own as familiars.”
“Why are you telling her that?” Maziar scowled.
“Because she needs to know,” Yulda snorted. “And you, apparently, need the reminder. In the case that someone from the Imperial Tower comes to inspect the situation, she needs to know how dangerous it is—for both of you.”
“Both of us?” asked Ennette.
The Grand Magician nodded. “The Imperial Tower would likely try to forcibly break the contract to avoid conflicts with other Towers and Planes Councils,” she said, waving a hand in the air. “The politics of it all get very complicated, but basically, depending on who finds out and who is willing to listen, they could help—or they could get you killed. It’s better for us to figure out what’s going on between the two of you before going to them. Still, in the worst case, we could make an appeal to them, and they would decide what to do next—which works in your favor, might I add, because Maziar would be considered a criminal if they were to decide that he mistreated you in any way.”
Mazier looked like he wanted to protest, but Yulda shut him down with a glare. On the other hand, the information was like a breath of fresh air to Ennette, and she felt a huge weight lifted off her chest. It wasn’t a great position, but it sounded like she had some means of protecting herself. As long as she was alive, that is.
“Listen,” Ennette said. “To be honest, I don’t even blame him. As long as we can break this stupid contract and I can go home, I promise I’ll just think of it as a nightmare and move on with my life.”
“Thank you,” Yulda responded with a nod.
“But… how do we break the contract?” Ennette asked.
“Ah,” said the Grand Magician. “Therein lies the problem. You see, I’ve seen many kinds of familiar contracts in my life, but I’ve never seen one like yours.”
“Which means?”
“Honestly?” Yulda said. “I have no idea.”
“Then what do I do from here?” Ennette asked. “Where do I go?”
“Well,” Yulda started, moving back behind her desk and taking a seat. “There’s only so much I can arrange for you right now. The other students who were present during the summoning certainly aren’t going to forget what they saw, so right now, we are just going to hold our breaths and hope that none of them really understand what happened.”
“And we don’t need to tell them the whole truth about what’s going on, either,” Maziar offered. “We could tell them that the contract was already broken.”
“Yes, but the fact of the matter is that it’s not broken, and we’d need a decent excuse to keep her around, or else they’ll start…digging.” She said the last word as if it was a particularly unpleasant thing.
“I mean, but, how close do he and I have to be?” asked Ennette. “Can’t you just say that we are looking into ways to get me home? And I could wait in a nearby town…or something.”
Yulda shook her head. “Unfortunately, given the way that the mana is flowing between the two of you, I don’t think that’s a viable option. Although,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “We could go a similar route but set you up as a prospective student in the meantime. That could work.”
Ennette chuckled. “A student? At the Northern Tower? Me?” And then she realized that the Grand Wizard was quite serious about her offer. “No,” Ennette said. “You’re joking, right? I can’t do magic!”
“You technically don’t need to be able to do magic to become a student at the Tower,” Maziar told her. “You just need to be tested for magic potential.”
“Which is easy enough for me to arrange,” Yulda said. “I could do it myself and have Marlen and Zerathon serve as the required witnesses.”
“You think the council would buy that?” Maziar asked.
“I think they’d rather buy that than have to come here in the middle of their beloved vacation season.”
“And if she fails?”
“You do realize I’m suggesting Marlen and Zerathon be the witnesses for a reason, right?” Yulda asked her son with narrowed eyes.
“You do realize that if she’s a student, she’s going to need more than the word of a couple of old badgers and a Grand Wizard who's rarely around, right?” Maziar asked back with a similar look.
Oh, my God, Ennette thought to herself again, looking between them. The resemblance between them was actually shocking to her. Never in a million years would she have thought they were related from the context of the book, but standing between the two, she wasn’t sure she could have ever missed it.
Yulda chewed on her pinky’s fingernail as she pressed her forefinger against her temple. “Fine. Point taken,” she said after a moment. “Then we won’t make her a student. We’ll make her an apprentice instead.”
“What’s the difference between a student and an apprentice?” Ennette inserted herself quickly into the exchange, feeling lost.
“And exactly whose apprentice is she going to be?” added Maziar.
“Yours, idiot. Whose else would she be?” Yulda told her son before looking at Ennette. “An apprentice is more of a prospective student role. It’s usually reserved for children and individuals of lower status who may have a degree of potential but haven’t had the opportunities or resources to properly grow that potential to an acceptable degree. They are sponsored by a member of the Tower, and serve that individual in exchange for education. Once a season they are tested until you either pass the test, have your sponsorship canceled, or decide to leave on their own.”
Ennette’s eye twitched. “When you say, ‘serve,’ do you mean that I’m to be a servant?”
“Within reason,” she shrugged. “But he'll also be entirely responsible for your well-being. You’re certainly not to be taken advantage of unless Maziar wishes to hang from the Tower by his toes, but you’ll need to do enough for the others to buy into it. ”
“Which entails what, exactly?”
“You’ll be performing basic tasks to earn your keep, and you’ll do what Maziar orders you to do—with the express understanding that he must do as I order him to.”
“Is there any possible way you could pretend like you don't think I'm the worst person on the planet?” Maziar asked with a groan. “You say that like I have ill intentions towards people—and as if I want anything to do with it in the first place.”
“You think I want anything to do with this?” Ennette turned to him. “Literally, I was going to ask her to make sure that I never had to see you again—but whoops—looks like you screwed that up, too!”
“I’m so sorry that you’re now forced to deal with me,” Maziar retorted—clearly not meaning anything about his apology this time.
“You should be!” Ennette told him, crossing her arms. Looking back at the Grand Wizard, she said, “Fine. So I have to bring him tea or carry his books or whatever Apprentices do. For how long, exactly?”
“However long it takes to break the contract,” Yulda said.
“Is there a guesstimate or anything that I can cling to in case I decide death is better than being at the bottom of the food chain at a literal magic school filled with over-privileged jerks like him?” Ennette pointed to Maziar, somehow forgetting for a moment that she was his mother. “I mean,” she started, looking for a way to correct herself. “I’m sure he’s…not the worst. It’s just…the situation…”
“If killing you wasn’t likely to mean killing myself, I would certainly just suggest that it would be far easier for you to die than for us to try acting out this farce,” Maziar said dryly.
“Don’t worry, child,” Yulda said with a sigh. “I wonder about him, too, sometimes.”
Ennette glanced at him with a smirk and a shrug. While it wasn’t what she expected, it wasn’t so bad.
“Just remember that when she isn’t here, you’ll still need to listen to me,” Maziar said, pointing between him and Yulda.
“You really are always like this, aren’t you?” said Ennette.
Shooting her a grin, Maziar waggled his eyebrows at her and turned his attention back to his mother, who gave him a rather skeptical face.
“For now, Maziar, why don’t you show her around the South Cradle? I’ll have Marlen set up a room for her next to yours. Marlen?”
The secretary appeared beside her with a puff of smoke and a slight bow. He was a tall man with long black hair tied in a low ponytail. Behind a pair of rimless half-moon glasses that sat halfway down his nose was a sharp pair of blue eyes that seemed to pick up on the smallest things. He looked rather severe, but he seemed kind enough.
Ennette eyed him with interest, wondering if she really could learn magic. She had no need for light shows, but teleportation could be interesting.
“Marlen, could you go to the South Cradle and make a door for Ennette?” Yulda asked.
“A door?” Marlen asked. “Is the young miss staying with us, then?”
“For now.”
Ennette leaned over to Maziar while Marlen wrote down Yulda’s additional instructions.
“‘Make’ a door?” she asked.
He closed the distance between them by leaning forward forward to her, and her heart skipped a beat at how close his face was to hers. In a low voice, he responded, “Yes. ‘Make’ a door. This is a Tower; we don’t exactly follow the rules of time and space a hundred percent of the time.”
“Is that a spell that everyone here knows?”
“Marlen has the dimensional affinity,” Maziar told her. “Other people can, but if one isn’t careful, they might get devoured by their own space and turned into mush. It’s a very unpleasant sight.”
“That’s horrifying.” Ennette shivered and saw the neat and orderly man in a new light.
“That’s magic,” Maziar grinned again, and Ennette fought the desire to slap his mouth right off his face.
Marlen stood and summoned a green portal with a series of swift movements.
“Shall we?” he asked, pointing to the portal. Maziar stepped forward without hesitation and hopped through.
Ennette followed with far more hesitation, wondering if this would be the actual moment she would die.
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