Page 62 of Rogue Familiar

Selly caught her breath at her first glimpse of House Refoel. She hadn’t known what to expect, especially as every High House seemed to imbue the physical structure that was their core and home with their own unique aesthetic. What she hadn’t imagined was that House Refoel wouldn’t have any kind of central structure at all. Instead it appeared to consist of a scattering of buildings across a lovely peaceful valley.

The road brough them around a soft bend about halfway up. Low hills rose on either side, with a creek tumbling over rocks and boulders down below. Groups of cottages formed circles at various levels, with some larger buildings clustered together at several different points. Steam rose from pools of different sizes, some overhung with spring-flowering trees, others open to the sunlight. Verdant gardens wound through everything, with enticing winding pathways and sculptures in alcoves. People wandered about or soaked in the pools, or bathed in the abundant sunshine.

Above all, the whole place felt blissfully serene, as if the very air contained healing magic. Selly gazed about in wonder that she tried to disguise. Nothing she’d seen of the Convocation thus far had prepared her for this kind of beauty and peacefulness. She’d wanted to hate everything about House Refoel. She had loathed House Sammael. And House El-Adrel had been so bizarre and frightening at first. With House Refoel, though, she found herself rather adoring all she saw. But then, she supposed that the places themselves were neither good nor bad. All lay in the intent of the people dwelling there, and even that was as varied and changeable over time as the weather.

From the corner of her eye, she caught Chaim watching her knowingly. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

Reluctantly, she nodded, unwilling to give him more than that.

“I thought you would be able to appreciate this place, given your love of nature. We of Refoel share that love. Asa campaigned heavily for the position at House Phel as it would provide him with the opportunity to explore the unspoiled countryside of Meresin, a rarity in the Convocation. He wrote to us of your knowledge of the marshes, your ability to commune with the wildlife there. I think you will find yourself very much at home here.”

She nearly spat out that this would never be her home, but she didn’t want to alienate the wizard who would pass judgment on Jadren. Besides, it would be a lie to say that she didn’t like what she saw and felt. Much as the El-Adrel house was sentient—Selly had experienced that, no matter what that awful Ozana had said—this “house” might also hear her words and be hurt by them. “It is a lovely, harmonious place,” she acknowledged.

“We go to pains to make all aspects of our home healing and healthy in every way.” Chaim smiled broadly at her praise, charming and handsome as he beamed. “Very often the people who come to us are in need of recovery from more than physical hurts. Disease and injury leave scars beyond what a healer, even a wizard gifted with magical ability, can knit together. The body may be whole, but the mind, heart, and spirit can take longer to recover—if they ever fully do. Now, perhaps, you better understand why we go to lengths to protect the sanctity of our lands, and why we cannot allow someone steeped in violence to come and go as he pleases.”

“Sometimes it’s necessary to fight,” she said quietly, thinking of the deaths she herself had caused. Even the hunters, though monstrously created and alive only through magic, had nevertheless been living creatures, whose lives, however twisted, she’d forcibly removed from them. “Look at you. You’ve taken vows to only help, not harm, but you’re speaking freely of executing my wizard.”

Chaim nodded, a line creasing his otherwise serene brow. “Sometimes it’s necessary to fight,” he echoed. “As head of my house, I must do what’s needful in order to protect what is sacred to us. I would not, however, carry out the execution myself, nor would any of my people. Once his guilt is determined—”

“Don’t you mean if?” she interrupted.

The look he gave her oozed sympathy and more than a little long-suffering patience. “Your loyalty does you credit—it’s a fine quality in a familiar—but you must also be realistic. We all witnessed the murder. My point is that that he will be sent to the Convocation for execution. No one here will harm him. You may put your mind at ease on that count.”

“That isn’t remotely reassuring.”

“It is what it is, no more, no less. What I mean to counter is your argument that I am somehow lacking in integrity. I am a wizard of my word. I will not break my vows by harming your wizard.”

Selly regarded him with some astonishment. “Are you saying because you’d let someone else be the one to get actual blood on their hands that you would bear no guilt for the decision?”

“I would bear guilt for the decision, but not for the action.”

“That is a ridiculous rationale.”

“A time-honored one,” he corrected, “long considered by minds wiser than yours, or mine, for that matter.”

“Is this how you justify to yourself standing back and refusing to aid others?” she demanded, incensed.

“To what are you referring?” Chaim asked in return, unruffled.

“You could have helped us against the wizard attacking us.”

“It was not our fight, therefore we did not choose a side.”

“By declining to help us, you helped her. That’s choosing.”

The carriage glided to a halt in front of a low, graceful building. Glassed in windows showed an airy interior, a peaked roof reminiscent of the surrounding hills holding more glass cut in shapes to fit. “We sometimes dance a fine line,” he continued, “but House Refoel will be no one’s enemy.”

“The El-Adrel wizard injured me. She captured us, planning us both terrible harm. Why are my wizard’s actions worthy of condemnation and hers are not?”

Chaim shrugged. “I’m viewing this in terms of the outcome. He committed murder; she did not.”

“That seems like a very convenient moral position to take.”

With a sigh, he stepped out of the carriage. “Come inside, Seliah Phel. He is inside, awaiting us, this wizard to whom you are so fiercely loyal for reasons that surpass understanding.”

“Your understanding, you mean.”

“Perhaps.” He held out a hand. “I think I understand more than you realize. Your loyalty speaks well of you, of your earnest heart and ability to offer unconditional affection. Come, you want to see him and you will. There’s no reason to refuse my company.”

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