The Schism (The Broken Prism Book 4) (4 page)

To his surprise, Magdalene Trout smiled at him and said, “That is a feeling that the famous and powerful know very well.” Her smile took on a biting edge. “After my late husband’s involvement with your father’s schemes was discovered, I found out who my real friends were, as the Trouts rapidly fell out of favor in society. When I resolved the issue with my husband and fought tooth-and-nail to climb back to the top of the food chain, suddenly I became much more popular and all my old
friends
came hurrying back.”

Oliver had told Hayden during the last school year that his mother had killed his father after his role as a conspirator with the Dark Prism was discovered. He was a little surprised that Mrs. Trout could talk about such a sensitive issue without flinching.

“Didn’t that make you furious?”

She gave that a moment of thought before answering. “Not really. It actually proved quite informative, as it let me know who my true allies were. It’s important to classify the people in your life when you have the kind of wealth and power that we possess, Hayden. Even false friends and—occasionally—enemies can be useful when they serve their purpose.”

“How so?”

“Take Oliver, for instance.” Mrs. Trout smirked at the look on his face. “I know you have despised each other since the moment you met, and that will likely never change. Still, you took him with you when you left school last year to come to the Forest of Illusions on a fool’s mission. Why?”

Hayden frowned. “Well, mostly because he volunteered, and even though I think he’s an arrogant snot, I’ve seen what he can do in a fight and I knew he wouldn’t change his mind and bail on us halfway there.”

She nodded encouragingly and said, “In essence, because even though you dislike him, there are things about him you admire and can rely on. And even though my son insists that you’re a waste of Source power and have no proper familial pride, he still asked to go with you, because he knew that if anyone could find a way to get it done, it would be you.”

Beginning to understand, Hayden asked, “So that’s why you guys spend so much time smiling and charming people you don’t even like in public, and then secretly wishing them to an early grave in private?” He had thought it was a ridiculous waste of energy when he first arrived today and was told he had to play nice for the benefit of others.

“Civilities
do
matter,” she confirmed with a shrug. “You never know when you’ll find yourself needing a temporary alliance with someone who you previously had no interest in. Besides, we mages are a fairly tight-knit community. If word gets out that you’re openly hostile with someone, others can use that against you when they’re formulating their own plans.”

“So all of us Great Houses and other powerful people spend our time at parties with dozens of people we don’t even like, being as friendly as possible, just so no one else can get the advantage of us by knowing who we’re
actually
close to?”

“In a nutshell, yes.”

For some reason it didn’t sound as stupid as it had earlier today, perhaps because he was finally beginning to wrap his head around what it took to survive as an adult mage in the world.

“You should get back to bed and finish your reading,” Mrs. Trout changed the subject abruptly. “I won’t go easy on you tomorrow just because you’re tired; we simply don’t have time for it.”

Hayden nodded and stood up to leave.

“There is a bathroom down the hallway to your left, if you’re still looking for a glass of water.” She pointed.

“Thanks.” He walked to the threshold of the library before he turned and added, “Thanks for talking to me too.”

She waved a dismissive hand in acknowledgement, not looking up from her book, and Hayden went to get a drink of water.

He spent the next hour in bed finishing his assigned reading, which was nearly as dull as the first two chapters had been, careful not to wake Bonk with his page-turning. Finally he shut the book and slid under the covers, falling asleep before his head even hit the pillow.

For the first time in weeks, he had no nightmares.

Hayden sprang awake at the knock on his door and hastened to answer it, still dressed in his clothes from the day before. A startled-looking woman informed him that breakfast would be ready in fifteen minutes in the casual dining room, taking in his disheveled appearance with raised eyebrows. Hayden thanked her and closed the door, still blinking to focus his eyes.

Given that he was up so late last night, he felt surprisingly energetic as he changed clothing and attempted to flatten his hair, prodding a sleeping Bonk as he passed the bed to wake his familiar.

Probably because this is the first time in weeks I haven’t been woken every few minutes by bad dreams.

“Come on, you lazy dragon, we’ve got breakfast,” he insisted on his second pass of the room, examining himself in front of the mirror to make sure he didn’t look too rumpled.

Nothing could wake Bonk faster than the promise of food, and the dragon hopped to his feet and flapped his wings a few times to stretch them for flight while Hayden fastened the prism circlet around his forehead and put on his belt of other magical instruments.

Bonk perched on his shoulder as Hayden left the bedroom and made his way down the hall, mentally calling up the path to the casual dining room from his tour the day before as he went. He was pleasantly surprised when he found the right room without making any wrong turns, and entered just behind Lorn.

The casual dining room was much smaller than the formal one from the night before, and Hayden took his place at a table designed to seat six. The room faced the gardens on the west side of the manor, with the entire western wall made of paneled glass to allow the sunlight in. He immediately liked this room better than any of the others he’d been in so far, because it felt open and airy and not oppressively large.

The three Trouts were already at their seats, though there was also a man Hayden had never seen before seated directly to Mrs. Trout’s right, who watched Hayden with interest as he sat down.

He looks like a banker,
Hayden judged mentally as he returned the man’s stare. The stranger was probably in his early fifties, his brown hair punctuated with streaks of grey around a thinning patch on the crown of his head. Reading glasses dangled from a silver chain around his neck, and he wore tan slacks with his fresh-pressed shirt tucked into them, even though everyone else was in casual clothing.

“Hayden, I’d like you to meet Edgar, our family accountant,” Magdalene gestured towards the man, pausing long enough to thank the kitchen staff who brought their food in.

Wow, my guess wasn’t far off after all.

“Hello, nice to meet you,” Hayden responded reflexively, which caused Lorn to barely suppress an eye-roll. He would normally have shot Lorn a nasty look, but realized that Mrs. Trout was scrutinizing his use of the tableware to see how much he remembered from the night before. Determined not to embarrass himself, Hayden dedicated his entire focus to making sure he used the correct utensils for each item and refrained from any horrible breaches in etiquette while they ate. It seemed to come naturally to Oliver and Lorn, who moved seamlessly from one dish to the next without any conscious effort from years of practice.

“Oliver, when you’ve finished eating I want you at the training grounds warming up,” Magdalene addressed her oldest son as soon as she set down her fork (the last of three). “I’ll be out shortly to duel you. In the meantime, give Lorn some practice in the hand-to-hand arena; his sweeping kicks still need considerable work.”

Lorn scowled at the remnants of his meal and said, “I’m just not as good at fighting without magic as you and Oliver.”

“No, you aren’t,” his mother admitted without apology. “However, that’s no reason to stop trying. With effort, you can and will improve to the best of your ability, and those skills will serve you well if and when you actually need them.”

Lorn’s ears turned red in embarrassment, but all he said was, “I know. I’ll go get changed.” And he slid from his seat and walked off with as much dignity as he could muster.

Hayden still wasn’t entirely used to the blunt honesty that Magdalene Trout treated her children to, and had mixed feelings about whether it was a good approach to parenting or not. On the one hand, he found it refreshing to know that she wasn’t sugar-coating her words or treating them like children, but on the other hand he could see where it must be daunting for Oliver and Lorn to have to fight for every scrap of approval from their own mother.

He was still thinking about it when she addressed him.

“You made a few minor mistakes during the meal, but nothing terribly important.” She nodded to Edgar as though to say,
See, he’s teachable.
“We’ll go over your errors in more detail during lunch,” she assured him. “I don’t want to bombard you with information too early in the day, especially right before your meeting with Edgar.”

Hayden suppressed a grimace at the thought of that, since the last time he met with accountants it had led to expulsion from Mizzenwald and a list of crimes as long as his arm that he was to be arrested for. Then again, those had been the High Mayor’s own Fias, and Edgar didn’t appear as arrogant as any of them, so maybe he would be alright to work with…

“What are we meeting about?” Hayden asked with interest as Edgar rose to his feet and motioned for him to follow. Mrs. Trout followed a few paces behind them in silence.

“I’m told you have some legal woes and need to be trained up as quickly as possible in order to get your estate back,” he replied smoothly, turning in to the library and taking a seat on one of three armchairs that was set up around a mahogany end-table, which was stacked depressingly-high with books.

“I’m going to have to do my own accounting for this?” Hayden grimaced at the thought. However much he had improved last year, he still hated math.

Edgar smirked and pulled his glasses onto his face, peering at Hayden over the top of them.

“I’m actually an attorney, who happens to have enough accounting certifications to claim the title when in mixed company.” He shrugged at Hayden’s surprise. “People are usually much more willing to speak candidly around a banker than they are a lawyer, so it’s useful to be able to switch titles depending on my audience.”

Impressed, Hayden asked, “Do you also use magic?”

“No, I’m just a regular person, or I doubt I’d be in my current professions. There’s really no benefit to having a magically-inclined attorney or accountant, unless you’re trying to shake down money from someone who is likely to fight back, in which case it would be just as easy to hire mages to accompany you.”

Hayden considered that briefly and then nodded to concede the point. Magdalene pointed at the stack of books on the table.

“Did you read the chapters I assigned you last night?”

“Yes,” Hayden replied.

“How much of it did you understand?” Edgar pressed him.

“Maybe a third of it,” he admitted ashamedly. “It’s a little…dense.”

Edgar chuckled and said, “Well, if you picked up a third of it then that’s better than most people, and time is of the essence. Magdalene tells me that she will train you on how to present yourself and all manners of your appearance, so you and I will focus entirely on making sure the Council of Mages are unable to talk you out of your rights.”

Both of them looked momentarily like they had gotten the worst end of the deal. Hayden suddenly wished he owned a nice pair of clothing for formal occasions. The thought of walking into a courtroom in slacks and a t-shirt was embarrassing.

“Okay.” He nodded in agreement, since he didn’t really have a choice, and Edgar began questioning him over the reading.

“Tell me what you know about the Statute of Remittance.”

Hayden scrunched up his face and tried to remember that part from the reading, while Bonk wandered idly through the library, occasionally stopping to examine the spines of books that were on the bottom shelf as though reading the titles.

“Um, something about having five years to demand repayment on a signed loan, but only having two years to make a claim against an unsigned loan…but also only in Junir, right? The other lands all have their own laws about it too, I think.” He grimaced, wondering how much he had left out of his answer.

Edgar favored him with a small smile. “Correct in essentials.” He nodded and continued. “In your case, the Council of Mages took—is still taking—an unsigned loan against your estate and using the funds for anything they can prove is even tangentially related to the reason for the loan.”

“And what reason did they give for ‘borrowing’ my family’s money without permission?” Hayden turned to Magdalene Trout.

“The funds are supposed to go towards reparations from the devastation caused by your father before his demise” she explained. “Towns had to be rebuilt, people had to be compensated for the murder of their family members, businesses had to be restarted, and so forth.”

“Doesn’t the Council have its own budget for things like that?” Hayden frowned.

“Yes, but it was not nearly large enough to fund everything that needed funding at that time. Since most of the major repairs have been made, our fund has had time to recover and is growing once more.”