Schooled in Magic 5 - The School of Hard Knocks by Christopher Nuttall

Author:Christopher Nuttall
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: magicians, magic, alternate world, Fantasy, Young Adult, sorcerers
ISBN: 9781606193051
Publisher: Twilight Times Books
Published: 2015-01-05T13:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

“THAT’S AN INTERESTING QUESTION,” AURELIUS SAID. “Might I ask what brought it on?”

Emily hesitated. She’d chatted to Claudia, then Helen, then even Rook and Ten. They’d all been surprisingly happy to talk to her about life in the Great Houses and, as far as she’d been able to tell, they’d been honest. Life in the Great Houses was better than life as a common-born magician, but it also carried so many obligations that Emily was surprised the entire society hadn’t collapsed under its own weight. There were so many pitfalls waiting for an unwary magician that she was quite certain she didn’t want to be part of it herself.

And then she’d asked why a patriarch had so much power over his family.

“I am being tutored in social etiquette,” she said, finally. “And I discovered just how many arrangements a paterfamilias could make for his family.”

“They do have a considerable amount of power,” Aurelius agreed. “But then, they also inherit the family’s obligations and debts.”

“I know,” Emily said, softly. “But does that give them the right to control their children’s lives? Or to make certain that newcomers to their society are magically crippled?”

“Some would argue that they do,” Aurelius said. “Others would point out that there’s no way to make them follow outside laws.”

Emily sighed. She was used to thinking in terms of a nuclear family; one mother, one father and a handful of children. But the Great Houses were practically clans in their own right; it was tricky, immensely so, to work out just who was related to whom. If they hadn’t had a habit of integrating new blood from common-born magicians, Emily was sure, they would probably have had very real problems with incest and inbreeding by now. Markus had over a hundred relatives, all bearing the Ashfall name.

Maybe that’s why they put so much weight on honor, she thought, sourly. There’s no other way to express their disapproval.

“It’s stupid,” she said. It crossed her mind that saying it aloud could be a mistake, but she was too tired to care. “The Necromancers are pushing against the walls and they’re fighting over... over who has the right to do what to whom.”

“I quite agree,” Aurelius said. “But convincing even a small number of magicians to work together, let alone accept another’s leadership, is like herding fire drakes.”

With the added disadvantage that those fire drakes have magic, Emily thought, remembering Lady Barb’s frustration with the same problem. You might be stronger than one of them, but all of them?

He gave her a wintry smile. “It is good that you have come to recognize the flaws in the established order,” he said. “But have you also come to understand why the established order exists?”

“I think so,” Emily said, slowly. “It’s to keep magicians from fighting each other too openly.”

“Among other things,” Aurelius agreed. He rose to his feet and turned to walk towards a door. “And, speaking of the Necromancers, there is something I want to show you.”

Emily followed him

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.