I met him look for look. “How about you start by telling me your story? Since I’m not the one sneaking around in the dark.”
Elsie straightened, nodding decisively. “We have to tell her, Stellan. I’m not letting you attack your own sister.”
She marched over to one of the over-padded sofas and sat down. When Stellan stayed where he was, she crossed her arms.
“I’m not going another step. If you go through with this, you’ll be going to that ceremony alone.”
He deflated, hesitating for only a moment before crossing over to sit at her side.
I watched them both, bemused at the change in the nervous girl and the way she masterfully put a stop to my brother’s foolhardy blustering. Grabbing the closest chair, I pulled it into position between their sofa and the door, perching on the edge.
“I know you’ve been practicing ever since you turned sixteen last winter.” I examined my brother. “But would you really have tried to use your ability to steal all my energy and leave me unconscious?”
For a moment my brother bristled at the suggestion that he wouldn’t have succeeded in such an attempt, before his shoulders slumped.
“Honestly? I don’t know. I’ve done it before in practice, with a volunteer. But could I actually attack my own sister?” He looked at the girl beside him. “I’m not sure.”
“I don’t believe you would have.” Elsie placed a gentle hand on his arm.
My parents had been privately training my brother since his sixteenth birthday, experimenting with his spoken energy mage powers. We had always known Stellan was an energy mage, but only since his sixteenth birthday had they discovered he possessed the unique ability to both give and take energy.
I knew my parents had been scouring the Sekali Empire since, hoping to find other young energy mages who might be interested in attending the Ardannian Academy this year, as well as an experienced instructor to work with them. Our mother was the only other spoken mage able to draw on the energy of others, but she did it using power, not directly with energy as Stellan and true energy mages did. And she had no experience with giving energy. But she had obviously managed the training well enough if Stellan had gained so much control already.
Stellan ran a hand over his face, looking weary now, as if he hadn’t slept all night. Which was quite possibly the case. He had fought with my parents over the question of being sealed, but this sort of defiance wasn’t like him.
“I know you would prefer to start at the Academy already able to write,” I said, my voice gentle, “but is it really a matter of such concern to you that you’d risk all this?”
Sealing only blocked power, not energy, rendering the mage who worked the sealing composition and everyone in its range unable to access power. For commonborns, that block meant they were free to write without unleashing uncontrolled destruction. For power mages, it meant the end of their abilities.
It wasn’t normally an issue for energy mages at all as they were born with their ability to access power blocked. Like me. Although my similarity to any sort of regular energy mage ended there.
My brother, however, had been born with a spoken ability like my mother. And like her, any attempt to write would unleash uncontrolled destructive power. But unlike her, his spoken words controlled an energy ability, not a power ability. Which made his unsealed status an inconvenient curiosity. I could understand why he had come up with the idea of joining a group of commonborns at a sealing ceremony and being sealed beside them. But I also knew from personal experience, that he might have unsuspected abilities lurking inside him.
I had told myself last summer that if he was still determined to be sealed when I returned this summer, I would find a way to warn him, even if it meant revealing my secret. And he clearly could not be more determined. But I hesitated to speak in front of a complete stranger. I needed to understand what was happening here before I could decide how much of my own story to impart.
“I wouldn’t risk anything for my own sake,” Stellan said after a significant pause and an encouraging look from the girl beside him. “But I would risk anything for Elsie.”
I cleared my throat, uncomfortable with the adoring look Elsie was giving him. Clearly they knew each other well—or thought they did—and yet I had never met her, or even heard of her. Which didn’t bode well for her identity. Why had they kept their relationship, whatever it was, such a secret?
As if hearing my thoughts, Stellan spoke again.
“Elsie is a servant here at the palace.” He gave me a defiant look. “A commonborn.”
I kept my face impassive although my heart sank all the way to my feet. Stellan was a mage and a prince of Ardann. I couldn’t see how anything but heartbreak could come from such a situation.
“I met Elsie two years ago,” Stellan continued. “After you left for Kallorway. With you and Lucien both off studying, it was so quiet around here. I started spending more time in the rest of the palace, and one day I ran into her.”
Elsie shook her head. “You’re being gallant again. What actually happened is that you found me crying and swooped in to rescue me.” She looked at me. “I’d only just moved to the palace, and someone gave me wrong directions. I got completely lost and had despaired of ever finding my way where I needed to be. But Stellan knew all the shortcuts, and I wasn’t even late.” She beamed at him.
I almost grimaced. It wasn’t hard to imagine why a youthful Elsie had fallen hard for the handsome prince who came to her rescue. Or why Stellan, feeling alone, might have been drawn to her in return.
“Elsie had just been accepted into the palace training program,” Stellan explained to me. “She isn’t a chambermaid, or anything like that. And she’s brilliant, so some of the others in the program have resented her since the start. They know she’s the best of them. The head of the program is obsessed with punctuality, and they knew if Elsie failed to appear, or arrived late, that he would be prejudiced against her after that.”
I frowned, trying to remember the details of the training program.
Elsie ducked her head, clearly embarrassed by his praise. “Not brilliant enough to be referred to the University. But my teacher suggested this option instead, and it seemed like a wonderful opportunity. My family comes from a small town, and I’d never even been to Corrin before.”
Her words sparked my memory. Ordinary commonborn schools finished when the students reached ten years old. In the past, only the very occasional student with a genius level of recall could hope to complete years of private tutoring between school and admittance to the Royal University. My Uncle Jasper had been one of them.
But since the beginning of sealing, further options had opened for the more promising students. School teachers, sealed themselves, could recommend their more intelligent and diligent students to a number of different locations. For the most academically minded, the University now ran an entire commonborn stream, accepting a full class every year. And a separate institution had been set up specially to train teachers for all the commonborn schools.
For those inclined toward finance and trade, apprenticeships with the merchant families were highly sought after. And for those with a more practical inclination, the program at the palace trained commonborns for a life of future service in positions of authority. The young people who came through the program would eventually occupy senior positions doing everything from supporting Ardann’s diplomats to managing the other palace servants.