Madeline C. Proctor (maddie_proctor) wrote in lightning_war, @ 2008-09-19 16:31:00 |
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Current mood: | concerned |
Late Tuesday afternoon, 15 September 1942, at Malfoy Manor in Tintagel...
“Madeline, what happened to Nicodemo? Why is Priscilla not telling me what’s going on?” Dracaena Malfoy had the letters—Yvon’s and Priscilla’s—clutched in her hand as she strode into the room where Maddie Proctor was waiting for her, and she was breathing hard, obviously upset.
“He’s trapped in his own memories. It doesn’t appear to be related to what happened to Yvon,” Maddie said gently; she should have expected this, after all, even though she wasn’t consulting on Nicodemo’s case because he wasn’t part-faerie. “Priscilla is doing all she can for him. She’s probably waiting until she’s certain before telling you anything.”
Dracaena sighed. “Should I go up there? I really can’t, I can’t leave Lucius alone…” She was clearly torn and upset. “Yvon doesn’t want me to go, but…there are things Nicodemo has never told anyone else, that I know. And then there are things he’s never told me. Miranda’s letting Yvon treat him; she really thinks he can manage this on his own?”
Maddie frowned thoughtfully. “I don’t know. I think we should wait and see what Yvon thinks. Miranda has always insisted he could do her job as well or better than she does, but he’s never really been interested.” Maddie herself had her doubts; Yvon didn’t have much psychological training. But he was a very powerful Legilimens, and he was good at figuring out the right thing to say to distressed patients.
Dracaena nodded. “I just…well. I know how brilliant Yvon is, but…” She sighed again, and then looked up at Maddie guiltily. “Domitian’s nowhere to be found in Trevena. He’s not supposed to go into the Bois without leave, but I am sure that’s what he’s done. He seemed reluctant to leave Juliana here—so I was satisfied he’d stay put—but something’s happened. He brought up her trunk this morning, and then later today she said she’d never receive him again. My people tell me he’s just disappeared.”
“That’s going to be a problem, I’m afraid,” Maddie said, frowning. If Lalage had put a compulsion of any sort on Domitian, it was criminally stupid of her to activate it now, but there were other possible reasons for his disappearance and none of them were any better. “We really need to examine both of them to make sure that they aren’t under any compulsion. For him to disappear right now…well, it’s very suspicious.”
“I know,” said Dracaena, shaking her head. “My people are searching for him. But not all of them. Some of them were wounded yesterday, and some of them have stayed behind to protect the Manor. I can’t afford to take the chance that his disappearance is meant to distract us from something else, particularly with Nicodemo down.”
Maddie nodded. “I suspect you may be right. I’ll talk to Kyteler. I’m sure he’ll be just as interested in trying to find him as you are. But what about Juliana? You said she’s still here—I take it then that you haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary about her?”
“There is a great deal that is out of the ordinary about that girl,” Dracaena said with a rueful smile. “But not in the way that Priscilla’s afraid of. She’s a brilliant arithmancer; Nico is not, but he knows enough to take one look at her magister’s thesis and declare it will likely be classified. And Keresek thinks she’s a queen. Unmated and unfledged, but developed enough that being in my household won’t turn her away from it. Steren concurs, and I can see it; Liane has got people who normally don’t get along at all working together. I would have liked to be her mother, but I fear it’s too late. She’s seventeen, and a woman already.”
Maddie raised her eyebrows. “Well, that’s quite impressive. All the more reason we should make sure she hasn’t been compromised. I’d like to see her now, if I could.”
“I’ve sent for her,” said Dracaena, and then there was a soft knock on the door. “Come in.”
A pretty blond girl who was obviously a Malfoy relation walked in, her head held high and her bearing perfectly poised. There was something icy about her, and it bothered Maddie a little; winter queens were hard on the land that chose them. “You sent for me, Lady Dracaena?”
“This is Magistra Doctora Madeline Proctor, Juliana,” said Dracaena. “She would like to make sure that you haven’t been put under a compulsion by Mrs Parkinson.”
The girl’s eyebrows jumped, and she began speaking without waiting for Dracaena to introduce her. “You’re not going to read my mind—” she began, and then swallowed.
Maddie smiled reassuringly. “No, not at all. I’m just going to do a simple examination.”
“All right,” said the girl, and sat down. “I’m Juliana Malfoy de Marigny, called Liane. But you must know that already. Do I need to disrobe for this?”
“No,” Maddie said gently. “If there is a compulsion it wouldn’t have any visible effect on your physical body. I’ll start with some basic spell-work, and then we’ll proceed from there. If you aren’t affected, you won’t even notice a thing.”
“All right,” said Liane, and folded her hands in her lap. “Go ahead.”
Maddie nodded, pulled out her wand, and began the spells, watching the girl intently to see if she made appropriate eye contact, and where and what her eyes seemed to track. “So, Dracaena says you’re a brilliant arithmancer. I know the War Bureau is always looking for help in that area—is that something you’d be interested in?”
“I hope they do try to recruit me,” Liane replied firmly. “I want to destroy the Germans.”
“Well, if everything goes well with my tests, that may be a possibility,” Maddie said, noting the strong emotion. It was perfectly understandable in a subject of an occupied country, and nothing in the girl’s reaction indicated that there was a compulsion attached to any of those subjects. The initial tests having come up negative, she pulled out a set of lenses and moved on to more detailed tests, checking the girl’s energy body for signs of attempts to influence her through emotional or psychic ties. “I understand this may be a sensitive subject, but what about your father? How does he feel about Germany?”
Liane snorted. “I have no father,” she said. “I have cut him off, like a dead branch that poisons the living tree.”
Dracaena flinched. “Is it so,” she said softly.
Maddie nodded. There was no doubt that Liane meant it—in fact, there was no doubt now that Liane was a queen among the Gentry, even if she had no lands or tribe. “You’re clear. There’s no sign of any compulsion. I’ll have to talk to Kyteler, of course, but I see no obstacles to you working for the War Bureau.” She would strongly recommend it, actually. She wasn’t certain what would happen if two queens tried to live in the same household, but it couldn’t be good—it would cause dissension and miscommunication, even if they basically trusted each other, and Liane didn’t strike her as having much inclination to trust anyone.
“Excellent,” said Liane, smiling a little. “Thank you.”
Dracaena looked down at her. “You didn’t answer the question. I know he is no longer your kin…”
“You don’t have to cut him off,” said Liane sharply. “This is your home and your land, I would never attempt to dictate to you how it should be run, or who you should own as kin; but I cannot own him.”
Dracaena frowned. “That’s not it,” she said. “In fact I wish you would tell us why you have done this. Excision and outlawry are serious things among our people, but if you have cause for it, we should do likewise. Right now, we need to know if he’s a sympathiser, or if he’s involved in some plot or plan of Mrs Parkinson’s.” She glanced sidewise at Maddie. “It’s very unlikely that Mrs Parkinson is a German agent, but she has her own agenda.”
Maddie nodded.
Liane considered this. “I do not think so,” she said after a long moment’s consideration. “He was once. There is no doubt of that. But they will kill both of us now, if they find us again. It is not to his advantage for these islands to be conquered.” She shrugged. “As to Mrs Parkinson, I have no knowledge of her plans. Perhaps, but I do know that he felt she had sold him out, so it is just as likely he will move to do her the greatest possible damage.”
“I need to examine him, just to be certain,” Maddie said firmly. “Do you have any ideas about where he might have gone?
Liane shook her head. “No idea. I do not care where he goes, so long as it is away from me.”
Dracaena leaned back. “Juliana,” she said, “what’s different? What happened after he returned your trunk to you? You were angry with him before, but not like this.”
Liane glanced down at her folded hands, her expression blank and schooled. “I discovered that he had lied to me about the fate of someone I cared for.”
Maddie reached out and placed her hand over Liane’s. “I’m very sorry to hear that. What happened?”
Liane squeezed her hand firmly but briefly, and then let go. “Fortunately,” she said with the faintest hint of a smile, “my professor is alive, not dead. Domitian told me that he had either been killed, or taken someplace else to be killed. At the time, given my teacher’s position, Domitian’s position, and the pleasure Domitian took in the telling, I believed him.” She sighed. “Now I think perhaps he was not just reporting the news, but rather that he thought he had made it himself; and my professor escaped, somehow. I am done with Domitian de Marigny.”
Dracaena frowned. “A professor?” she asked, cocking her head to one side. “Not a lover, then. We thought you had lost a lover, after the things you said to my daughters at breakfast and later today. If your professor was your lover, you must tell us and not be ashamed—”
Liane rolled her eyes. “I have gone to bed with men, and with boys when I was in school; but I have never had anyone I would call my lover.”
Dracaena studied her. “So if someone chose to court you, there would be no obstacles to that?” she asked speculatively.
Liane snorted. “Only my own objections, Lady.”
Dracaena took a deep breath. “And you have not lost your true love, as Keresek thinks?”
Liane grimaced. “If I have, then I do not know it.”
Maddie had continued to watch Liane carefully even though she wasn’t expecting any signs of a compulsion that her tests couldn’t detect. There was something—dangerous, was the only word that came to mind—about this last exchange with Dracaena. She knew Dracaena wasn’t overfond of the idea of arranged marriages, and was probably trying to provoke the truth out of the girl; but she herself would not have chosen to provoke Liane. “But you did think you lost your mentor, and a very good friend if I’m any judge,” she said calmly.
“The only person with whom I have ever been able to communicate my most important insights freely,” said Liane, with a passionately wistful expression, a smile for a friend not present. “That’s worth so much more to me than a bed partner.”
“True,” Maddie agreed, while wondering what could have happened to her; that was a very cynical attitude for someone so young but not, unfortunately, uncommon in wartime. If she’d been raped—which happened often enough to heiresses in wars, especially where the concept of sovereignty was misunderstood—Maddie would have expected something different: more fearful, less jaded. “Someone who can be both, though, is invaluable,” she said, and tried not to think of her own lost love.
“So is a Philosopher’s Stone,” said Liane flatly. “But I haven’t seen one lately; have you?”
“I think we can safely say that you have not known and lost true love,” Dracaena said after moment, her blue eyes wide and a little appalled.
“No,” Maddie said, smiling, “but I assure you that, no matter what you think now, it isn’t nearly as rare.” In a way it was good news; if the girl was cold because her emotions had not yet been roused, that was better for her and for whatever land she bonded with than if she was cold because all of the things she loved most had been torn from her early in life.
“We shall see,” said Liane. “It certainly wasn’t going to happen with anyone Domitian tried to foist on me, and it’s just as unlikely to happen in the name of politics here, even though the people Lady Dracaena would want me to meet would not be murderers and thieves.” She shrugged. “I promise you, if it ever happens to me, I will act on it at once. But I certainly don’t expect it, and I’m done with anything less.”
Dracaena sighed. “It is true, there are people I would like you to meet; I would like it if you could be happy, as I am with Nico, and better for you if the people you meet are people who understand what you are and know how to handle you gently. But I would never force you.”
Liane shrugged. “Neither did he, Lady,” she said, very softly. “But I do not think that you are like him.”
dracaena, standingwave and maddie_proctor