Author's Note: This story is now on Archive of Our Own! My username over there is scesisonomaton, so if you'd prefer to read over there you can!

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The Higher Magicians officially convened about the matter before the week was out, and announced their decision two days later. Akkarin had been right - Balkan really was the only choice, and his oathtaking ceremony was set for two weeks after the announcement in order to give the rulers of the Allied Lands time to send their representatives to this momentous occasion.

Sonea sat next to Akkarin in the Great Hall, two rows under the Higher Magicians, and watched Lord Balkan recite his oaths to serve the Guild, the King, and the Allied Lands. Concealed by the sleeves of their robes she squeezed Akkarin's hand and only breathed again when he returned the pressure and tapped his fingers on the back of her hand. Balkan was still speaking - it was a lengthy oath and there would be even more declarations and speeches afterwards - and she could feel the tension emanating from the man next to her. Akkarin had been very determined not to resent neither the process nor his successor and expressed this determination perhaps too vehemently to be quite believable, but she could only imagine how frustrated he must be.

Some thought had obviously been put into the symbolism of the occasion, for the robes that Balkan received to show his new rank were a pure, blinding white. The silk shone in the glow of a hundred globe lights and shifted in Balkan's hands like frothing milk. Sonea leaned close and whispered in Akkarin's ear: 'Think of the stains,' and was gratified to see the corner of his mouth quirk up.

There was to be a reception of sorts in the Night Room afterwards. Sonea remained in her chair until most of the audience had filtered out. She was much more practised at using her cane than she had been a few weeks ago, but it was still not a dignified process shuffling past the empty seats and down the stairs into the hall even with Akkarin's help. They dawdled further on the path to the Seven Arches, neither of them very eager to throw themselves to the limek horde inside.

'I am going to request an escort to visit my aunt and uncle,' Sonea said. It had been on her mind for several days and she had finally decided to put the matter to rest. 'I can only imagine the outrage if I even suggest I might like to leave the grounds, but I suppose it must be done sooner or later.'

'I rather suppose it must be,' Akkarin agreed, absently patting her hand in the crook of his arm.

She said nothing more until they stood before the open doors of the Night Room. 'Into the fray, I suppose.'

'We do not have to stay long, just long enough that people know we were there.'

Sonea rather thought that there were plenty of people inside who preferred to know as little of the Black Magicians as possible, but much of their strategy in this ridiculous game these days was based on spite. So although Sonea would have liked nothing more than to retreat back to their rooms, lock the doors, and not come out for a few days, she had to agree that they needed to put in an appearance, and at least it would let her sit down for a few minutes before walking back to the Magicians' Quarters.

She had never been in the Night Room before, and she was not sure if she would have recognised it even if she had. Quite a crowd had gathered inside, magicians and members of the Houses both, as was apparently fitting when a new High Lord took office. They had been walking slowly enough that the awkward moments of confusion at the beginning of a gathering had passed, and everyone already held glasses of wine and stood about gossipping, so few people noticed the two Black Magicians entering the room. The usual arrangement of chairs in small groups was still vaguely recognisable, but it was clear at a glance that there were many more people in the room than would comfortably fit under normal circumstances.

In one corner, High Lord Balkan was besieged by guests waiting to congratulate him on his new position and, Sonea thought wryly, make sure he knew how much they approved of his promotion and how they had supported his appointment from the start. He looked distantly embarrassed, and Sonea could not blame him. He had never struck her as an arrogant man; sure of himself, yes, and perhaps a little overbearing, but not arrogant.

'I'll make excuses for you if you wish,' Akkarin said quietly, 'and we can find you a chair.'

She shook her head. 'I'll be fine. Let's go and show our good will.'

They joined the informal and rather ineffective queue, and she conscientiously ignored the stares and pointed silence. She had reluctantly let go of Akkarin's arm when they entered the room, and with every minute she grew more sure that she would pay for this in the morning. A steady trickle of magic had kept her on her feet so far and that would have to do until she was back in her own home, tucked up in bed with her leg on a pillow.

'High Lord,' Akkarin said suddenly next to her, bowing ever so slightly. 'My congratulations on your well-deserved appointment.'

'Lord Akkarin,' Balkan replied and inclined his head in return. 'I shall endeavour not to disappoint.'

'No danger of that, I'm sure.'

Compared to his predecessor, Balkan's tenure at the helm of the Guild would almost certainly be rather unspectacular, but she reckoned it would be uncharitable to say so. She added her own well-wishes to the choir and even gave Balkan a real smile, which he returned looking a little startled.

'I was sorry to miss your practice this morning,' he said stiffly; naturally, he had been too caught up in preparations to preside over what had turned out to be a wholly routine hour in the Arena. 'I will make sure my successor is aware of the situation and makes the appropriate arrangements.'

'Garrel will take over as Head of Warriors,' Sonea said when they were out of earshot. 'He won't like having to supervise us chasing each other around the Arena every morning.'

Akkarin shrugged. 'He won't have much choice in the matter. Ah, there's Rothen - or do you want to go straight back?'

She gritted her teeth. 'Unless you are prepared to carry me, I'm not sure I'll make it out the door.'

Rothen rose from his chair at the centre of a cluster when he saw them approach. 'I tried to save seats,' he said apologetically, moving aside to make room for Sonea. 'One would think we had not just spent an hour sitting in the Great Hall.'

Akkarin, who had supported Sonea on the way down and now stood by her left shoulder with a menacing air, raised an eyebrow. 'I am sure the ceremony did not take that long when I took my oaths. But then, I was only half myself at the time so it may have felt shorter.'

'Unfortunately, our predecessors were very specific about how these things should be done, so I assure you, there is not much left up to interpretation.' Rothen smiled wanly. 'We can only hope that it will be many years until the next one.'

'Hear hear,' Sonea muttered darkly. She glanced up at Akkarin, trying to gauge his mood - he had been tense all day, although he hid it well. There was, though, that furrow between his dark brows, which she knew had not been there the night before. She wished she could reach up and smooth it out with her fingers, run her hands through his hair and kiss him until he forgot what he was angry about. Instead, she smiled and asked if he could find her some water, and when he had stalked off into the crowds, grimaced at Rothen.

'This cannot be easy for him,' the older magician conceded. 'And there will be gossip, of course.'

'It would have been worse gossip if he hadn't come,' Sonea said. Not that she had not thought about it, right up until the moment they had left their apartment. 'We can't spend the rest of our lives hidden away and only come out to fight each other in public, not if we want any kind of say in our future at all.'

'I suppose you're right. At least Akkarin is well-versed in the politics of it.'

Sonea nodded and tried to slowly stretch her leg out in front of her. 'I just hope everyone decides he's a much more interesting subject than I am, and I'll be left well out of the whole game. I'm getting too old to learn new tricks like this.'

Unfortunately, her poor attempt at a joke was not enough to distract Rothen from the look on her face as her knee clicked uncomfortably and sent a shiver down her spine. He raised an eyebrow at her. 'You told me it was getting better.'

She sighed. 'Today is just a bad day, that's all. It's been fine all week. Who knows, maybe this means there's a storm coming. Isn't that what old men say? That they can feel storms in their bones?'

'They do in stories.'

'Didn't I hear that one of the Alchemists was experimenting with ways to predict the weather? Maybe I should speak to him and save him some work.' This was not a very funny joke either, but it was enough at least that Rothen dropped the subject and asked how her revision was coming along instead. Lady Luen was due to arrive from Elyne within the next week or so, and Sonea had not quite decided whether she was excited or terrified.

'You will do fine,' Rothen assured her, finally smiling a little. 'If nothing else, your dedication ought to impress her.'

Privately, Sonea thought that she did not care about being impressive as long as the Healer did not regret agreeing to teach her as soon as she realised who and what she had taken on - she doubted there was any magician in the Allied Lands who was unaware of her and her role in the Invasion, and of course their banishment had been announced about as publically as was possible. They had been exonerated, both of them, and the King had made it very clear that he considered their crimes forgiven, but Sonea was neither blind nor deaf. She heard the whispers when she passed through the corridors, she saw the magicians who just ahppened to be standing ten steps from their apartment door at any given moment, and there were still the restrictions placed on them in the interest of safety. Whose safety, she would have liked to know. Certainly not her own - she was more than capable of protecting herself, as the Guild well knew.

She itched to get out. These days, if she was not stuck in the apartment, her world consisted of the Magicians' Library and the baths, and she was getting heartily sick of it. When she was young and living with her aunt and uncle and two other families in a single room, they had called it 'wall crazy', and Jonna had despaired of her adventurous niece who would slip out when she wasn't paying attention to run wild with a youth gang for days at a time rather than be stuck in the same four walls for a moment longer. Sonea understood now why Jonna had been so angry with her, of course. Even in the company of two dozen others, the Slums were not safe for children out by themselves, and it was a small miracle that she had never been seriously injured or worse.

'Has Akkarin gotten lost, do you think?' Rothen asked, interrupting her thoughts. It had been quite a while since he had left them, but the room really was crowded and of course Akkarin had been up to his neck in politics for over a decade and probably knew most of the people here. In all likelihood he had simply been held up by an acquaintance. It was another ten minutes before he returned, carrying a glass of wine each for her and Rothen, and there was a storm gathering in his eyes.

Something had happened, and Sonea could tell he would not say anything in front of Rothen. She was so tired of it all; if she'd thought anyone would listen, she would have asked the world to leave her alone for a few days at least so she could sleep.

Rothen invited them both to dinner; Akkarin declined but added, catching Sonea's reproachful eye: 'There is something Sonea and I need to discuss, but why don't you join us tomorrow evening instead?'

She was proud of him for that, and told him so when they had taken their leave and begun their walk back across the courtyard. He groaned. 'I do try to be personable, you know.'

'I do, and I'm grateful. It's reassuring to know that you could spend a few hours in the same room without jumping at each others' throats.'

'He is the one holding a grudge,' Akkarin pointed out, which was admittedly true.

'You didn't exactly make it easy for him,' she said as they - slowly, out of necessity - climbed the stairs to their floor of the Magicians' Quarters. 'You can't blame him.'

Akkarin made a non-committal noise in the back of this throat, and lengthened his stride so he could open the door for her. Sonea permitted herself ten breaths of respite before she asked what had happened; she did not like the look on his face. He grimaced at the question and dropped into the sofa next to her.

'The King received a message from Arvice,' he said. 'He caught me just as I left you and Rothen. Sachaka wants to negotiate.'

'Negotiate what? What do they want?'

He had picked up her hand and turned it over to draw circles in her palm. 'I don't know, and neither does Merin. The message came from the Sachakan King's household, if not the King himself, so it could be anything. Merin will make some inquiries, but I expect they will open talks within the next few months.'

Understanding dawned, accompanied by a cold weight in her stomach. 'He wants you involved.'

'I cannot see how they could do it without me. Or you, but since you're going to be a Healer I will do my damnedest to keep you out of it. If this is all tied to the Invasion and not a sudden, miraculous interest in diplomacy, it is more or less all my fault anyway and I do not see why you should have to be embroiled in it any more than you already have been.'

'Hai,' she said softly, 'it's not all your fault.'

His fingers tapped her palm three times in quick succession. 'You're right, of course,' he conceded, 'but I must take some responsibility. I do not trust those new advisers to know what they're doing in this. I'll do my bit, and hope it won't all go up in flames.'

Sonea rested her head on his shoulder. 'You said it'll be within the next few months?'

'It'll take some time for messages to go back and forth.'

'Very well. Until that happens, we are not going to worry about it.'

She felt him exhale. 'We are not?'

'Not in the slightest. I forbid it. There will be plenty of time to worry later, and frankly I'm tired of always being anxious about something.' That was an understatement, and they both knew it. There had been nothing but worry and anxiety for far too long and although her mind was yelling at her to be terrified, she would refuse to pay it any attention. She heaved herself to her feet and pulled him up after her. 'I'm going to bed,' she announced, even though it was the middle of the day and the birds were chirping their hearts out in the hedges below the windows. There was nothing suggestive in the statement at all - she was having an annoyingly bad pain day, she was exhausted, and she fully intended to get at least an hour of sleep before Takan came up with the midday meal. 'You can either come and join me or you can stay out here and mope.'

She could tell he was not in the mood to be teased, but he gave in, sighing with an air of exaggerated suffering, and followed.