So, I'm leaving in 1/2 hour, and I didn't want to leave without posting a new chapter. It's longer than the other, I hope it will help you waiting until september for the next one (which should be about the same size, or longer.) Hope you'll enjoy this.

Disclaimer: As you know, I don't own the characters or the world they live in. Trudi Canavan does.

8- Meeting The Bride's Father

Her two guardians were facing one another, eating in the most frightening silence Sonea had ever known, not even when she was hiding from the Guild with Farren and Cery. After a few vain attempts at conversation, she had stopped trying and followed the lead of the two men seated at the table, one at each side of her. Akkarin had thought right to place her at the head of the table, and she now had to watch them glaring at each other – or rather, Rothen glaring at Akkarin, and Akkarin trying and failing to look at Rothen with a non-intimidating look.

When at last Akkarin spoke, she could have kissed him, if it wasn't for Rothen's presence. "Gently, Sonea, gently" she had to remind herself.

"Lord Rothen, would you like a drop of Anuren Dark, or would you rather have raka, as I supposed Sonea does?" That was added with a glance towards her, and as she nodded, Takan appeared with a bottle of raka. She thanked him and listened as her former guardian accepted the wine. In Sonea's opinion, there already had been too much wine for the evening. She didn't think getting drunk was the best idea the two men had hever had. One knew how dangerous a drunk magician could be, but two of them, including a black magician, and with the conversation to come? No, definitely not a good idea!

Then they went back on eating in silence. "Wait, was it all they could do?" Sonea cursed them inwardly and took a sip. Just at that moment, it was Rothen's turn to speak. She understood that a far more interesting and dangerous subject was going to be discussed.

"As much as I enjoy Takan's cooking, I suppose it's not the only reason for my presence here." Akkarin put his glass down. He always seemed to have one in his hand, his novice noticed disapprovingly.

"I wanted to wait until after the dinner, but –"

"But I'd be long dead from boredom then." Sonea thought, before coming back to the reality.

" – but since you've brought it up at the table, yes, there is another reason for you being here. I wanted to talk to you about a serious matter." As Rothen said nothing and kept glaring at him, he cleared his throat. "What I want to tell you is…" He searched for a diplomatic way of saying it, one which could appease his interlocutor even if only a little. Finding none, he decided himself for the blunt way.

"I want to marry Sonea."

Now, it was said.

In the corner of his eye, he saw the young woman mouthing the word 'gently' with anxious eyes, as worried about Rothen's reaction as he himself was. But this one only gritted his teeth. His jaw clenched and is voice was only slightly trembling with repressed anger when he muttered in answer.

"I guessed that much."

Ah, yes, Akkarin recalled Sonea telling him that he had seen the ring. Well, at least he was not going to yell or beak anything out of surprise.

"So. Why am I here?" Rothen asked, puzzling the other two. They exchanged a glance. Wasn't it obvious?

"Well, you were her guardian –" Akkarin began carefully, but was cut before he could finish his sentence.

"And now, you are." In those four little words, Rothen had put all the anger and the pain he felt because Sonea had been taken away from him, the distrust and disgust the High Lord inspired him, the feeling of being betrayed when he saw how Sonea has become attached to her abductor, as well as a clear accusation of the irregularity of their relationship. Nothing of those feelings was lost on his former novice and her new guardian.

"I know I am," Akkarin replied softly, "and I am truly sorry about the way things have happened – believe it or not." By the snort Rothen gave off, he had chosen not to. The High Lord sighed. "But save for the guardianship thing, I wanted to talk with you about it because Sonea sees you as a father, and I know you see her as your own daughter."

That was well done. Rothen's expression softened and he looked fondly at Sonea, silent form the beginning of the talking.

"Indeed, I do. And what business do you have with Sonea's father?" He asked with a threatening edge in the voice.

It was the first time he really posed himself as her father. A wave of affection overwhelmed Sonea, and she couldn't resist the urge of taking his hand and squeezing it lightly.

The High Lord grew more serious and put on a solemn face.

"Lord Rothen, will you give me Sonea's hand in marriage?"

The two lovers held out their breath. Then,

"No."

At once, Rothen heard his almost-daughter whispered "Rothen, please!" and Akkarin's breathing becoming sharper.

He raised Sonea's hand, so that Akkarin could see the engagement ring, which she always wore on her finger at the residence.

"It seems as if she already did it by herself. Apparently, my opinion doesn't hold that much importance." He added bitterly.

"Rothen, it is important! We really want you to support us!" Sonea begged. "If you can't give him my hand in marriage, can you at least give us… your blessing?"

"Will it change anything if I said 'No'?"

"Well, I would rather you say 'Yes'…" Her eyes were pleading with him, trying to convey all of her feelings silently.

Rothen let go of her hand and brought his own to her cheek. He smiled sadly, turned to Akkarin and his smile faded.

"No."

The answer was curt, determined and definitive.

"Please!" The shout escaped Sonea, and she grabbed his two hands inside her owns. "Why, Rothen?" Her face was twisted as if in pain, and her voice was shaking, indicating that tears were near.

"I'm sorry, dear, I cannot be with you in this. This situation just seems wrong to me."

Akkarin had risen and gone behind his fiancée, putting his hands in her shoulders, to comfort her after her almost-father's foursquare refusal.

"Listen, Rothen. I know what it may look like –" And Rothen exploded.

"What it may look like? You kidnapped her! You threatened her, blackmailed her, forced her into being your novice and into coming to live in this house with you! And who knows what else you may have done to her since then!"

If the other man had flinched at each accusation, full of remorse for having done so, it's from the young woman sitting before him that gave the indignant shout at what her former guardian had been implying in his last sentence.

"Rothen! How could you imagine –" She was properly aghast, and could not find words to fit her thoughts. With a weak voice, she eventually asked: "Don't you trust me at all?"

"I do trust you, not him!" He almost spat the last word.

"If so, will you agree to listen to me… privately?" He looked at her for a long time, then nodded once. Sonea grabbed his hand and took him through the entrance of the dining room, where she turned her head slightly to see Akkarin beckoning to her to keep on going.

When they had vanished in the stairs, he let himself fall in his chair, the head in his hands.

"It seems as if there will be no need of dessert, tonight." Akkarin straightened to find Takan beside him, taking the dishes away. He sighed.

"I guess not. Is there still some wine in this bottle?" His servant glanced at the bottle with a disapproving look, wondering if it really was a good idea.

"Probably not, but I need it." The High Lord said, replying his thoughts as if he was reading them. And of course, he really was.

In her room, Sonea seated on her bed while Rothen began pacing like a caged lion.

"Sorry Sonea, but I'm not going to help you with that! How could he – how could you! I always thought you sensible and smart, but this is pure madness! An impossible nonsense! Because, whatever he told you, the two of you will never be allowed to marry. Neither the Higher Magicians nor the King will agree with this. Nor will I!"

"Calm down, Rothen, please!"

"Why should I calm down? Sonea, how could you?"

He wasn't nearly as calm and assured as he looked earlier. Sonea knew that was because he would have hated to show any kind of weakness in front of the very-hated-and-very-dangerous black magician who was the High Lord of the Guild and her fiancé. She tried to relax him by taking an offhand tone.

"Quite easily, in fact: he asked, I slept on it, and then I said 'yes'." But she didn't obtain the expected result. Her former guardian, who suddenly looked very old, only rephrased the question.

"Why have you accepted?"

"Why do most people marry?"

"Interest, I think, most of the time." He said, not wanting to say what she wanted him to say. He refused to think that it could have happened. Sonea's lips curled into a thin smiled. She knew him well, and knew what was going on in his head.

"Think about the second most popular reason, then." Rothen remained silent, looking through the window. The young woman sighed. "I want to marry him. I promise you he's not forcing me into anything."

"That's definitely something new!" He said sarcastically, still gazing at the outside. After a while, he turned and came to sitbeside her on the bed, and took her hand. "Tell me the truth Sonea: what has he done to you?"

"I am telling the truth! He's done nothing to me that you would disapprove of." She stood and went took Rothen's place at the window. "I love him, Rothen, I truly do."

"You love him? After what you went through because of him?" He had really not expected this.

"You know, he never harmed any of us, not really… He separated us, that's right, and I think he genuinely regrets it –"

"He's a black magician!" Sonea grew more serious.

"Yes. I know. I haven't forgotten. About that, I've got nothing to say, except that we don't know why it is so. All I can do is promising you I'll be careful of this side of him."

"I bet you'll be!" Never had Sonea seen him so shaken. "I don't understand… When did it happen?" She knew that what disturbed Rothen was more her change of feeling than the engagement in itself.

"I don't know. I've just woken up one morning, and knew I loved him. And he loves me too!" She was facing him, trying to suppress the smile that came naturally with the statement, and didn't fully succeed. Rothen looked even more upset, if possible.

"Are you sure of it? You would be a great source of power…"

"Rothen, believe me… He does love me."

"How do you know?"

She wasn't trying to hide her joy anymore. "I can feel it. Every time he talks to me, every time he looks at me, every time he touches me –"

"Touches you? How dares he! The –" Rothen had stood up, rage on his face, and was now starting at her door.

"No, Rothen, stop! I mean, he doesn't touch me… in any improper way! Just like… The hell, Rothen, I am touching you right now!"She had indeed grabbed his arm to stop him from falling upon her lover. He began retrieving his calm, and she stood on her tiptoes with a smile to whisper in his ear.

"He's far too afraid of what you'll do to him!"

"He should be!" She hugged him tight.

"Thank you for taking so much care of me… daddy." She said, making them both burst into laughter.

Then a breaking sound reached them, followed by a scream.

Sonea and Rothen had not been gone for five minutes when Akkarin received a message from the Thieves. "New assassin in town. Lost him near the Guild." "Near the Guild", that meant he was trying to reach their final aim: Akkarin himself.

"Why the hell did they have to choose the night when Rothen is here?" Not speaking of Sonea, but she would have been in the residence any night they might have chosen.

Closing his eyes, the High Lord concentrated on the unusual uses of magic around the Guild and more closely around his residence. A sound of broken glass made him snap his eyes open and realization came to his mind, filling him with a vague feeling of fear for the two people chatting upstairs. The assassin was already here.

He rushed through the entrance of his study, from where the sound had come. Indeed, he was here, his knife in the right hand. When he saw the High Lord, the intruder uttered a wild scream, and at once sent a powerful strike, which only reached the shield Akkarin had built even before opening the door of his study. And Akkarin replied with another strike. Seeing the other preparing to strike too, he checked on his shield and attacked again. But the immediate aim of the slave was not the magician, who understood why when he saw one of the many bookshelves falling on him. Instinctively, he changed the consistency of his shield and took a step aside. Doing this he had freed the entrance of the room for the assassin. Akkarin saw him rushing through it to the hall of the residence… where Sonea and Rothen had just run in from upstairs.

Akkarin saw them in the same time as the intruder, but was stuck behind him and could do nothing but striking at him, trying to distract him from its two new aims.

When Sonea saw the man rushing at them, she instinctively built a shield around her and Rothen, and did well: would she have waited a few second, the first strike would have reached straight at her. She didn't reply, instead she concentrated on her shield and on protecting her old friend. Meanwhile, Akkarin was still sending strikes at the assassin, forcing him to share his attacks between the High Lord and his novice, much stronger than what he had first expected. When he understood that he was growing weaker, and noticing how eager his first opponent seemed to protect the young woman, and how the woman herself concentrated on protecting the other man with her, he decided to push his strikes on the latter. Using the same trick as before, he sent a strike at a hanging painting, which came to fall right on Rothen. Seeing that, and though Rothen had power of his own, Sonea made her shield shift to protect him… and was hit head-on by a powerful strike, which threw her bumping against the wall. Distracted by his small victory, the assassin didn't turn quickly enough to see Akkarin throwing himself at him. One strike was enough to destroy his shield, and one move of the hand, enough to cut him and drain the power he still had inside him. The High Lord let the body fall on the ground and hurried to Sonea's side, where Rothen had already knelt down. Without wasting time, he grabbed her hand and sent her a wave of Healing power, until her eyes flickered open and that he heard her speak weakly.

"Enough… I'm fine, it's okay."

"Well, we're lucky that you are exceptionally powerful, because otherwise you would not have been fine!" There was still a strain of shock in Rothen's voice. He raised his head to look accusingly at Akkarin. "What was that?"

"That", he answered slowly, "is the reason why I practice black magic. But more important, Sonea." He put an arm under her leg and the other under her back and lifted her, heading towards her room.

"Put me down, Akkarin, I can still walk!"

"No you can't." He said firmly, climbing the stairs, and Sonea didn't insist. Being held this way wasn't unpleasant, after all. She put an arm around his neck, to retrieve a better balance. Rothen entered first, pushing the door they didn't care to close before, and the High Lord followed, his lover in the arms. He lay her down on her bed, slowly, carefully, as not to make her dizzy, and sat on the edge of the bed. Softly, he stroked her cheek with the back of his hand, replaced a loose hairlock behind her ear, and then brought his hand on her, where it settled.

"Now, you should sleep. You may well say whatever you want, you're not fine, and will need more than a night to fully recover your strength. Don't worry about tomorrows classes, I'll tell your teachers you're sick. And I wouldn't even be lying."

She began complaining, but the High Lord muffled her protest with a kiss.

"Hush! Sleep. I'll see you tomorrow."

And with a last stroke, he left, dragging behind him Rothen, a bit unsettled by the scene he had just seen. They went down, where Takan was taking care of the corpse.

"High Lord, who was this man? And how did he arrive here?" Rothen had difficulties looking at the dead man.

"He was a magician, I guess you noticed that much, and was sent to kill me. I can't tell you anything more now."

"I need to know what's happening here! He tried to kill Sonea!" His frown deepened.

"I know, and I don't like it any more than you do. If they find out about her, they may try to aim at her rather than at me."Akkarin's face was very dark when he stated his fear. Rothen shook his head grimly.

"Will you ever bring her anything but troubles? I definitely can't give my consent or blessing for such a marriage. What's next? Assassins coming for her with no known reason? Power-draining on the wedding day?" The man in front of him went even darker.

"I thought you'd understood by now that I don't want to harm her. And I will explain to her the reason of all of this."

"When?"

"As soon as she asks. It should not be long, after tonight. I'll let her decide what to tell you or not."

A silence fell upon them as they were both thinking hard. After a few minutes, seeming to remember his guest, Akkarin spoke.

"Lord Rothen, it is quite late already, maybe you shouldgo back to your room. Don't worry for Sonea, she should be fine for the next few months. I'll take care of her." Rothen looked at him, thoughtfully.

"I think you will."

He headed towards the main door, when the High Lord called his name. He turned back, and saw him hesitating.

"Come visit her anytime you want."The old man gaped at him. Then he pulled himself together and bowed.

"Thank you… Thank you for this, High Lord." His voice, a bit shaky, became firmer. "But I still disapprove of you for her!" Akkarin smiled sadly.

"I know… I understand."

Both guardians, the father and the lover, went back to their own room to resume their thinking.