Chapter 1176: What the Rotunda Changed

"Where are you going?"

When those words left her mouth, Lucavion paused with several loose pages already gathered beneath one hand.

"Back to my room," he said, glancing toward the closed inkpot. "Unless success has earned me another assignment."

"Sit."

His hand stopped halfway through aligning the pages. "Have we not finished the lesson?"

"The lesson, yes."

Lucavion looked at her for a moment, then lowered himself more fully into the chair. "Haa... I wonder what happened this time."

Elara repeated the question as she removed the covered formation plate from the center of the table. "What happened? You truly do not know?"

"I don’t have mind-reading powers, you know."

The ink, reference diagrams and cleaning solution followed the formation plate, each returned to Elara’s side until nothing remained between them except Lucavion’s half-ordered notes. The cleared space marked the end of one subject, even if he had yet to recognize the beginning of the next.

Then she said, "Gervase de Warenne."

His fingers stopped against the edges of the parchment.

The change in him was slight. Lucavion did not stiffen or attempt to evade the name, but the ease that had followed his first successful spell receded from his posture. After a moment, he placed the gathered notes flat upon the table.

"So this was it..." A trace of amusement returned to his face as he settled against the chair. "And here I was wondering when we would reach this part."

"You expected it?"

"Naturally."

Elara watched him arrange himself with far more comfort than the subject warranted. "Then why pretend to be surprised?"

"Why not?" His gaze passed over her face with deliberate leisure. "Watching your expression change when you realize I have been waiting is rather enjoyable."

"My expression?"

"The one you are making now, especially."

Elara felt her fingers press more firmly against the covered plate. Lucavion’s smile deepened by the smallest degree, confirming that he had seen precisely what he wanted.

’Shameless.’

"Enjoy it while you can," she said, returning her hands to the table. "You are about to explain the reason you expected this conversation in the first place."

The smile remained, but some of its ease left his eyes. "I interrupted his approach in front of most of the Rotunda. You have never seemed inclined to leave questions unanswered."

"Then answer one. What did you expect to happen afterward?"

Lucavion studied her before choosing the simpler question she had not asked. "Gervase did not approach you because of any sincere interest. He wanted the position beside Elowyn Caerlin, and he expected you to accept before you understood what agreeing would place in his hands."

"That is not an answer."

"It explains why I interfered."

"No. It explains why you believed interference was justified." Irritation sharpened Elara’s voice despite her effort to keep it level. "Do not speak as though you rescued me from a decision I was incapable of making. I would have refused him."

Lucavion’s gaze rested upon her face. Whatever response first occurred to him remained unspoken.

Elara continued before he could redirect the matter again. "You knew enough to recognize that his offer was dangerous. Perhaps you even knew more than I did at the time. I am not disputing the refusal, nor am I asking whether Gervase deserved to succeed."

"Then your objection is that I made the refusal public."

"My objection is that you inserted yourself into it publicly and behaved as though the sequence ended once he failed."

Lucavion leaned back, but his attention remained fixed upon her. "He could hardly continue the same approach after the Rotunda. Retreating was the sensible option."

"Gervase de Warenne does not strike me as a man who treats humiliation as instruction."

"Then he would reconsider and seek another avenue."

The answer came easily, yet not with the certainty that had supported his earlier defense. Elara watched him recognize the distinction a breath later.

He had considered what Gervase’s approach might become if no one obstructed it. He had measured the danger of acceptance and acted before that danger could settle around her. What he had not examined with equal care was the new sequence created by his own intervention.

Lucavion’s eyes moved toward the covered formation plate resting near Elara’s hand.

She did not make the comparison for him.

"You expected him to retreat," Elara said. "Or to redirect his efforts somewhere less immediate."

"That would have been the rational response."

"For someone concerned only with obtaining an advantage, perhaps." She rested her fingertips against the blank sheet covering the formation. "But you did not merely deny him the result. You opposed him before an audience, displaced him from the role he had selected and made certain everyone in the Rotunda saw it happen."

Lucavion no longer looked relaxed.

Elara leaned forward slightly. "So I will ask more precisely. Once you made his original approach impossible, did you consider where Gervase’s attention would turn within the structure surrounding Elowyn Caerlin?"

"Where would it turn?" Lucavion repeated.

He looked at Elara as though the question had caught his interest only now, then let his gaze drift toward the cleared space between them. One finger tapped against the edge of his notes while he appeared to consider the possibilities.

Elara watched him closely.

She had spent considerably longer with the same question. Lucavion had entered the Rotunda with too much confidence in the role he had chosen, intervened at the exact moment Gervase attempted to secure her agreement and departed without showing any concern over what followed.

Could Isolde have instructed him to interfere?

The possibility remained difficult to accept, though not impossible. Isolde possessed both the standing to know more about Gervase and enough interest in Lucavion’s actions to involve herself. Yet if the decision had come from her, Elara wanted to know where Lucavion’s own judgment ended and Isolde’s design began.

His tapping stopped.

"I did consider it," he said.

"And your answer?"

Lucavion lifted his hand from the notes and pointed toward his own chest. "Naturally, me."

Elara stared at him. "You?"

"Yes." He lowered his hand, his expression suggesting the conclusion required little explanation. "I was the one who stood in his way. If Gervase wanted to recover what he lost, he would first need to deal with the person who took it from him."

"That assumes his attention could only travel in one direction."

Lucavion’s gaze sharpened.

Elara drew the covered formation plate closer but did not uncover it. "You made yourself the visible obstruction, but I remained the position he had been attempting to secure. Removing you would not answer why I refused him, what support stood behind that refusal or whether another method might place me under pressure."

"He could investigate both."

"He did—or someone did."

That distinction held Lucavion silent.

"Cedric and I were summoned to Student Affairs for a secondary verification of the Caerlin records," Elara continued. "Our identities, education, household sponsorship and connection to one another were examined in greater detail than the original admission review required. You were also there so you must understand this anyway."

The amusement had now vanished completely from his face.

"The records held," she said before he could ask. "Nothing was exposed. But the review did not begin without cause. Certain parties requested that the Academy confirm whether Elowyn Caerlin’s stated background could support her examination results, her training and the abilities she displayed publicly."

Lucavion’s gaze remained upon her, but he offered no immediate response.

Elara had already traced the sequence often enough that its shape no longer seemed uncertain. Gervase had approached Elowyn Caerlin expecting a minor noblewoman to recognize the advantage of his attention. Lucavion’s interference had deprived him of that position publicly, while her refusal had denied him the opportunity to preserve even the appearance of choice.

A man such as Gervase could not challenge Lucavion openly without granting further importance to the humiliation. Elowyn, however, offered quieter avenues. Her strength exceeded what her supposed household should have produced, her education invited questions, and the silver light displayed during the examinations had already drawn notice.

If Gervase could not secure the person, he could investigate the structure supporting her.

"The request followed the Rotunda closely enough," Elara said. "Its direction was also too convenient. Whoever submitted it did not challenge my results. They questioned whether House Caerlin could have produced them."

Lucavion rested one forearm upon the table. "Which means?"

"They were searching for a contradiction. An undeclared tutor, an improper sponsor, a concealed affiliation—anything that might explain why Elowyn Caerlin does not fit the position her name assigns her."

"And you believe Gervase wanted leverage."

"He failed to obtain influence through an association, so he looked for another means of applying pressure." Elara’s fingers remained on the covered formation plate. "You expected him to focus upon the person who displaced him. Instead, he examined the person whose refusal made that displacement matter."

The explanation settled between them with uncomfortable neatness.

Lucavion looked down at the partly gathered notes, though his attention had moved well beyond them. His silence gave Elara room to press the conclusion she had reached before entering the library.

"He did not retreat after the Rotunda. He changed methods. Your interference prevented one danger, but the pressure did not disappear. It travelled toward the Caerlin identity instead, and Cedric and I were the ones required to withstand it."

A faint movement touched Lucavion’s mouth.

Elara’s eyes narrowed. "What is amusing?"

At first, he merely lowered his head. Then a quiet laugh escaped him—brief, contained and entirely wrong for the seriousness of what she had said.

’Why is he laughing?’

When Lucavion looked up again, the earlier tension had not left his eyes. If anything, his expression had sharpened around a possibility Elara had not yet seen.

"The timing supports your conclusion," he said. "So does the direction of the request. Gervase had motive, influence and every reason to search for something he could use against you."

"Then what precisely do you find objectionable?"

"Only one word."

Lucavion leaned forward, his gaze holding hers across the cleared table.

"How are you sure it was only Gervase who requested it?"