Daisy looked dismayed, her spine unstiffening for the first time since she’d entered the room. “You’re not husband and wife?”

“We are that, too,” Nic hastily assured her, although that was a bit of a lie, since her imprudent escape meant they’d never had an actual wedding. In the eyes of the Convocation, however, as soon as the oracle verified that Gabriel had successfully impregnated Nic, they were as good as married. Not that she was going to explain that bit to her mother-in-law. Come to think of it, Nic wasn’t at all certain how Gabriel had explained the Betrothal Trials to his parents to begin with. Probably not with the bald truth. “When the Convocation pairs wizards and familiars in heterosexual teams, they want to ensure their compatibility in fertility as well as in magic.”

Daisy’s gaze fell to Nic’s still-flat stomach. “So your child will be…”

“Also a wizard or familiar, almost certainly very powerful,” Nic confirmed. Daisy’s unhappy frown wasn’t encouraging, so Nic plowed on past the point. “What that means for Selly is this: A familiar can’t express their own magic, so they need a wizard to do it for them. Selly’s magic has been building up inside her for years. Without a channel to express that magic, it becomes, well, like a bog. It’s not healthy.”

Daisy gazed at her with a wrenching combination of horror and hope. “Then… Selly isn’t crazy?”

Oh, Selly is crazy all right. The question was, could she be returned to sanity? Nic discreetly didn’t say that, however. “She isn’t. She’s just an untapped familiar.”

Daisy nodded, clearly not fully comprehending. “And what they said today, about you. What does it mean, you taking an alternate form?”

Nic smiled weakly. “Some of the stories are true. Familiars can become an animal, if their wizard provides the magical push to do it.”

“And that would happen to my Selly?”

“It depends, but probably. She would need to be paired with a wizard first.”

“That Convocation proctor—that’s why she wants to take Selly, why she accused us of neglect or deliberate cruelty.”

Wincing, Nic nodded. “She doesn’t know. The proctors have certain inherent biases. It’s as unusual for a familiar of Selly’s power to turn up among nonmagical folk as it is, well, for a wizard of Gabriel’s power to manifest. Selly’s was just different enough that you didn’t observe it in the same way.”

Daisy nodded ruefully. “Gabriel becoming a wizard was hard to miss.”

Nic laughed softly. “He’s told me the story.”

Shaking her head, Daisy studied Nic. “And your own people—they knew you for a familiar right away?”

Deciding not to explain that Nic’s family had believed her to be a wizard until they were all disabused of that notion, Nic nodded. “Growing up among wizards and familiars, my magical potential was noted early on. I started attending Convocation Academy to learn to control my magic when I was five.”

“You were so young, and you’ve studied so long. How can my Selly ever catch up?”