It was lucky, she thought as she climbed the narrow stairs, that Professor Archwood was a relatively young man with no close family, so he still lived in residence at Dee College, the particular school of Oxford that encompassed all things magical.
Still, she hoped he was home and not out because, even with the occasionally unpredictable way time flowed between the Otherworld and the mortal realm, the situation was rather urgent. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
There was a few lengthy moments of silence, and then the door opened. Rowan was a bit shocked at the Professor’s appearance, but not half as much as he was by hers. “Miss Ravencroft?! What on earth are you doing here?”
“I’m sorry, Professor,” she said, trying not to stare at his half-open shirt, mussed hair, or bare feet. “I know this is sudden, but I badly need your help.”
He ran his hand through his hair, evidently debating with himself, and then nodded. “Very well. You and your friend may come in,” he said, opening the door wider. “I'll make tea.” The two women made their way into his rooms which were cluttered with books and mismatched furniture in a way, Rowan reflected, that only a man living alone would do. The professor cleaned off two battered chairs from them to sit on before retreating to the hearth and stoking the fire.
“I assume your Father doesn't know you’re here,” he said as he filled the teapot and fished out a few mugs from a cabinet.
“No, as he's in a meeting with the Privy Council. But it’s not as if he forbids me to come here,” she said, frowning at him.
“I'm surprised,” Professor Archwood replied. “I suppose he imagined the thought would never cross your mind. But didn't I hear a rumor that you'd been engaged to a Prince on the continent?”
“Well, that’s about as believable as the truth,” she said, shrugging. “Why on earth would he care whether I spoke to you or not?”
“Your father and I used to be best friends,” he said. “I was there when you were born. I know that’s difficult to believe.” It was, for a myriad of reasons. Rowan didn’t think the professor looked old enough to have been friends with her father when she was born, but she didn’t see what reason he would have to lie.
“What happened?” Professor Archwood handed her a cup of tea, and then Fenella, who was looking at him with narrowed eyes.
Only possessing two chairs, he was obliged to lean against the wall with his tea, and he did so, his head tipped back toward the ceiling and eyes shut as if he was remembering something painful. Rowan wondered whether he would even deign to answer her.
Then, he lowered his head and sighed. “I suppose it was nearly eighteen years ago. It had been a cold winter, and you had accompanied your father to a gathering at a nearby estate where the children were all skating on a frozen pond. But the ice cracked, and you fell in. When he brought you here, you were lifeless and cold.
Not dead, but nearly. No healing spell that either of us possessed was having any effect, and I told Geoffrey that it was a lost cause. But he begged me to do something, anything. It had only been a year since your mother had died. I called the Triskel Gate and sent him to the Court of Heavens, where, it was rumored, lived the most powerful healer of the Fair Folk. He took you in, and, an hour later, you both came out again. You were laughing and smiling as if nothing had occurred.”
It made a sort of horrible sense. “So, that was the bargain he made. My life for his,” Rowan said, sighing.
Professor Archwood nodded. “At first, he truly believed it was worth it. For a bargain with Lord Kennet, it was surprisingly fair. But the closer the time came for your father to fulfil his end, the bitterer he became. He seemed to think I tricked him into it.”
“That explains why he hates the Fair Folk so much. I suppose all the research he does into other traditions was to seek a way out of his contract,” Fenella remarked, the first time she had bothered to speak.
“Of course,” Professor Archwood replied. “Geoffrey Ravencroft is a proud man. He doesn’t like to be told what to do. I was astounded that he allowed his daughter to study magic at all, and even more surprised that he didn’t try to get the college to throw me out when he heard I was teaching her about the Aos Si in an unbiased manner.” He set down his tea cup and fixed Rowan with a piercing stare.
“Now, it’s time for you to tell your story. What is so important that you need my help with it?”
She took a deep breath. “Well, in a way, it’s a continuation of what you did for me all those years ago.”
******************
A half hour later, Professor Archwood sighed. “There is a sort of cosmic irony to this whole situation. Geoffrey did everything he could to stay away from the Aos Si, and in the end, he will lose his daughter to them anyway.”
“So you will help me?” Rowan asked, leaning forward in eager surprise. She had expected it to take much more work to convince him.
He shrugged. “I suspect that if I do not help you, you will only try to do it on your own. You have neither the power nor the experience to control a planar gate, but if you burn yourself to a crisp, I’ll have to live with the guilt forever. Besides, it’s not as if your father and I could be on worse terms.” He pushed himself up from the wall and donned his cloak and boots. “There’s not enough room here to cast a circle. We will have to go to the roof.”
The roof of Dee College was wide and flat with battlements, rather like a medieval castle, meant to block the wind. Because the roof was meant for magic, the circles with their axes and central symbols laid out in silver poured hot into carved grooves in the stone.
Professor Archwood led them to a circle in the corner which was set up especially for portal spells. As they watched, he placed blue, gold, and green tapers into their alcoves, and then began to sketch symbols on the ground with a piece of chalk.
“I can’t believe he can inscribe the whole circle from memory,” Rowan said. “The Triskel Gate is an extremely complicated spell.”
“Are you certain you trust him?” Fenella whispered. “His aura is strange. I could swear I’ve met him before, but I can’t imagine where.”
“I don’t know him all that well, but I don’t see how it would benefit him to lie. We came to him, after all, and I didn’t even know about his relationship with my father.”
Fenella pursed her lips, obviously sceptical but unable to come up with an argument, and then the professor approached them, flushed from effort, but looking confident. “The portal is ready; it only needs to be powered.”
Rowan nodded. “There is one more thing I wanted to ask you before we go,” she said, pulling out one of her notebooks. “I’ve been working on this spell, and I’m afraid I may need it.”