A long silence ensued, and Thorn knew Lizaveta was either considering his arguments or preparing another biting rebuke for her hapless son.

"And if I were to employ my magic to persuade Horin to abdicate in your favour…"

At least she seemed to be treating his argument with some seriousness, and the mage suppressed a sigh of relief.

"That would be a flagrant breach of the Guild Articles, Mother. The post of Dominie is for life, and the post must then devolve to the most senior surviving member of the Presidium.

"Horin is a strict Guild man-the kind of man we describe as a walking scroll. You may be sure that the other Presidium mages would scan the very depths of his aura after such uncharacteristic behaviour. This would be no casual examination, using Mage Sight, but a Great Spell of Revelation. The evidence of your potent magic would be plain to such a spell."

"Your Conclave did not even examine Loras Afelnor's aura when he was tried for attempted murder." Thorn fancied he sensed a note of uncertainty in Lizaveta's mind, which he leapt to exploit.

"Loras admitted the crime, thanks again to your powerful spells, and the Conclave accepted the motive I proffered: compassion for a dying man in pain. Loras' aura was inspected, but only with basic Mage Sight, and it revealed the expected signs of guilt and deep contrition. The Conclave saw what they had expected after my impassioned argument on his behalf.

"Nonetheless, only my heartfelt plea to the Conclave, to allow the empathic but misguided Loras a shred of dignity, prevented the deeper examination of his aura. Had this been done, your spell might well have been discovered, and I would not now be Prelate. In fact, I would have been dead for more than forty years.

"I persuaded the Conclave that Loras had acted out of misguided mercy towards Prelate Geral, and they accepted this argument because it rang true. In the case of a healthy, relatively young Dominie resigning his post in favour of a relatively junior member of the Presidium, in flagrant breach of the principles he has publicly upheld for decades, the suspicion of undue influence would be unavoidable. You must see the reason in this, Mother."