"Arthur Dynas himself admitted that witnessing the great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead was the—pardon the pun—spark that started the train of thought that eventually became his Magic in the Modern World." Professor Muesli bent over his computer, which was hooked up to the projector. Muesli was a lanky, middle-aged man with a curly auburn beard and hair that was halfway to Einstein levels of unkempt. He gestured at the new slide that appeared on the auditorium wall. "A common misconception was that the Newcastle fire was magical in nature. The fire, however, is well documented as starting in a worsted manufacturing mill, with mundane causes. This misconception also misses the value, and point, of Dynas's observation. Fires have always been destructive, but the combination of a manufacturing mill and a warehouse filled with modern chemicals in close proximity to each other and the rest of the cramped quay made it much worse than it could have been. A naturally occurring disaster made drastically worse, and potentially more frequent, by the modern industry. Sound familiar? " Muesli clicked to the next slide. "Dynas lived during a time of monumental change. His childhood as the son of farmers on the outskirts of the rural, agrarian village of Consett on the edge of the raw wilderness of the Pennine hills contrasted with his young adulthood in the booming industrial centre of Newcastle. He experienced firsthand the change that had come to industry and manufacturing, due to developments in science and technology, and the effect this had on the lives of people, human society, and the world at large. It was translating this experience to his understanding of magic and the magical world that allowed him to accurately predict how the industrial boom would affect the equilibrium between the two realms. So, I urge you to translate your own experiences and observations of the mundane world to the world of magic. It may be more useful than you could possibly imagine. That concludes our segment on the life of Arthur Dynas. Class dismissed."

Chairs scraped back. Chatter broke out.

"That was actually pretty interesting," Blake said. "I mean, I knew all of that already, but I'd never heard it talked about in that way before."

Jacob scratched the back of his head. Over the past few weeks they'd covered the history of the Regulation Order, the establishment of the Order, and now had wrapped up the life of Arthur Dynas, but he still felt like he was missing things. The significance of the establishment of the Order, and now Dynas's observation just wasn't clicking. "I think I'm a little lost, to be honest."

"Really? Well, I guess you are new to this stuff." Blake said.

"Have you read that book? Magic in the Modern World?"

Blake scoffed. "I read it when I was like ten. It's not really a book. More like a collection of essays. I'd put money that almost everyone in this class has read it."

"Sheesh," Jacob said. More reading? This time he'd be doing it just to catch up, too.

"Go ask Muesli what he thinks you should do. He seems like a decent dude." Blake said.

"You think?"

"Yeah, man. Worst thing is you get some credit in his book for looking to learn more. Might mark you easier. Just tell him you're not from a magical family."

"Okay, I guess."

Archie leaned over between them. "I do not know about you two, but I am trying to get out of here."

"Jacob's gonna go talk to Muesli about catching up on some history."

"The endless travails of one not raised in a magical family," Archie stated. "Camilla, Grace and I were going to talk about the tournament. Care to join?"

Blake nodded. "Hell yeah, I'm in." He turned to Jacob. "I'll let you know where we end up. Good luck with Muesli."

"Thanks."

They left and Jacob hovered around for a moment, wondering if he wasn't better off just leaving and pretending like he'd talked to Muesli. But what was he afraid of? He'd fought a chimera and that rogue mage.

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He marched down to the front of the room, where Muesli was packing up his laptop.

"Um, Professor Muesli?" Jacob asked.

"Yes?" The man straightened and blinked expectantly at Jacob.

"I'm not from a magical family, so I haven't read Magic in the Modern World and I don't hardly know anything about magical history..."

Professor Muesli regarded him with a half-amused look. "There's a question in there somewhere. Can I assume it's that you're looking for extra readings to catch up?"

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking."

"We can do that. What's your name?" The professor stuck out his hand.

Jacob shook it. "Jacob Caibo."

"Nice to meet you, Jacob. You can call me Ted. I have a couple suggestions. Seeing as we'll cover most of post-Order history in class, the first two chapters of A Brief History of Magic by Allison Schwarz is a good place to start for a general picture of the history of magic before the Order, which is something your classmates most certainly have a stronger, implicit understanding of. Of course, I also suggest you read at least the introduction and first essay from Magic in the Modern World. Does that work?"

"Yes," Jacob said. "Thanks."

"You're very welcome. Let me know if you have any other questions."

"Okay, will do," Jacob said.

He left the auditorium and checked his phone. Blake had texted him, saying they were at the third-floor lounge of Harrison Hall. Jacob joined a group of stragglers crossing from the Vanderbilt Building to the dorms so he wouldn't have to risk going by himself. Easy to forget about the vampire during lecture.

He found the rest of the Bourbon gang splayed out on the couches surrounding the lounge's TV. Two boys were playing chess at one of the tables, but other than that they had the space to themselves.

Blake paced between the couches, while Archie, Grace and Camilla took up a couch each.

"How'd it go with Muesli?" Blake asked as Jacob approached them.

"Fine. Gave me a couple readings. What are y'all up to?" Jacob threw himself down on the couch next to Archie. A part of him itched to get started on Muesli's extra readings, but everyone seemed to be chilling here. Honestly, he just wanted to hang out with them even if all they did for the next few hours was sit around and do nothing. Christ, but it was good to be done classes for the day. It felt like he'd been awake for 48 hours straight. The tournament ranking test had taken the wind out of him and then the chaos from the second vampire attack had put him on edge for the rest of the day. Had that all really been today?

"Just worrying about the tournament ranking test," Blake said. "I'm hoping I'm in the top 48 so I don't have to fight in the Play-In."

Jacob still found it baffling that they could worry about the tournament with the vampire fresh in everyone's minds. Weren't they worried about it at all? Lecture had been a surprisingly enjoyable breath of fresh air after the shock of the second murder.

In a moment of clarity that made him frown at each of the gang in turn—Archie gesturing loudly, Blake pacing, Grace on her phone and Camilla tapping the armrest of the couch with her red-painted nails—he finally got it. The rest of them were worried too. Of course they were. That was precisely why they were so engaged with the tournament. It was a distraction. Camilla and him had been through the wringer this afternoon trying to figure out how to find the vampire, but in reality they couldn't really do much. So why worry about it?

Jacob interrupted Archie loudly. "Play-in? Is that like the first round?"

"Kinda. There's 80 students in the class this year. A traditional bracket only fits 64, so the 32 lowest seeded students have to fight in a Play-In match just to get to the Round of 64."

"You think you'll be that low?" Jacob asked.

"With you all in the class?" Blake gestured to them. "Maybe. I think I'm on the fence, which is why it was so important for me to have done well on that test."

Jacob tried picturing it in his head. "So if you get the 48th seed you'll...?"

"Play the 17th seed in the Round of 64. If I get the 47th seed, I'll play the 18th seed. Etc." Blake went over to his backpack and pulled out his laptop, then plopped himself down next to Jacob. "I've got a mock bracket laid out on my computer here. See here, if you're the 49th seed, you have to play the 80th seed in a Play-In."

Jacob turned to Camilla. "What seed will you get, Camilla?"

"One," She said.

"So humble," Grace mocked.

"I'd say it's a safe bet that the three of us will be in the top ten," Archie said. "The question is, where will you be, Jacob? You're a fairly strong white mage, but you also don't come from a magical family."

Jacob had no answer for that.

"I think he should be top twenty, at least," Camilla said.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"We should stop worrying about it," Grace said without looking up from her phone. "We're gonna know within the next few days where we're ranked."

"That's true," Blake said. "And no matter where we're ranked we're gonna have until the end of next week to come up with a gameplan and shore up our combat magic."

Christ, but a month had passed. It felt like it had been years. Was it part of the time dilation? No, more likely it was just the amount of stuff he'd done, the amount of people he'd met. He couldn't imagine how he would feel after being here for an entire term. And yet, there was still so much to learn, so much of the campus to explore, so many people to meet—he only really barely knew Blake and Grace and Archie.

He had to catch up on those readings, but for now, he could forget them, forget the vampire, forget all the worry, and just enjoy this evening with the gang.