THE SHERIFF OF HNUT / CH. 27: FINISHING OFF

ENANA'S HOME, GORP, FATHERDAY, 14TH WINTER

“Hello, should I be worried?” Enana asked, seeing Dirak and Lenepoli on her doorstep so early in the morning.

“Maybe. It depends if what Dirak says puts you in an ethical dilemma or not, and how you feel about ethical dilemmas.”

“Oh, well, you'd better come in then.”

“We'd rather not,” Dirak said, “It might be really short, or it might be just quite short, but I've promised faithfully to Lenepoli that I'd get her back to Hnut in time for school. The really quick question is, to your recollection did you ever sign something to do with the sinking of the boat with Endalinth on?”

“And if I did?”

“Then that's the end of the conversation.”

“Dad sent the form on to me a couple of years ago. But I never signed it, there didn't seem much benefit, and it wanted me to give my full name and address and everything.”

“The benefit was all in not signing it,” Dirak said. “There is a possibility that it was a deliberate act, and not an accident. If you request that the investigation be reopened, then the accident verdict may be overturned.”

“Leading to a nasty surprise for the insurers?” Enana asked.

“The owner of the insurance company is in jail for fraud already,” Dirak said, “and his businesses have been wound up. No, this is more about clearing the name of the late-captain, allowing his wife to get some kind of closure, and changing the legal status of all the deaths to murder rather than accident.”

“There's something significant beyond that, though?”

“I understand that if it is declared a murder, it could affect the name of the next daughter born to a descendent of Endepoli.”

“Me? You're asking me if clan Ened should live? Surly someone else should do it?”

“The wife of the captain refused to sign, but as a relative of the person accused of the fatal mistake, she has no right to request the re-opening. Everyone else was convinced to sign away their rights to request a reopening of the investigation by a relative of one victim, who has recently turned out to be the owner of the insurance company.”

“The one in jail for fraud?”

“Among other crimes, yes. You may assume he was quite convincing in person. According to the investigating officer, you and Shashana are probably the only people who can, and I'm not sure exactly when the accident was relative to Shashana's birthday, so she might not have been old enough. So, if you want to think about it, I'll take Lenepoli away.”

“No, let the investigation happen.” Enana said. “I'll sign the request in the interests of justice.”

“Your name, and at least that you're living in Hnut district, must become a matter of public record.”

“I'm not as scared as I was. Keldithanapoli was convincing.”

“If you're sure, then sign here, please.” Dirak said, offering her the form, “and Lenepoli and I will witness it.”

“Do you think I should wait and think about it?”

“In the interests of justice no. Not if you're happy to be known to live here. You can always debate the question of naming hatchlings later on with your sister and Shashana.”

“It's up to mum's middle sister, Endwina, and her daughter, whatever she's called, surely!” Enana said.

“Endwina and her whole family were with Endalinth on the boat, sorry if that's news.”

Enana was taken aback, then shook her head, “I did hear, I just... it just seemed to sad, and so irrelevant. But if a major clan like the Tan can choose yellow leadership...”

“Shashana's husband hatched yellow?” Lenepoli asked.

“Yes. His mother is an orange, though.”

“Keldi will approve, then. The less bellicosity in the blood-line, the better, according to her,” Dirak said. “And yellows do breed true, after all. And of course little Talinth and Tagelah will want husbands in a couple of decades.”

“Sheriff Dirak, you think my grandsons might marry into clan Tan...” she shook her head in wonder. “I'd have called you a raving lunatic two weeks ago.”

“Keldi has suggested that if any of her eggs turn into daughters then she's hoping we'll have some sons for them to choose from,” Dirak replied, “So the world is certainly changing.”

“She's expecting triplets?” Enana asked, on hearing the 'any'.

“She laid yesterday,” Lenepoli said, “four eggs.”

“Quads! Well! May God protect them all!”

“We hope and pray so,” Dirak said.

----------------------------------------

DIRAK'S OFFICE, FATHERDAY, 14TH WINTER

“Hello, Keldi!” Dirak said, “I assume Kand is in the nest?”

“He is. It's quite pleasant to be able to move, I must say. He said something about Ened.”

“Nothing certain, but there is a possibility that the boat was deliberately sabotaged, and so Endalinth and the others on the boat were murdered. Yesterday I got asked to ask Enana if she'd like the investigation to be reopened, and it now has been.”

“In which case Ened would not be a dying clan. And you're carefully not naming who did it.”

“Would you expect me to do otherwise?” Dirak asked back, “There are suspicions, that's about all, certainly not reason for your talons to be out, Keldi.”

“Sorry. Murder is almost as bad as the C word, and I'm on edge, I guess.”

“I'll tell you that the prime suspect is safely in prison on other charges. In other news you might have missed, Sithini and the journeymen have not only finished the walls and floors of my house, but they've gone and built me a crystal telescope just under the roof of my tower, and arranged things so that the roof panels can open to reveal a dome. They claim it was just a prototype for the one they hope to put on the lecture hall. But anyway, your house is half-way done, at least the outside walls, and I now need to do such fun things as installing plumbing and heating, but the house is entirely weather-proof. Lenepoli is considering issues such as soft-furnishings, and Sithini is working on plans for a water and sewer network that won't freeze or clog.”

“How long was I out of action? It wasn't that long, surely?”

“It's now Fatherday, we cut the ground on the house on Skyday. The villagers are scratching their heads at how quickly it's gone, too, and are wondering how long it'll take to build the whole school.”

“You'd better spend some time on thinking about how to process admissions too, with that sort of advertising.”

“First priority among the able goes to those who already have somewhere to stay along with a recommendation from their pastor and teacher. Second priority to those who are applying because a wizard or two think they're capable and are effectively vouching for them character-wise, and so on. Lanthi, and Quif, for a couple of examples, except of course if you are staying, Lanthi has somewhere to live. Third priority would be people from villages, with a recommendation from their pastor but nowhere to stay, or from their teacher but not their pastor but who do have somewhere to stay.”

“And you're planning to be very open about this, I suppose?” Keldi asked.

“Any reason I shouldn't be, Keldi?”

“I don't know. It's just going to be some kind of points-based system?”

“That depends how many apply, I guess. But I don't want to only accept a single category of candidates, that'd get boring and ruin the community aspect of things.”

“Another question, if I dare.” Keldi asked “Are there limits on how much time you can put into being school director while you're also sheriff?”

“Probably. I'm actually a bit more concerned about the demands of parenthood.”

“Shock, horror, who told you that kids take time?”

“You did, Keldi, when you told us you hadn't marked our essays because you'd been too busy helping Lanthi get on with hers.”

“Hmm. And speaking as an interested mother, when will you be starting to accept applications?”

“I think I'm willing to accept them now, but I certainly won't be deciding until there's some teaching space.”

“So, I'll send Lanthi and Yalb to interrupt you on Skyday, shall I?”

“Ranth might find your lack of confidence in his workers a little insulting, Keldi. I wouldn't be surprised if Athrel had started moving into a new lab by then.”

----------------------------------------

QUIF'S HOME, BROTHERDAY, 15TH WINTER

Quif looked around and smiled as he caught a glimpse of microscopic red feathers. Sithini stepped out of her bubble. “Hi, Quif! I'm not here to interrupt you really, but I was passing and thought I'd drop in to chat to Aneth.”

“Of course! Aneth, this is my very good friend, Wizardess Sithinilakiina.”

“Your majesty! You want to talk to me?” Aneth asked, shocked.

“Quif was saying you liked watch painting, and that Lanthi thought you ought to be thinking of a career in wizardry rather than that. Lanthi tells me she thinks you deliberately make mistakes in maths so you don't get bullied. I'm all in favour of more people joining up who can express themselves in a clear and logical sequence.”

“I didn't realise it was a requirement.”

“It isn't, sadly. But take Dirak, for instance. He's brighter than the average blue, but his mind's all over the place, he runs ahead of himself, jumps steps, and half the time can't get his maths right the first time. That's bad enough when you're building buildings or radios, but critical when you're manipulating forces that can kill.”

“He said you'd convinced him he didn't need to do a lot of calculations.”

“Good job too. He'd bitten off more maths than he can chew properly and knowing him, there's a reasonable chance he would have spent half the day trying to make sure he had the right answer. Well, maybe not now he's grown up, but he would have done a few years ago. Anyway, he can't help being born blue, and he's sensible enough to know his limits and that's why he normally takes an hour or two to get to Hnut whereas I was still there five minutes ago.”

“He said he did the trip in half an hour, yesterday.”

“Yes. Do you know how? He went high enough that the mountains look flat, and fast enough that he was practically making the air glow.”

“I take it you don't?”

“No. Dirak's technique could get him to Ethe in a few hours. I bend space around me and make myself small, so I can avoid boring things like hitting air molecules and worrying about going too fast. So I could get there in a few seconds if I really thought it was that important. And it all boils down to getting the maths right first time. No mistakes. How's your maths? Don't compare yourself to Lanthi, compare yourself to right.”

“I'm slow. But Lanthi's right about the wrong answers. Dad told me it upsets blues and reds in school if you never let them see you making a mistake.”

“Slow at working out what they're asking, or slow at getting a solution.”

“Urm. Isn't that the same thing?”

“Not for Northerners. Want a challenge, Aneth?”

“What sort of a challenge?”

“One that starts with some equations on a blank piece of paper and ends up with an number.”

“OK.”

“Have you done solving simultaneous equations?”

“Yes.”

“And inverting matrices?”

“Yes.”

“Oooh, goody. How much do you weigh?”

“Forty kilos, roughly.”

“And less roughly?”

“Thirty eight point nine, last week.”

“With clothes on?” Sithini looked at her thin arms.

“Yes.”

“OK. Well, not OK, you're underweight as I'm sure your mother's told you. M is your weight. c is two point nine eight hundred million. Pi-zero is the normal value, pi-prime is the equation for what pi looks like depending how far you get into warped space. This is how much unwarped space you need so your feathers and toes don't end up in serious trouble, this equation is how much mass it's sensible to put in a bubble depending on its size, and this is the volume of the bubble, which as you see includes everything including pi-prime in the second order term. That's the thing to work out. Too complicated?”

“Urm, what's i?”

“Square it and you get minus one.”

“Ohh. I've heard of that but never used it. And I need to put them in a matrix?”

“There are different approaches. I prefer this arrangement.” Sithini wrote the formulae in matrix form. “Enjoy solving it.”

Aneth didn't pick up the pen, but looked at Sithini “This is wizardry?”

“Part of it. Another part is putting things together, painting things like this.” She pulled out a circuit from her pocket. “Another part, a big part, actually, is knowing when not to do stuff.”

“Like not intervening.”

“This circuit, if it was turned on, would be a clock, far more accurate than anything Quif could ever make. But Quif's clocks are beautiful, and perfectly good for anything except wizardry-related things. So, we don't intervene and destroy the guild, likewise we don't tell people what to do, that's the government's job.”

“Do I need to show my workings?”

“My attitude is that paper's there as an extra-slow memory. Otherwise, workings are like your insides, they only need looking at if they've gone wrong.”

“And what do I do with the 'i's?”

“Remember that the world is more complicated than simplistic answers, and then ignore terms with them in once you've collected them all together.” Sithini said.

“Bother,” Aneth whispered, “Too much to remember.” She wrote the inversion of the matrix down.

“You can leave the square-roots unsolved, if you like, Aneth.” Sithini said.

“But then I'll not have collected together the 'i's,” Aneth murmured, writing down another line.

“Are you watching this, Quif?” Sithini asked, as Aneth solved a complex square root for the first time in her life.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“I am, yes.”

“And now I can ignore this whole lot here?” Aneth asked.

“Yes,” Sithini agreed.

“Then it's four point two five two times pi-zero cubic metres.” Aneth said, writing down that number.

“It is,” Sithini agreed.

“Under four minutes,” Quif said.

“Do you want me to give this to Lanthi's dad, or do you want to do it in person?” Sithini asked, writing a few notes on the paper, including the time it took.

“Lanthi's father?”

“Admissions tutor.”

“I can't read what you've written.”

“I would hope not. It's in an alien language. Quif, please write something like 'I saw Aneth solve this while talking to Sithini about some other things too, without any other bits of paper.' and then sign it.”

“At your command, Wizardess. You had me do the same thing once, didn't you?”

“Yes. You spent ages arguing that you couldn't get a negative number by squaring anything.”

“But I didn't solve the square root, and it took me longer.”

“You were younger at the time, and you're a male.” Sithini said. “It's a well known problem with males that their crests dig into their brains and keep them thinking about feathers rather than in parallel.”

“I love you Sithini, and I like your feathers, but I don't think that's actually true,”

“Then get on with witnessing Aneth's entrance exam. Don't you get bored in school, Aneth?”

“More frustrated that they teach it so slowly, and that there's always so much waffle around the maths. And terrified I'll offend someone by saying so.”

“Too late now, but there's an early-admission stream for people like us. I'm not telling you what to do Aneth, because that would be intervening, but my opinion is that you ought to have applied to the college of wizardry years ago. And I'm going to pray that God leads you to join us.”

“One of my teachers said about the early admissions thing too. But.... I guess I don't understand what wizardry is. I thought it was... well, magic.”

“An alien once said that any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic to the uneducated. He was wrong, but that's probably because of his misunderstanding of magic. Magic, real magic, is controlling things about the physical universe by some kind of trade with spiritual forces. Basically it glorifies the magician and demeans the spiritual actor to be some kind of slave. That's only going to happen if the spiritual actor is playing a subtle game of deception. Don't go there, it's really stupid. Fortunately not many people try it. Some people think prayer is like magic, but prayer is asking God what he thinks about a situation and sharing with him what you thoughts are, being quite willing to be changed or his instrument of change. Science is learning enough about the universe so that you can understand it and predict what will happen if you do something, and maybe applying that to make things a bit more pleasant. Of course misunderstanding or misapplying science can cause problems. What we call wizardry is just science so scary that we've decided to lock it away so only the people we really trust get to learn it. Dirak knows how to make the circuit to make the bubbles like I use, but he also knows his maths isn't up to using them regularly. So he doesn't, which makes him a far better wizard than someone who takes risks.”

“Can you tell my mum that?”

“What, about Dirak?”

“She wasn't happy about me flying across the city with Lanthi and Dirak the day before yesterday.”

“Let's take this paper, and go past the college. Your mother hasn't told you she's changed her mind about a journeyman renting has she?”

“Urm, no.”

“Then I'm going to bring a journeyman along too. She's visibly green.”

----------------------------------------

ANETH'S HOME, BROTHERDAY, 15TH WINTER

“Mummy,” Aneth said, “Let me introduce Karel, who's hoping that you're still thinking of renting out a room, and her friend and Lanthi's, Sithini, who introduced me to her. Sithini, Karel, my mother, Onnetha.”

“Don't let the colour of my feathers scare you, Onnetha,” Sithini added, “I'm pure-blooded green.”

“Then why...?” Onnetha asked.

"My mother, Ranthilakiina, died when I was young, before she'd told me what to expect. They confused me no end by growing red all on their own. Lanthi's mother filled me in on the history they don't teach in school. Apparently she knew my mother before I was born, and her mother my grandmother, all the way back to Polithanapoli. But I'm actually here to talk about something else. Aneth tells me you think wizardry is a sort of magic?”

“And the green-turned-red is planning to convince me it's not? I suppose I should be honoured. But I'm worried.”

“Maybe I should start by asking what you mean by magic.”

“Pride-feeding dangerous meddling in things beyond what is normal, sensible or necessary. Arcane knowledge you keep to yourselves while not lifting a finger to help those in trouble. Like my cousin who died in Reqiq. I don't want Aneth involved in such soul-destroying occupation.”

“What was your cousin's name?” Sithini asked.

“There were no survivors, thanks to the wizard's lack of intervention.”

“But there were people who weren't at home.” Sithini said.

“And others visiting, I'm sure. It doesn't excuse the wizards.” Onnetha said.

“What was your cousin's name?” Sithini asked again.

“What does it matter?” Onnetha asked callously.

“Maybe I knew your cousin. You certainly remind me of Rinetha when she was in a bad mood.”

“You knew Rinetha?” Onnetha asked, surprised.

“She was my teacher. And I don't know what more you think the wizards could have done. They were as shocked as anyone when they heard the news, and searched the whole valley for survivors. There weren't even any bodies.”

“There was that warning, that study...”

“Yes, the famous warning. 'A study on the landslide-risks of a valley in the Reqiq region' I've read it, have you?”

“No.”

“I don't expect most reporters have, either. It was written as a student's first bit of research as a journeyman. It was based on an obvious mistake, and it wasn't even talking about the valley that gave way, it was written about another one, which is still exactly where it was, even though there was five times more rain than he predicted would be dangerous. With hind-sight someone could have said, 'hmm, maybe he's got a point even if he can't spot stupid maths errors,' and looked at other, similar valleys in the same formation. But the author agreed he'd got his maths wrong, breathed a sigh of relief and got on with other things. He deeply regretted not checking up to see if there were any other valleys that were at risk, but at the time, he was embarrassed by writing a paper that was shaped by a stupid mistake in his maths, and wanted to forget all about it. It wasn't a policy not to intervene. At most it was a failure of imagination.”

“But they could have dug the landslide away,” Onnetha claimed.

Sithini looked at Onnetha in shocked amazement, and didn't manage to find any words.

Karel decided she ought to, “Because of what the weather did to the roads, it was at least two days after the disaster when the college heard. Have you been there? Did you see the aftermath immediately afterwards?”

“No, of course not.”

“Have you been there since?” Karel demanded.

“No.”

“Then please don't make Sithini weep with your thoughtless, baseless accusations that something could have been done to save the buried.”

“The waterfall is gone.” Sithini said. “That impossibly high waterfall is just a stream now, it's not even steep. Fifty wizards digging for a year wouldn't even reach the top of the church spire unless they didn't care about cutting buildings and bodies alike. Wizardry isn't magic. We can't wave a wand and get people air when we don't know where they are, we can't cut rubble and mud without cutting people too. If there had been someone there, as it happened, they might have been able to save four people or five. If they'd tried to make a shield over more, then it would have broken and everyone in it would have been crushed. If the risk had been known a week before, then it might been possible to set up a heavily reinforced high power forcefield to divert the landslide so that it didn't smash Reqiq, but went further down the valley. But there would have been voices saying that intervening like that would risk causing more problems and since the village would be flooded by the lake, long term it made more sense to help people leave, rather than try to change where the mud and rock fell, and who'd want to leave home every time it started raining?”

“And with more notice?” Aneth asked.

“A month before, it might have been possible to make holes in the rock so that the waterfall would flow ten times faster. Then the water would be able to drain quickly and the waterfall would no longer flow at a constant amount all year. But it was important to people in Reqiq, the miller, for instance, that the waterfall never stopped. That sort of intervention would not have been popular, not at all. People, normal people, would complain about wizards ruining their lives, their jobs. Change one thing and you risk breaking so much.”

“Then the warning was bound to be ignored,” Onnetha said, “What you said about better research was just a red-herring.”

“No. With something like a year's notice, perhaps, more detailed studies could have been done. It should have been possible to provide a safety overflow, that would put limits on how much water was stored, or at least a warning that the water pressure in the rock was too high. And to drive spikes into the rock to stop the forest slipping down the hill. That's what the student suggested, and the student was right about that bit. He was wrong about his maths, and it would have been wonderful, with hindsight, to think about the possibility of the mechanism he predicted applying to other sites. But there aren't enough wizards to do everything, let alone investigate every possible cause of disaster. We need more. Especially people who can solve last week's journeyman maths test as well as Aneth did.”

“You gave her the bubble-maths test you gave us a last?” Karel asked, surprised.

“Similar. I didn't expect her to know the formulae.” Sithini said. “And your weights are different.”

“Just slightly.” Karel said, blushing at the comparison. Karel wasn't thin.

“How did she do?”

“Under four minutes, including solving the complex square-root. In her head.”

Karel gave a whistle of appreciation. “Do you often do complex square roots in your head?” she asked Aneth.

“The thing with the impossible number? No. I've heard about it, but never used it.”

Karel said, “OK, I resign. Take my place, Athrel.”

“Don't be silly, Karel,” Sithini chided. “There's going to be space for Athrel, and you can't give your place up, you are needed too.”

“How do you know there's going to be space for me?” Athrel asked.

Karel groaned, “Because you're a mathematical genius, Athrel. There's always space for a mathematical genius.”

“Intervention is being reassessed, Onnetha,” Sithini said. “It always is. Sometimes the pendulum swings too far, as it has done in the past years. Now it's firmly back on centre, and I expect it's going to swing too far in the other direction, leading to accusations that we're interfering where we shouldn't, because the numbers of students is going to more than double, come the new year, with most of the new numbers from God-fearing villages like Hnut, where not helping your neighbour is actually a crime, not just virtually one.”

“And that is supposed to allay my fears?”

“I don't know. What are you actually afraid of? Physical danger to Athrel, spiritual danger? That she'll over-use what we hope to teach her or under-use it? Your definition of magic seemed a bit of both. And quite a long way from what I would call magic.”

“So what would you call magic?” Onnetha asked, avoiding the question that had been put to her.

“The thinking that says 'God has do to it, because I said Amen', and worse abuses of the spiritually-derived power that elevate self to the place of God and by which the forces of evil might trick an individual into doing their will, such as Elymas the sorcerer in Acts, Talan'kka, and so on.”

“Talan'kka is a myth.” Onnetha said, hoping once more to divert the conversation.

Sithini shrugged, “Not according to the transcript of his trial that Keldithanapoli showed me when she was convincing me about my ancestry. It looked genuine enough to me. The main charge was poisoning that village, of course, but it also mentioned other things most easily taken at face value, at least in my understanding of God's universe. How's your prayer life?”

“Pardon?” Onnetha asked, confused at the change of track.

“How often do you pray, Onnetha? If you're in good relationship with God, please ask Him about Aneth's future. If not then maybe you ought to be. Aneth, I suggest you pray too.”

“I was praying, this morning, that someone would tell me where I'll be able to make a real contribution.” Aneth admitted. “So I think my prayer's got its answer, thank you Sithini.”

“My pleasure,” Sithini grinned. “Onnetha, can I leave Karel here? I ought to be getting back to Hnut.”

“Before you leave, can I ask you how old you are, Green-turned-red?”

“I'm twenty, like Karel, but I've been a full wizardess two years. I'd just started at the college when Reqiq was destroyed. Otherwise I'd be dead with my parents and everyone else I loved there.”

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HNUT, DIRAK AND LENEPOLI'S NEW HOME, EARLY EVENING, BROTHERDAY 15TH WINTER

“Aha! Found you!” Sithini cried, “Kand, I need to give you this piece of evidence.”

“Oh yes? Do I need to read it?” They were outside the house, Sithini had found Kand standing a little way away from a growing number of locals who were chatting about this and that, casting occasional glances at the unusual house.

“Just be impressed. That's the entire paper-working that Lanthi's friend Aneth did to work out bubble parameters for her without a staff.”

“Why don't you tell people to include the staff, Sithini?” Kand asked.

“Because they're supposed to be smart enough to work that out from first principles by the time they're doing it. She took less than four minutes.”

“OK, yes, I'm impressed. Your friend Quif took ten, didn't he?”

“Four years ago he took twelve, after several worked examples, and he didn't work out the complex square root. I just wrote Aneth the matrix and it was her first use of imaginary numbers.”

“Hmm. You haven't tested him since?”

“It didn't seem that necessary.”

“Not really, no. OK, she's in, subject to references.”

“Slight issue is her mother is a bit anti. I left it that she'd pray about it, rather than quoting legalities or pulling rank. Better if God convinces her, I think.”

“I'm serious about you taking over, Sithini. You're far better at recruiting greens than I am.”

“And you and Keldi have an unfair advantage with reds. Probably blues too, truth be told. Let's just leave it as me lending an unofficial hand for the time being, please? What is the crowd gathering for?” Sithini asked, seeing Rangar was joining them.

“Rumour says Dirak and Lenepoli are almost finished enough to move in. I certainly saw Dirak working on the heating this morning, and notice the curtains going up?”

“And that's significant?” Sithini asked.

“When they reach 'the it's liveable' stage, there's a parade thing that accompanies them to the pastor's house, and then the wedding date gets set.” Rangar offered.

“Even if they might not think it's ready?”

“To village sentiments, a roof overhead, a front door to close and curtains up in the bedroom means it's liveable, Sithini. It might not be warm, of course, but I reckon Dirak's got a way to whistle up a fire fairly quickly.”

“You've got a point there. Do they know we're slowly freezing out here?”

“Feel free to interrupt whatever they're up to.” Rangar offered.

“I think I will. I want to talk to Dirak about something anyway.”

“Don't spend too long setting the world to rights,” Kand advised, “Or I'll need to go and get warmer shoes. Not to mention tell Keldi you're why nothing's happened yet.”

Sithini grinned and knocked on the door.

“Hi, Sithini, come in!” Lenepoli greeted her. “Why is everyone standing around out there?”

“Something to do with the house being weather-tight and Dirak putting curtains up.”

“Oh no!” Lenepoli exclaimed, realising the implication, “That's just for measuring.”

“Feel free to explain to everyone they should go home.”

“No.” Lenepoli said, “I can't do that. Dirak!” she called.

“Problem?” He asked.

“We have a warm house with curtains up, Dirak, and people are getting cold outside.”

“Should we invite them in, then?” Dirak asked, his eyes sparkling.

“How about we let them accompany us to my parent's home?”

“Sounds good to me!” Dirak replied. “But you said by radio you wanted to ask me something, sis?”

“I did. I do. Quif. Should he be applying here or in the city? He's a bit scared of the plumbing issues, not knowing anyone with a spare bed, and so on.”

“Is he thinking of becoming an apprentice? If he plans to, then I think the city is the way to go. It's recently been pointed out to me that a wizardry apprentice living in the city gets government support, but there's no rule about outside the city at all. That's to say, here the students will be getting student support while they work on their ASCs, that's a fixed amount. But someone will need to ask the government to consider what happens to them once they've passed.”

“So the students up here might be only getting their first year funded?”

“There's a risk of a gap between ASCs and getting journeyman status, yes, at least while the government are debating things. And it certainly means that we're not accepting apprentices here this spring. We might be able to reasonably delay the ASC test a bit, claiming things like harvest, but that might not work. An alternative is you know there are quite a few things that get taught to apprentices that are really journeyman material, just to round the year out: we could make those journeyman subjects. So it might not be a whole unfunded year.”

“It's a good thing we're not involved in politics,” Sithini said, smiling. “Otherwise I'd need to be very careful about who I talk to when I invite some politicians up to see your new school. Anyway, Kand is freezing, and Keldi might come looking if you don't move.”

“I'd recommend you ask Keldi, anyway.” Dirak said.

“I plan to invite Keldi's benefactor Bob and my second cousin, since I know them.”

“They're in different parties?” Lenepoli asked.

“Yes,” Sithini said. “I'll let people know you're coming really soon, shall I?”

“As long as you don't plan to put moss above the doorway,” Dirak said.

“What a thing to suggest!” Sithini laughed.

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RUATH AND ETHEPOLI'S HOME, BROTHERDAY, 15TH WINTER.

“What was that about you sulking, Sithini?” Ethepoli asked, later that evening.

“Dirak cheated,” Sithini said. “I'd set up a nice friendly bucket of gum-free moss above their doorway, and they both came out at Zerk-speed, caught it, and then he emptied it on top of me. Complete with the bucket, which wasn't nice.”

“No damage to your feathers, though?” Ethepoli asked.

“Nothing permanent,” Sithini said. “Were you surprised about the date they've set?”

“Not really. With teaching demands what they are, Lenepoli has been saying she wanted a Sisterday wedding for a long time. It's hard enough for them that Ethe is full tonight, but with Lene full in a week, it wouldn't make sense for the wedding to not be tomorrow.”

“It's faster than they expected, I think. I wonder how much Ethe helped them decide.”

“The moons do that, Sithini.”

“Oh, I know. I realised today that I've not let a single full moon go by in the last half a year without visiting Quif and his watches. And now I've got another excuse to visit him.”

“Do you two have an understanding?”

“Not formally. Which is a bit frustrating. But a lot of things scare him, I think relationships is one of them.”

“And you?”

“Me too, a bit. It's going to be a challenge. He's got two years of study to become even be a journeyman wizard, but he's going to be a master watchmaker. There's a disparity there. As a master craftsman it makes sense for him to move out of home and set up on his own. As an apprentice?” Sithini shook her head. “Lots of confusion there.”

“And that feeds into feelings?” Ethepoli suggested.

“Almost certainly.”

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QUIF'S HOME, 15TH WINTER

“Hello, Sithini!” Quif's mother greeted her, when she knocked on the door.

“Come in! Don't you normally waft in through a window?”

“Normally it's the key-hole, actually.” Sithini admitted. “But it's a bit dark to do that. Plus I'm not planning to interrupt, just to say that Dirak and Lenepoli have pretty much finished their house; as Lenepoli is a teacher they want to marry on a Sisterday; and village wisdom says you don't delay a wedding past a full moon when you've got a liveable home ready. Hence, it's tomorrow or not a Sisterday wedding. You are all invited.”

“Quif's out at the moment, but I'll certainly tell him the message. Urm, how would we get there?”

“I'll happily take you. I'm going to suggest a travel time of about an hour and a half each way, because that way you get to see where you're going. So that would mean leaving about three in the afternoon. And with Lenepoli being the school teacher and pastor's daughter, the whole village will be contributing food, so I'm under strict instructions to say that you don't need to worry about food for the evening.”

“I think I'm going to have to decline, Sithini. The girls will be coming to do more painting.”

“Lanthi won't, that's certain. She'll be at the wedding too.”

“Oh. Of course.”

“And I can very easily ask her to pass on a message to her friends. I can tell Aneth too, I've got a letter for her, anyway.”

“A letter?”

“Congratulating her on her speed in completing the mathematical challenge I set her and encouraging her to apply to the guild of advanced sciences and alien languages.”

“I never did understand why those two go together.”

“Because some of the most dangerous subjects get taught in alien, just in case.”

“Doesn't that make them more dangerous?” Quif's mother asked.

“I'm sure you heard Dirak and me telling Quif about going to Ethe. The practical sessions for the subjects taught in alien happen on the far side, just in case someone gets something wrong.”

“Isn't that a bit extreme?”

“Actually, it's a bit close.” Sithini corrected. “When the aliens were first experimenting they made sure they were entirely outside their solar system, and going away from it. When I was getting my keyhole-flight right I was on Ethe, too, by the way. Anyway, I'll come by at about three, and anyone coming should dress for snow on the ground and air as cold as daggers of ice if the wind blows. It hasn't been recently, but there's a risk that it might.”

“Hence your fur hood?”

“Exactly. It's not a fashion accessory up there, it's a precaution. Do you have one?”

“Actually, I do,” she smiled secretively. “and you've just convinced me I need to come.”

“Really?” Sithini asked, surprised.

“Fond memories benefit from being reignited sometimes.” It was clear to Sithini that she didn't want to say more.