Every year, as soon as the Harvest Ball ended, Tarpan began the process of sending its equine inventory southeast so that they wouldn’t starve out its human residents during the winter. As the family’s sole Magisterium student, Magdala was typically exempted from these efforts, but the day after the Harvest Ball, her lady aunt Vander had complained that she wasn’t doing enough to help out and, since her mother had failed to disagree, Magdala had ended up spending every day after that waking up early to conduct the unloading of horse and feed, going to class, returning in order to settle the remaining inventory for the night, and then collapsing into bed well after the late bell. As a result, she’d failed to learn anything about Dwayne’s lunch or this afternoon’s gathering at Tarpan until Mei mentioned in passing yesterday.

“I assumed you knew!” Francesca had been invited to both of course. “I was just about to be impressed that you’re so calm about seeing Dwayne for the first time after… well, you know.”

Which explained why neither her lady aunt nor her mother had told Magdala about the events and why she’d been set the formidable task of sending out Tarpan’s unsold inventory: they didn’t want her to even be able to think about coming. And yet, here she was, striding into Tarpan’s parlor precisely on time.

Her aunt Lady Vander caught sight of her first. “Magdala.” She grabbed Magdala by the arm and tried to pull her out of the room. “Why aren’t you the stables?”

“Oh, I finished that this morning.” Magdala stifled a yawn and searched the room. Dwayne hadn’t arrived yet. “It’s amazing what chocolati, koti, and waking up early can get done.”

“You skipped class?” Lady Vander’s eyes widened, taking in Magdala’s pinafore. She hadn’t had time to change. “That’s very unbecoming of a Water Sage’s daughter.”

“Fortunately,” Magdala’s mother took her arm from her lady aunt, “a Water Sage’s daughter knows that and didn’t skip any of her classes. They may have noticed a certain odor of course, but everyone knows that nQe mages get up to all sorts of things.”

Lady Vander’s face went red. “Iona, your daughter-”

“Marcel,” Lady Gallus gestured to the other end of the room, “seems like he needs some assistance with the Houseknechts.”

Lady Vander eyed her sister-in-law for a moment, but then offered a curtsy. “Of course, dear sister.” With one last glare at her niece, she trounced off.

Magdala inclined her head. “Mother.”

“Daughter, walk with me.” Lady Gallus began to tow Magdala around the room. “I see you slipped your lady aunt’s trap.”

“Oh?” Magdala’s eyebrows lifted. “That was her idea?”

“Actually, her idea was to send you off with the inventory, but I dissuaded her.”

Forcefully, probably. “All this to keep me from Dwayne?”

“All this,” her mother’s placid voice sounded only little strained, “to keep you from embarrassing us.”

Magdala checked their course. They were headed in the direction of the fireplace where her father was chatting with a stout blond woman. “You’re not making me leave?”

“Of course not. I have a better use for you. Countess Auer,” this was addressed to her father’s conversation partner, “you said you’d bring your nephew today. Where is he?”

“Oh, yes.” The countess gestured with her half empty goblet of wine. “I have. He’s over there talking with the Lucchesi girl.”

Magdala’s roommate, who looked resplendent in her fashion defying sunshine yellow dress and teal scarf, was talking to a tall blond boy in fitted blue school robes. Magdala tried to go join them, but her mother refused to release her.

“Were you able to view Magdala’s Offering?” asked Lady Gallus.

“Of course! Such a daring display. I must know how you constructed those effects.”

What did she mean by that? “We didn’t construct them. They were the after effects of the creation process,” said Magdala.

Her father hid a wince. “Perhaps the countess was asking about the, uh, methodology?”

The countess eyed Magdala. “Oh, I’m sure there was some method to it.”

Magdala would have answered the insult, but Lady Gallus chose that moment to try and slip away.

“A moment.” Magdala caught up to her mother. “What are you doing?”

Lady Gallus suddenly looked exhausted. “Attempting to mitigate the damage that our next Royal Sorcerer has managed to accrue in just a few short hours.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Please do your part, Magdala, and you won’t have to worry about it.” After a gentle push to put Magdala back in the circle of conversation, her mother walked away.

“Magdala,” her father said, “I was just telling the countess that you’ve worked with Lady Pol before.”

“Yes, I, uh…” Magdala took a moment to reassemble herself. “Yes, she invited us to join her on a dig.” Not quite the whole story, but accurate enough.

“I see.” The countess’s face went carefully blank. “Do you corroborate her reports of dancing armor and magic trees as well as her claims that it was all Yaniti magic?”

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“It was one tree and yes, I do.” Magdala’s gut tightened. What was she getting at? “No known magic could have achieved any of that.”

“Does that also mean,” the countess’s eyes glittered, “you claim that there’s something essential to each kind of magic that can’t be recreated with any of the others?”

“I’m claiming that…” Magdala caught sight of Dwayne walking in on the heels of Lady Pol, dressed in a somber gray suit. Why did he look so tired? Was this part of the “damage” Lady Pol had wrought? Time to figure out an exit. “I’m only making a statement as a nearly graduated student of the Academy: the magic I witnessed underneath Yumma was impossible to create with any known magic.”

The countess sniffed. “I am a graduate of the Academy, and I think that an application of the theories developed at Coles could create the illusion of a moving tree.”

Magdala gritted her teeth. So it was all a trick of the light? Was the countess was being idiotic or pointlessly contrary? It didn’t matter. Magdala shrugged. “We’ll see. My mother mentioned you have a nephew? What kind of mage is he?”

The countess brightened. “Water Qe. He’ll be starting his apprenticeship soon.”

As Magdala expected, that got her father’s attention. “Oh, with who?”

“Baron Thadden.”

Her father’s eyes narrowed. “Of the Royal Secretary’s Office?”

“The very same.”

How did Thadden line up a new apprentice already? Didn’t that take months of negotiation? It had only been a couple of weeks since-

Not important. Stay on task.

“Are the Thaddens old family friends of the Auers?” asked Magdala.

The countess shook her head. “Oh, no, Otto and I met at the Academy.”

“Oh you did?” Magdala elbowed her father. “Looks like you were right. The Academy is where we mages form lasting connections.”

Her father blinked at her familiar attitude. “Yes, that’s right.”

“Speaking of connections,” Magdala tried to keep her tone light, she could not let her father catch on, “shouldn’t the Auers be my cousins? We are both nobility and Water Qe.”

Countess Auer’s face flushed. “Oh, I doubt that the Galluses and the Auers bear any familial connections.”

“But the Kalans and the Auers might.” Magdala’s father looked pensive. “How far back have you been able to trace your lineage?”

“Pardon?”

Good, he was hooked. Magdala patted her father’s arm. “Father has traced my and my brother’s lineage all the way back to Sabina.”

The countess stared. “Really?”

Magdala’s father raised his chin. “Really.”

“How?”

“So there’s a monastery in the mountains where…”

That was Magdala’s cue. With a muttered and unheard apology, she slipped away, joining Francesca and the Auer boy.

“Mag, darling,” her roommate’s arm circled her waist, “have you met young Keith Auer? Apparently, his lady aunt is a countess.”

“She is and I have.” Magdala curtsied. “Young Auer.”

“Young Gallus.” He bowed. “I apologize if my lady aunt has been overly enthusiastic.”

“She hasn’t been.” Only rude. “I hear you’re to be apprenticed to Baron Thadden?”

Francesca’s eyes flicked to Magdala even as she said, “Congratulations.”

But young Auer groaned. “Cups, not you too.”

Roommates shared a glance.

“You’re not happy about it?” Magdala asked. “It’s quite an honor.”

“Only if you want to shift water and-” Young Auer clamped his mouth shut. Then he let out a breath. “It is not quite what I want.”

“I see.” In the corner of Magdala’s eye, Dwayne drifted to the buffet table alone. Good, just one more move. “You don’t want to let your elders decide what you want.”

“Exactly! Just when you two and that Fletcher fellow have upended the basic foundations of magic, I’m supposed to want to be a licensed mage? Baron Thadden barely even understands magic. He tried to convince me that your Offering was all an illusion.”

“It wasn’t.” What a strange idea to be going around, but it did provide an opening. Magdala caught Francesca’s eye and indicated Dwayne with her chin. “Would you like us to help find you a place at college?”

Young Auer stiffened. “What?”

Francesca nodded. Message received. “I hear that the Water Sage herself is here. Let’s get you a meeting.”

Young Auer paled. “Oh, no, I wouldn’t presume to-”

“Nonsense.” Magdala took his shoulders and aimed him at her mother. “Presume away. Francesca will take you. She’s better at that sort of thing.”

“No promises, though.” Francesca looped young Auer’s arm through hers. “You’ll need to impress her.”

“Impress the Water Sage?”

“I assume you’re interested in…”

With Lord Gallus engrossed in genealogy and Lady Gallus soon to be caught up in academics, all obstacles had been eliminated. Magdala took a deep breath and then walked over to the buffet table.

“Hi,” she said.

“Magdala.” Dwayne’s eyes dropped to his food. “Um, are you well?”

“What girl wouldn’t be well after the boy she kissed left her on the ballroom floor, never to be seen again?” Dwayne’s face fell. Oh, that had been the wrong thing to say. She stepped towards him. “I’m doing fine, really. I only wanted to talk.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t come back,” Dwayne stepped back from her, “but the Queen summoned me and-”

“You don’t have to apologize.” Magdala stepped forward. “I just-”

“I’m sorry.” Dwayne stepped back, his face twisting in pain. “I don’t think this is the time for… this.”

“Oh, okay.” That was fine, so fine it wasn’t even that hard to sound cheerful when she said, “Well, I should congratulate you.”

Dwayne winced. “I don’t see why.”

“Why not?” Up close he looked even more tired. Magdala stepped closer. “Are you okay? Are you having,” she lowered her voice, “magic problems?”

Dwayne blinked. “What? No, nothing like that. I’m just…” He caught the look on her face. “You don’t believe me.”

“No, I don’t.” Magdala crossed her arms. “You’re a bad liar.”

Dwayne sighed. “It’s been frustrating. Lady Pol has the tact of a dragon. You should have seen how badly she pissed off the merchants at lunch.” He shook his head. “She was right, but there were better ways of saying it.”

“I see.” Lady Pol had joined fireside chat to the countess’s obvious dismay. “Unfortunately, she’s all you have now. You cannot go back to Thadden.”

“I never would.”

Magdala glanced at the fist clenched at Dwayne’s side. “Did something happen?”

Dwayne pointed at young Auer. “He got himself an apprentice.”

That wasn’t it, but Magdala couldn’t see how to make him admit it so instead she stepped closer and lowered her voice. “What if we could ruin it for him?”

Dwayne blinked. “How?”

“Young Auer doesn’t want to be his apprentice.” Why had Dwayne let Magdala get so close? “He wants to do research. What if you invited him to your club?”

“It’s not a club.” Dwayne crossed his arms. “We just discuss thaumaturgical theory in our off time.”

Magdala grinned. “What do you think a club is?”

“It’s not a club.” Dwayne glanced at young Auer. “And inviting him invites trouble.”

“Maybe.” Magdala pulled her eyes off Dwayne’s lips. “What’s the worst Thadden can do?”

“A lot if-”

“Repeat that, you ignoramus!” shouted Lady Pol.

Countess Auer drew herself up. “You and your mother sully the name of Souran thaumaturgy with your so-called research.”

What Lady Pol did next became the only thing anyone remembered afterward.