Tenthé looked up as the door opened. In stepped an older girl. Who was huge! At least twice as tall as he was. A quick check showed her magic to be tightly coiled, channels and paths hidden away. Similar to Magister Tomas’.

He watched as she walked up to Katarine, handed over a document and told her, “I’m supposed to pick up a student and show him around. I was informed that he was here, but I don’t see anyone.”

“I think they meant him,” Katarine pointed at Tenthé.

“What? He’s just a kid.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Tenthé was crushed.

“But I’m pretty sure he is what all the fuss is about.”

“Hmph.”

Tenthé knew how this was going to go. Might as well get on with it. He jumped up and introduced himself. “Hi, I’m Tenthé. I guess you’re my spy.”

“What?”

“You’re the person Tomas wants to spy on me, right?”

“I, uh…”

“Don’t worry, I know how it is.”

Tenthé felt the girl casting a spell, so he ate a little of it. She looked startled, took a step and stumbled, then grabbed a chair and sat down. Hard.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing.”

“Yeah, you did!”

Carefully, Tenthé watched her. She probably wouldn’t jump him; being not that coordinated at the moment. He glanced at Katarine, who was watching with wide eyes. He figured that was because she hadn’t known about the spying deal.

When he was certain that things were okay, he sat back in his chair and waited.

“You’re a scary kid.”

Tenthé simply watched her.

The girl returned his stare. No-one spoke.

Eventually, she broke the silence.

“You’d should sign up for Tactics. I suspect you would be a natural.”

Tenthé didn’t know what she was talking about, but he had no intention of giving away anything for free.

Not for the first time, he considered leaving. He didn’t think the Guardians would try to stop him, and he could probably deal with everything else.

He looked down at his new clothes, then thought about the food.

Nah. He’d stick it out for a bit longer.

With that, he decided to relax a little.

“So. Who are you?” he asked.

“Me? I’m Elishua. I was told to show you around and so on, but no-one said much.”

Tenthé didn’t believe her, but that didn’t really matter.

“Okay. What does that all mean?” he asked.

“I’ll demonstrate how to use your map and point out where to eat, then escort you to your room. And, I’ll explain any rules you don’t understand.”

“That sounds okay.”

“All right, then. Now that I have your permission,” she said sarcastically. “Let’s get started. Take out the map.”

Tenthé let her have her attitude. She’d learn.

Pawing through his stuff, he dug out the parchment Magister Weddig had said was a map. When he unfolded it, he discovered that it was big. More like a blanket. He gave up trying to hold it in his hands and spread it out on the floor.

The map was very complicated, displaying the different floors as layers that floated above the parchment. If he moved his head, things would scoot out of the way so he could see the floors underneath.

Tenthé lay down on the floor to peer across the map, then got on his hands and knees and poked at the levels, seeing how to move the floors around. The stairways were obvious, and there were tiny pictures to show what the rooms were for, which wasn’t much help, since he hadn’t been inside many normal buildings. But although he’d never used a map like this before, it was awesome! He just had to go exploring.

He glanced up to see Elishua watching.

“Do you want some help?” she asked.

“Yeah, what’s this, and this, and this? What are the places with nothing? Are these the bathrooms, and where do I eat? Where are we now?”

Walking over to where Tenthé sat on the map, she explained how to find where he was, and how to find where other people were. Tomas was a little green dot and everyone else was displayed as dots of other colors. Elishua pointed to something she called the legend, which identified everything, but since he couldn’t read, that didn’t really help. His memory was good though, so he asked questions and remembered the answers. She even showed him how to fold the map so it only showed the immediate area. He tried to copy her, but ran into some issues and decided that it would take practice.

“Okay, Tenthé. Now that you have the basic idea, let’s see if you find your way to your room? I’ll show it to you on the map; you get us there. Don’t worry, I’ll carry your stuff.”

She pointed to a place at the edge of one of the floors. Tenthé looked around to orient himself, did some figuring, and decided that his room was in another building.

Elishua clarified matters.

“That’s the residence for mostly new students. You are going to be somewhat young, but these will be the boys closest to your age.”

Tenthé found a few paths and checked each one carefully. He was pretty confident he could get to his room, and even in the short time he’d been here, had a suspicion that there had to be passages that weren’t displayed. Just little things that didn’t add up between the map and the hallways he had been through. Something to investigate later.

After crunch-folding the map, it displayed enough to get him halfway to his room. He could refold it once they reached that point.

Looking at the crumpled mess Tenthé had made, Elishua ventured, “Okaaay… I suppose that’ll work. Anyway, let’s see how it goes.”

A challenge! Tenthé rushed out of Admissions, noting that his dot was now in the foyer. He held his finger on the Elishua dot and a little triangle appeared around it and stayed there once he removed his finger. That would be handy!

After a quick glance to figure out where everything else was, he started running. Elishua yelled for him to slow down, which he ignored. This was fun!

He made it up several flights of stairs. For some reason, each flight only went between adjacent floors. If you wanted to do more than that, you had to find the next set of stairs. As he was running, Tenthé tore around a corner, crashed into a small group of students, and everybody went down. He leaped to his feet, yelled out a “Sorry!” and ran on.

The students were about to give chase when the she-beast lumbered past, obviously after the boy. Everyone scrambled to get out of her way, pitying the poor kid. All of them had gone through their own run-ins with Elishua at one time or another, and now she had a new victim. They all wished him well, but were relieved that it wasn’t them.

Tenthé waited at the halfway point. Elishua lurched up, chest heaving and sweating buckets.

“Stop, when I say stop! You little shit!”

She reached out to grab him, but he wasn’t there. A second grab ended up with her bent over in some sort of finger lock that caused great pain when she tried to move. Someone as small as the kid was shouldn’t be able to do that sort of thing to her!

After a few futile tries, she gave in. “Okay, okay, okay Mister. Let’s not do anything rash!”

They remained frozen for a few seconds, then Tenthé released her and stepped away. Slowly, Elishua stood.

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Seeming unconcerned, Tenthé re-crumpled his map to show the rest of the way and sped off again. Elishua stared after him, adrenaline spiking. Who was he? What the Hells had she been volunteered for?

She stumbled after.

One last glance at the map showed Tenthé that he was close. Reaching the top of the final set of stairs, he found himself in a large hallway with a second smaller hallway across from him. Going over to it, he continued on past a number of closed doors before entering a spacious room containing a sofa, some easy chairs, a table with its own set of chairs, plus a counter and some cupboards.

This was okay. Lots of space around the walls where he could crash.

Elishua stumbled up, looking more dead than alive. She dropped his documents on the floor and stood gasping. Tenthé pointed to an empty corner.

“That looks like a good place for my stuff. It’s close to everything, but I can get out quick if I need to. I’ll block it off with a chair and find some blankets. Not the best spot, so I probably won’t have to fight for it.”

Elishua looked at him as if he was crazy.

He returned her look. “What?”

“You think this is your room?”

“Well yeah, it’s plenty big enough for a bunch of people.”

Elishua let out a bark of laughter. “Oh, man, no-one’s going to believe me. This is just the lounge. Come here.”

She walked back down the hallway. Tenthé scooped up his stuff and followed. She stopped at a doorway.

“Place your hand right here,” she ordered, pointing to the middle of the door.

Inside the door, magic was curled up, waiting. Tenthé traced the threads as they disappeared into the walls, leaving no clue as to what would happen if he triggered them. No way he would put his hand on that!

“Careful little bugger, aren’t you? This is just to register you. When you touch the door, the room will be yours and the wards’ll make sure no-one else comes in. Not unless you let them.”

He examined the spell. From what he could see, she wasn’t telling the complete truth. It contained overrides that would allow others into his room. It would be easy to change that part, but before he did, he wanted more information. Peering around, he could see several Guardians lurking nearby. He looked up at the giant eye which was looking back.

“Hey Guard.”

“Hi… Tenthé.”

“Who are you talking to?”

“Would it be okay if I made the door work for just me?”

“What… if… you needed… help?”

“Hello Tenthé! Who are you talking to?”

“The Guard,” then “I have you, don’t I.”

“I… suppose.”

“The Guard?”

“So, I can do it? It’s okay with you?”

“Tenthé! TALK TO ME!”

Sigh.

“Just you show yourself to her so she’ll let us be.”

“Okay… I… suppose.”

“Tenthé! Look at me! What are you… AHHHHHHHH!”

Tenthé looked at Elishua. She stood, frozen, staring at the giant eye a pace above her head.

“So, you don’t mind if I change the room lock?”

“No… Won’t… stop us… anyway.”

“Good, thanks.”

“No… problem.”

The eye withdrew into the ceiling. Elishua didn’t move. Tenthé wondered if she was broken.

He modified the spell as he put his hand where she had indicated. The magic changed, and the door opened. Cautiously, Tenthé walked into his room. His own room!

There was a bed, a big cabinet, a desk and a chair, and when he looked behind the door, he found a little bathroom with a toilet and a small shower.

This was magnificent! He was living like a king!

Tenthé walked around, gazing at everything. The bed had blankets, although they smelled funny. Not like people at all. The cabinet had more clothes in it. It appeared that William was one of those types who whined and complained but did their job anyway.

Elishua was standing in front of his door, still staring at the ceiling. He walked over and poked her with his foot. She didn’t move. He prodded her harder.

She looked down. Even so, Tenthé got the idea she wasn’t entirely there.

“Did… did you see that?” she asked breathlessly.

“Yeah. He’s my friend.”

“Your friend?”

“Yeah, I guess. Sort of.”

“He’s real!”

No sense talking to her, so he wandered off to find out what was in the lounge. The cupboards along one wall were empty. Next to them were two separate boxes stacked on top of the other. When he opened the door on the bottom one, he found that the inside was cold!

Hey! This was one of those wizard boxes where people kept food! When he checked the top one, it was also empty, but there were some symbols on its front. Tenthé had learned long ago that he shouldn’t mess around with unknown symbols, although sometimes it was too tempting. Which explained a few of his scars.

He turned to look at Elishua, who had wandered into the lounge. She still looked kind of out of it.

Woodenly she intoned, “The top is a heat box. It makes things hotter. The first symbol is for how hot, the second is for how long, the third is a start and a stop.

Apparently, this exhausted her. She collapsed into one of the big soft chairs and stared at the wall.

Tenthé rummaged around in his cloak for something to try. He came up with an egg and placed it in the top box. The heat symbol glowed brighter the longer he touched it, and if he lifted his finger and put it back, it got dimmer. He set it to midway bright. The time symbol had spokes that lit up. He set it to all spokes, then pushed the last symbol. One of the time spokes started going dim, and when it went out, the next started dimming. Looking really closely, he could see teeny-tiny magic things floating out of the heat box down to the cold box. Maybe they were carrying pieces of cold away so the top box would get hotter.

Before all the spokes went out, there was a muffled explosion. Tenthé opened the door to find his egg spattered around the inside of the oven. It was still good, though.

He was nearly done licking it off the walls when he was hauled out onto his feet.

Elishua was back.

“What are you doing?”

Stupid question.

“The servants’ll take care of the mess.”

“Servants?”

“Yeah, servants. They’ll come in tomorrow and clean up. If we party too hard, the students will get fined, but this is nothing. If you ask them or submit a request, we can have food stocked here so you don’t have to use the dining rooms all the time. Didn’t you read your guide?”

“Uh, no. I can’t read.”

“WHAT?”

“They tried to teach me in the Mission, but it doesn’t stick.”

“WHAT? WHAT? No-one told me! Arrrgh! Why do I always get the stupids? Shit, shit, shit. You can’t be here without being able to read!”

“Well, I can’t.”

“How did you make it through Admissions?”

“She never asked.”

“Shit, shit, shit, shit! You’re supposed to go to Testing tomorrow! Crap, crap, crap!”

Elishua was far from the best swearer that Tenthé had ever run into. He used to get together with the 5th Street gang to rate swearers. She wouldn’t even have made the list.

“It’s the middle of the night! I can’t do anything now. Crap, crap, crap! Tell you what. Yeah! Let’s meet here tomorrow morning at eight. I’ll take you to Testing, then I can arrange…. things. Uh-huh! That might work. But crap, crap, crap!”

“You aren’t staying here?”

“Hells no! This is for you kids. I’m an under-Magister!”

Tenthé had no idea what that was.

“So tomorrow, you get some food, we meet here at eight, then go to Testing. Do you understand?”

“Yeah, I suppose.” He wasn’t about to admit he didn’t know what eight meant. Probably sometime in the morning. Bear could help him. Maybe.

“Are you sure you got it?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Okay, then.”

She stomped off. Tenthé wasn’t sure that she had any other way to walk. He pulled out Bear.

“Wakey, wakey.”

He looked at the stuffed head. It didn’t move or anything.

“Bear! Wake up!” he yelled.

Still nothing.

“WAKE UP!” and he banged Bear’s head on the armrest a few times.

“Wha… wha?”

“Wake up! I need your help.”

“Uh, get me some coffee. What time is it? What the hell! It’s the middle of the night! Go away.”

“I need your help!” He bashed the head on the chair again.

“Wait, something’s wrong! I can’t turn my head. What? Where’s my body?”

“Remember, you don’t have a body, or not much of one, anyway.”

“How am I still alive?”

Every single time.

“You are a stuffed toy, you aren’t alive.”

“What? How did I get here?”

“I don’t know. Now shut up and listen. I’m in a school and I’m supposed to able to read, but I can’t.”

“Ha-ha-ha! You’re in school and you can’t read! That’s great! Must be the worst school ever! What are you, stupid?”

Tenthé stared at the head.

“Well, you’re screwed,” it stated.

“Not helping. You know I can’t read! At the Mission they tried to teach me. All the words keep getting mixed up. I can’t do it.”

“Of course, you can’t.”

“What?”

“Of course you can’t. The magic that makes you what you are won’t let you read or count. That might let them find you. You need to be sneaky.”

“What!”

“What what?”

“You just said the magic won’t let me read. And that someone was looking for me.”

“Did I? I must have been smart.”

Tenthé stopped and thought for a bit. Bear faded in and out like this, but some things he said made sense. Not big sense, but a little sense.

“Bear, are you still here?”

“Yeah. I got no body, I can’t go, Ha-ha-ha. Of course, I can’t go, I don’t have a butt! Go. Get it? Ha-ha-ha.”

“So, what do I do? About reading.”

“Oh, that’s easy. I can read for you.”

“What? How?”

“Easy. All you have to do is sew my eye to your collar. I’ll see fine.”

“How? It’s your eye!”

“I’m a toy, remember? How can I see anyway? It’s only a button, just do it. Take my eye and sew it on your collar, or somewhere, then sew a new one on me and it’ll be good.”

“Why don’t you just use one of my buttons that’s already on my shirt?”

“Don’t be stupid, that’s not my eye!”

“Uh… Okay. I guess. But, if this works, what about, um… that you sleep all the time?

“Well then, fix me up and I won’t need to sleep. Well, not as much.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I don’t know, that’s the way it is.”

Tenthé thought about it all. Magic was magic. If it always made sense, it wouldn’t be magic.

“What about the people looking for me? Bear? Bear?”

He was gone. Tenthé rummaged around and found his sewing kit. He took a knife and cut off Bear’s eye, and after some thought, decided to sew it to the collar of his cloak, since he wore it all the time. As for a second button, there were lots on his shirt. One of those should be good enough to replace the eye on Bear’s head. He went to work.

As he tied the final knot, he felt pretty happy. They had classes for all sorts of useful things at the Mission, and the extra button on his collar didn’t look out of place, as far as he could tell. He thought the old guy who taught sewing would have grunted that he’d done an okay job. At least it wouldn’t fall off. Same for the new eye on Bear.

There was no way he was good enough to fix up Bear, though. He’d have to find some help.

Tenthé yawned. It was late. He picked up everything and stowed it away in his cloak, then went to his room. Dragging the blankets under the bed, he made a nest and fell asleep.