“The twins’ birthday is coming up in a month,” Kylie remarked offhand one morning, looking up from her history of prophecy book, as I finished my yoga exercises.

“That’s nice,” I said, pinching at my bicep. I’d heard it was a lot easier to put on muscle when you had testosterone; maybe I should get back into weights? “Guess I should go shopping for – oh, god.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Magista can’t organise a party, can she? I’m guessing it’s not done to organise your own birthday.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“And Max is way too busy for anything these days. So it’s up to us and – ”

“Yup.”

Us and di Fiore. We couldn’t saddle him with most of the work, because just skipping out on our friends’ party like that was a dick move, and we couldn’t do most of it without him, because he knew all the weird secret social rules and we didn’t. We were going to have to – ugh – work together. “But I hate him!”

“Don’t be such a baby.”

“I’m not being a baby,” I mumbled. “He started it.”

Kylie gave me the exact look this remark deserved and went back to her book.

“He hates witches,” I pointed out.

“He doesn’t hate witches, he hates the scholarship program.”

“Ah yes, that’s so very different. ‘It’s not that I hate what you are, I just hate the thing that makes it so I have to be around people like you’.”

“He’s a lot better about – ”

“Oh, he’s a lot better? He’s only mostly an arsehole now instead of completely an arsehole? Let’s get him a fucking cookie!”

“Are you trying to pick a fight for a specific reason, or…?”

“I’m not picking a fight! I’m just… venting.” I could hear my pulse racing in my ears. I needed to calm down. Go for a walk. Yeah. Do some rock climbing, maybe. Do something. There was no point in getting pulled into stupid arguments with my friends over things that didn’t matter when I had plenty of maybe-legitimate things to get ticked off about, assuming they were true.

Hmm. Probably not a healthy mindset, for multiple reasons.

Anyway. Party. For my ex-boyfriend, who things probably weren’t awkward with any more but still kind of might be after I basically broke down in front of him in the library like a fucking idiot, and his sister, who was basically an expert in what we were about to incompetently organise for her. This would be great. Nothing could possibly go wrong here.

Max was probably going to be too busy to help much, but I definitely needed his advice. I checked the map just in time to see him disappear off it, meaning he probably went to an external location. I headed for the place and, ten minutes later, found myself crawling out of a hole into a field of rolling, dusty hills choked with weeds. The sky was open and cloudless. Weird spot to pick for a walk, but okay, Max. Maybe he was doing research here or something.

“I’m not sure what you expect me to say,” Alania said from just around the hill. Oh, man; he was here doing research stuff. I’d better leave and come find him later.

“I can’t do this, Miratova!” Max sounded angry. Really angry. “This is your fault.”

“I don’t make the rules of the world we live in, Max!”

“Yes, you do! You literally do! You’re in the Circle – ”

“And that makes me all powerful, does it? This system is older and stronger than both of us and you agreed to play by its rules when you came here. If you want to throw a temper tantrum and decide you’re above such petty things, go ahead, but the consequences are on your head, not mine. I’m only trying to protect – ”

“I never asked for your protection!”

“Yes! You did! And if you don’t want it, then you are perfectly free to leave at any time!”

“Ugh! You’re impossible! Politics are the worst!”

“On that, at least, we can agree.”

By the time I realised that the conversation was over and I should probably get out of there before someone found me eavesdropping, it was too late. Max rounded the corner and stared at me, surprised. Without speaking, we both headed back undergrounds, and I waited until we were definitely out of earshot before asking, “So what the fuck was that about?”

“How much did you hear?”

“Ah yes, the question asked by many a non-suspicious person about perfectly normal conversation.”

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“No, I – it’s just politics.” He practically spat the word.

“Holy shit, was di Fiore right?”

“Huh? About what?”

“The Fiore’s been hounding me for random information, and di Fiore thinks that he thinks that Alania’s putting together a… I don’t know, like a little political group or something? She’s sending Clara off on secret missions, and with her being our serveyanto…”

“Yeah, that sure is the kind of nonsense people get up to.”

“So is she – ?”

“I’ve made the decision not to care. I suggest you do the same, unless you want to get caught up in that kind of nonsense.”

“Historically, I’ve been bad at avoiding it.”

“Heh. Haven’t we all. What were you doing out there, anyway?”

“Looking for you. The Magistae are having a birthday soon, so we need to – ”

Max groaned and pressed his forehead to the wall. “I forgot about that. We should… we should definitely meet up and plan a party.”

“You’ve been pretty busy in the lab. Are you sure you have time?”

“Instruktanto Miratova should’ve fucking thought of that before – yeah. I have time.”

“Can we trust her?” I asked.

“Miratova? Yeah. Yeah, she won’t hurt you.”

“Um… good?”

“Relax. She expended a lot of resources to save Clara.”

“She sent Clara off on some dangerous mission.”

“Good. I hope she dies.”

“Max!”

“What? She nearly killed Miratova, and you and Kylie, and could’ve gotten me imprisoned or executed for her crimes. If she dies now, it’ll cost Miratova a ton of money to recoup Clara’s debts, and they both deserve it. But Miratova did save Clara, and she will protect us, so yeah, we can trust her. But I don’t have to like it.”

“What did she ask you to do?”

“Nothing dangerous.”

“You’re being pretty vague for someone not doing anything dangerous.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, because you don’t want to be involved in politics, remember? I told her no, anyway. It doesn’t matter any more. How’s your little investigation going? With the whole Cheryl thing?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, where is there to go? Just walk up to Malas and ask him? We haven’t really… discussed it as a group, the witches, I mean. I think we’re all kind of worried that we might, you know, talk each other into doing something rash? And I can’t tell my friends at home, so – ”

“Why not?”

“Huh?”

“Why can’t you tell home?”

“Are you kidding me? They’ll think I’m in the same kind of danger. My parents might try to pull me out of school no matter what the contracts say and that’s… I’d rather not get involved in that fight. And they wouldn’t know enough to give any useful information anyway, so why cause problems?”

“… Hmm. That’s well reasoned, I suppose.”

“I always do things for good reasons.”

“Of course you do.”

“How’s your fetish working out?”

“Oh. Fine. It’s hardly masterful work, but, for a first attempt, it’s fine.”

“Do you mean to say it’s amazing? I bet it’s amazing.”

“It functions.”

“On a first try! Amazing! You should be more proud of your work.”

“Why? It’s fine.”

I rolled my eyes. “I made a healing potion that technically works okay and isn’t dangerous to use, and I’m immensely proud of it. It’s easy to be proud of stuff. And runes are way harder than potions.”

“I have to disagree with your there. Runes are fairly straightforward. Potions are not.”

“What? Runes are complicated! Who can remember that many detailed shapes? Potions are basically cooking.”

“Have you ever eaten my cooking? It’s terrible. Anyway, the rules behind runes are standardised, logical, and change is extremely rare. Potions are based on mass belief and perception and get… messy. You need an instinct for it, and you have to be okay with fuzzy details and dream logic and it’s just… not a mode of thinking I’ve ever been very skilled at. Runes, however…”

“Are so simple! They just require amazing hand-eye coordination, a perfect memory, and a thorough understanding of obscure mathematical and logical rules!”

“Exactly. Far more straightforward.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re a walking computer?”

“Yes, but usually in a more complimentary tone of voice than yours.”

We got back to our room, waited patiently for Kylie to finish some kind of breathing exercise she’d been set in prophecy class, and got to work.

“So. Party.” Max was sitting cross-legged on his bed, a notepad in his lap. “We’ll need to rope in di Fiore before we make any substantial progress, but I guess our main question is, are we all free on their actual birthday?”

“I don’t have anything I can’t miss,” Kylie shrugged.

I nodded. “I can make room pretty much any time that day. Hey, you took your notes down.”

“Hmm?” Max glanced at the walls behind his bedcurtains. I hadn’t seen them for a couple of months, and they were now clear of complicated maps of the corridors. “Oh, yeah. Busy in the labs, put that project on hold for a bit. Anyway, we need to talk to di Fiore and decide on a timeslot early, because you’re going to want to block out the rest of your day with unmovable activities.”

“Uh, why?”

“Trust me. You’ll want plans outside the party time.”

Ooookay then. “How long is the party going to be?” I asked. “Because if it’s going to be a full-on thing like the ones the Magistae threw last year – ”

“Uh, no. We should try for the same sort of scope as Kylie’s, larger because we have two people instead of one and more time to prepare. We absolutely want to be small and intimate. Going big won’t be fun for anyone, not to mention it’d be a total pain to organise, but we’ll still want it to be thoughtful and a good time. Kayden, do you reckon your contacts might be willing to help?”

“My contacts? I don’t have contacts!”

“Um, yes, you do. Didn’t Mae and her friends help you out with a similar event? And there’s Saina, of course, although then we’d have to invite… hmm, best not to open that can of worms. But Mae – ”

“She’s a friend! Not a contact!”

“Uh… right. Of course. Well, would she be willing to help out? The flowers her friend did were beautiful. Maybe they’d want to help for – ”

“No. Don’t go all… legacy mage on Mae and Terry, okay? They helped out because they thought it was fun, because they’re just like that. They don’t do that politics nonsense and they won’t respond well if you ask them. Okay?”

Max looked at me with a complete and utter lack of comprehension of anything I’d just said. “Well, okay. We’ll ask someone else then. Although that cabin on Agreabla Insulo would make a good location.”

“We can’t just do it in the school?” I asked.

He shrugged. “We can. We did Kylie’s here. But a change of location might be good, given how much time we’re all underground.”

“That’s true. I just, um. I already took Magistus on a date there once?”

“Worried about awkwardly rekindling an old flame?” Kylie teased.

“No, I just… there are probably better locations.”

“Maybe,” Max said. “Di Fiore probably has some good suggestions.”

“Ugh. Yeah, probably.”

“Look on the bright side,” Kylie quipped. “You might not like di Fiore, but at least our social group doesn’t contain any attempted murderers this semester.”

“Not that we know of.”