Ryan spotted Connor from a window on the second floor. He was cutting across the courtyard instead of taking the longer route through the Guild. He headed down the hall and stairwell to meet him, a bundle of cloth in one hand. It was getting harder and harder to catch him without his friends.
The moment he opened the door, Ryan pushed it the rest of the way and said, “Hey, there.”
He’d had to run to get there in time, but he doubted it showed. Connor looked more out-of-breath from just the weather. His cheeks were flushed red from the short trip from the cafeteria here. He almost froze in the door.
“Hi.”
Ryan pushed his arm a bit further to keep it from falling shut. Connor gave him a wide berth as he stepped inside, as if to make room so he could head out. Ryan let go and joined him instead.
“Where are you headed?”
He figured his bundle could wait.
“Oh, uhm, the workshop?” Connor stuffed a hand in his pocket and fumbled for a long moment before he found his bundle of keys to show him. “I need to pick some things up and then I was going to go, uh— to the library?”
He began to walk, slowly, awkwardly at first, and Ryan matched his pace.
“To study?”
“Yeah. Well, no. I need to do that soon, too, but I have a list—or I should have a list—somewhere in one of my books with directions for another book in the Registry. I think I forgot it there.”
“And if not?”
Connor glanced back. The hallway was empty. “Then it’s somewhere in my room, never to be found again,” he joked.
Ryan chuckled. “So you’re messy.”
“Well, not normally. My room at home is pretty tidy. But most of my roommates are messy, and my, uhm— my parents don’t really visit that often, so I can sort of let myself slip.”
His parents visited at all? The last time Ryan’s parents had visited was shortly after Micah had gotten out of the hospital. Then again, his mom was pregnant and his dad busy taking care of her. They couldn’t just visit whenever they wanted. Most people went home, either way.
“They rubbed off on you?”
“Yeah. And you?”
Ryan looked anywhere but at him as he thought about it, but ended up shaking his head. “I don’t think so. Maybe Micah. We were roommates for a while and he’s gotten me into most of my messes, but I don’t have that much to do with most of my current roommates.”
“You were roommates? Where?”
“Home. Long story.” And it wasn’t his to tell. Connor didn’t seem eager to pry, so he quickly moved on. They headed up a different staircase. “So what’s this book of yours about? Something [Enchanter]-y?”
“Yeah, actually. I, uhm, kind of leveled up.”
Ryan stopped. Connor climbed one more step. “You did?”
He nodded.
“Congrats, man!” He slapped him on the shoulder and kept on walking, then immediately felt stupid about it. Someone walked past them and they both slowed and shut up until she was gone.
When Connor started heading up again, Ryan put on a smile again and asked, “When did this happen? And how? Oh, did you make something? Did you get a Skill?”
He looked like he wanted to answer each question as Ryan asked them, but then seemed hesitant at the last one. Ryan knew the answer himself, then. Why couldn’t he shut his stupid mouth?
“No,” Connor said. Of course, he sounded disappointed, “But I kind of knew that would happen. I mean, I already got two Skills from my first two levels and neither was a Guidance Skill or change, so I guess I got them one level after the other. The chances of getting something three levels in a row …”
“Yeah,” Ryan said. Not something you hoped for. “I, uh— I didn’t get any Skills at all from my first [Scout] level?” he offered.
“Seriously?”
He nodded seriously.
“That sounds like it would suck.”
He shrugged. “But there’s always the next level, right? And—” He paused and frowned at something. Had Connor said he “guessed” he had gotten them one level after the other? He didn’t know?
“Yeah?”
“Huh?”
“There is always the next level and …?”
“Oh, right. Yeah, I got two Skills from my next level in [Scout] so I bet you’ll get a bunch from your next one, too.”
“Hopefully.” Connor smiled. “That’s actually what I’m about to look up—other [Enchanter] Skills and what they did to get them, as far as it is known. Maybe I can mimic them and get the same Skills or figure out which Skills I might get from what I’m doing right now.”
“Oh, good idea. So, uh, what are you doing right now?” Ryan asked. “How did you level?”
They reached the top of the staircase. The workshop wasn’t that far off down the hall, and Ryan could hear the chatter, burner flames, and bubbling fluids, but neither of them left to step inside. They idled. He leaned against the corner of the wall where the railing ended. Connor awkwardly leaned against his own, testing it with his hand before he put any weight on it. Ryan should have switched sides. It seemed like one of those things you were expected to do, like walk on the inside of the street, if he could find a way of doing it at the last moment without being awkward. Something to keep in mind for the future.
“Uhm, nothing,” he said. “I’m kind of working on something concrete right now, but I made a bunch of small things. Like I showed you?”
Ryan nodded. He remembered his child-safety lock, the universal lighter, and the water resistance … thingy.
“And I learned some more spells from my bonded items,” he said and thrust his arm out of his sleeve. The wristband dangled there. It briefly lit up, then went dark again. “I just ‘got’ my next level one night. Two days ago. Nothing special had happened.”
“Sounds like a repetition level up.”
“Yeah.”
Those were good to see, Ryan knew. It was easy to miss the effect the little things had on leveling. At least, his dad said so often. He stopped slouching against the wall, pushed his shoulders back, and glanced down the hallway.
Someone headed out, but they headed the other way.
“So, uh, what’s this concrete something you’re working on?” he asked. “Can you tell me about it?”
“Oh.” Connor hesitated, then shook his head. “No. I can’t.”
Ryan’s smile fell a bit. “Oh, that’s, uh— that’s okay. Top secret, right?”
“Yeah, kind of.” He scratched his shoulder and then blurted out, “Sorry.”
“It’s fine.”
“I know you mind, but—”
“It’s fine. Really,” Ryan insisted. He didn’t have to like the secrecy, but he got it. It wasn’t like he had any right to meddle. He was just used to everyone sharing stuff with him—Lisa, Micah, Connor with his school projects—he’d gotten carried away. Connor still looked awkward.
“Oh, about the studying earlier?” Ryan blurted out. “You mentioned you had to study soon?”
“Yeah?”
He scratched arm. “Well, we were kind of going to start a sort-of study group, maybe. Sometime soon. For the exams? And, I don’t know, but maybe you would want to join?”
Connor frowned. “Maybe? Who’s ‘we’?”
“Uh, Lisa, Micah, and me,” Ryan started, then had to scramble to find an answer because he was making this up on the spot, “Micah might rope Anne into it, if we did. She might rope her friends into. Not sure about Myra …” She seemed like the type for study groups. “Alex,” he said. They did homework sometimes together in the common room and he and Micah shared a lot of courses. “Uhm … a few others? Wait, you know these people right? Anne is Annebeth Heswaren and Alex uh, Alexander.” Ryan had no idea what his last name was.
Connor hesitated, then nodded. “I know some.”
“So …?”
“Yeah, uhm, maybe,” he repeated and glanced away.
Maybe means no, Ryan thought.
“Just, if you ever see us studying, you’re welcome to join.”
“Thanks. But … we don’t really share that many courses. I’m not sure if it would help?”
“Might be useful to get another perspective on the same course?”
“Might be confusing.”
Right.
Stupid of him, really.
Ryan glanced down the hall himself and wondered if he should lead the way, if he was keeping him. His hand shifted on the bundle of cloth in his hand and he finally remembered why he had come here in the first place.
“I have to ask,” Connor said, catching his attention. When Ryan looked, he pointed. “What’s that?”
He smiled. Fools rarely differ. He brought the bundle up and said, “I actually was wondering if you could help me with something else.” He flipped the cloth back to reveal a wooden staff. It was slightly misshapen, had a crown of roots near the top in which one could fit a medium crystal with a bit of twisting, and was sized for someone two heads shorter than him. A Kobold.
“And I thought maybe it could help you, too?”
Ryan had tried running mana through it a few times already, and while strange, it worked. He’d lit a flame at the tip of the staff. The wood seemed fire resistant as well. He just had to apply more force to his mana, or more mana in general, to travel the distance. This seemed like the type of thing that an [Encanter] might do, or at least, that might help them level.
He held the staff out with both hands and asked, “Do you know how to make a spellwood spear?"
----------------------------------------
“I hate studying,” Micah said as he let himself fall on the table. He and his arms covered two-and-a-half people’s notes, but nobody seemed to complain. He couldn’t help but smile at that. Nobody complained. It helped a little staving off his impatience. The company helped more.
“That has to be a lie,” Lisa said. She sat sideways in her seat and had her socks up against the table.
The school library was half-filled around them, half as loud as the foyer or common rooms, half a silent as the Registry. The perfect middle-ground, he thought. They should have hung out here more often. The books were more relevant to their studies anyway and easier to access. It was also warm.
Lisa looked at Anne, who was immersed in a passage. Somehow, she must have noticed she was being watched because she finished the word, line, or paragraph and looked up.
“Huh?”
“Lie. That?” She pointed.
Anne glanced at Micah. “I dunno.”
“It isn’t a lie,” Micah said, peering up at them. “I love learning. I hate studying. There is a difference.”
Especially when he didn’t really care about the in-depth details of lake ecosystems. Knowing why a lake could suddenly turn filthy in the middle of nowhere was cool, he had to admit, but not as a whole topic of its own. He had to learn two-dozen terms about its layers, conditions, components, and cycles for an exam. The only thing he could think about was that the Towers didn’t follow any of those rules. He would rather learn about something he could use.
Or do something more productive. He could be working out right now. Why couldn’t they do that as a group?
“And I hate feet on the table or arms across my textbooks,” Myra said as she took his limp arm and moved it aside, “but here I am.” She got her book out and started leafing through.
Okay, maybe one person was complaining.
“You didn’t have to come,” Ryan grumbled from the opposite of the table.
Two.
It had been his, Ryan’s, idea to start a study-group in the first place. But somehow, he seemed to like being here the least. Maybe it was because of how lax they were. They were mostly just hanging around. He kept on looking away like he wanted to leave.
This still seemed better than nothing to Micah. As long as they actually retained something. And they were basically multi-tasking: hanging out with the people they wanted to hang out with and studying at the same time. It did sort of open up more time to work out later, he figured.
Micah went through the last question he’d answered in his mind and repeated a better-structured version of it to Ryan. Ryan just looked at him as if asking, What are you on about?
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Oh. So maybe he was leftover grumpy, then. Apparently, his new roommate was a bit of an ass.
Stupid Glove Guy.
Lisa was still hassling Anne.
“I’m not your human lie detector,” she scoffed. “Get your fix elsewhere.”
She huffed and looked away. “Fine. I’ll annoy your sister.”
Micah jumped on the chance. “You have a sister?”
“No. I have a cousin. Lisa acts like she doesn’t know the difference to get me to correct her.”
“Dammit, Anne,” she complained. “Just one truth?”
“No.”
Micah suspected it had something to do with truth essence, but for once, he didn’t care. He had his own projects to work on. Besides, maybe it was a girl thing. He was also curious—but didn’t know if it was okay to ask—about Anne’s cousins. They seemed further removed than siblings. Broader family. And talking about that might be inappropriate, considering.
He imagined it was like if everyone ever only wanted to talk to him about alchemy … if being an [Alchemist] was something special. More likely, it was like if people wanted to talk to him about his immediate family, and aside from Prisha and Neil, Micah wouldn’t want to do that.
He wasn’t just a Stranya, just an [Alchemist]. Anne wasn’t just a [Paladin], just a Heswaren.
What was she then?
Micah often looked at her and wanted to smile, but he didn’t know why. He wanted answers.
“I have a bunch of cousins,” he said. “Like twenty-dozen of them.”
“There aren’t that many children running around the bathhouse,” Ryan complained. “Even I’ve started to learn some of their names.”
Micah sat up. “No, no, no. Those are just my cousins from Neil’s side of the family. And there are eleven of them. I also have two from my dad’s side and like, literally twenty to thirty cousins from my mother’s side.”
“That’s awesome,” Lisa said.
He needed a moment to realize it hadn’t been sarcasm.
Ryan was frowning.
Anne was in agreement. “I somehow find it hard to believe you have so many cousins. Are you sure some of them aren’t second cousins, cousins once removed, or in-laws?”
“Yeah, but they’re still my cousins, right?” Micah asked.
Both Ryan and Anne nodded to themselves.
“What?” He got no response.
Myra poked him in the side with a pen. “Can we continue?” She addressed the entire table, though.
Maybe she should have ended up Ryan’s study partner instead of his. Stupid shuffling. Though Micah got why Anne had suggested it. Studying with new people could teach them new things.
He could have learned new things from studying with her though, too.
“Fine,” he said. “Can I quiz you, though, or can we switch topics? I’m tired of answering questions about lake zones. We could go over forest life cycles? We might also have to know those for the exam.”
“We shouldn’t study ahead without knowing our teachers’ plans. I know the answers. If you want to quit, that’s on you.”
“Thank you.”
Anne and Ryan were already quizzing each other again. Or rather, she was quizzing him. They were leagues ahead of the rest of the table. She seemed to be picking out harder and harder questions, but Ryan didn’t have any troubles answering, which kind of made Micah proud.
Lisa and Alex were working on their own. Alex, Micah had learned, had two different sides. When he had homework or was studying, he was the quietest person at the table. Otherwise, he kind of seemed what Micah imagined an older brother would be like: loud, helpful, intrusive.
Of course, based on stories Micah had heard from others, older brothers were actually people who always gave you a hard time, pretended to hate you, and whom you got into fist-fights with, so he was probably wildly off-base. The last memory Micah had of Aaron—aside from his letter—had been at Prisha’s wedding. He had been busy with helping out.
Apparently, he had also threatened to murder Neil if he made a mistake so maybe Micah wasn’t so far off-base after all.
And now he really missed his brother.
“So which topic would you want to study instead?” he asked to get his mind off it. “History, Geography … Social Studies, Tower Studies?”
He put extra emphasis on the last two.
“You want to study one of those, don’t you?” Myra asked.
He nodded.
“Everyone does,” Lisa said.
“Yeah, because it’s relevant.” Unlike lakes in the middle of nowhere and forest fires, they actually had to deal with their Skills and, in eight weeks, with the Tower. They were studying reports from Guild climbers in one of their Tower Studies courses now and Micah loved it. It was like reading stories in class and then having to answer questions about them or discuss what the characters could have done better. He wasn’t the only one who looked forward to it.
Unconsciously, he looked around and found himself missing the maps that were painted in the foyer and Registry. He guessed that was one downside to studying here.
“Social Studies, then,” Myra decided.
That was fine, too. They both began to shift their notes and switch their textbooks. Unlike the Tower, everyone had to deal with Skills and callings.
He didn’t have any study cards or questions prepared for the topic, but Anne had a few she lent them while she scribbled away at new questions for Ryan. Ryan was looking more and more bored, one eye perpetually on the exit. Micah figured he’d ask him to switch soon. Social Studies was one of Anne’s main subjects so maybe he could pick her brain on why she had picked it.
“What are the main ways for Classes to change?” Micah asked, eyes wandering across the card. Her handwriting was weirdly neat, halfway between cursive and normal. It seemed so mature.
“Class consolidation, class change, level shifts, and experience dumps,” Myra answered.
Micah glanced up.
She looked at him.
“And …? There’s five.”
Ah, she motioned with her mouth. After a moment’s thought, she added, “[Lesser Abjuration]. Class abandonment.”
“Right. Explanations and examples?”
“For [Lesser Abjuration], theoretically a career change, though it rarely ever happens. If you were to suddenly change your career, you’ll just have your levels from your past weighing you down. That’s why it’s called Class abandonment, most commonly found with criminal [Fighters]. You give up your old class, lose a few levels or the Class entirely, and gain the Skill [Lesser Abjuration]. Then you have an easier time gaining levels in your new Class.”
“That was way too many words,” Micah said, “Which is weird, considering it’s you.”
Myra gave him the stink-eye.
“What? During the exam, you’ll have to do it in two sentences or less.”
“Fewer.”
“That’s just petty.”
She smiled.
Micah shifted cards to the next. The ink was awesome, too. It looked kind of glossy. Where did she get it? It was probably too expensive for him, though. He scratched his leg under the table and looked at Myra to go on.
“For the others,” she said, “Class consolidation is Class A and Class B coming together to form Class C. A common example would be [Mage] and [Fighter] to [Spellsword], though Class consolidation is rarer than others.”
Micah glanced at her.
She rolled her eyes. “Am I not allowed to comment? Class change is Class A becoming Class B, most commonly this is an improvement or specialization. [Healer] to [Nurse]. A level shift is when Class A loses levels and Class B gains levels. This happens when the two Classes have something in common, but are too separate to consolidate, most often with Means and Results Classes. For example, you were a [Scout] first and then gained levels and specialized in [Archer]. [Archer] is not broad enough to encapsulate [Scout] entirely. You lose levels in [Scout] and gain levels in [Archer].”
“And?” Micah said. There was a note on Anne’s study card. He trusted her judgment.
“And?”
“Something to keep in mind?”
Myra frowned. “You don’t always gain as many levels as you lose?”
He smiled.
She rolled her eyes at him. “That applies to all Class shifts, except for Class changes, though it can happen. You rarely ever lose Skills, though, so it’s a future gain when you have an easier time leveling.”
Micah was happy with that answer. He gestured for her to go on and had to flip back in the cards. She was answering out of order.
“An experience dump is when you lose Class A and Class B gains levels. Most commonly, this happens with the [Student], [Apprentice], or other aid Classes like [Helper], [Assistant], and so on.”
“Great. That also covers the examples. How would you order them by rarity?”
“Did we cover that in class?”
Micah didn’t remember either. “It’s on the card,” he said. He briefly flipped it to show her, but not long enough so she could see the answer. Maybe they learned about more statistics in the advanced course.
“Statistic-wise … how many people gain [Student] Classes at school? One in three? Fewer?”
Micah glanced at Anne to see if she had any input, but she wasn’t listening to them at all. She seemed … frustrated? Ryan was smiling for once. Were they competing or something?
“The card says one in five, as a rule of thumb,” Micah said as he looked back. He kind of wanted to keep an eye on that, though.
“[Apprentice] is almost a guarantee for apprenticeships as well,” Myra thought out loud, “and how many students and apprenticeships are there? But then, you only gain and lose those Classes once.”
It was a little cool to see someone else’s mind work like that, going through the information, Micah thought. He nodded, but didn’t say anything as she thought about it. Eventually, she answered, “Class change, experience dump, level shift, Class consolidation, Class abandonment?”
“Correct.”
She looked so satisfied with herself. Smug. Micah imagined Lisa would look like that all the time if she were more expressive. He could see the similarities, why they bickered so often.
He flipped to the next card. “What are some things that are technically exceptions or common misconceptions?”
“Experience dumps and Class consolidations are often confused with one another. An experience dump is when the experience from Class A improves Class B, but is not a part of Class B. [Apprentice] is not technically a part of being an [Carpenter]. If you gain a new Class and find a way to include it in a Class you already have, that would also be a consolidation. Class A and Class B become Class B, then.”
Micah nodded, though he was still surprised by the length of her answers. She was so quiet otherwise. Maybe she was one of those people who wrote entire essays in the margins of quizzes if the questions didn’t explicitly restrict their length. How did they even find the time for it?
“Can you give an example?”
“Mm …”
She frowned, and Micah couldn’t think of an example either. There was one on the card. [Scribe] to [Lawyer]. Weird. What was the context? And hadn’t Ryan’s mom once mentioned she’d lost [Animal Tamer] to her main Class?
“Perhaps [Gardener] to [Cook],” Myra said, “if the only thing you grow is your own ingredients?”
Micah shrugged. “Sure.” If it was only a few levels. The card mentioned “new Classes,” probably that it most often happened with new Classes that were gained and then quickly consolidated. If someone wanted to keep the new Class, they had to treat it as separate from others.
That being said, Micah doubted people gained and lost new Classes often.
Myra reached toward him and he handed her the stack of cards. She leafed through them to check her answers before asking him the next question.
Micah glanced over at what Lisa and Alex were doing. The guy was leaning back in his chair now, apparently done with his homework. He looked like he wasn’t sure what to do with his time. His study partner was supposed to be Lisa, but she, like him, preferred to work alone.
They had only managed to scrounge up six people for their little study group. Everyone else had been too busy, not interested at all, or not interested yet, this early into the school year.
Maybe the two of them needed different study partners to get them out of their shells.
Lisa didn’t look like she was doing anything. She noticed him, raised an eyebrow, and nudged her head in Ryan’s direction.
Micah followed the gesture. Ryan, weirdly enough, also looked smug. It was a rare expression on him.
“That’s stupid,” Anne was saying, “you can’t just answer questions like that.”
“Sure I can. It’s the correct answer, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, but you don’t know the context around it. What if the question asks you to elaborate?”
“In a math test? Doubtful.”
“So you just study answers blindly?”
He shrugged. “As long as I do well on the exams, what does it matter?”
“Because it does! You have to understand the subject or else what’s the point?”
Did they disagree about something?
Ryan looked over and spoke up, “Myra, what matters?”
“Results matter,” she said without looking away from her cards.
Anne stared daggers at her, as if she had just been stabbed in the back herself. They were friends.
“See,” Ryan said. “Results are all that matter in most exams, the subjects I have no interest in. I mean, it’s not like I want to become a mathematician. Neither do you, so why is this so important?”
“Because you can’t just not know why you have to do things the way you have to do them. That’s ignorant.”
“Sure, I can,” he repeated. “I just need to apply the solution my teacher prefers and get the right answer. And even if I make a mistake, I’ll get points for my work or for using the right method. It’s better than breaking my head over things that I have no interest in understanding.”
Micah frowned a little. Was this about Ryan’s way of studying math? Aside from his slight grin, Anne wasn’t smiling. They were still speaking at library volume, but Lisa and Alex were watching them out of the corner of their eyes. The table seemed tense. Was that why they weren’t studying?
“This won’t work forever,” Anne said. “Eventually, your grades will fail because you didn’t learn how to do this right.”
Were they actually fighting?
Why did she care so much about how Ryan studied? Micah glanced at his friend and felt a pang of worry. Maybe she was just a perfectionist or … overbearing? Ryan was practically leaning back in his chair, shoulders wide, hands in his pockets, the picture of smug indifference. Micah could easily have imagined him putting one shoe up to tilt his chair back.
“It’s a basic course. And I’m going to quit math after the second year, if I even do three years. It’s worked up until now. It’s what got me fourth place on the written entrance exams.”
“I got first place on the written exams.”
“In your age group,” Ryan said. He sounded vaguely condescending. “And with how many mistakes?”
Anne didn’t answer.
Micah remembered. Three. And Ryan had made two? He was surprised Ryan even knew … if he did. But she had skipped two grades, just like him, and has a nearly perfect score. That was impressive. She was clearly much smarter than Micah. What did Ryan think of his score, then? Micah had missed somewhere around a hundred and sixty points during the entrance exam.
“That doesn’t matter. Just like the stupid Tower exam rankings. I’m still going to get first place this year,” Anne told him.
Ryan smiled. “Yeah. Good luck with that.”
“You’re going to fail if you keep on studying like this.”
“Sure, I will.” He wasn’t even looking at her. He was still glancing at the door as he spoke.
If he wanted to leave, why didn’t he just go? Part of Micah wondered that. The rest wondered how he could make him want to stay. He didn’t really understand why they were actually fighting over math.
It had to be a misunderstanding. “We’ll see, right?” Micah spoke up, trying to lighten the mood.
“Yeah,” Anne agreed. “We’ll see.”
Ryan shrugged.
Alex exhaled and reached over the desk to pluck the stack of study cards from her hands and glanced at them with a smile that told him he was in a social mood rather than academic one. Anne looked vaguely offended, but there was a smile hidden there. It seemed in good humor again.
Micah glanced at the table in front of the others and noticed the same glossy ink and handwriting. Was she the only one here actually writing them? Myra and he had a few, but not as many.
“How about we switch topics?” Alex suggested. “Has anyone done the Tower Studies homework yet?”
“Yes!” Micah said.
Lisa squinted. “The one about the flooded mines, right?”
Alex nodded and started got something out of his backpacks.
“I can’t believe they didn’t go through the grate.”
“There was a bridge,” Myra said. “You follow bridges. You don’t climb under them to swim through an underwater grate.”
“I would have gone through the grate,” Lisa said.
“Of course, you would have,” Anne told her.
“I would have gone, too,” Micah honestly agreed. He was just curious about what was there and now they would never find out … unless he one day went there himself, or found a report that encountered a similar situation.
“We didn’t go through any of the holes or grates we saw,” Ryan said.
“We?” Anne asked.
“Tower trip,” Alex threw in.
“Yeah, but we were being careful,” Micah said as he put his own things away that he didn’t need anymore. He handed a small stack of study cards back to Anne. “They had a full team, were on the sixth floor, and were vastly more prepared. They really should have gone through the grate.”
“But what if they had found a Hidden Guardian?” Alex asked.
“Is that arguing for or against?” Anne asked him.
Micah frowned, hiding a smile. “What’s a Hidden Guardian?”
“No golden sheen to announce them,” Myra said. She handed her own stack back to Anne.
The study pairs dissolved and they started talking about the reports and the latest news. This was something they could all talk about. Micah smiled and relaxed a little. Multi-tasking or no, this was definitely fun.