Arcane Mathematics was one of the few courses Mirian was perfectly happy to listen and take notes in. The third time through was just as valuable as the second, maybe more so. Even now she still had to ask questions—they were just different questions this time. Another application of the math Professor Jei was teaching might result in more accurate mana flow equations, which in turn could lead to much higher efficiency gains in even devices as simple as wands. Then she wondered: If arcane energy flowed through a fourth spatial dimension, could people? She’d always been told teleportation was for stories, and there was no physical basis for it actually being possible. But it was mathematically possible, that she could see. The equations didn’t change when the energy type changed, as long as there was a mana conduit. Arcane energy conduits could be built around matter, too, not just energy, it was just going to take magnitudes more mana. No person could have enough auric mana, but she wondered—if spell engines could lift an airship as big as the ones she’d seen during the attack, could it power a genuine teleportation spell?

She didn’t actually ask the question in front of the whole class. It still felt silly to consider.

After class, Mirian was tired as anything. She still wasn’t quite sure how it worked, but it sure felt like whether or not she’d eaten or slept mattered when the month repeated. Now there was a question she had no clue how to answer. How was the time travel happening? Her physics classes had made it pretty clear time travel was impossible. Only the prophets knew the future, and that was knowledge bestowed upon them by the Gods. But Mirian was starting to come up with her own theory about that. What if the prophets had experienced what she was experiencing? What she needed to do was investigate the stories about them. Mirian had always made sure to go to the temple each week and tried to be a good member of the Luminate Order. It wasn’t like she tried to fall asleep during sermons, but like history class, something about the droning voices and setting just made it easy to slip into sleep.

Still, Mirian had important things to learn today. Like, where did Professor Jei go after class? Where exactly was this secret research project of hers taking place—or was that just a rumor going around?

As the class got out, Mirian decided to do a bit of light spying. She was supposed to meet Nicolus at Bainrose in ten minutes, but she deliberately lingered, taking her time paging through her notes, then slowly putting them away. Then she slowly made her way outside. The class took place in the Griffin Hall, which was just one of the generic lecture halls, not a special math building. Mirian pulled her enchanted cloak on and sat down on one of the public benches outside it and waited for Jei to emerge.

And waited.

It was strange; as far as Mirian knew, the lecture hall only had one exit, and she’d been the last one out of class. What was Jei doing in there? Maybe she was just taking her time. Mirian wasn’t going to find out today. Bainrose wasn’t far, but Mirian didn’t want to be late. She abandoned her world’s shittiest stake-out operation and hurried to the castle. Sure enough, Nicolus and Nurea were there—but so was a third person.

Calisto.

That threw a wrench in her plan.

As far as Mirian should know, this was normal and Calisto was just part of the serious study group. As she approached, she could hear Nicolus was arguing with her.

“—and I’ve already said I don’t have any input on family business, not until I’m a full adult, which is next year.”

Calisto said, “But you do have a voice in family affairs, and I’ve outlined all the ways the arrangement would benefit both of us. You can’t back out now.”

Nicolus sighed. “Nur? Any help?”

Nurea shrugged. “You got into this mess, against my advice, I might add. You can extricate yourself.” Noticing Mirian, she said, “Your new study partner is here.”

“Uh, hi,” said Mirian eloquently.

“Is this your new maneuver, Nicolus?” Calisto said, looking at Mirian as if she were a nasty insect that had just shown up.

“Did you want to study for the exam tomorrow or not? Hi, uh, Mirian, right? This is Sire Nurea March, my tutor who does other stuff too and—”

“—Calisto. Nice to meet you.” She said this in a way that made it abundantly clear it was not nice to meet her at all.

If it had gone down like this the first time, Mirian would have fled the premises and just studied by herself. This time, she needed to get close to Nicolus and figure out his role in all this, so she endured it and said, “Nice to meet you too. Where’s the study room?”

They made their way into the private study room Nurea had reserved for them. All the books and notecards were laid out in neat piles. They got to work, with Mirian doing her best to keep the group on task. It was a good thing she already knew the concepts pretty well, because the constant subtle rhetorical jabs Nicolus and Calisto kept launching at each other were quite distracting. Mirian didn’t want to pry, because she was sure that would get Calisto to start coming after her like a half-starved bog lion that just saw prey, but she tried to pick up on what exactly the problem they had with each other was.

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From what she could tell, Nicolus and Calisto had known each other in preparatory school in Palendurio and dated. Calisto came from a family of wealthy merchants who ran trade routes across Baracuel, mostly procuring special materials and magic items from the Labyrinth and distributing them to wherever paid most. Mirian knew from history class (she paid attention sometimes) that Labyrinth materials had made up a key part of the economy even a hundred years ago. Then the spell engine revolution had totally eclipsed them. Nicolus had been interested in Calisto and her connections, until he hadn’t.

“Tell your family to trade with Akana Praediar, or get a majority of the spellforges or factories in a city,” Nicolus said at one point.

Calisto replied, “You know the Palamas and Corrmier families have strangleholds on those! And it’s the Akanan companies who own all the trade across the Rift Sea—helped by Akanan tariffs as a matter of policy, I might add.”

“Oh, interesting. So you’re saying you can’t access the wealthiest and most critical trade and industries? Interesting. Very interesting.”

“But you know what all of them need? Key, rare materials found only in certain sections of the Labyrinth. Hmm, now what if the supply of them was constrained by a certain family who had all the—”

“—and if that was a reality and not just talk, you might be on to something, but the shifting nature of the Labyrinth means there’s no way that—”

Mirian finally said, “Uh, this is fascinating, but can we get back to the magichemical flashcards?”

Calisto alternated between sweet and sour, flipping instantly depending on what she thought would get her whatever she wanted. Sometimes she would toss her wavy red and blond hair back and give a flirty smile to Nicolus, and other times she would fix him with a death glare that made it look like she was about to bite him. Here, she fixed Mirian with a death-glare, then immediately swapped demeanor and said with buttery sweetness, “oh of course!”

That lasted for about ten more minutes, and then mana-enriched bauxite came up in the flashcards and Calisto made a comment about how, oh, wasn’t that a pretty critical component of spell engine production? And Nicolus couldn’t resist saying no, there were like five different alternatives depending on the production method.

Mirian quickly found herself gathering the mother-of-all headaches. It didn’t help that she’d been blown apart by artillery about twelve hours ago, and in a prison cell twelve hours before that. It was impressive just how much financial and industrial stuff they both knew. She guessed that was what you learned when you were part of a rich and powerful family like that. If you weren’t coddled, that was. She’d also met rich students who didn’t know which end of the broom was used for sweeping.

Mirian’s childhood hadn’t been full of studying supply chains. Her parents had just done honest labor, her mom working in a woodshop and her dad working at the local school. Remembering her family, Mirian felt sad. She couldn’t wait to be in the Kiroscent Dome, her family applauding as she walked across the stage to get her official certification as a Royal Arcanist. She couldn’t wait to give her little brother Zayd a big hug where she picked him up and squeezed him and then held him in the air while spinning and he laughed. Was that ever going to happen now?

Busy being miserable with her headache and thoughts, Mirian found herself tuning out the next argument between Calisto and Nicolus. She started paging through one of the textbooks, trying to remember which magichemical transformations she needed for tomorrow.

Nurea noticed what page she was on in the textbook and said, “Nicolus said Seneca didn’t cover that in the review.”

“Yeah, but I think she just ran out of time. We covered them in class, so I’m sure they’ll be on there.”

Nurea briefly considered this, then nodded. “Back to the review,” she said, not very loudly, but to their credit, both Calisto and Nicolus shut up and got back to work.

It was interesting. This was a very different Nicolus than the one Mirian had met that first session. Far less confident, far less controlled. “Is it always like this?” Mirian whispered to Nurea after they had eaten and were wrapping up.

“When they’re together? Yes. Otherwise, no.” The knight sighed, still keeping her voice at a whisper so Nicolus didn’t overhear. “My apologies, I should have stepped in. But the boy needs to learn….” She left the last part implied, but told her, “He might not have noticed your expertise in Alchemistry, but I did. I would be happy to invite you to any future study groups. And I will try to make them… more productive.”

“I would appreciate that,” Mirian said, and then said her goodbyes.

On her way back, the streets of Torrviol were lit by puddles of glyph-light and Mirian kept her cloak off, letting the cold air wake her up. Getting the meetings started with Nicolus would let her start figuring out what he knew and how he knew it. Hopefully, if any of this happened again, she could find a way to avoid Calisto.

Mirian went back up to her Dormitory and changed out the storage tin full of water, dumping it out the window. When it was only rainwater filling it up, the tin seemed to do the trick. She set it back down and realized: Gods above, she should just visit the wood shop. They had all sorts of scrap left over, most of which got burned. Then a simple shape wood spell would give it a water-tight seal. She could probably find copper scraps for the roof and water heater in the metal shop. Why hadn’t she thought of that before?

Well, she could do it tomorrow. Today, she was exhausted. In a final act of endurance, she jotted down reminders of all the things she needed to do in her journal as she headed back down the stairs.

“Hey,” she said to Lily when she finally entered the room. She was at her desk, spellbook open, transcribing an enhanced spell.

“Was that you upstairs? Welcome back, by the way, you were certainly out late.”

“Yeah. Busy day. I’ll tell you about it later. Feel free to stay up studying, nothing is going to stop me from sleeping tonight.” She checked to make sure Lily wasn’t watching her and stashed the satchel she’d taken off the spy deep under the bed.

“You better tell me.”

“Tomorrow,” Mirian said, yawned, and was out within minutes of hitting the bed.