I shouldn’t be thinking like this. Max was my friend. How bad a friend was I, to be so suspicious of him?

Unless he wasn’t my friend. In which case, how much of a sucker was I, to be so trusting of him?

This was stupid. I’d never had to deal with this kind of thing before. With Liss and Chelsea, if anyone gave on of us a hard time, they had the other two to deal with. Our loyalty to each other had never been in question. The idea that we’d lie to each other, at least about anything serious, was absurd.

But I didn’t know these people, not really. Max, Kylie and I had banded together out of convenience and kind of… stayed there. I’d only been at Skolala Refujeyo for a few months; is it possible to even make friends in a few months?

And that wasn’t even getting into Magistus. If I was suspicious of Max, who I at least knew fairly well, why was I taking Magistus’ warnings seriously? He only had half the information. And the information he had was tainted by Simon, who was an arsehole.

Except… Simon being a dick who hated witches didn’t make him guilty. If anything, it made his knee-jerk reaction to blame Kylie and me understandable – not forgivable, he was a bigot, but understandable. And I did have all the information, and I thought Max’s story, objectively speaking, didn’t make any more sense than Simon’s.

Ugh! What was I supposed to do with this? There was no one to talk to. I couldn’t go to the teachers, and Casey was no help in a matter like this. Kylie wouldn’t want to get involved, she never thought anything was any of her business. I couldn’t talk to Max, obviously; he was too good at speaking. That’d just be tipping him off, and he’d talk me out of my suspicions. And Dorm Magistae was right out.

Just me, then.

Just me, to figure out if the guy I hated was an attempted murderer who deserved to be crushed under the full weight of the law, or if he was being framed by my roommate, and I was going to have to save the bastard. And the timeframe I had to work with was… well, however long it took them to verify the remains of the Guardian Ring, I supposed.

Why was not playing political games turning out to be three times as much work as playing them? That didn’t seem fair.

Okay, so how could I investigate? The ring. Whether or not Max had any chance to switch out the ring was a key factor here. So finding out if Max had been hanging out with anyone from Dorm Magistae in their room would be a start.

That or I could, you know, talk to my friend. Ask him about his future plans or whatever. But he might lie to me, and I didn’t want him suspicious.

Magista was in her dorm. The others were either out, or had their location on the map turned off. I’d have to chance it.

I knocked on the door, and was quickly treated to her winning smile. “Kayden! Come in. It’s been too long.”

Reluctantly, I entered. She was alone, and now that I wasn’t so laser-focused on Simon, I was able to take in their room a little better. It was a six-bed room, and the two unoccupied beds had been used as storage; beanbags, stuffed toys, spare clothes and an honest-to-god arcade machine sat behind one (how did they lift it over the bed?), and the space behind other had been turned into a kitchenette. Magista grabbed a soft chair that had to be lighter than it looked from storage and practically pushed me into it before busying herself with the kettle.

“I, uh, actually just came to apologise,” I said, “for the scene I caused last time I was here.”

She waved her hand dismissively. “I’m not surprised you hit him. Simon’s a responsible person, but very rude sometimes. Reminds me a little of your Max in that regard.”

“He’s not my Max,” I said automatically. “Anyway, that wasn’t cool of me.”

“Well, thank you for coming by to say so. Tea or coffee?”

“I’m fine. How’s, uh, everything?”

“Oh, you know,” Magista said, putting teabags in two cups, “homework is boring, roommates are rowdy, trying to organise another get-together but nobody’s schedules are matching up. And of course I can’t enter the Arena until I’ve passed the Initiation and the wait is driving me insane. How about you? Making progress with that curse?”

“A little,” I lied.

“Have you changed your mind about staying next year? I mean, if you don’t want to talk about it that is of course your right, I don’t mean to pry. I’m just curious.”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. That depended on whether Simon or Max had planted that ring. If Max was covering for my curse and it was still a danger to people, I might not have a choice. “What do you think I should do?”

“Well, it’s not my decision.” Somehow, Magista managed to climb over a bed carrying a silver tray with two teacups, a bowl of sugar and a little pitcher of milk, and not spill a drop. She set the tray down on an end table next to me, and went to fetch a second chair for herself. “I don’t know your circumstances all that well, I must confess.”

“And what to you think about my curse?”

Her eyes gave absolutely nothing away. “I haven’t seen you use it. I don’t know anything about your curse. Is it exciting? To already have your spell? If you stay, I’m going to be so jealous. You’re going to be so much more advanced than us going into next year; it’s going to be so hard to catch up.”

“Well, maybe we’ll end up with spells too different to compare.”

“Perhaps. Although, I must confess, I am hoping for one like yours. Something I can actively cast and direct, I mean; Kylie handles her prophecy very well but it’s not the sort of magic I want to do.”

This wasn’t useful. I needed to get onto the subject of Max, but I needed to do it naturally.

“I saw you hanging out with Kylie last week,” I said. “Are you guys friends?”

“I suppose so. She is alright, isn’t she? She’s barely spoken to me since that disturbing prophecy, and I was so worried.”

“Oh, she’s fine. Everyone’s fine. We had to save Max from – well, it doesn’t matter now. I wouldn’t press her about it; she’s pretty shy about her curse.”

“Perfectly understandable! Is it predictive or proscriptive, do you know?”

I shrugged. “i’m not an expert. She says she thinks it’s proscriptive, but I’ve heard her talk about it as if it’s predictive. Personally, I think it’s predictive. But she knows a lot more about it than I do.”

“If it’s predictive, she can’t know that much about it, because it wouldn’t activate much, surely? If it only warns of death?”

“I don’t know. How high does the chance of death have to be? Technically, we’re risking death any time we get into a car, so depending how sensitive it is…”

“I take your point. I do hope it’s predictive. I can’t imagine the burden of being an active danger to your friends by carrying around a proscriptive curse like that. Not that it would be her fault, of course!” she added quickly, catching my expression.

This was getting too close to talking about my curse and Miratova’s accidents for my liking. I tried a new angle.

“Well, she hasn’t brought any misfortune on our dorm. How’s your dorm going, by the way? Not to be rude, but when I picture a harmonious room, I don’t picture your four personalities together.”

Magista laughed at that. “Actually, we get along quite well. It helps that there’s nobody in here for my brother to flirt with, given Clara’s age and Simon’s, well, personality. He is actually quite nice most of the time; I think Max brings out the worst in him. Perhaps I should thank you for taking him into your room; if we had both Max and Simon in here, it’d be a nightmare.”

“I think they bring out the worst in each other.” We’d have to agree to disagree on Simon being ‘quite nice’. “I’m surprised they can tolerate taking classes together. I bet if one stepped into the other’s room they’d immediately burst into flames.”

Magista giggled. “Good point. Remind me never to invite Max in here. On a more serious note, I do need to invite him somewhere. We’ve barely spoken since we got to the Haven, and when we do run into each other, Simon’s usually there and somebody picks a fight. He’s not avoiding me, is he?”

“I think he’s just busy with school,” I said. “You know Max. Every little assignment has to be a five-page essay and an offhand remark about an interesting subject turns into a full-blown research project.”

“Yeah, he’s always been like that. He’s the most studious person I’ve ever met, and I room with Clara.”

“You’ve known each other for a while, huh? You and Max.”

“Oh, yes. We’d play together at get-togethers since we were very little. He’s always been surprisingly fun for somebody so… bookish. Very charming and relaxed at events. He really likes parties; I guess it gives him a chance to relax and get away from his work, since he doesn’t seem to understand the concept of leisure. Have you seen how stressed and grumpy he looks all the time here? Is he like that in the dorm as well?”

I shrugged. “He seems fine. I mean, he’s got a lot going on. I don’t think he’s sad or anything.”

“Good, good. I’ve been asking Magistus to find out how he is, but I don’t think he talks to him either. Max has become so reclusive here!”

“I’m sure he’s just adjusting.” I stood up. “Thanks for the tea, Magista. I have to go.”

“Great to see you, Kayden. Drop by any time!” She flitted her fingers in a little wave and shut the door behind me.

So. What did I learn?

It seemed like Max hadn’t been in the Magistae dorm, which was a strong point in his favour. Magista was definitely the sort who’d know that sort of thing. On the other hand, if I were going to talk my way into the dorm for nefarious purposes, I’d take extra care not to run into Magista for that exact reason. So I couldn’t be certain.

Magista had said that Max was different here. That supported my theory that he was putting on a show for Kylie and I, playing his little games and framing Simon. But it could also just mean that he was stressed and adapting to a new environment, like I’d told her. Besides, before school he’d mostly seen the Magistae at events, and I already knew he put on a smile for those. Perhaps I knew the real Max, and Magista had only seen him being fun and polite until now.

So, some evidence for Max, that might be nothing. And some evidence for Simon, that might be nothing.

On the whole, I felt Max’s innocence was more likely – I knew Simon was an awful person, and Max might be awkward and tactless sometimes, but he always seemed well-meaning. But that was the trap, wasn’t it? I wanted Max to be innocent, I wanted Simon to be guilty, and I wanted my curse to be harmless. So how could I be sure that my judgement was accurate? Did Simon’s guilt seem more likely because that’s what the evidence said, or because that’s what I wanted to be true?

I should talk this over with someone. Get a different perspective. Except, no, I shouldn’t, because being suspicious of my friend was bad enough; I didn’t want to go around spreading rumours behind his back. Besides, the obvious people to talk to were Chelsea and melissa, and no way was I putting something like this in a letter. I still wasn’t completely convinced that the school didn’t read our mail.

I was so lost in thought that I took a sharp turn and nearly walked right into Instruktanto Cooper.

“Oh, hey, Kayden! Lucky running into you, I was hoping to talk to you sometime today.”

“Is something wrong?” I asked, contriving, out of habit, to look as innocent as possible.

“No, no. Well, yes, but not for you. I wanted to ask for your help, actually. How would you feel about taking a little road trip?”