“Kayden,” Magista said, “nobody’s trying to kill Instruktanto Miratova. I know it’s hard to accept, but sometimes spells – ”

“The Guardian Ring was found in the wreckage of Miratova’s lab explosion. The… the details are complicated, but the situation suggests it was used to destroy the force field, and that what happened to it afterwards affected her power through a familiarity link so she couldn’t control… look, I don’t understand the details. Point is, she was sabotaged with that ring. And I have reason to believe, although I admit I can’t prove this part yet, that when she ended up in hospital more recently? She might have been poisoned.”

“‘Might have?’” Magistus asked.

“I’m hoping we can get more details once we’ve got our culprit, but I’m sure we’re all tired after Magista’s excellent party, so I’ll skip to the end. Clara, did you poison Alania Miratova?”

Everyone turned to stare at Clara, who had gone white. Considering the situation, she did respond admirably well. She crossed her arms and frowned. “Did somebody sneak alcohol into the party? What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about how you, Clara Simms, tried to kill Alania Miratova by stealing the Fiore’s Guardian ring from your roommate, Simon Madja, and replacing it with a fake. You then spread rumours about my ‘dangerous magic-harming curse’, buying into your arsehole roommate’s anti-witch bigotry – ”

“All I’m saying is that you come to our school like it’s – ”

“ – not now, Simon; you spread these rumours, even making me doubt myself, until we found the Guardian Ring embedded in Miratova’s staff, which I’m sure you didn’t expect. But luckily for you, this total dick who can’t see sense over his own obnoxious idiocy – ”

“I really don’t think this – ”

“ – Stop interrupting me, Simon, this is important; this guy here decides that when I show up to demonstrate his ring is fake – ”

“When you hit me!”

“ – that it must somehow be my curse, breaking the ring. Meanwhile, Magistus here suspects that Max is masterminding this whole thing and manipulating me somehow, which is… okay, fair enough, except Max isn’t that stupid. So much complicated nonsense to cover one little murder attempt. Anyway, this whole time, Simon is terrified that he’s been loaned an extremely important heirloom and immediately gotten it broken, like a fool, but he eventually musters up the courage to have the ring analysed, and I’m guessing that at this point you panicked, because you knew that anyone analysing it would realise it wasn’t the Guardian Ring. Honestly, Clara, in your position? I would’ve let him send it off. Throw your chips on the ‘Max switched the ring for a fake’ spot. It’s a risky bet, but so is stealing the fake ring, because now Simon is freaking out that his ring is stolen, assumes I did it with my Absurdly Powerful Enchantment-Breaking Curse, and is trying to get it back. It’d be really damn hard for me to get into your room and take the ring even if I could break through the force field, but this is Simon’s theory because he sees no other options. He is very dim and narrow-minded and not particularly fast on the uptake – don’t interrupt, Simon, we’re solving an attempted murder here – so he hasn’t worked out that you can get behind the beds without going through the force field. He thinks I’ve somehow snuck into his room and broken his force field with my curse, but a far more likely suspect is someone who’s sharing a room with him and knows how to get around the force field, isn’t it? Only they would have ample safe time alone in the room to take the ring.”

“Kayden says that he’s sure Magistus doesn’t know how to get past the beds,” Simon said, “from previous conversations with him. And I’m sure that Magista doesn’t know, because she wouldn’t initiate a plan like this without informing her brother.”

“Also I wouldn’t try to kill someone and then frame several of my friends for it,” Magista put in. “Just, you know, for the record.”

“Which leaves one very likely candidate,” I finished. “So, Clara, did you poison Instruktanto Miratova? And why did you try to kill her in the first place?”

“That’s your evidence? That’s why you suspect me? Max is a childhood friend of everyone in our room; we wanted him to be in our room. And you’re dating Magistus. And Kylie hangs out with us all the time. Anyone in this room could’ve gotten into our room quite easily, and even if Magista and Magistus don’t know how to get behind the beds – which we have no proof of – that still leaves five suspects. And you, Max and Simon are all more suspicious than me. And we don’t even know it has anything to do with anyone in either of our rooms! Simon started flashing that ring the day he got it, and everyone knows what it does. Anyone with a grudge against Alania could’ve dropped it in that cauldron.”

“You might be right,” I said, “but – ”

“Who said anything about a cauldron?” Kylie asked.

“What?”

“Kayden said it was used to sabotage the lab. Who said it was dropped into a cauldron?”

Clara looked uncertain for a moment. “K-Kayden did, last time he ranted about this. When he punched my roommate in the face, remember?”

“Is anybody ever going to let that go?” I asked.

“Anyway, everyone knows a cauldron exploded. That’s common knowledge. It doesn’t prove anything; much like everything you’ve said so far. I still think that Max had a forgery made and manipulated both of you.”

“You’re right,” I said. “It doesn’t prove anything. You know what does?” I fished a thin bit of wood out of my pocket.

“What’s that?”

Max explained. “It’s the piece of wood I wedge under the top drawer in my desk, so that I know if anyone’s opened it. When you open the top drawer, the wood falls into the second drawer; it’s an easy intrusion detection system that’s undetectable from the outside.”

“Most of us just buy locks,” Magistus noted.

“I keep my personal correspondence with my family in my top drawer. The purpose is not to stop anybody from accessing it; it’s to tell me if somebody has done so. I started doing it a month ago, when Simon and Kayden came to me with their suspicions about Clara and we formed this plan.”

“Everyone knows that Octavia Acanthos knows many extremely skilled forgers, due to the nature of her spell,” Simon said. “If any references to acquiring their services were made in Max’s correspondence with her between the time I acquired the Guardian Ring and the time it was switched, especially if any described details approximately matched the Ring, then that would be strong evidence of Max framing me. Kayden and I openly hatched a false plan, in which we decided that since Kayden had only been, ah, blessed with a commonfolk education, he likely lacked the skills and intelligence required – ”

“That’s not – ”

“Hush, Kayden; I’m explaining the plan. As I was saying, he lacked the skills and intelligence required to detect or decode any such references in Max’s correspondence. So we pretended that Kayden would keep an eye on Max at Magista’s party while I broke into Max’s room and checked his correspondence. Thus giving someone one month to alter said correspondence how they wished, which should be ample time.”

“We had this discussion in front of one person,” I said. “Simon might have pronounced the room empty, but you always leave your location on the school map, Clara.”

“Clara, did you hear the conversation they’re talking about?” Magista asked.

“Yes. Of course I did. You know what these two are like; they’re always spinning conspiracy theories about people. I just figured whatever problem they had with Max was between them. I wasn’t planning on getting involved.”

“So you didn’t open my drawer two days later to steal a letter I received on August the twenty ninth?” Max asked.

“No.”

“And you didn’t open my drawer last night, when the whole room was out for a pre-party shopping trip that Kylie had discussed with you, to return it?”

“No!”

“Was the letter altered?” Magistus asked. “What does it say?”

“I haven’t checked,” Max said. “This seemed like something we should have witnesses for. I’ll just fetch it.” He did, opening it and skimming it as he slid back over his bed. “Oh. Oh, Clara – I’m offended that you’d think I’d be this blatant in organising an illegal forgery. I do have some sense of subtlety, you know.”

“Give her a break,” I said. “She had to make sure it’d be something that Simon would be able to pick up, and he’s a little slow.”

Simon looked over his shoulder. “Oh, Clara… I’m offended that you think I’d be this stupid. This barely qualifies as code. I assume this part’s real? Helen’s off to university?”

“Oh, yes. There was no doubt about her getting in, really.”

“I should send her my congratulations, though they’re probably a little overdue by now.”

“You have no reason to think I did anything,” Clara snapped. “This could all be a setup from any one of you to frame me!”

Max and Simon exchanged glances.

“Clara,” Simon said with uncharacteristic gentleness, “with respect, anybody who would think ahead enough to do this sort of elaborate frame job would also have thought ahead enough to find a better assassination plan.”

“None of this proves anything!”

“You’re right,” I said, “but the bear does.”

Clara looked puzzled, so I headed over to the bed next to mine, where Magistus’ oversized gift leaned against the force field, staring at Max’s bedcurtains.

“The thing I love about this school’s class schedules,” I said as I claimed the bed, “is that it’s really easy for a group of three people to arrange their classes so that someone has time off most of the time. And this late in the term, if there are conflicts, the teachers don’t care if you miss a class or two.” I reached behind the bear’s stuffed heart to extract my tablet. “Which means that it’s possible to arrange things so there’s always a time of the day where somebody in this room doesn’t need one of these. Now, I was on shift when Max’s letter went missing, so let’s see…” I pulled up the video and held up my tablet for all to see: Clara sneaking into the room, glancing about, and slipping under Max’s bed.

We all looked at Clara. Her hands were trembling. She glanced at the door; Magistus stepped in front of it, glowering.

“Who was recording when we went on that shopping trip yesterday?” I asked.

“Me,” Max said. “I have the video here.”

“And look at that. A return with the tampered letter.”

“You can’t see any letter in that video!” Clara snapped. “That doesn’t prove anything.”

“Really, Clara?” Simon folded his arms. “Come on now.”

“You just happened to break in at the two relevant times for completely separate reasons, I suppose?” Max asked.

“We only have your word that anything was tampered with on – ”

“Clara,” I asked, “why did you try to kill Alania Miratova?”

“Also, I know this is less important, but how did you get the bedroom door open?” Simon asked.

Clara looked panicked. Her eyes skipped between us, then to the door, behind Magistus.

“All of you, stop! She’s a child!” Magista swept forward and threw her arms around Clara. The extremely wide sleeves of her robe shielded the younger girl from view as she buried her head in Magista’s shoulder.

“Magista,” I said, “she – ”

“We’ve heard quite enough from you, I think! You could have reported this privately, but you chose to turn it into a, a show, and try to humiliate her in front of her friends! You really are an uncultured barbarian, aren’t you?”

“I – ”

“Hush. No. No more talking. I don’t have time to dance for your ego, Kayden. Our friend is about to have a legal issue, and we need to resolve it.”

I opened my mouth again, but Max nudged me and gave a tiny shake of his head. I shut up.

“It’s okay, Clara,” Magista continued. “These are just the kind of problems I’m good at. Attempted murder is a tricky one, but Miratova’s only a – ”

“I didn’t try to kill her! I’d never do something like that!”

“Ah. Then perhaps you could explain…?”

“I just needed her out of the way. I didn’t even think she’d get hurt that badly, I just… needed her to take a break, and to not talk to anyone for a while, and to not be involved in the Circle.”

“Well that is good news,” Magista said. “we can work with that. I mean, this will still be difficult, but my cousin’s a lawyer who owes me some favours. So, you dropped the Guardian Ring – that theft is going to be a sticky part to deal with, I’m afraid – into her cauldron to sabotage her just enough to force her to take a break. But you didn’t want her to die.”

“Yeah.”

“But that alone wouldn’t be enough. Did you do anything else?”

“No, I… I just took things one step at a time.”

“Very sensible. What about her recent stay in hospital?”

“I didn’t hurt her! I put Aurora’s Tears in her cocoa.”

“Ah, yes. You got this from your work with Malas?”

Clara nodded into her shoulder. “It causes a fever and deep sleep, and it’s a magical effect, not a chemical one, so it’d be hard for the kuracar to find the cause. But it’s not dangerous! Except for the fever, and I was very careful. And he was monitoring her fever, so she was very safe.”

“And now she’s too weak to do any magic,” Magista said. “A low-impact way to achieve your goal; very tidy. But why?”

“I had no choice.”

“Why not?”

“Because she wasn’t going to let me Initiate!” Clara pulled away from Magista to gesticulate angrily. “I worked really hard to be here, you know? I have the strength and I have the skill to be the youngest mage in Refujeyo history, and she was just going to throw that away because of some outdated age limit. I only got to be involved in initiate classes at all because we managed to argue that that stupid curse rule for younger ages should apply too, but Miratova absolutely refused to let me go through the Initiation, and half the Circle are brainless sheep who just want to follow her! I’m not throwing my family’s future and reputation away on her ego!”

“Hang on,” I cut in. “You’re not a witch?”

“What? No! Some of us aren’t born lucky like you, Kayden. Some of us worked hard to get here. We worked for years. Max gets it, right? I bet you tried to get here early too, didn’t you? That’s the only reason you’d be chosen over older cousins.”

“No,” Max said. “I bided my time, like everyone else.”

“Really? I thought you had ambition.”

“You’re too young, Clara.”

“Yeah, I should’ve expected you to be like her. Yet you chose these witches over us, and they got magic super early, so I guess that makes you a hypocrite, huh?”

“You want to talk about choosing people over others?” Simon cut in. “You framed me! I would’ve taken the fall for this if we hadn’t figured it out last minute! You tried to get me executed for – ”

“Nobody’s getting executed!” Magista said hurriedly. “Clara, if you’d just explain – ”

“I didn’t frame anybody. You did! You and Max and Kayden and Magistus just started flinging accusations at each other. I just smiled and nodded. Don’t pin that on me; it’s you guys who kept trying to throw each other under the bus. I had nothing to do with it.”

“Except for starting the whole thing by attacking Miratova,” Simon said.

“That didn’t have to have anything to do with you! You all chose to get involved!”

“You stole and destroyed my family heirloom!”

“You know what? I’m done with all of you! I don’t need your accusations, and Magista, I don’t need your pity! I’m not a child!” She stormed for the door. Magistus went to stop her, but at a gesture from his sister, stood aside.

“Why didn’t – ?”

“Because cornered people are dangerous and she might have hurt someone. Follow her, but keep your distance unless you have to protect someone,” Magista ordered. Magistus nodded, and left.

Magista turned to me. “I apologise for the way I spoke about you and your upbringing just now, Kayden. Please be assured that I have esteem for you, but needed Clara’s trust to secure her cooperation. I know that doesn’t justify my words, but – ”

“No, no; I get it.”

“I just wish I could’ve convinced her to confess to an authority figure. You have plenty of evidence, but this would be a whole lot neater if we also had a confession.”

I nodded. “You get everything, Kylie?”

“Do you even need to ask?” Kylie fished her tablet out of her bag.

“Because of her curse, Kylie’s become very good at recording sound at a moment’s notice without even looking at her tablet,” I explained. “And she always carries it in a way that the microphone can pick up her voice clearly.”

“I have everything from when Clara and I left the party.”

“Great.” I rubbed my hands together. “Let’s go tell the teacher on her.”