The next day, I got a message from Magista that just said “Aftermath”, with a link to a nine hour long audio file. I opened it up.

“Okay, where should I put it?” Magista asked, her voice a little muffled through the tablet.

“In here, I don’t think it matters,” Magistus replied. “This place is like a paper tornado. How does she find anything?”

“I don’t think this pile’s been moved for a while.” There was the sound of loud scratching and rustling, then footsteps, and a closing door.

Silence.

I skipped ahead a few minutes. More silence.

About ninety minutes into the recording, the door opened again. I heard more than one pair of heavy footsteps, and a chair being pulled out. Then Clara said, “I didn’t mean t – ”

“Tacez!” The speaker was adult, male, and clearly not having a great day. Clara fell silent.

Several minutes later, the door opened again and somebody entered slowly, breathing heavily. It sounded like they had some kind of walking apparatus, like one of those walking frames that very old people sometimes use.

The man asked, “Ka vu bezonar helpo?”

“No,” Instruktanto Miratova replied breathlessly. “Mea sano esas agreabla.” I heard papers hit the floor and someone sit down heavily. “Now, then. Miss Clara Simms. Let’s get this over with.” More paper rustled. “This is a confession, derived from a recording we received of you explaining your crimes, and an intention to submit to my right of sentencing as the injured party. Read them, ensure they’re correct, sign them if they are.”

“I’m not signing anything without knowing what you intend to do to me.”

“Then we’re done here.”

“No! Just… just tell me…”

“Clara, I do not have the energy to play your games. I’ve spent the last three decades teaching hundreds of legacy children who think they are master diplomats – you are not. You do not have the skill or experience to manipulate, deceive, or trick me, and I do not have the patience to humour you right now. Furthermore, I made all relevant decisions to this conversation before entering the room, so there is no point in trying.” Miratova took a moment to catch her breath, then continued. “Now, this is how things are going to go, you exceptionally stupid little sociopath. You will accept the mercy of privacy that I offered you by coming here at all today and sign that confession right now. Or I will leave, and you can try your games on the courts, in public, and explain to the entire Haven just how deeply you’ve shamed your family with your despicable actions. You can let them draw out the entire story of everything you’ve done, things that I’m sure didn’t make it into that little recording, and discipline you appropriately.”

After a pause, there was further rustling of paper and then, eventually, a pen scratching.

“I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone,” Clara mumbled.

“Then I have misunderstood your plan. It seems to me that the entire plan was to hurt someone.”

“I mean, I wasn’t trying to kill you. I knew you’d get better.”

“Ah. Well, it’s good to know that the destruction of my laboratory, including several important experiments contributing to the graduation of many students, the injury of another student and rather severe injuries to myself, the delays caused by me being unable to do my job and the subsequent damage to my reputation, as well as a mortal fear over my future survival, were all operating as intended, and that you ‘didn’t mean to hurt anyone’. You are exceptionally lucky that your target takes her job so seriously. At the time of these attacks, you were my student, and therefore partially under my care. I have come here today to save you.”

“You’re going to let me go? Intruktanto, I am grateful for – ”

“Shut up. I considered doing just that, you foolish, impulsive little girl. I’ve spent the last year and a half working to save you from yourself and your incredibly stupid ambitions. You’ve spent all that time trying to prove that you’re intelligent enough, mature enough, responsible enough, to take the Initiation early, never mind how many future ambitious little fools you’d doom by setting the precedent, and then you go and do something like this. I was very, very tempted to give up on saving you, to do you the grand cruelty of simply forgiving you and letting you go, given the harm you’ve done me.” Miratova started coughing.

“Respirez,” the man who’d spoken earlier said gently. “Kush-ig – ”

“Me Sana!” Miratova snapped. She recovered, and continued. “Let’s say I did simply forgive you and wipe the slate clean. Let us say that you walked out of this room scott free. What do you think would happen to you after that, Clara?”

“I don’t – ”

“No matter what you do now, no matter what reparations you could make, no matter who you were to bribe or how you were to spin your Tragic Desperate Childhood Mistake story, you are never going to become a mage. After this, nobody is going to let you take the Initiation. You could seek an alternate route like your great-aunt, but you will not be successful. No mage is going to train somebody who so grievously attacked their previous teacher for personal gain. Your future as a mage is simply not going to happen under any circumstance; even if you wandered out into the world and somehow ended up with a curse, you’d not find anybody willing to train you. So what will happen? Well. Once you leave this room, you will have a long line of aggrieved parties seeking justice. You put two of your fellow students in danger when you blew up my lab, injuring one significantly. You put at least one of your other fellow students in significant danger by using his property to conduct your little plan, and intentionally allowing the misconception of his guilt to fester. You’ve destroyed the work and property of several advanced magical students, all of whom will want compensation. Once you leave this room, you will have them to deal with. But they will probably all have to wait, because your primary debt is to the Madja family, whose important family artefact you stole, replaced with a fake, and intentionally destroyed.

“You’re here to bring honour to your family, Clara. Tell me, even if they hold up under the immense social damage of your little stunt, can they pay for the ring? These crimes were all committed with intent, so they can extract a threefold price, and they will. You’ve bankrupted the Simms clan. Which means that not only have you ruined the lives of the people you came here to help, none of them will be able to help you against any of the other charges against you. So. Should we let that happen, Clara? Should I simply forgive you and let you go?”

“I’m… I’m sorry; I didn’t think — “

“No. You didn’t.” More paper rustled across the desk. “This,” Miratova continued, “is your sentence. It is a Vow of Service. You are going to read it and sign it, and you are going to become my apprentice, until such a time that I decide that you are close enough to a decent and functional human being to be let back into the world unsupervised. Let me be very clear – you are not going to be a mage. I will not find you a spell. But sign this, and I’m able to take responsibility for most of those smaller grievances for you.”

“And the Guardian Ring?”

“This includes a refutation of the Simms name. Don’t look at me like that; you know as well as I do that you’re unworthy of it. I’ve spoken to the Fiore and key representatives of his family, and they have agreed to treat your crimes against them as your own if you sign this, which means that your former family is safe from your stupidity. They have also agreed not to collect the debt until I release you, and I’m sure I don’t have to paint a picture of just how many unpleasant concessions I had to agree to to get something that valuable out of them.”

“There’s no time limit on this Vow. If you put on a hard time limit, then – ”

“This is not a negotiation. You’re mine for as long as I determine is appropriate, or not at all. You will sign that, right now, or I will walk away, save myself a lot of time, trouble and debt to people I’d rather not be in debt to, and leave you to the mercy of the Madjas.”

“I need time to think about – ”

“No. Now, or never.”

After some hesitation, a pen scratched across paper.

“Good. I need to rest. Mila here will show you to your new room, and a janitor will transport your things later today. I need to get back to the ward before Malas gets worried.”

Everyone left.

I skipped through the rest of the video, looking for more, but nothing else seemed to have happened before Magista retrieved her tablet. No sooner had I closed the file than I received a message from Casey.

Kayden,

I’ve just received an offer of compensation for you, for injuries sustained in the criminal activity of one Clara Simms. You’ve been offered fifteen thousand moneto in compensation. You can dismiss the issue, accept and close the case, or pursue it further. If you’d like legal advice on this matter, we’ll have to meet up so that you can explain the incident to me. Otherwise, let me know your decision and I’ll bring the relevant paperwork on Thursday.

Regards,

Casey

Fifteen thousand moneto was about two hundred bucks. I told Casey to accept the amount and close the case. I didn’t have time for Clara’s nonsense while dealing with my upcoming case on Friday.

Friday. That was so soon. It still felt like I should have months… but I didn’t. Soon, I’d either be acquitted or… not.

In the meantime, I had to do something arguably more difficult.

I met with Magistus in the forest where we’d had our first date. I found him waiting in the glade, leaning easily against a tree and staring up at the foliage above. He flashed me a grin as I approached.

“I’m honoured that the master detective has time for me.” He leaned forward to kiss me, but I pushed him away.

“Hey,” I said, “what exactly do you want out of this relationship?”

“Ah. You’re breaking up with me? Using the most sitcom lines possible?”

“What would you have me do? Text you?”

He crossed his arms. “Well, can I at least know what I did wrong?”

“Nothing. It’s not you – ” I cringed. Was I really going to ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ him? Did he really deserve that? “Look, you’re almost as awesome as me, which is a rare feat. But there’s a lot going on right now and I don’t… I don’t want to lead you on.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s supposed to mean that I have a lot going on right now and you deserve someone more committed to you.”

“Well, the one thing I love is being patronised by people telling me what I deserve.”

“Oh, don’t pull that. The first time you kissed me you said it was ‘hard to protect’ me, so if anyone’s winning the patronising olympics here – ”

“Okay, okay. Fair point.”

“Look, I promised to give this a shot. We gave it a shot. But I think that if we keep this up any further, it’s going to end badly.”

“I disagree, but if my impressive physique and amazing boyfriend skills haven’t already convinced you, then what now?”

“Is it tacky for me to say we should just be friends?”

“Yes, and I’ll make fun of you for it forever.” He lifted my chin. “Can I kiss you goodbye?”

“Yeah.”

He pressed his lips to mine, brief but passionate. “You’re an arsehole,” he whispered, “and I’m very angry at you right now.”

“Yeah, but you’re too well-trained a diplomat to yell at me. You’re going to make yourself be polite until you’ve assessed the situation, and by then, I’ll be gone.”

“You’re a brat, too.”

“You’ll find someone better than me soon enough.”

“I’ll find a lot of people; I’m a straight-up hottie. But it’d be impossible for any of them to be better than you, because that would involve dating myself.”

“Says the guy who can’t even beat me at rock climbing.”

“Hey; you don’t know that. We haven’t competed in a while.”

“That’s something to look forward to after the Initiation, then. More motivation to survive.” Assuming I could come back for the Initiation. Assuming I wasn’t found guilty at my trial.

But Casey seemed to think I had a completely solid case. We were prepared, we had mere days of waiting left… what could possibly go wrong?