The book I’d borrowed turned out to be about the evolution of butterflies. The parts of it I could understand weren’t remotely interesting. It had some nice pictures, though. I tried to absorb some of it, if only to give me material to sass Saina with, given her spell.

Max had started working in Alania’s lab and was barely around. It was a few days before I was able to explain Talbot’s theory about Cheryl and ask his opinion. He just nodded. “I wouldn’t be surprised,” he said.

“You… wouldn’t?” I blinked. “I was kind of hoping you’d tell me we were being paranoid.”

Kylie laughed from her bed, where she was reading. “Max, telling someone else they’re paranoid? Did you forget his whole freakout about us ending up in Duniyasar last term?”

“I had legitimate concerns for the legality of your situation,” Max insisted, trying to hide a small smile. “So far as this goes, though, I don’t have anything to offer you. I don’t know enough about potions or medicine to know if you could provoke a curse like that. I don’t know much about Malas that isn’t common knowledge. I don’t know Cheryl’s master. Obviously, it would be very illegal to do that to her, but without knowing the guy I have no idea if he’d take that kind of risk.”

“You don’t know?” I asked, widening my eyes in mock surprise. “But I thought you had detailed knowledge of every mage in Refujeyo and all of their intricate social plots!”

He rolled his eyes. “You’ve caught me, clearly I am the most sociable mage in society, and also the world’s most accomplished spymaster.”

“Does the most sociable mage had time to actually hang out today, or do you need to revolutionise magical science more?”

“Things will calm down. We just need to set a lot of stuff up in the lab, and I’m trying to get as much done as I can at this early stage while the homework is easy.”

“Oh, yes,” I grumbled. “The homework is so easy, Mr. ‘I learned runes in summer school.’”

Max blushed. “I didn’t mean – ”

“I know; I know. Teasing. So you don’t wanna come down to the Pit with me this afternoon and watch a couple of people hit each other with sticks?”

“Your hobbies baffle me.”

“You’ve spent several months trying to map an impossible cave network and my hobbies baffle you?”

“Well, it’s a lot more intellectual than duelling.”

“Nerd.”

“Seckie.”

“I resent the implication that I would ever be anything other than an extreme annoyance to the police.” I left them to go find Saina in the audience at the Pit.

Her friendwho’d wanted to try duelling was one of the duellers. His name turned out to be Peter Potter, which sounded like a comic book character to me, although his tiny stature, round freckled face and mop of ginger hair made him look more like a Dickensian orphan, dwarfed by the quarterstaff he held in trembling hands. (Or some kind of stick, anyway. Were all long fighting sticks quarterstaves? Were there different kinds? I made a note to ask someone later.) His opponent was taller and walked a lot more confidently, twirling the staff a bit and swishing her long braid in a display of showmanship, but judging by how she nearly dropped the staff twice flourishing it I didn’t think she was all that experienced, either.

The two bowed, waited for the signal, and fought. They were terrible at it, and I began to relax. I’d started to worry that the capture the flag competition I’d observed was the standard level of skill for Pit comps, and if it was I didn’t stand a chance. But clearly, no; there were a lot of beginners out there, like me. Not that I wanted to do any duelling. After so many years of dire warnings that any violence or aggression might Unleash My Horrible Curse, I didn’t think I’d ever find fighting fun.

Nor did I understand the rules. The duel was clearly like fencing, in that making contact with the staff on specific parts of the body was worth points (the staves themselves didn’t seem capable of doing damage), but I couldn’t untangle what was worth how much. Bits of the floor lit up as they were stood on, so apparently stance and position also mattered? I nudged Saina.

“Do you know how the scoring works?” I asked.

“No idea. I’m just watching the numbers go up.”

Me, too. According to the numbers, it looked like it would be a close match.

“Do you want to come make a potion with me later?” I asked. “I’m trying to get a healing potion right and an extra pair of hands could really help.”

“Sure, but why? I mean, we have the kuracar here.”

“I know. It just seems a handy skill. Wouldn’t want to disturb him with little stuff anyway, right?”

“Malas? That’s what he’s for. If he’s every too busy to deal with little injuries then we have a disaster on our hands too big for a healing potion to fix.”

“It might impress the instruktanto, if we can get it right.”

“Hmm. That’s true.”

We watched a bit more stick swinging.

“Hey,” I ventured, “what’s your opinion of him?”

“Of Peter?”

“No, no. Of Malas.”

Saina shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t really know him? Should I have an opinion?”

“I guess not. I just… as a person. Is he good at his job, do you think?”

“He’d be dead if he wasn’t.”

That raised a lot more questions than it answered, but they could wait. “Okay, but… not just in the terms of, of the physical healing, just… do you think he’d hurt someone?”

Saina shot me an odd look. “He’s the kuracar.”

“I know. But what if he thought hurting them would help them in the long run?”

“What?”

“It’s just… okay, so I came here in the first place because I thought my curse was dangerous, right? I thought it’d hurt someone. I’m sure you remember all that nonsense last semester, with the rumours di Fiore started.”

“I do.”

“Malas knew my curse was dormant that whole time, and he didn’t tell me. He didn’t want me to know. Because he thought it’d be better for me in the long run to believe I was dangerous.”

“Was he right?”

“That’s really not the point. But do you think he’d do something more… physically damaging? For similar reasons?”

“Kayden, what under the Points of Power are you talking about?”

“Nothing.” I probably shouldn’t drag Saina into all of this, just because she was a legacy kid. If Max didn’t have any special insight, there was no reason she would. “It doesn’t matter.”

“If Malas hurt you – ”

“No, that’s… not what this is about. I was just using that as an example. But I’m over all that,” I lied.

“… Hmm.”

“Just please forget I said anything. It was just a random dumb thought.”

“… Hmm.”

Peter lost his fight by about fifty points. I had no idea whether that was a close game or not. He’d made about five hundred points, but with no knowledge of how anything was scored, I didn’t know whether fifty points was a normal margin of victory. We headed down to commiserate with him, but he didn’t look too upset by the loss, just breathless and excited.

“So you’re going to keep doing this, then?” Saina asked, with weary tolerance.

“Yeah! It’s not often you get to hit someone with a big stick, is it?”

“I hope to never have to hit someone with a big stick,” Saina said primly.

“I guess we’re just two different people, Sai.”

I trailed behind the pair for a few minutes, feeling somewhat out of place, before I was able to compliment Peter’s match, make an excuse and leave. It might be worth getting to know Peter better and seeing if he wanted to form a competition team with me, provided he was also into games that were less combat-oriented, but that could wait.

Did I know anyone else who might have some insight on the Cheryl situation? Probably not… but did I know anyone else I’d feel okay with asking about it?

I checked the map for where Terry and Mae were. Terry was in a class, and Mae was nowhere which, since she never turned her location off, meant that she was outside the zone of the map. So I knew exactly where she’d be.

It was mid-morning on Agreabla Insulo.It had clearly been raining, and the air was still damp. I grabbed the edge of the tunnel as I emerged in the cool sunlight and immediately put my hand on something gross. Wet moss, as it turned out; moss and climbing vines were colonising the limestone cliff that the tunnel entrance was cut into. The hole I’d dug last semester, to test where the portal was, was full of cobwebs. Such was the nature of change, I supposed.

Mae was digging in her garden, scowling at the muddy ground.

“You know,” I remarked, “I thought the point of permaculture was that it mostly took care of itself.”

“In my defense, when we started gardening, I had no idea that it would actually be hard,” she replied.

“I don’t think it is. I think maybe you’re just really bad at it. Look at those sad, sorry plants.”

“I’d like to see you do better, Koala.”

“Are you trying to trick me into doing your gardening for you? Sorry, my innate hatred of work is overriding my natural competitiveness. This job’s all yours.”

“Well you’re just no fun.”

“On the contrary, I plan to have a lot of good, relaxing fun. You’re the one stuck gardening.”

“And here I thought you’d come all the way out here to help me.”

“You know me better than that. Actually I’m looking into something. Can I trust you to not spread gossip?”

“Generally no, but I’ll do it as a favour for you. Just this once.”

“Has Talbot talked to you about Cheryl?”

“Who?”

“She’s a witch.”

“Oh, one of your little support club?”

“Kinda? She was visiting. Her spell was dormant, like mine, until it… awoke rather dramatically. She caught fire.”

“Well shit.”

“Yeah. She’s alive. She was sick, and under observation, but snuck out to see us, and at that point it activated. The timing is… weird. And there’s some other stuff that…” I cleared my throat. “Do you know Malas all that well?”

“I know he’s sick of me turning up with injuries.”

“Me too! Seriously though. He’s, um… pretty focused on spell safety, right?”

“He’s in charge of the physical health of a bunch of teenagers with magic, many of them with powerful families to shield them from the consequences of their own actions. Spell safety is probably most of his job.”

“Yeah, probably. Do you think he’d put someone at a bit of risk, to protect them more later?”

“I don’t know what you – ”

“Do you think he’d poison someone to awaken their dormant curse?”

“He’s a doctor, not a sociopath.”

“If he thought it would be in the best interest of his patient, though – ”

“I’m pretty sure that would be massively illegal.”

‘Pretty sure’. She didn’t know the relevant laws, then. But I had what answers I was going to get out of her. “Yeah, you’re probably right. It was a stupid thought. Anyway, I – ugh!”

Very suddenly, it had started raining. I backed under the trees of the forest, but they weren’t much protection.

“Oh, for – come on, let’s hide in the cabin.”

“No, I should probably get back to the school.”

“Trust me, it’s way less leaky now. We replaced that big bit of roof that fell in.” She grabbed my wrist to lead me to the cabin; I yanked my hand away.

“No, no; I – I have homework to do,” I said quickly. “See you later.”

I ran full-tilt, feet slipping on mud and wet leaves, until I was once again in the safety of the tunnels. Ugh, now I was wet, on top of everything. I rubbed at my wrist, but there was no need; she hadn’t grabbed me hard, or anything. It had just been a bit surprising. God, I’d acted like a weirdo for that whole conversation, hadn’t I?

Ah, well. She’d promised not to gossip.

I moved quickly down the tunnel and back towards the school, not slowing until the sound of the rain faded. Back in range of the intranet, I saw I had a message from Saina, trying to arrange a time for potion brewing.

I smiled. Now there was something to take my mind off mage conspiracy nonsense.