The Unskillful Thaumaturge

XIII

"So how has your day been?"

Lillian and Angela were taking a short walk through campus. "Pretty good," Lillian answered. "I'm glad at least that I don't have to take Intro Thaum today. What about you?"

Angela just shook her head. "God, I hate UOD for making us take that. I mean-" she stepped away from Lillian for a second- "we're physics! Do we look like thaumaturges? I don't look like a thaum major! You don't- well actually you kind of do look like you could be a thaum major but that's not the point. I just don't see why it's a core class."

"Well, I don't know why you're so mad about it, you passed," Lillian said peevishly. "So how have you been?"

"Fairly good," Angela replied. "I'm going to go to some Calc 3 office hours. Pretty good prof, too. Who do you have for Intro Thaum?"

"Perid."

"Who's that?"

"Some thaumaturgist lady from California."

"Is she any good?"

"Yeah, she's all right." Lillian kicked a rock into the bushes on the side of the path.

"Then what's so hard about it?"

"Oh!" Lillian laughed. "I told you, Angie, the class isn't the problem. It's the lab. I'm having real trouble doing thaumaturgy, and besides, I told you, I have Matt's girlfriend teaching it."

"Who is she anyway?"

"Let's see." Lillian counted the facts on her fingers. "Third-year thaum major, top of her class, president of the thaumaturgy club, and not very nice to me or my roommates."

"How come?"

"She started a year early, and one of my roommates is getting better grades than she did. We think she's just kind of jealous. Of course it's hard to know."

Angela glanced at her watch. "You do know I'm going to be late for those office hours, right?"

"Oh! Sorry, I had better get going. You too." Lillian turned around on her way to the Creative Sciences Center and shook her finger. "Go to office hours!" She laughed and jogged away. Angela smiled, and headed towards the math building across the way.

☙❧

Dakota's phone rang.

He had been sitting in his office chair coming up with a new excuse for not going to lunch with Dr. Hests when deep in his pocket he felt a buzz. He quickly fished it out and swiped to accept, holding up the phone. "Yeah?"

"Cody?"

"Cody."

"It's Ashley."

"I'm excited to hear what you have to say."

A sigh on the other end. "You really just want information, don't you?"

"Well, yeah."

"I'm calling to tell you where the key is."

What? Why have you decided to?

"It's a good time and the area's going to be left unattended. It's in the DIAO building in the lab in a plastic bag. They keep it on the counter. Please just don't take anything else- watching them is fun."

"Okay. When will they leave it unattended?" Dakota grinned.

"They're going to Eugene today."

"Why?"

"They're going to dig up the body."

Dakota snorted. "They should enjoy that. What time?"

"After I take my-"