The Unskillful Thaumaturge

XXV

"Lillian," Daria hissed. "Wake up."

Lillian raised her head and sighed slightly, looking up into her roommate's face. "What is it?"

"Want to go to the pancake house for breakfast?"

Easing herself to a seated position, Lillian cocked her head, interested. "Sure, why are you whispering?"

"Because I'd be happy to pay for your breakfast, but I am not paying for Leslie's."

Lillian snickered. Leslie had a huge appetite and had been known to order and eat three plate-sized pancakes at a time. "Hold on, let me get ready. Is Brandon coming?"

"No. Honestly, I felt kind of bad when you got up and wandered away at lunch yesterday. I didn't mean to exclude you or anything. Just us today, sound good?" Daria squeezed Lillian's shoulder, causing her to wince. "Yeah, sounds great."

Twenty minutes later, Lillian and Daria were seated at a small booth in the center of the pancake house, chatting amiably over their menus about UOD requirements and complaining about the unreliable heating in Parkview Hall.

"I just don't understand how, I don't know, the thaumaturgy building or the Crave has such good heating yet they don't seem to be able to fix the heating problems in Parkview. I mean, the building is only about ten years old. It's not as if heating should be a problem." Daria abruptly stopped in the middle of her complaint when a waiter hurried over to supply them both with fresh hot chocolate.

"Can I take your orders?"

"I'll just have a pancake with an egg and hash browns," Lillian responded immediately.

Daria took a moment to consider. "I'll have the same, with a side of bacon."

"Sounds good," the waiter replied before taking their menus and drifting away.

Lillian took a sip of her hot chocolate. "See, I completely agree, they should improve the heating in Parkview. But keep in mind that the Crave is always at least a bit warmer than the other buildings because they're cooking food in there. And I think part of the reason the thaumaturgy building doesn't have heating problems is that if anyone there is cold, they don't complain. They just transfigure the air to make it warmer."

"I guess you're right about that, but there are also thaumaturges in Parkview Hall. Why wouldn't they also make their dorms warmer?"

"I'm not sure..." Lillian shrugged.

"Speaking of, how's Intro Thaum?"

Lillian nodded. "Pretty good. I got a 90 on the last homework."

"That's good. What did you get wrong?"

"You won't believe it- it was a question about gene activation and the Thaumatogenesis. Ironic, right?" Lillian sniggered.

"Ironic?"

Lillian suddenly realized that Daria wasn't aware of her connection to the Thaumatogenesis. A stream of excuses quickly ran through her head, and, still trying to keep the surprise from her face, she quickly picked the most plausible explanation and ran with it. "Don't you remember from last year? That's what Perid went over the class before the homework was due."

"No, I didn't take it with Perid. Even if I had, I don't have a great memory, and I would have forgotten that."

"Oh, that's right," Lillian compensated quickly, glancing towards the kitchen. "Somehow I forgot about all that within two days. The genetic stuff, I mean. I need to go over that again before the next homework."