The Unskillful Thaumaturge

XXXI

Lillian shoved the last of her papers haphazardly into her backpack, then, swinging it over her shoulder, walked out the door. Making sure to lock it before she left, she walked down the hallway, heading for the stairs. Mercifully, Lillian had never had much trouble going up and down the stairs while she was at UOD; a city ordinance required all buildings to be shorter than the obelisk, so Lillian only had two flights of stairs to walk down. The four-story thaumaturgy building also fulfilled this requirement on the grounds of its narrow ceilings.

As she walked along the park towards the thaumaturgy building, she wondered if this was the day that she would finally have a breakthrough, the day when she would finally be able to do thaumaturgy. But she dismissed the thought. Why would today be any different than any other day? Her best chance to learn thaumaturgy was her appointment with Professor Kern.

And so her thoughts turned to the case, and to Morgan and Chris. She wondered how they'd react to finding out who she really was, if the DIAO ended up telling them at all.

With this thought, she entered the thaumaturgy building, and, shivering, walked over to the stairwell. As she climbed the stairs, her feet pounding in rhythm with her swinging arms, she wondered yet again whether the DIAO would end up figuring anything out about the Thaumatogenesis.

Obviously Beanie had answers. But he wasn't willing to reveal them to the DIAO. From what Lillian could tell, he would only be willing to tell her alone. And yet Lillian still knew that she'd be obliged- and motivated- to tell the DIAO.

Besides, she had no idea how to find him.

❧☙

At the moment, "he" was standing on the roof with Rory, staring out into the fog.

"Pretty tall, huh?" Rory remarked.

"Tall enough for a nice view. Yet not tall enough to be noticed."

There was a pause.

"I can't even think about how big this place is," said Dakota.

"Big enough."

"How far away is their base?"

"Far enough."

Rory turned and walked down a set of steps set into the tower wall. Dakota hurried after him, falling into step halfway down the wide staircase.

"Do you think it will scare her?"

Rory scoffed. "Of course it will. She should be able to handle it, though."

"You think so?"

"Do you remember the first time you came here?"

"I think I was pretty scared, too."

"And who taught you?"

"Well, Mira, of course."

"So you can be her teacher."

Dakota nodded. "I think she's afraid of me as well right now."

"Well, she'll have to get over that."

"I think she wants to understand and get answers. If I teach her more about herself I'm sure she'll be curious to learn more."

"I just hope she listens," Rory said forlornly. "She still has a lot to learn."

❧☙

Galena slid her finger down the schedule, muttering the tasks to herself, then looked up at Rolf. "You forgot- we'll want an interview with whoever gave the tip, after we find out who it was. So I think we have five things to do."

"It's only an hour from Eugene to Roseburg, so I think we could talk to Lillian's parents and your mother in the same day."

"Which leaves the police records, the interview with the person who noticed the dead kid, and the funeral home talk all for the same day? Were you planning for those to be tomorrow?"

"Yeah, and then we can go to Roseburg, and then back to Dorena."

"Is everyone cool with that?"

"I checked with Derek and Erica and they want to come, and so does Evan, just in case we need anything forensic done."

"We'll come back home on Thursday night?"

"Yeah, it's not a two-day trip, just two day trips. Derek's going to rent the van again."

Galena smiled. At least it wouldn't be as crowded as last time. "Do you think we're going to gain anything from this, though?"

"I bet your mother knows something."

"Maybe." Galena cocked her head. "Hey, what if we get some interviews with the other cops at the Thaumatogenesis while we're out there?"

"Hey, good idea. I'll get Derek to look into it."

"In the meantime, is there anything we can do?"

"Not unless we leave now."

"Let's wait."