The Unskillful Thaumaturge

XLVIII

"How's UOD?"

"It still feels kind of weird," Lillian confessed. "I don't blend in, and people don't take me seriously when they find out how old I am. How about U of O?"

"It's an experience," Rachel confirmed. Lillian recognized her tone of voice as the same quality she used when slowly bobbing her head. "Like you said, people don't take me seriously. To be honest, though, I look older than you."

Lillian snorted. "So you blend in?"

"Well... more," Rachel tried to explain. "People definitely notice, but they don't say anything. And they act surprised when I say I'm fifteen, although it's clear they aren't really."

Rachel Shimada was an old friend- Lillian had met her when they were just ten, when, by chance, they had been placed in the same Intro to Physics class. When Lillian had left town to pursue a physics degree the previous fall, Rachel, though she was likewise fifteen, had stayed in Eugene to take math and chemistry classes part-time at the University of Oregon.

"What are you taking this semester again? Calc 3 and Organic-"

"Calc 3 and O-Chem," Rachel cut in.

"Calc 3 isn't that hard, but I've heard awful things about O-Chem."

"Nah, it's not bad."

"Not bad? It must be awful. I was expecting you to say it was easy."

Rachel gave a musical laugh.

"How's the rest of the class taking it?"

"Hard," Rachel said shortly.

"I have some friends from the Chem department, and they say it's very difficult."

"It's not an exceptionally easy class, I'll give you that. Definitely harder than Calc 3. But you're taking quantum physics?" Rachel genuinely sounded a bit jealous.

"It's interesting. Lots of fascinating stuff. I really like it."

"Which professors do you like?" Rachel asked. "My O-Chem professor is pretty good, but I don't like the one teaching Calc 3."

"Well, let's see..." Lillian began counting on her fingers. "I like my Electronics professor, she's good, and she also teaches the lab; the Diff-EQ professor isn't great; neither is the Quantum one, but the professor teaching the Quantum lab is good; my Intro Thaum professor is good, but the girl who teaches the lab is only okay." Ordinarily Lillian would have said Amandi was awful, but she was still feeling grateful for being able to make up the labs.

"You're taking a lot- how many credits?"

"Really not that much. Sixteen. I know a couple of people taking twenty."

Rachel whistled, and Lillian abruptly held the phone away from her ear.

"It's still so weird to think you're full-time," Rachel mused. "I wish you came home more often."

"Oh- I almost forgot to tell you! I'm coming home Presidents Day weekend if you want to drop by Morgan and Chris's."

"Perfect!" Rachel cried. Lillian could hear a scribbling sound on her end of the phone, probably produced by her writing of a reminder on one of her plethora of sticky notes. "I'm glad you remembered, now I have something to look forward to for Presidents Day."

"Enjoy O-Chem," Lillian replied, taking the hint.

"Bye!" Rachel squealed. The line went dead.

❦

"As you can see," Dakota intoned, pointing to the formula on the bottom of the board, "omniscience goes up essentially as the reciprocal of one minus efficacy. So as efficacy increases, omniscience also increases, approaching infinity as efficacy approaches one." He boxed the formula neatly in purple marker, then turned back to the class, realizing that one of the students in the back had raised his hand. "Yes?" Dakota craned his neck, trying to watch the student as he spoke.

"This would mean that people with high efficacies are omniscient, which, clearly, they're not... what am I missing?"

Dakota nodded. "Good question. Omniscience here has a specific mathematically-defined meaning that is somewhat different from the way the word is used in the vernacular. Having a high efficacy doesn't mean you're psychic." He laughed lightly. "The same way that, in physics, holding a table over your head for an hour doesn't take any work." Several of the students took on confused looks, and Dakota waved his hand. "Never mind," he amended. "At any rate, that's all for today."

As he uttered these last words, the students began flipping shut their notebooks and sliding papers into their backpacks. The last of them were filing out the door when Dakota finally finished erasing the board. He gathered together his books and papers and mounted the stairs to his office, fumbling before finding the right key and easing it into the lock.

He swung the door open and glanced around the office, setting the stack of papers on the floor by force of habit before shaking his head and heading over to the file cabinet to neatly organize them instead. When the books were back on the shelf and the papers had been slid into folders, Dakota tripped over to his desk and dropped into the chair, realizing that a sticky note covered in tight handwriting had been affixed to the top of the table.

Erica planning to stay tomorrow- be cautious

The note wasn't signed, but Dakota recognized it immediately as Ashley's handwriting. He crumpled the note and attacked it viciously with a pair of scissors from his desk drawer, then crumpled the shreds into a ball and dropped them into his recycling bin.

Erica's persistence was worrying him- what if he had to do a thaumaturgical demonstration for a student? He hoped she would relent before he was forced into a situation in which he needed to use thaumaturgy.

In the meantime, there was nothing he could do but wait.