The Unskillful Thaumaturge

XLIX

Lillian counted the steps as she climbed the stairs to her thaumaturgy classroom. Her limp from the incident with the obelisk was almost gone, but she still took it slowly and avoided putting too much weight on her injured ankle. When she finally reached the second floor- twenty-four steps- she paused for a moment, catching her breath before heading down the hall and ducking into her classroom. She sank into a chair at the front table, next to Aidan, and began taking her supplies out of her backpack.

"I haven't finished last week's homework yet," Aidan confessed. "I got confused. There seems to be a lot of physics in this class."

"Don't worry, it'll pass," Lillian reassured him. "Leslie is in an illusions class right now and it looks very difficult. A lot harder than this. And my other roommate Daria said that once you get through the first half of the class you don't have to do any more physics at all."

"Then I'm definitely looking forward to that," Aidan replied. "I don't have a lot of physics knowledge."

"Isn't that a prerequisite?"

"I'm taking physics right now and we haven't talked about energy yet. I thought it would be fine but it seems kind of hard."

"You know I'm a physics major? I can help you out."

"Oh, that's right," Aidan realized. "That would be really helpful." But the note of hesitation within his tone of voice betrayed otherwise. Lillian had heard it before; it was an indication of disbelief that a girl of just fifteen would be able to help with such complicated concepts. She tried not to scoff and instead nodded politely as Perid entered the room. The professor began rummaging in her bag, pulling out several folders of old homework and a battered notebook before turning to the board.

❦

Dakota turned the key inside the file cabinet lock, swinging the door open and setting the key down before fixing his gaze on the black screen. He was about to use telekinesis to flip the switches in the back, but the voice in his head began screaming about Erica Heath and only relented when he reached into the cabinet to flip the switches himself, staring fixedly at the screen as the static running across it began to clear. The dark blue dot appeared in the center of the screen, and Dakota began to concentrate, eyes fixed on the center of the screen as it grew to envelop the monitor.

A steady image began to resolve as the blue faded; Dakota was first able to make out a desk, then the woman behind it. The woman- Galena, he reminded himself, was her name- seemed almost at home within its cozy confines. She seemed to be working busily at her desk, and it took Dakota a moment to realize that she was, in fact, entering data- clues- into a spreadsheet.

As he watched, she cocked her head and touched her eye, typing the current time into the spreadsheet along with a note reminding her that her eye had twitched. She would likely be telling Lillian soon.

Dakota turned his attention to the bulletin board on the wall near her desk. Pushpins had been tacked into various pictures. He recognized the photos of himself breaking into the DIAO and the vagrant, as well as a sketch that he supposed had been drawn from Lillian's description, but he wasn't sure where they had obtained the other photo of him. There were some other papers pinned to the bulletin board as well. He leaned in towards the screen, trying to read the paper. "Type AB positive," he muttered to himself.

Figures, remarked the voice.

Galena, meanwhile, was looking wildly around the office, one hand clasped over her eye. Dakota watched as she rose from her chair and began pacing flurriedly across the room.

"You should probably stop bothering her," Ashley's voice floated through the office.

Dakota spun around, about to scold her for surprising him, but stopped and closed his mouth when he noticed the expression on her face- wistfulness, with a touch of absently impossible regret. She stepped closer to the screen and stared at Galena. "She really doesn't seem to like it when you make her eye twitch."

"Okay, I'll shut it off," Dakota said peevishly, reaching back to flip off the switches in the back of the cabinet.

"Do you plan to get her involved?"

"Not if I can help it," Dakota confessed. "I don't want to drag her into this. She'd be easier for them to find than me or Lillian."

Ashley nodded. "Good."

"So why did you encourage her to work for the DIAO?"

"It's harmless. She needed a job." Ashley shrugged.

Dakota narrowed his eyes, searching for sarcasm in her eyes. "Harmless?"