ㅤ
The exhibition opened at ten. By nine, I had already misplaced the visitor diagram twice.
ㅤ
The first time, Evelyn found it beneath the safety checklist. The second, Nessa discovered I'd tucked it into the folder marked Measurements, where it belonged but where I apparently hadn't thought to look.
ㅤ
“You could stop carrying everything,” Nessa said.
ㅤ
“I could also stop breathing. Both would reduce my workload.”
ㅤ
She gave me the kind of look that meant she was deciding whether I was worth supervising.
ㅤ
I put the diagram on the display stand and left it there.
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
The public hall had been transformed since our rehearsal. Tables lined the walls beneath banners for alchemy, enchantment, and applied magic. A group from the botanical department had brought a plant that turned toward nearby mana sources. It spent the morning facing the refreshments.
ㅤ
Our space was smaller than I'd imagined, which was a relief. The committee had placed our practice circle behind a marked boundary and given Nessa control of the cutoff device. A rope separated the visitors from the apparatus, with the wider clearance the committee had requested. Halden checked it himself, then made us run through the shutdown procedure without activating a spell.
ㅤ
“Again,” he said when I reached for the wrong switch.
ㅤ
We did it again.
ㅤ
He nodded. “Now you may embarrass yourselves in public.”
ㅤ
“That sounded almost encouraging,” I said.
ㅤ
“Don't become dependent on it.”
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
Mira arrived shortly before the doors opened, holding Mrs. Fenwick's hand. I'd asked Mrs. Fenwick to accompany her so I wouldn't have to choose between supervising the demonstration and watching a six-year-old in a crowded hall. She'd agreed to stay through the first presentation and take Mira home if she grew tired.
ㅤ
Mira wore her blue ribbon and carried Sir Flopsy in his cloak. She inspected the rope.
ㅤ
“Am I allowed in there?”
ㅤ
“Not while the crystals are active,” I said.
ㅤ
“Is Mommy?”
ㅤ
“She's one of the people doing the demonstration.”
ㅤ
Mira studied Evelyn, who was checking a diagram. “She looks busy.”
ㅤ
“She is.”
ㅤ
“Then I'll tell her good luck quietly.”
ㅤ
She approached Evelyn, took her hand, and whispered something I couldn't hear. Evelyn bent to listen, then nodded with a solemnity that made Mira grin.
ㅤ
“What did she say?” I asked when Mira returned.
ㅤ
“Secret.”
ㅤ
Mrs. Fenwick raised her eyebrows at me. I decided I could survive not knowing.
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
Our first visitors were two students who'd mistaken the display for a competition. They wanted to know whether Evelyn could break my shield.
ㅤ
“She can,” I said. “That's not what we're measuring.”
ㅤ
“Then what's the point?”
ㅤ
I explained that we were comparing how two barriers used the same limited supply of mana. One spent more at the beginning; the other distributed it across channels to remain stable longer. Evelyn demonstrated the difference using a harmless projection before we activated the practice crystals.
ㅤ
The students listened politely. One asked whether the stronger barrier was still preferable against a single heavy strike.
ㅤ
“Sometimes,” Evelyn said. “The configuration depends on the threat. We aren't claiming one arrangement is universally superior.”
ㅤ
That answer interested them more than a promise of an unbeatable shield would have. They stayed for the timed run.
ㅤ
Fourteen seconds.
ㅤ
Nessa recorded it. The crystal shut down on schedule, and Nessa checked the dial before allowing us to reset.
ㅤ
I let out a breath I hadn't noticed holding.
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
By midday, we'd repeated the demonstration six times. One run ended early when a channel destabilized; Nessa stopped the apparatus before the next discharge. I marked the result on the board instead of quietly replacing it with a better number, and explained the fault to a visiting instructor.
ㅤ
He seemed more interested in the failed run than the successful ones.
ㅤ
“Can you predict which channel will go first?”
ㅤ
“Not consistently with this setup,” I said. “That's one of the limits of the data.”
ㅤ
He asked for a copy of the procedure. I gave him the sheet we'd prepared and watched him read Evelyn's name beside mine.
ㅤ
“Rosenfeld,” he said. “Are you related to the duke?”
ㅤ
“My father,” Evelyn replied.
ㅤ
He straightened, suddenly more formal. “I hadn't realized.”
ㅤ
She directed his attention back to the apparatus. “Adrian designed the revised channel layout. He can explain the stability measurements.”
ㅤ
The instructor turned to me. His questions were technical and, once he began asking them, genuinely useful. I answered what I could and admitted where we hadn't tested enough. Evelyn supplied the measurements when he asked about the opening strength; neither of us needed to speak for the other.
ㅤ
When he left, I rearranged the copies on our table.
ㅤ
“You didn't have to do that,” I told Evelyn.
ㅤ
“Do what?”
ㅤ
“Redirect him.”
ㅤ
“He asked about the project. You did the work.”
ㅤ
“So did you.”
ㅤ
“Yes,” she said. “That's why both names are on the page.”
ㅤ
I couldn't think of a better response.
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
Mrs. Fenwick found me during the break. Mira had eaten the snack we'd packed and wanted to see the botanical plant again. She was still cheerful, but the hall had grown louder as more visitors arrived.
ㅤ
“I can take her home now,” Mrs. Fenwick said. “She's done very well.”
ㅤ
Mira's face fell. “I want to see Daddy's last one.”
ㅤ
“There are several more,” I said, crouching beside her. “And I need to stay at the table for them. Would you rather go home and tell Sir Flopsy what you saw, or rest in the quiet room for a little while and decide afterward?”
ㅤ
She considered the options. Mrs. Fenwick knew where the designated rest room was; we'd checked it before the doors opened.
ㅤ
“Quiet room,” Mira said.
ㅤ
“Then that's the plan. If you want to leave, you can. You won't miss anything you need to do.”
ㅤ
She leaned forward to hug me. I held her until she pulled away, then watched her and Mrs. Fenwick disappear through the side door.
ㅤ
Evelyn had seen the exchange from our table. She didn't ask whether Mira was all right. She asked if I wanted five minutes before we started again.
ㅤ
I did.
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
We ate our lunch sitting on a bench in a corridor behind the hall. Evelyn had brought bread and cheese; I had packed potatoes left from the previous evening. We exchanged half without discussing it.
ㅤ
“Do you think the committee will accept the final report?” I asked.
ㅤ
“Halden will make us revise it first.”
ㅤ
“That wasn't my question.”
ㅤ
“It was the answer I trust.”
ㅤ
She brushed a crumb from her sleeve. Through the open doorway, we could hear visitors moving between displays.
ㅤ
“Does it bother you?” I asked.
ㅤ
“What?”
ㅤ
“When people recognize your name before they look at your work.”
ㅤ
She considered the question rather than dismissing it.
ㅤ
“Sometimes. Other times the name opens a door I need opened. Pretending it doesn't would be dishonest.” She glanced at me. “I don't want it to decide whose work matters once we're inside.”
ㅤ
I thought about the instructor turning toward her, then back toward me. “It didn't today.”
ㅤ
“Not after we corrected him.”
ㅤ
We finished lunch without trying to solve anything larger than the afternoon schedule. For once, I didn't feel compelled to fill every quiet moment with a question about the letter.
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
Mira returned for the final demonstration, quieter but determined. Mrs. Fenwick stood with her near the back, beyond the visitor boundary. Halden had taken a place beside the committee clerk, which made me abruptly aware of my hands.
ㅤ
Evelyn noticed. “We've done this all morning.”
ㅤ
“That's what worries me. I'm overdue for a mistake.”
ㅤ
“Then if one happens, we follow the procedure.”
ㅤ
It was an ordinary answer. I needed it.
ㅤ
We began. Evelyn raised the projected example, I explained the channel arrangement, and Nessa activated the timed crystal. The barrier held steady through the first discharge, then the second. I watched the dial instead of the people.
ㅤ
Fifteen seconds.
ㅤ
Nessa shut down the apparatus. The clerk recorded the time. A few visitors applauded, not many, but enough that Mira began clapping with her whole body.
ㅤ
“That's my daddy!” she announced.
ㅤ
Several people turned. I felt heat rise in my face.
ㅤ
Evelyn's smile was small and impossible to miss.
ㅤ
I bowed because it was easier than deciding what else to do.
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
After the last visitors moved on, Halden inspected our board.
ㅤ
“You explained the limitations,” he said.
ㅤ
“We practiced.”
ㅤ
“I could tell. You also handled the early shutdown correctly.”
ㅤ
Nessa looked pleased. I suspected she'd been waiting for someone to mention it.
ㅤ
Halden signed the exhibition record, then told us to submit the cleaned data by Monday. No grand congratulations, no claim that our small study had changed the field, but he'd stayed for the final run.
ㅤ
For him, that counted.
ㅤ
We began dismantling the apparatus. Mira wanted to help, so I gave her the unused display cards to stack while Nessa and Evelyn secured the crystals. Mrs. Fenwick sat nearby with Sir Flopsy, who'd apparently been promoted to exhibition marshal.
ㅤ
When the table was clear, Evelyn came to stand beside me.
ㅤ
“You did well,” she said.
ㅤ
“So did you.”
ㅤ
“I know.”
ㅤ
I laughed, then stopped when I realized she wasn't joking. She'd worked hard. There was no reason for her to pretend otherwise.
ㅤ
“You did,” I said again.
ㅤ
This time she smiled.
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
Outside, the afternoon was bright after several days of rain. Mrs. Fenwick took Mira ahead to the market, promising to wait near the fountain. That left Evelyn and me walking together with the folded diagrams beneath my arm.
ㅤ
“I was thinking,” I said.
ㅤ
“A dangerous beginning.”
ㅤ
“About lunch. Not today's lunch.”
ㅤ
She looked at me.
ㅤ
“I'd like to take you somewhere after we submit the report. Just us, if you want to. Mrs. Fenwick might be able to stay with Mira for an extra hour, if her schedule allows.”
ㅤ
I'd practiced a version of the invitation in my head that sounded much smoother. This one had too many qualifications and no clear ending.
ㅤ
Evelyn didn't rescue me from it.
ㅤ
“Are you asking me to discuss the report?”
ㅤ
“No.”
ㅤ
“The letter?”
ㅤ
“No.”
ㅤ
She slowed. “Then what are you asking?”
ㅤ
I stopped beside the fountain wall, far enough from the market crowd to hear myself think.
ㅤ
“To spend time with you. Because I'd like to.”
ㅤ
She looked down at the diagrams I was gripping too tightly.
ㅤ
“Then ask me again without the report.”
ㅤ
I took a breath. “Evelyn, would you have lunch with me on Tuesday?”
ㅤ
“Yes,” she said.
ㅤ
The answer was quiet and immediate.
ㅤ
I hadn't expected how relieved I'd feel.
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
Mira spotted us before we reached the fountain.
ㅤ
“Did you win?”
ㅤ
“There wasn't a winner,” I said.
ㅤ
“Did your shield stay up?”
ㅤ
“Most of the time.”
ㅤ
“Then you did good.”
ㅤ
Mrs. Fenwick handed me Sir Flopsy and said she'd enjoyed the exhibition. I thanked her for keeping Mira company and confirmed her hours for Tuesday. She checked her schedule before agreeing to the extra hour. I didn't explain why I was asking in front of Mira; it wasn't a secret, but it was something Evelyn and I had only just decided.
ㅤ
Evelyn walked with us as far as the eastern gate. Mira held her hand and described the plant that liked refreshments. I carried the diagrams and listened.
ㅤ
At the corner, Evelyn said she had to return to the academy.
ㅤ
“Tuesday,” she told me.
ㅤ
“Tuesday.”
ㅤ
Mira looked between us. “What's Tuesday?”
ㅤ
“A day of the week,” I said.
ㅤ
She frowned. “I know that.”
ㅤ
Evelyn laughed, and I accepted that I'd earned it.
ㅤ
We said goodbye, then Mira and I continued toward the apartment. The marigolds stood a little straighter beside the courtyard wall. I would need to water them if the weather stayed clear.
ㅤ
There were plenty of things on my calendar already: tutoring, grading, the report, and another visit to the archive if Miss Vale had news. This was different.
ㅤ
I wanted Tuesday to arrive for its own sake.