On Tuesday, Mrs. Vale asked me to review the entry for a crystal case I had never borrowed. On Wednesday, the academy informed me that I could not use the west hall until the inventory was settled. By Thursday, I had begun to suspect that the most dangerous thing in a magical institution was a form with my name on it.
ㅤ
The actual danger, according to Marcus, was that I had chosen to spend my lunch comparing handwriting instead of eating.
ㅤ
“You can't defend yourself against a clerical error on an empty stomach,” he said, setting a wrapped roll beside my notebook. “I checked. It's not in the curriculum.”
ㅤ
“I've eaten.”
ㅤ
“Tea isn't lunch, Adrian.”
ㅤ
He waited until I unwrapped the roll before taking the chair opposite me.
ㅤ
Mrs. Vale had found the release slip's original authorization ledger. The initials beside my name belonged to a junior storeroom assistant who had been assigned to another building that morning. She hadn't accused him of anything. She had simply requested his duty sheet and asked me to preserve my notes. The case itself remained unaccounted for.
ㅤ
“Does Evelyn know?” Marcus asked.
ㅤ
“She helped me compare the case numbers. I told her about the initials yesterday.”
ㅤ
“And Saturday?”
ㅤ
“Still happening.”
ㅤ
He inspected my shirt, which was hanging from a hook near the window rather than being crushed beneath my textbooks. “Good. You're making progress in several areas.”
ㅤ
Friday brought a note from Mrs. Vale, delivered through the department rather than the academy's general office. She had located a second entry for the same case number: a maintenance transfer recorded three days before the supposed loan to me. The transfer destination was the west hall's lower equipment room.
ㅤ
“Does that clear me?” I asked when I went to see her.
ㅤ
“It establishes that the register contains conflicting entries. That's useful, but it doesn't establish where the case went.” She placed both copies on the desk, aligned by their dates. “I've referred the discrepancy to the inspection committee. You may continue your approved work in the smaller practice rooms.”
ㅤ
“Will they speak to the storeroom assistant?”
ㅤ
“They will speak to everyone whose records are relevant. I won't tell you the result of an interview I haven't conducted.”
ㅤ
Fair enough.
ㅤ
I collected my copies, thanked her, and went to teach Lina and Tomas. We practiced low-power barrier resets with the equipment assigned to our room.
ㅤ
Saturday morning, Mira found me examining my cuffs in the kitchen window.
ㅤ
“Are you going to Grandpa's house now?”
ㅤ
“This afternoon. Mrs. Fenwick is coming after lunch, and I'll be home before your bedtime.”
ㅤ
She considered the cuffs. “He has roses. Don't step on them.”
ㅤ
“I'll try to avoid the roses.”
ㅤ
“And don't call him Grandpa if he doesn't know yet.”
ㅤ
That stopped me. We had explained that Evelyn's father knew I was visiting because I was her boyfriend, but that we hadn't told him about Mira.
ㅤ
“I wasn't planning to,” I said. “Does it bother you that he doesn't know?”
ㅤ
“A little.” She rubbed Sir Flopsy's ear between her fingers. “Mommy said grown-ups have to talk first. But he might like my picture.”
ㅤ
“He might. Your picture is safe here, and when we decide it's time, we can ask whether you'd like him to see it.”
ㅤ
“Even if he doesn't like rabbits?”
ㅤ
“Especially then. He'll need the education.”
ㅤ
She smiled, but kept hold of the rabbit. I sat beside her until Mrs. Fenwick arrived. The woman listened to Mira's instructions about the marigolds, accepted the emergency biscuit I'd packed for reasons I could no longer remember, and sent me away before I could check the stove a fourth time.
ㅤ
Evelyn met me outside the Rosenfeld residence's side entrance, not at the front steps where two footmen stood beside an enormous door. She wore a pale grey dress and had tied her silver hair back with a ribbon I recognized from our last visit to the market.
ㅤ
“You came early,” she said.
ㅤ
“I was afraid of being late.”
ㅤ
“Father is finishing a meeting. We have a few minutes.”
ㅤ
She led me through a courtyard where the rosebushes had been pruned with the precision of an academy diagram. Beyond them stood a smaller door opening into a conservatory.
ㅤ
“Before we go in,” Evelyn said, “there's something I should tell you. Father asked whether your responsibilities at home would interfere with your studies. I told him you have someone in your care, but I didn't identify Mira or explain her circumstances.”
ㅤ
I stopped beside a long table of seedlings. “Thank you for telling me. What did he say?”
ㅤ
“That he would ask you himself if it became relevant. I told him it wouldn't be discussed today.”
ㅤ
“Did he agree?”
ㅤ
“He said he understood my position. That isn't the same as agreeing with it.”
ㅤ
Evelyn looked at me directly, giving me time to object. I didn't.
ㅤ
“Then we'll answer what we can,” I said. “And leave the rest alone.”
ㅤ
She adjusted the cuff I'd failed to straighten. Her hand lingered at my wrist, warm through the thin fabric.
ㅤ
“I want you to know that you can leave if he makes this unpleasant,” she said.
ㅤ
“Would you leave with me?”
ㅤ
“Yes.”
ㅤ
She answered without hesitation. I wanted to kiss her, but a footman appeared at the conservatory door to announce that her father was ready.
ㅤ
Duke Rosenfeld was standing when we entered the study. He was a broad-shouldered man with greying hair, dressed more plainly than I'd expected. A ledger lay open on the desk behind him, alongside a pair of gardening gloves. He noticed my glance and set the gloves aside.
ㅤ
“Adrian. Thank you for coming.”
ㅤ
“Thank you for inviting me, Your Grace.”
ㅤ
He shook my hand, then greeted Evelyn with a brief touch at her shoulder. The gesture was familiar rather than ceremonial; she seemed to relax a little beneath it.
ㅤ
We sat near a window overlooking the roses. Tea arrived, and the duke asked about the academy's inspection before I had worked out whether I was supposed to pour my own cup.
ㅤ
“I understand the west hall is closed.”
ㅤ
“Part of it, Your Grace. The department has moved approved exercises elsewhere while the inventory is checked.”
ㅤ
“Has that affected your work?”
ㅤ
“Some of our testing. I can still tutor, and Evelyn and I have the measurements for our seminar.”
ㅤ
“Your moving-target barrier?”
ㅤ
I glanced at Evelyn. She hadn't mentioned that he'd read our proposal.
ㅤ
“I asked for a copy,” the duke said. “My daughter has spoken about it more than she realizes.”
ㅤ
Evelyn set down her cup. “I spoke about it because the work matters.”
ㅤ
“I assumed it did.” He turned back to me. “Tell me what happens when the person inside the barrier moves before the second channel settles.”
ㅤ
It was an actual question, not a request for a speech about my ambitions. I explained the instability and the compromise we'd made between duration and mobility. Halfway through, he asked why we hadn't simply increased the crystal output. I showed him the figures in my notebook, including the failed trials.
ㅤ
He examined them without commenting on the ink stain across the corner.
ㅤ
“Higher output would exhaust the supply faster,” he said.
ㅤ
“And increase the chance of a collapse at the wrong moment. A barrier that lasts longer on paper isn't useful if the person it's protecting can't get out of the way.”
ㅤ
The duke handed the notebook back. “I see why Evelyn wanted you on the project.”
ㅤ
“She corrected most of my first diagram,” I admitted.
ㅤ
“Only the part that would have failed,” Evelyn said.
ㅤ
Her father looked between us. “That sounds like her.”
ㅤ
The questions changed after the tea was refreshed. He asked when I expected to graduate, how many tutoring hours I could sustain, and whether I intended to seek a permanent academy position. I answered as precisely as I could, including the things I hadn't settled.
ㅤ
“And your relationship with Evelyn?” he asked at last. “What are you asking of her?”
ㅤ
Evelyn's hand tightened around her cup. I could see that she was preparing to answer, but the question had been directed at me.
ㅤ
“Her time, when she wants to give it,” I said. “Her honesty. I hope we can keep making plans together, but I don't expect her to abandon her work or make promises about a future neither of us can describe yet.”
ㅤ
“Marriage?”
ㅤ
“We've only recently begun dating, Your Grace.”
ㅤ
“I'm aware. I'm asking whether you've considered what a relationship with my daughter might eventually require.”
ㅤ
“I have. I can't offer you a timetable. I can tell you I don't consider this temporary entertainment.”
ㅤ
He sat back, looking at me long enough that I began to hear the clock behind his desk.
ㅤ
“Good,” he said. “I would have been concerned if you had offered a timetable.”
ㅤ
Evelyn let out a breath and reached for her tea.
ㅤ
Then he looked at the notebook I'd placed on the table.
ㅤ
“One more matter. Your name appeared in an academy inventory report that reached my office this week. Do you know why?”
ㅤ
“Yes,” I said. “There's a loan entry I can't verify. The clerk found an earlier transfer with the same case number, and the inspection committee is reviewing both records.”
ㅤ
“Did you sign for the loan?”
ㅤ
“No.”
ㅤ
“Then I suggest you keep the copies.”
ㅤ
“I have.”
ㅤ
He nodded once. “An accusation travels faster than its correction, particularly when the correction is filed in a different office.”
ㅤ
Evelyn turned toward him. “Why did the report reach you?”
ㅤ
“Because the west hall's replacement equipment was purchased through a grant I helped arrange.” He looked at her, not at me. “I asked for the inspection summary when the hall closed. I didn't request Adrian's name.”
ㅤ
When we rose to leave, he asked Evelyn to stay for supper the following week if her schedule allowed. He extended the invitation to me as well, without suggesting that accepting it would settle anything between us.
ㅤ
Outside, Evelyn took the path through the roses more slowly than she had on our way in.
ㅤ
“You were very patient,” she said.
ㅤ
“He asked reasonable questions. Some of them were uncomfortable.”
ㅤ
“He knows how to make those sound alike.”
ㅤ
I laughed, then took her hand when the path widened. “I liked seeing you with him.”
ㅤ
She looked surprised. “You did?”
ㅤ
“You disagreed with him. He listened. I think you both expected me to miss that.”
ㅤ
“I wasn't sure what you would notice.”
ㅤ
“I noticed the gardening gloves. Mira was right about the roses.”
ㅤ
Evelyn's fingers tightened around mine. “He keeps them in the study because he forgets to take them off before answering letters.”
ㅤ
“That's information I can use at our next meeting.”
ㅤ
We walked as far as the gate together. Before she let go, she told me she would come by the apartment tomorrow and asked whether Mira wanted help with her new drawing. I said its artist had begun a second picture, this time with a rosebush and a very large rabbit.
ㅤ
At home, Mira met me at the door with Sir Flopsy tucked beneath one arm.
ㅤ
“Did you step on the roses?”
ㅤ
“Not a single one.”
ㅤ
“Did Grandpa like you?”
ㅤ
“I think he wants to know me better.”
ㅤ
She accepted that answer and led me inside to inspect her new drawing. I put the duke's invitation beside the academy records, then moved both out of reach of her paints. Whatever those papers meant for my future, the rabbit was getting a red coat, and Mira needed me to hold the page still.