I wake to the sound of Marcus opening the door with breakfast. He gives me a quickly hidden disapproving look upon seeing that I slept in the bath, but quickly places the tray on the tub table without a word.

I stretch in a state somehow both relaxed and sore. Relaxed because of the still near boiling water and sore because of the posture I found myself in.

In addition to breakfast, there's a sealed letter on the tray. "It arrived over the weekend," Marcus says when I look questioningly. Upon inspection, I realize that the seal is the school's, but purple indicating that it can be only from a handful of people of which I have met only one.

Anxious, I rip it open.

'Good news Monhal,

the learning opportunity I mentioned was tentatively agreed to. Talk with Count Vithal after your next class with her and she'll tell you about it. Don't worry, it'll count as a full course credit like you wanted, possibly more. Don't disappoint.

Headteacher Clarisa.'

I never realized that I don't know the headteacher's family name. She's obviously a noble; does her title of headteacher somehow supplant that?

"Bad news, my lord?"

Oh, right, it seems the obvious thought I've been avoiding has somehow found its way to my face anyways. I assess my expression and find that it's not that distressed – Marcus must be getting better at reading me.

"No, the opposite actually," I lie, "it seems like I'm being given an opportunity to make up for a mistake." Which I suppose is true, even if it's ignoring the terror of spending more time with the Count.

"Oh, that is good news then." He somehow sounds both completely convinced and sceptical at the same time. That doesn't make any sense, but he does it.

Is there any possible way I can conceivably get out of this that wouldn't be suspicious? Even citing Cecilia's instructions wouldn't help since I doubt Princep Theodore will be included in whatever opportunity I'm supposedly being given.

Or, well I suppose it's conceivable that he's a divining genius, but the impression in class was not of him being a serious sort. It's enough to make me wonder about the validity of Adrian's claim that the princeps were tested at the same level as us.

I meet up with Ser Terry on the way to class as we agreed. He smiles warmly upon seeing me and I find myself smiling back.

"Hey," I say, "you finish the assignment?"

He grimaces. "I got up to three, but kept on hitting dead ends in the math for four even after you told me the basic idea. What about you? You didn't happen to be overconfident on that one, were you?"

"No, it was pretty straightforward once I actually sat down and did it."

"Pity, it would have made the rest of us look better," he smiles to let me know he was joking and did not actually hope for my failure. "What about six? Figure anything out over the weekend?"

"Afraid not," I lie, "it doesn't make sense. Any communication with your partner should spread to your pursuers – at least with divination and other forms of magic communication requires one of you to remain stationary. Maybe it could work if there was a third party that was stationary to handle communication between both of them, but the mobile teams would still have to stop for at least half an hour each time which doesn't seem to fit with the spirit of the problem. Besides, the parameters of the question clearly state that there is a pair of teams, which means two and no more, so adding a third shouldn't be allowed."

"Did you write all that down or did you just assume it was wrong and leave it blank?" he asks for some reason. I think he wants to know partially qua me and partially qua Vithal's reaction to random guesses.

"Well of course I wrote it, after all letting her know where we went wrong will help her correct us." I partly lie. I do think that it's important to let her know my shortcomings in general, but in this instance I mostly wanted to project that I very definitely did not know the right answer or even the general direction of it.

The class looks much less enthusiastic upon entering than last week. The squires in particular look dour and many are frantically trying to finish the assignment in the last moments before class. Glancing as we make our way to our seats I see most are still on problem three, with one squire still on two. Erik Hanhal is among those still working, as is Clara Talwin though she is on four.

"Did anyone get six?" Denton Brinhal asks from behind a few seconds after we sit with the rest of the study group. I get the distinct impression that he's eying me in particular when he asks, but it's probably my imagination.

A few groan at the revelation that someone made it so far, but one has the opposite reaction.

"No! That was so hard!" Princep Theodore immediately exclaims. "What about five? Did anyone else get five?" Denton, Adrian, Emily and myself all nod, causing him to break into a beaming smile. "Really?! That's great! None of my friends could get it even after I said how. I was worried I might have made a mistake. Let me see…" he skips up the inclined seating area to Emily and, seemingly without even considering the possibility that she might say no, peeks at her paper which causes an immediate redoubling of his smile. "Yes! That's how I did it too! What a relief I wasn't the only one!"

I know it's irrational, but I'm a little bit irritated that we got the same number of questions right. I would almost have preferred I got one less. I suppose that no one got six like I feared is sufficient consolation.

"You should all join our study group!" Theodore says excitedly.

Umm… I doubtlessly would have jumped at the opportunity to join his group last week, regardless of how annoying he seems, but ignoring his sister Cecilia's instruction to stay away seems pointlessly dangerous.

Still, it would probably be a bad idea to just tell him his sister told me not to: One she likely doesn't want me to, and two she might lie if asked – and he'll almost certainly believe her over me. So, I need a way to say no without offending a potential future monarch, which seems an impossible task.

Surprisingly it's Adrian who delivers me from the predicament. "Unfortunately, your Highness, it has fallen upon us to drag these squires into academic adequacy. It would be indecent of us to abandon them now, and bringing them with us would no doubt bloat your group past functionality."

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"Oh, Adrian! I didn't see you, how odd." The princep says with a tilted head. "Oh, well, if you're certain, I do find it admirable to help one's lessers." The squires and knight glower at Adrian, who obliviously and politely nods. "Well, but do let me know if you change your mind. What about the rest of you?"

He glances over Emily and me, who both make polite protesting sounds mirroring Adrian's. Denton, sitting alone, hesitates a brief moment before declaring that it would be an honour and makes his way to sit closer to the princep.

Clara makes a face at Adrian who interprets it as her wanting to talk but not be heard and so casts a sound barrier.

"I'm surprised you didn't take him up on his offer. I thought chumming it up with the imperial family was your whole thing."

They give her a questioning look then shrug in admittance. "Normally yes, but father's current instructions are to not get too close to any of this generation. We're situated firmly enough as advisors that we don't need to be constantly seeking more influence, and prefer to be seen as something simply always there rather than struggling for more. But what about you?" he turns to Emily.

"Me?" Emily asks, "oh, I just find him annoying." She turns to me.

"…His sister commanded I stay away," I explain.

"Cecilia did?" Adrian asks then shrugs. "Well, I suppose their relationship has always been a bit… it would be improper of me to gossip."

"Doubtless," I say, annoyed not because I have been wanting to know, but because it's just inherently annoying to be teased with a rumour and then denied it.

Count Vithal comes in once again through the window and begins class by having us hand in our assignments. Those without nexus disks pass forward their paper while those with them go up to the front of the class to touch them to the Count's own disk seven times the size of a normal student's.

She then goes over the assignment and I find myself increasingly tense as she works her way to the last question. But then she just doesn't mention it and instead moves on to today's lesson.

"Let's talk about linking actions to symbol laden objects or, rarely, subjects to confuse divinations. It's one of the only ways that a non-diviner can try to counter a divination, usually by accident, and can make your own divinations much more potent. The general principle is the same as the occulter game, creating lines of synergy to make readings overly broad. Today's lesson is on how to deliberately do this to counter divinations and how to narrow down your own divinations to overcome this."

At 'today's lesson' five hands shoot up in question including my own. I had thought that this was her approach for explaining six since the answer does involve that, though as a minor element. Admittedly I am interested in learning more about the concept since it's such a finicky technique: capable of providing greater countering than normal if done right, or giving yourself away if done wrong and no way of telling which is which until you hear the thud of army boots.

I was sceptical when my partner wizard who came up with the divination trick incorporated the method, though it worked out well enough. I only did it a few times on my own and stopped after I made a mistake and led us into a pointless ambush. So having an expert explain how to do it right is of interest, but not as much interest as hearing her answer to six.

The princep is the one to voice the question – once again not waiting to be called on to ask. "Are we not going over six?"

Vithal hides the confusion on her face as she swipes a few motions on her nexus disk then nods. "Oh, that one, I forgot I included it. To be honest I don't know the answer and thought it'd be amusing to see if one of you figured it out. It's one of the tricks the Anar cultists pulled near the start of my pursuit.

"My most likely theory is that it required both parties to ignore their own pursuers and instead only deal with those pursuing their partners – allowing them to edge over into causing distortions that both confused rather than informed us while simultaneously informing each other of the next move.

"But that theory runs into several problems, the first being that I can't prove it because the math is of the sort that becomes exponentially more complicated when working backwards, and it's already fairly complicated to start with. More importantly though is that it's insane and requires absolute trust in your partner; one misstep by them resulting in your death. It'd be saner to quit the scheme early and sacrifice the other to get away – especially since you know the other is thinking the same thing – but that's not what happened.

"I can't imagine anyone who hasn't spent years together pulling it off, but all indication of divination and mundane intelligence says it was the first time they met. If this theory is true, then that is by far the most baffling aspect of the cultist: that someone who views human lives as objects to be consumed could give their trust over to someone they just met so completely… it's astounding."

She grows quiet as my thoughts grow loud. What's this about trust? There was no trust involved, just need and desperation. I didn't need to trust him because… I didn't even think about betraying him, did I? I just assumed he was capable of doing his job and wanted… needed to do my own…

I force my thoughts away from the past as she moves her lecture from it and onto the alignment of symbol laden objects. It's well taught, and I see what I did wrong before though it still seems stressful. Moreover, it's a fairly esoteric subject and so is difficult to find concrete discussion of, and so is exactly the sort of thing I've been hoping to learn from her. Surprisingly though she seems to be saying we should always be tying our divinations into local symbolic objects when possible, which seems insane to me, but perhaps it makes more sense as a pursuer.

"Shall we all meet up to study again?" Ser Terry says, turning to me with a smile of anticipation after the lecture is over.

I half nod. "Go on ahead and grab a spot, I need to talk with the Count."

"Again?" Emily asks playfully. "You aren't still sharing military secrets, are you?"

I respond flatly. "As I did not know what I shared was a secret last time, my only answer can be probably not."

Emily, Clara and Ser Terry all give a short laugh at that. Adrian graces the comment with a smile while Erik seems too preoccupied looking over the new assignment to notice it.

I go up to the Count who casts her silence spell but motions for me to wait as she reads something on her disk.

"Alright," she says, finally turning to me, "I guess your answers are the bare minimum for what the headteacher is suggesting."

"Bare minimum?" I ask, hiding the rankling with a smile, "Did I get something wrong? Besides the sixth, of course?"

She smiles back, semi-predatorial. "When you get to the field you'll often find that perfection is the bare minimum."

Why do I get the feeling that I'm being compared unfavourably to myself?

"But there is one question I have for you," she continues. "Why did you assume that your answer to the sixth is wrong?"

I shrug. "Because it's outside of the stated confines of the problem. If I knew that the question was about a real event of which our knowledge is incomplete, I might have been more confident about it. Besides, it would have taken too much time to be right."

"How do you know it would take too much time? The problem doesn't specify a limit."

"…It's just an impression I got," I lie, realizing that I included limitations present in real life that were not in the question.

"Well anyways, it's a good guess, though we have already eliminated it. Besides the time element – which I considered they may have found a new communication magic but discounted the possibility since they never used it again – I also confirmed via divination and mundane intelligence that there were only two teams. Still, it's that sort of thinking that I'm looking for in this endeavour."

"Which is?"

"A research group with the goal of developing techniques to better counter certain hard to deal with divination methods – anthropomancy in particular. In a way it's more like a club, though one that grants course credits. There'll be two other teachers, but the rest will be fellow students, though you will be the youngest."

"That… sounds very interesting. I think I'd like that." I'm incredibly pleased at the notion of pursuing novel research in my specialty field so soon, despite the terror of working so closely with her. Besides, learning the techniques designed to track me down directly from a pursuer is both funny and practical.

"Great. One more thing though. It's not officially part of the charter, but I'm obviously creating this group with the Anar cultist in mind. As such I intend to pursue them when they show up again."

"Do you think that's likely," I say with genuine worry in my voice that is hopefully misleading about the cause.

"Yes," she states simply and without hesitation, "and when they do I plan on taking members of the group with me to hunt them down. Possibly you if you prove yourself."

"That seems… stressful." I state, once again hiding my emotion by displaying it.

She misunderstands with a chuckle. "You have no idea."

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