“I am sorry,” Bellamie Ranowen murmured, as they made their way side by side along the otherwise empty residential avenue. “Believe me, Lady Martain, I’d not have accosted you like this if I didn’t believe it was needful.”

“I’ll be the judge of what’s needful. Well?”

Bellamie Ranowen offered her a diffident smile. “Yes. An explanation. Only first, might I ask when it was you last performed any complicated magework?”

To her surprise, Venette had to think before she answered. When was the last time? Goodness. It had been days. Perhaps a week before the Garricks’ house party. And since then, of course, with so much upset over Morgan, well, she’d not been in the mood for anything more difficult than glimfire.

“A little time,” she said, cautious. “Why?”

“It means there’s no hope you’ve felt it too,” said Mage Ranowen, almost speaking to herself. “Of course, that might not matter, since I seem to be the only tutor in the College who—”

“Felt what? I swear, Mage Ranowen, if you don’t stop talking in riddles I won’t—”

And then Bellamie Ranowen so far forgot herself as to take hold of a councillor’s arm and tug her to a halt. Plain face drawn with tension, her eyes wide with distress, she seemed not to realise she’d just committed assault.

“Lady Martain, I feel magic the way others hear music. So if I say to you I can hear a discordant note in the choir… do you understand what I mean?”

Venette stared. Did Bellamie Ranowen intend to be insulting, or was she simply so distracted she’d not thought before speaking?

This once, I shall give her the benefit of the doubt.

Gently, she extricated her arm from the young woman’s grasp. “Are you suggesting there is a flaw in the fabric of Dorana’s magic?”

Fear and relief flooded into Bellamie Ranowen’s eyes. “Yes. Lady Martain, that is exactly what I’m saying.”

“I see.” Venette glanced around still-empty Asvoden Way. No wonder the College’s only unranked mage had wanted this to be a privy conversation. “And you are the only mage in Dorana who can feel it?”

As though startled by the question, Mage Ranowen frowned. “I have no idea. As far as I can tell I’m the only mage in the College who’s noticed, but as to—oh.” She almost laughed. “I see. You think I’m imagining things.”

“I think it’s possible. I certainly think it’s more likely than you being the only mage capable of sensing such a catastrophic event.”