Though it was the early hours of the morning, the young, unranked College tutor did not appear unduly tired. Perhaps she was used to working through the night. Venette, aware of a growing headache and her body’s disgruntled need for sleep, clenched her jaw against a yawn and blinked to focus her eyes. It wasn’t much consolation to know that Brice, Sallis and Shari looked as weary as she felt.

You’d think stark terror would have us on the edge of our seats.

But more than anything, she was filled with a numbing disbelief. This was all so improbable, so terribly unlikely. They had to be wrong. Didn’t they? After centuries of untroubled magework, this couldn’t actually be happening?

“Mage Ranowen?” Brice prompted, when the tutor’s silence continued.

Standing before them as easily as she stood in a classroom, Bellamie Ranowen stirred out of thought.

“I’m sorry, my lord. I was trying to decide how best to answer.”

“Are you suggesting that we are somehow simple?” Shari demanded. “Perhaps I should remind you, Mage Ranowen, of who in this chamber is unranked and who sits upon the Council of Mages!”

Four—nearly five—days ago, Bellamie Ranowen had seemed a woman in want of her wits. Watching her closely now, Venette saw that she had regained her poise and self-restraint. Looking at offended Shari, unintimidated, the young woman merely inclined her head.

“My apologies, Lady Frieden. Of course I am suggesting no such thing. Only I have been told that on occasion my explanations can veer toward the complicatedly theoretical. I investigate questions of magework as much as I teach, you understand. So I wish to avoid the need for tedious explanations when, with a little effort, I might express myself more plainly.”

“Very considerate of you,” said Sallis, unimpressed. “Now do as Lord Varen bid.”

Another polite nod. “Certainly, my lord. In its simplest terms, then, and begging your indulgence for a fanciful illustration, I would say that if Dorana were a tapestry, then some of its threads have come loose.”

Sallis and Shari exchanged looks. Then Shari pursed her lips. “Yes indeed, a most fanciful illustration. But I find myself no more educated than I was before.”

“The warp and weft of magic that permeates the world, that the mages of Dorana can feel and manipulate to everyone’s great advantage, has been damaged,” said Bellamie Ranowen. “How, I cannot tell you. Not yet. But what I can say, Councillors, is this: until the cause of this disruption is found, we cannot continue our magework. If we do, we will only hasten the tapestry’s unravelling.”

Venette closed her eyes. Though she’d fleetingly suspected that what she’d felt might lead to this, hearing the suspicion spoken aloud, so bluntly, made her feel ill.

Sallis was choking. “You’d have us cease our magework? Woman, are you mad?”