“Ah, probably not, but it was a thought. Certainly you’ve done more than enough on that head already.” Nikolas snapped his fingers. “Ah! That reminds me. I’ve arranged for all three of you to get access to the Guard records, with no subterfuge needed. There is no reason why you shouldn’t try to find out about your parents, Mags. No reason to hide behind some other excuse. Your little Bard friend will probably find something in there that is useful to her, and Bardic Trainees have traditionally gotten access there anyway, and as for Bear the Healer, being one of the first truly outstanding herb Healers we’ve had here, he should be given a chance to go through those records to see if there is anything there he can translate into medicines. Caelen was exceptionally impressed with how you handled things tonight, Lena and Bear are certainly more than responsible enough to have gotten passes long ago, so there will be permanent passes for all three of you in the morning. Just turn up at the archives, your names will all be on the allowed list from now on.”

Mags stared at Nikolas, absolutely speechless. Nikolas seemed to understand that he was speechless with gratitude, and smiled.

“There is something else that you accomplished tonight, quite inadvertently, Mags,” he continued. “You and Barrett. There has been some . . . strain in the relationships among the members of the three Collegia over all this building. Everyone has his own ideas about priorities, and everyone is watching jealously to see how much effort is spent on what.” He paused. “I think you got some sense of that with what went on around Herald Jakyr—although a good part of the strain between Jakyr and certain Bards has more to do with personal issues than the building. Thanks to Barrett’s gang, we had members of all three Collegia working together, as it should be—and tonight the heads of all three Collegia had a completely cordial meeting, deciding what to do about the young rogues. Frankly, this was only aided by the fact that you made Barrett feel so ashamed of himself that he took the whole of the blame on his own shoulders. Very fruitful. I think we went a long way in mending things.” He stood up and stretched. “And that is enough work for one night, I believe. I’ll let myself out.”

Mags was so astonished by the results of the evening that he stared at the closed door long after Nikolas was gone.