“Yenni Ajani!” he called after her, but it seemed he was capable of good sense after all, as he wisely did not follow.

10

Lights—what Yenni now knew were Queyor’s Magic Lanterns—hung suspended in bowls of glass on poles lining the walkways. She hurried along until she was back at student services. Carmenna waited on one of the leather sofas against the walls, her chin in her hands and her dark hair tumbling like a horse’s mane over one shoulder.

“There you are!” she said as she caught sight of Yenni. She stood and they touched palms, Yenni once again holding back a grimace at the awkward intimacy of the gesture.

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting,” she said. “There is much I want to discuss with you today—” Yenni cut off as her stomach let out a loud, embarrassing grumble.

Carmenna raised an eyebrow. “I’m starving too. Why don’t we take this conversation to the dining hall?”

And so they made the short trip there. The dining hall was a long, corridor-like building made of stone pillars that curved up to arches high overhead, and large windows let in the night sky while more magic lanterns floated above them like stars. Yenni and Carmenna sat across from each other, surrounded by laughter and chatter and clicking utensils. The rich and meaty smell of Yenni’s Creshen stew made her mouth water, and it was an effort to wait as the crusty bread sopped up the broth, softening it. She took a bite and held back a moan. It could simply be that she was hungrier than a plague of locusts, but the savory stew and crunchy bread were like a rare and luxurious delicacy.

Carmenna spoke around a mouthful of her own stew.

“Mmm. Now then, what are you struggling with? What should we focus on?”

“Magic,” said Yenni.

“Could you perhaps be a bit more”—Carmenna waved her bread for emphasis—“specific?”

“Creshen magic.”

Carmenna watched her helplessly. “Are you having trouble with specific incantations? Anchoring? Battle magic? Healing magic? Domestic spells—”

“Ah! Healing magic! I want to know about Creshen healing magic,” Yenni said excitedly.

Carmenna swallowed another spoonful of stew. “Well that’s lucky. I’m in studies to become a general physiology mage myself.”

Lucky indeed! Praises to Mother Ib and Father Ji, thought Yenni, even though by tradition, they weren’t supposed to intervene.

“What is it about healing magic that has you so intrigued?” asked Carmenna.

Yenni hesitated—should she tell? This woman may be able to help her, and wasn’t that why Yenni had come? She bit her lip and glanced at the rune on her left palm. “My father is very sick,” she said softly.

“I’m so sorry,” said Carmenna, and there was real sympathy in her eyes.

“None of the healers back home have been able to cure his illness, only slow it, but he is getting worse.”