She woke around mid-afternoon, drew and wrote more, and had another stack of essays to give Jyx when she came back after training. Her hand was cramped from using a handwriting that didn’t look like hers. “Told Vira you were sick,” Jyx reported. “But Vira didn’t care. She just wanted to talk about some illustrated essay she found in her copy of our texbook.” Jyx snickered. “She had no idea how it got there.”

“What did she say about it?”

Plopping down on her bed, Jyx said, “She thought it was lies from a sick mind. But not your kind of sick. I mean, not your kind of sick if you weren’t fake sick.”

She didn’t believe it. Mina’s shoulders sagged. She looked down at a half-drawn image of graves. Her fingers were aching, and the side of her hand was stained gray from the pencil.

“But that was just Vira,” Jyx said. “You should have heard Kita and Saril. Kita was crying. She said she’d always suspected it was true, because how could the weather not be connected to the world? And Saril said she was going to write to her dad—​he’s a professor at a rain-guardian school, I think in the southern orchards. Or is it the lake district? Anyway, she said he’d been grumbling for years about how the government wouldn’t consider new ideas. So that’s good, right?”

Mina nodded, agreeing.

“You know what I think? I think people already know it’s true, or at least guardians do. But no one ever stood up and put it in words—​or pictures—​and turned it from a whisper into a shout. I think people are ready to hear this. How many more did you finish?” She counted. “Twenty-three. Great. Keep going. I’ll bring you food. Except you’re going to have to come out tomorrow. Otherwise they’ll send the nurse to check on you, and we don’t want that. If you’re stuck in the sick room, you can’t draw more.”

Jyx left for dinner without waiting for Mina to reply, which was fine because she didn’t have enough energy to respond to any of that. She bent over the desk and kept drawing and writing.

«Mina, is it morning?» Pixit asked sleepily behind her.

No, it’s almost nighttime.

«Oh. That’s good.»

He fell back asleep, but only lightly, so he’d continue to spark.

She kept going.

At breakfast, Mina braved the dining hall. Instead of darting in for a roll, she picked up a tray and joined her friends at their table. Each of them nodded welcome as she sat. She’d expected them to be surprised to see her again, but they weren’t. It felt right to be here.

“You look terrible,” Jyx said. “Maybe take a break tonight.”