With help from Michael and from my apprentice classes, my gallerie has come a long way. Madam Adelina, my pitch instructor, has really helped me improve my singing voice. In Apprentice Art Studio, I’ve made some decent drawings and discovered that, in addition to my plant dyes, I really enjoy both egg tempera and pastels. I’ve prepared an original recipe in culinary science and, with Kaylie’s help, completed a life-size anatomically accurate sketch of a human circulatory system. Through it all, I’ve gathered a fair number of pieces worth showing. However, my song is still a mess.

But there’s no way I can be productive with my brain this preoccupied.

Izzy has talked me through many overthinking tornadoes. If she were here, she would tell me to approach things logically and make a list.

I grab a paper and pen and write down each guild starting with Bioscience.

• Bioscience
• PROS:
• – Medical stuff
• – Sire sharing thing??
• – Good fit for Sires
• – Great hoverjoust team

The negatives for the Bioscience guild write themselves:

• CONS:
• – Snobby/competitive journeys
• – RAFE

I move on to the Artisans next.

• Artisans
• PROS:
• – Georgie
• – Music + art = yay!
• CONS:
• – Bad hoverjoust team

What about the Sophists? They have an amazing guildmaster. I met with her once because she wanted to make sure I was integrating at the institute “spiritually, philosophically, and psychologically.” She is, as Michael had told me, the direct descendant of Ada Lovelace. She’s also as sweet as a gushberry and a total genius.

• Sophists
• PROS:
• – Michael’s guild
• – Nice guildmaster
• – Art history = yes, please
• CONS:
• – Most other kinds of history = boring
• – Psychology, sociology, theology = also boring
• – Michael might be my TEACHER…

Mbali is the only Alchemist I’ve met. I know that their high material is glace, and I’ve passed the Alchemy lab a few times and it’s always smoky and smelly. They’re involved in things like chemistry, botany, and agriculture. It takes me a moment to make my list since I haven’t given the guild much thought before.

• Alchemists
• PROS:
• – I’m good with plants
• – Do they actually do alchemy—like make gold?
• CONS:
• – I got a C in chemistry last year
• – Stinky lab

The Ciphers are my last choice, and I know little about their guild other than that Georgie often talks about their hoverjousting captain, Hera, and that Michael’s sister has done some prominent research for them. I’m pretty sure I don’t have the head for whatever they do. Even their guild emblem looks like some kind of complicated equation with a golden ratio spiral and the geometric and military compass invented by Galileo. I jot my notes quickly.

• Ciphers
• PROS:
• – Great hoverjoust team
• – Engineering and physics are theoretically cool…
• CONS:
• – MATH IS EVIL. STAY FAR AWAY