“Remember our higher demons topic. These creatures are predators. The more intelligent ones will absolutely try to play on your emotions in order to create a weakness. I promise you, nothing it said was worth listening to,” said Walden. “We had the bad luck to run into something rather bigger than we were expecting. That can happen. What did we do right? What should we have done better?”

“I froze,” said Mathias, miserable.

“Yes,” said Walden gently. “You did. That can also happen. Let’s see what we can learn from it, so it’s less likely to happen again.”

It took a while to get the group talking, and it was a good ten minutes before Mathias said much more than monosyllables, but by the time the bell went for morning break, they all seemed to have recovered from the incident. “All right, do me a practical report. Use the structure in your notes, and it’s due next week. Yes, as in Monday next week,” Walden said, fully expecting to have the reports all in by Wednesday-ish. “Will, could you stay behind a moment, please.”

Always difficult to tell off a Year Thirteen, and particularly difficult to tell off someone like Will, who as well as being unshakeably self-confident was more than a foot taller than Walden. Scolding was much easier when you could loom a little, but short of magical cheating, Walden could not physically intimidate someone who was six foot three. She knew how to make her tone of voice make up the difference, though. “Do you know why I want to speak to you?” she asked Will when the others were gone, in tones that any intelligent child would instantly parse as ‘alarmingly neutral.’

Will shrugged, which was a fairly good start, because it meant he did know and preferred not to admit it. “It was Matty’s fault, though.”

“We’re not talking about Mathias just now, Will,” said Walden, and then waited. Silence was a powerful tool when you were dealing with a teenager who knew they were in the wrong.

“Okay, okay, okay,” said Will. “I only said oof. I didn’t know it would distract him.”

“What’s the arcane safety standard for secondary casters in a major invocation?” Walden asked.

“Silence,” Will admitted.

“So you do know,” said Walden. “Good. I was concerned that I hadn’t taught you anything. And I am disappointed, Will. You put yourself and your classmates at serious risk through pure carelessness. By now you should be a much better magician than that.”

“But—”

Walden raised her eyebrows.

“It was all fine in the end, though, wasn’t it? It’s not a huge deal.”