“Good. What I would say, though I’m by no means an expert, is that morality, the right and wrong of how human beings treat each other, is social. Therefore it is very difficult to apply the rules of morality to a totally asocial, totally amoral life form.”

“If it’s difficult,” said Ezekiel, “does that mean we shouldn’t try?”

Walden gave him a raised eyebrow: What, even I get the Socratic treatment? His grin was a there-and-gone-again flash in his dark face. “I think that’s an individual decision,” she said austerely. “But do bear in mind the essential principle of all invocation is the demonic contract, which works in exactly the same way as a human contract. ‘I give you this, and in return, you give me that; this we agree, and we promise to abide by the agreement.’ All the spells, arrays, and wardings you are learning are elaborate extensions of that principle. What we offer to demons, as magicians, are slices of physical reality, something which has enormous value to them. And what they offer us is power—which, of course, we must use responsibly. It all operates on that same principle of consent. ‘Here’s what I want, and here’s what I’m willing to give you for it.’ The demon is a willing participant.”

“Though bear in mind,” said Ezekiel, “that there is almost always a power imbalance, one way or the other. Which makes ‘willing’ a tricky word.”

chapter five THE ARCHIVES

Walden managed to get the lesson observation properly typed up and emailed over to Ezekiel during her lunch break. She made a note to find a meeting time with him to talk it over in person—she was interested in his opinions of those students, and which ones he thought would go on to A-level. And she needed to float taking Year Ten next year, which meant asking him to take Year Twelve, she couldn’t do both with a management workload; and that would leave him with two A-level sets, which was a big ask. Add it to the list. There was always more to do.