“That’s a pity,” I said. “No chance of that changing?”

“Right at the moment my schedule’s fairly fixed, I’m afraid. I’m committed all the way through the spring.”

“Sorry to hear that. If anything does change and you have an opening . . . ?”

“Of course. I’ll give you a call.”

“Thanks for your time.”

“Have a good day.”

The man on the other side of the video feed reached forward to his keyboard and the window closed. I leant back in my chair with a sigh. “Well, that was a waste of time.”

“I didn’t like him anyway,” Luna said.

It was the next day and we were up in my living room. I was at my desk, Luna was sitting on the sofa, and we’d just finished a call with another prospective teacher. I’d had Luna around just on the off chance that the conversation might have gone well, but as it turned out she could have saved herself the trip.

“Is it me,” Luna said, “or are there not many chance mages with the Council? Because every time I get a class on chance magic, it always seems to be some other mage telling us about chance magic. I’m starting to think I know more than the teachers.”

“You know magic types have a bias towards factions,” I said. “Death mages are more likely to be Dark, mind mages are more likely to be Light . . . well, chance mages tend to be independent or Dark. They might go through the apprentice program, but they don’t stay there.”

“Yeah, can’t imagine why. So have we run out yet?”

“Of the Council-approved ones, yeah.”

We’d been at the teacher-hunting game for a month, with no luck so far. Trying to find a magic teacher who matches your magic type and has the time and inclination to teach and is trustworthy is not easy. When I’d tried it with Anne and Variam, it had taken longer than this and I’d only managed a fifty percent success rate. “Guess it’s time to go farther afield,” I said. “We could try looking abroad, start in America or Europe and work our way out. Only problem with that is that I don’t really have any contacts over there.”

“Or . . . ?”

“Or we broaden our search by person instead of by country. So far I’ve been keeping it to Light mages and the reputable independents.” I tapped my fingers on the desk. “I know there are a whole lot more chance mages out there, but they don’t advertise. And you don’t know what you’re getting . . .”

“Soooo . . .” Luna said. “Funny you should mention that.”

I looked at Luna. “What have you done this time?”

“What do you mean, ‘this time’?”

“Just give me the bad news.”

“For your information, I got an offer for a teacher already,” Luna said.

“Who?”

“Her name’s Chalice.”

“She’s a finder?”

“No, she said she’s a chance mage. And she said she wanted to meet you.”