Something Close to Magic by Emma Mills

Author:Emma Mills
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Published: 2023-06-13T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Two

Dear Aurelie,

I’m happy to report that I have made it safely to the Scholar’s City. Thankfully, the journey north featured nothing more threatening than an undercooked stew at an inn in Greenshire. (The indigestion it invoked was inconvenient but survivable.)

Though I’m very glad that we are now both in the Northern Realm, I must admit that my return to school has not been as refreshing as I had hoped. My general lectures this semester are terribly dull. Why the study of magic necessitates a course in mathematics, I have no idea. Far worse, in that particular class I am forced to sit behind Lord Defiance, who (as you may recall) is aggressively unpleasant.

I don’t think I ever got the chance to formally thank you for what you said to him at the palace, by the way. It truly was most satisfying….

Dear Hapless,

I suppose you could make the case that an understanding of the natural world facilitates the study of magic and that mathematics is part of the natural world? Whatever the justification, I hope that Lord Defiance’s massive head doesn’t eclipse your view of the front of the classroom. He and I had only a brief interaction, but I’m sure that what I said to him was entirely justified.

This made me wonder—you must have met with Iliana and Lord Defiance often over the years. Why didn’t you ever mention anything about Iliana’s rank when we were adventuring together?

Dear Aurelie,

I suppose I didn’t feel it was my place to say anything if Iliana didn’t want it to be known. I can understand the desire to cast a title off. To be someone else, even if just for a little while. If Iliana found that, I wouldn’t want to be the one to take it from her….

Dear Hapless,

Who would you be, if you were someone else?

Dear Aurelie,

I would be Bastian Sinclair.

I fear you might laugh at me for that. But there is no fiction I love so much as The Pauper’s Play. Bastian Sinclair is a singular inspiration of mine. He has nothing at all at the start and then becomes more successful than anyone could have possibly imagined. And everyone who had ever doubted him—proven completely wrong!

My dear Steward played the role once, to great acclaim. He was actually understudying me, to tell the truth. I believe the production was all the better for his stepping in, as admittedly an eleven-year-old Bastian would have been a bit jarring. The scene in the alehouse with Madame Vermillion certainly would’ve played differently.

To play Bastian Sinclair though—to live that story! I must admit, it has its appeal.

(The alehouse scene notwithstanding.)

Who would you be, Aurelie? What would you do?

Dear Hapless,

I can assure you, I have no idea. I’m not sure what that says about me, except that I have very little imagination….

Dear Aurelie,

On the contrary, I think you have a prodigious imagination! I believe one must in order to do magic, don’t you? My mentor, Professor Frison, laments my lack of imagination. I thought maybe

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