A moment later, Isis pushed open the door reading “CYRUS EMBER – PRINCIPAL” and smiled at the secretary there.

“The principal wanted to see me?” she said.

The secretary was a brownie, one of the small fae creatues that were used by the faculty and students of Magnolian for any labor that had to be both menial and magical, and she sat at a half-scale desk with her iridescent wings occasionally fluttering behind her.

“Yes, you’re expected,” she said. “Go right in, but leave your familiar.”

“Cause a distraction in about five minutes, and there’s more peanuts in it for you,” Isis told Rowan.

“How much of a distraction are we talking, and how many peanuts?”

“Big enough to get the principal out here but not enough to get us expelled,” Isis replied. “I want to look at his files.”

“You got it,” Rowan told her. “Assuming you can meet my rate of peanuts per chaos,”

The bird hopped off Isis’s arm and into a familiar cage in place for that purpose; she purposely left the latch slightly open and entered the principal’s office.

Inside, the furnishings were enormously plush, with antique furniture and all manner of magically animated whirligigs and contraptions, including a perpetual-motion Newton’s cradle and a drinking bird toy with an abdomen that seemed to be filled with liquid mercury. It was every bit the office of one of the most repsected sorcerers in the state of Mississippi, and one of the three co-owners of the great Wickerby, Driftwood, and Ember wandworks.

“Ms. Wright, was it? Come in, come in.”

Perched in an enormous chair in fornt of a desk piled high with papers, Cyrus Ember was eighty years olf if he was a day, with a long curly beard and his long hair gathered up into a puffy ponytail. Clear blue eyes peeked out over reading glasses, while he wore a finely tailored dress shirt and tie under his deep crimson academic robes.

“Please, sit.” Ember gestured to a chair in front of him.

Isis, her hands clasped demurely in front of her, sat in the chair. A moment later, its animated legs walked it closer to the desk, until her knees were dangerously close to barking against the wood.

“Ms. Maxine tells me you pulled off a nifty bit of sorcery in class today,” he said. “Levitating your wand…with itself? As your very first practical test in Alterations?”

“Yes, sir,” Isis said. “I wanted to make a good first impression.”

“Indeed? Well, that’s a very advanced piece of magic, especially for someone so young. Ms. Maxine said you declined to answer, so I’ll ask you again: how did you come to know it?”

“Old family secret,” said Isis, again. “I’m sure you understand, sir.”

Ember sighed and leaned back in his chair, drumming out what sounded like the opening bars of a drum solo on his paunchy belly. “I understand you preferring not to speak of such things,” he said. “When I was your age, I knew a cantrip for lighting fires that I was definitely not supposed to have learned yet. And I set the rug on fire in my dormitory as a result. Do you see where I’m going with this?”

“I’m not planning to levitate my dormitory,” said Isis. “I promise.”

Ember chucked, but there was no mirth in his eyes. “How long have you been here, Ms. Wright? A week? Two? Long enough to notice, I think, that all our students come from varied magical backgrounds. Some have been casting magic with adult wands at an early age, while others are just now beginning to unlock the latent potential of their bloodlines.”

“Do you think my…bloodline…has a latent potential for making things float?” Isis asked.

“I think it’s necessary for me, and my faculty, to know if our students have any advanced magical knowledge that could pose a danger to themselves or others.”

Ember drew his own wand from its holster on his ornate belt and waggled it in front of Isis. It looked like some kind of very light wood, maybe beech, with gold and mother-of-pearl inlays.

“I’m not going to try casting Greater Truthification on you, but I want an honest answer,” said Ember. “Do you know any other magic that is advanced and possibly dangerous?”

“Absolutely not, sir,” Isis said. “I do not know a single spell that I think could harm my fellow students.”

“Uh-huh. And that levitation trick?”

“That’s all it is, sir. A trick. I can’t do anything else like it.”

“I see,” Ember said. “Well, if nothing else, I’m glad we had the opportunity to finally chat one on one. Have you had the chance to-”

The principal was interrupted by a crash and a scream in the other room. Through the frosted windows, the silhouette of a brownie and a crow engaged in furious, impromptu aerial combat could be seen.

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