Didi held her textbook open through forty minutes of instruction and kept finding the same unread line beneath her finger.
At the board, Preceptor Thorne joined two mana paths with a chalk arc she was supposed to be copying down. Her quill lay forgotten beside untouched parchment while yesterday's palace dispatch kept painting something else entirely across her drifting thoughts.
'He is walking into the guild right now, probably smiling like the trial is just another argument to enjoy.'
She glanced at the page and realized she was picturing a coat instead of a diagram, which was mortifying.
The confirmed appointment put Hajin beneath the guildhall this morning, facing a trial whose results the court would hear eventually. Didi wanted that report sooner, though admitting why would hand her father one more reason to inspect her invitations closely.
'He brought me home when the road gave nobody else a single reason to believe I could return alive.'
