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“—and you aren’t in any shape to insult anyone’s physique, I can assure you.”

“Excuseme?”

Fairhrim made for the door. “I’ve got to go. I’ve got real patients to take care of.”

Osric made a shooing motion. “Good. Go look after your invalids.”

Fairhrim pivoted. “Invalids? You’re the most invalid of them all. I’ve never dealt with such a congenitally weak intellect.”

“Watch your insolence. I’ve cut out tongues for lesser insults.”

“You’ve just insulted me, my patients, and Xanthe, in so many seconds, andI’mthe insolent one? If anyone should have a glossectomy, it’s you, and I would gladly volunteer to perform it.”

“A what?”

But Fairhrim was gone. The door snapped closed behind her.

Osric scowled at it, then threw a knife into it for good measure.

What a pity this Haelan was of use to him. She’d be far more tolerable dead.

4

Aurienne Suffers in Nature

Aurienne

In addition to managing a Fyren and his irrational expectations, Aurienne was responsible for Swanstone’s Centre for Seith Research. She had been bullied into the directorship six months ago by the Heads of her Order in spite of her protestations. Like any researcher worth her salt, Aurienne had outright refused the position, preferring to continue her pursuits in the lab—the noble advancement of knowledge, etc. And, also, she would rather die than do anything involving so much admin.

However, when old Haelan Whiffleby had retired last autumn, the Heads identified Aurienne as his logical successor, because she was ruthlessly organised, always had Things Under Control, and, additionally, everyone was a bit frightened of her. Aurienne argued that these were not leadership qualities, that she was a researcher above all, and also, as previously indicated, she would rather die than deal with admin. A silence had followed this pronouncement, after which the Heads had looked at one another, and Abercorn had said, fine, they would appointMurbock-Biddle as Director. This was a distressing suggestion, given that Murbock-Biddle was a cretin. In the face of this underhanded tactic, Aurienne had accepted the directorship and inherited Whiffleby’s quarters at the top of the north tower, furnished largely with spiders and spores of mould.

She had also inherited his quotidian serving of problems. Today, an assortment of perfectly resourceful Haelan, suddenly bereft of alldébrouillardise, approached her with the following issues: There was a leak in the ceiling of Lab 5 and what should they do? They were low on tissue culture media and would she approve another order and please sign these forms to bypass the procurement process because they would be out by tomorrow otherwise? Would she permit a subscription to the following periodicals, which were not relevant to seith research but nevertheless seemed interesting? The chromatography refrigerator wasn’t working, and also could they institute a policy on allergens in the Centre because someone almost died because someone else ate a shrimp?

Aurienne’s lab was a raft of sanity among the sea of admin. That was where she repaired to—not to say, fled to—presently. Loose hair was not permitted in the lab; she twisted her plait into a bun transversed with a bone curette and instructed it to stay there. (Sometimes her hair obeyed and sometimes it didn’t. Life was full of such anxieties.)

She strode into the lab to find a group of apprentices observing a pair of senior apprentices working on her current study. Tentative title:Evaluating Peripheral Seith Channel Trauma: A Histological Approach. Not snappy, but eminently informative, which was the greater goal.

The apprentices in their dark grey robes clustered in an anxious knot at the end of a workbench, observing the two older ones. Corinne and Nym were on the cusp of earning their wings, so close to coming into their Haelan whites that their robes were of the palest silver.

Corinne was hunched over a microscope, calling out findings to Nym. “Specimen three: microrupture. Specimen four: episeithial tear.Specimen five: microrupture. Specimen six: loss of undulation. Specimen seven: episeithial stretch—er, or tear. Oh, Haelan Fairhrim, you’re here—what do you think?”

Aurienne peered into the microscope. “At least one seith fibre terminates in a gap. It’s a tear. Line up to have a look, you lot.”

Thus addressed, the apprentices shuffled into a nervous queue to peer at the specimen.

Corinne scribbled out a note. “The zone of transition between stretch and rupture is so narrow.”

“It is,” said Aurienne. “That’s why six paragraphs of our methodology lay out our quantification process.”

The apprentices dispersed and Corinne returned to her place at the microscope. “Specimen eight: microrupture. Specimen nine: loss of undulation. Specimen ten…”

When Corinne and Nym had finished, Aurienne ran through their findings. “I’d like you to examine the relationship between the microarchitectural ruptures and injury severity grades. Use Wilcomb’s correlation with Hall’s correction.”

“Yes, Haelan Fairhrim,” said Corinne and Nym.

“Have you remarked this interesting pattern of minimal injury to the episeithium and periseithium under acute stretch conditions?” asked Aurienne.

“Erm—no,” said Corinne.