Page 23 of Foresyth Conservatory

“Gone?”

“Yes, it wasn’t in the jar anymore. I searched everywhere in his lab after that. Nothing. He was so amused by it, how I struggled to figure out the trick. It’s been years and I still haven’t figured it out.”

“You could always ask him.”

“I can’t anymore.”

“Oh. I’m sorry,” Nina said, looking away. “Both my parents are dead, too. Have been since I was a kid. Died in a motorcar accident—so much for technology improving people’s lives. For the longest time, the only thing I wanted to do was bring them back.” She moved over to the tub of brine, her fingers searching for something to fiddle with. My heart sank, images of my own father flashing in my head. I had wanted to bring him back, too.

Something clicked in my mind as I thought back to my first conversation with Nina.

“The Gremlins, the techno-anxiety—it’s yours, too.”

Nina looked away, rolling her eyes. “I’m not afraid of motorcars, but I did want to understandwhy. Why did they have to die like that?”

“You want their death to mean something,” I said, blinking away the sting in my eyes. When she didn’t reply, I asked, “And you don’t want to anymore? Bring them back?”

Nina turned to me, smiling. “Necromancy is a dangerous magick. They wouldn’t come back the same anyway. Besides, I’ve found a better way of dealing with my loss.”

“Oh?”

“Honoring them,” she said solemnly, looking back at the tub.

“Perhaps you could use a friend in that pursuit.” I forced my tone to be casual.

“And I guess you could use one too, new girl.” A wry smile crested her lips.

I watched her for a moment as she toiled over the brine bath, carefully stacking stones atop her specimen with practiced precision. Her focus, her tireless resolve—it wasanimated by grief, not unlike my own. Loss had shaped us both, though in different molds. Was this blossom of friendship seeming orbecoming, as the Meister had urged? I swallowed the lightness in my chest.

We spent the rest of the morning in the lab, Nina detailing every piece of equipment on the benches and me soaking it all up. I was especially pleased to find a light analyzer capable of chemical analysis of liquids and solids.

“I don’t have the slightest idea how to use that, so it’s all yours if you want it. There are also drawers of spare mechanical parts that I promised. I’ll clear my stuff from that bench,” she said.

I smiled and thanked her. Excitement welled up in my chest as I pried the drawers open and looked through them. A rusty gear stood out to me as nearly the perfect size for a music box I had been working on. I pocketed it, turning my attention back to Nina.

“And here’s my spare key to the lab,” she said, untangling a key from her necklace. “The Meister isn’t here enough to enforce his silly rules.”

I took the key from her, slipping it into my pocket. It didn’t matter if our friendship was true or not, I decided. The most important thing was that it was proving to be useful.

“It is indeed true that Foresyth Conservatory holds lineage in high regard, though not for the reasons commonly assumed. The Council harbors no intention of preserving exclusivity based on notions of aristocratic breeding or the presumption that ancestry signifies inherent magickal ability.

The reasoning is, rather, far more elemental. The House favors familiar blood, akin to the body’s selective acceptance of compatible blood types. Just as a foreign element may be rejected by the body, so too does Foresyth resist unfamiliar presences, for its vital essence has already been established. Foresyth exists to sustain its legacy, not to alter its nature.”

—Foresyth Conservatory: A Complete History, Unabridged, 1891

“Tis there’s the stone that whoever kisses

He never misses to grow eloquent;

‘Tis he may clamber to a lady’s chamber,

Or become a member of Parliament.

Don’t try to hinder him, or to bewilder him,

For he is a pilgrim from the Blarney Stone.”

–The Blarney Stoneby Francis Sylvester Mahony, 1837