Changes

::Oh! Good idea.::

He began mentally calculating what it was going to take to pull this off. Fortunately that exhibition game of Kirball was the last the teams would play this season. It was just too hot to play in that open field in all the armor and padding. Practice and games would resume in the fall, when it was cooler.

::And Herald Caelen wants to see you about your class schedule.::

::Now?:: he asked in surprise.

::After breakfast.::

Well, that was interesting. Perhaps he had better postpone making plans until after he heard what Caelen had in store for him.

Back at the mines, he’d loved and hated summer in equal measure. Hated it, because the longer days meant longer work. Loved it, because at least he wasn’t freezing all the time, when he could snatch a free moment there were things you could eat to be grubbed up out of the woods, fields, and stream, and because even he, miserable creature that he had been, was able to see the breathtaking beauty in a summer morning.

Now he was well fed, healthy, and—yes—happy. And a walk up from Companion’s Stable to the dining hall on a perfect summer morning was enough to make him want to sing. Not that he would. He would never shatter the quiet, full of birdsong and the scent of fresh grass and the flowers up in the gardens, with something that sounded like a mule in pain. There were many things that Mags knew he did well. Singing was definitely not one of them.

The Waking Bell rang as he reached the dining hall, but breakfast began there before the bell sounded. Plenty of people other than the Trainees ate here, and many of them started their day at dawn. He was, as usual, one of the first in the hall; he sat down at an empty table and ate neatly and quickly. Whatever it was that Caelen wanted to tell him, it had to be important, or he would never have had Dallen relay the order to him at a moment when most of the Trainees weren’t even up yet.

He never ate so quickly that he wolfed down his food without tasting it, however. He had gone for so long eating what most of the folk in this building would consider not even fit for pigs that he never missed an opportunity to actually savor what he ate. And give a little silent thanks that he was getting it in the first place.

Just as the first of the Trainees began to trickle in, looking a bit rumpled and still sleepy, he was finished. He took his dishes to the hatch and ran down the hall and up the stairs to Caelan’s office. The door was already standing open, and the Dean was putting away a stack of books. Like Mags, the Dean of Heraldic Collegium began his day early.

“I sometimes wonder if people who lie abed late have any idea what they are missing,” Herald Caelen said conversationally, with a nod to the open window behind his desk. The office was in much better shape than it had been when Mags had first met the Dean. There were only half as many books and papers as had been crammed in here back then, and most of them were properly stowed in cubbys and on the bookshelves that lined the walls.

“Dunno, sir,” Mags responded, and closed the door behind him. “Reckon they’d jest say ’tis same as sunset. On’y i’ th’ East.”

“So they might. Well, sit down, this shouldn’t take long. Nikolas has told me all about his plan and asked me to do what I could to make things easier on you. So I have. I have good news and bad news.” Caelen waited while Mags took a seat, then seated himself. “The bad news is that I simply cannot wave my hand and make the classes you really need to take go away. It’s possible it might take you more years before you are reckoned to be ready for Whites than the rest of your yearmates.”

Mags’ heart sank.

“The good news is—it might not. It’s going to depend on how well you can keep up and what things the Circle ultimately decides that you need not take in order to qualify. And I can do things for the short term at least. Nikolas is fairly certain this little adventure is not going to be needed come the fall, and traditionally in summer we give students a lighter load anyway. So, this is what I’ve done. I’ve postponed some of your classes and moved the rest into a single block of time. So my question is, would you rather sleep from noon until sunset, then join Nikolas in the city, then return here at dawn and take classes in the morning? Or would you rather sleep from early dawn until noon, take your classes, then join Nikolas?”

Oh, now that was a good question. If he had only himself to consider, he would take his lessons in the morning and sleep until nightfall. But he didn’t have just himself to consider. He had friends. And if he did that, he would never see them.

It struck him, then, leaving him a little stunned for a moment. I... hev friends. Real friends. People I wanter see an’ talk to an’ be with... “Afternoon, please ye, sir,” he replied, and laughed. “Reckon I kin get easier used ter eatin’ nuncheon fer breakfast than breakfast fer supper.”

“That’s probably a wise choice,” Caelen replied, making notes. “If nothing happens all night and you end up drowsing, you’ll have a morning to catch up with the others in your lessons. And if you end up working all night, you will be very tired when you get back here. So tiresome of thieves and criminals not to keep regular hours!”

Mags managed a little laugh.

“All right, nothing for you today, you’ll start the new schedule tomorrow. I’m glad Nikolas waited until the start of the quarter before embarking on this; it’s much easier than trying to rejuggle everything after you’d already started.”

That last was muttered as Herald Caelen began leafing through papers and making out schedules—not just Mags’, but several others from the look of things. Since they’d all gotten their schedules before the week-long Event, these must be for newly Chosen Trainees who had just arrived, or were about to. Four of them, if Mags was counting right.

Good thing new Collegium’s done.

He knew the Dean well enough by now to merely murmur “Thankee, Herald Caelen,” and take himself out. And once out in the hall, he realized that he had something he almost never had; a whole morning to himself. Only a morning, because he knew very well that his new schedule would be presented to him by nuncheon, if not before. If the Dean said he was going to start afternoon classes, the Dean would have him starting afternoon classes this afternoon.

Well, there was one thing looming that he probably ought to check on.