‘The Tammy is the unit of spell complexity,’ Rochester said. He sounded a little depressed himself; seeing Lambert like this did not go well with him. ‘Named for the founder of metaphysics, Tamara Edison Erickson, who was, apparently, Tammy to her friends. The scale is somewhat arbitrary. One Tammy is defined as the complexity of the simplest of cantrips. This basic building block was then used to scale other measurements. A typical, entry-level student at SAS-squared is capable of handling spells in the sixty to one hundred and ten Tammy range, though some have significantly higher capabilities.’ He did not look at Nava when he said that last part, but she knew she was who he was talking about.
‘Very good.’ Lambert knew that Rochester was talking about Nava too, but he did not look her way either. Everyone was being very good about that. The teacher gave a sigh and then he activated the screen behind him to show a complicated set of equations. ‘Now, we’re going to go through all of these in detail, but I want you to take in the whole thing before we dissect it. Establishing the complexity of a spell requires the use of a considerable amount of metaphysics knowledge, but it’s one of those things you need to know how to do, so you just need to knuckle down and learn this.’
Knuckling down and getting on with it seemed to be Lambert’s default mode now. His life had been his research and his family. Now he had neither.
235/7/30.
‘Does anyone see anything problematic in the buffet menu?’ Mitsuko asked. Her gaze swept around the student council who were, once again, discussing the details of the summer dance. Mitsuko’s stress levels were not going down. She planned to drag Nava into bed as soon as possible tonight.
‘Is everything going to be suitably labelled?’ Darius asked. ‘We do have students with special dietary needs.’ Darius had turned around a little after Mitsuko’s pep talk the week before. He was actually being helpful. Less useless definitely, but sometimes that edged into helpfulness.
‘Vegetarians?’ Melissa asked. Then she answered as though that was what he had meant. ‘There’s a selection of dishes designed for them and a slightly more restricted list of vegan dishes. They’ll be labelled as such. Uh…’ She flicked at her ketcom briefly. ‘Yes, there are a few other indicators on the labelling for things like gluten and lactose intolerance. It should all be labelled the same as the refectories, so there shouldn’t be a problem.’
‘Except for when some joker swaps the labels,’ Courtney said. ‘We’ll need to watch for that. It’s not a problem in the cafeterias because the labels are built into the cabinets.’
‘There speaks the voice of experience,’ Mitsuko said. ‘We’ll need to keep an eye on that. Anything else we need to discuss?’
‘Not about the dance,’ Melissa said, flicking at her ketcom again, ‘but we did get a request from the administration. From Vice Principal Joslyn Harris, actually.’
‘Oh. What now?’
‘Let me see… The school is taking part in a symposium being held in Alliance City from the thirteenth of August to the sixteenth. They’re sending a delegation of faculty and staff, but they’d like the student council to arrange a student delegation.’
‘A symposium?’ Darius asked.
‘Sorcery in Society zero two three five. It’s the first in what they hope will be a series of Alliance-wide discussion forums regarding the place and function of sorcery, uh, in society. It’ll cover social issues for magicians, relations with non-magicians, military aspects including policing, and education. Uh, it’s that last one they’re asking us to prepare for. They’d like a representative of the students to sit on one of the discussion panels which will happen on the fourteenth, if everything goes as planned.’
Mitsuko groaned. ‘I wonder how long they’ve known about this. And they tell us a week before the dance and two weeks before they expect us to perform. My little vindictive self wants to tell them that we can’t do it.’
‘But your dutiful, daughter-of-a-clan-leader self is saying that you can’t avoid it?’ Darius suggested.
Mitsuko flashed a grimace. ‘Sometimes, I wish I’d been born on a backwater world to a vat-meat production worker.’
‘No, you don’t,’ Melissa said.
‘Okay, you’re right, I don’t.’
~~~
‘And so, on top of organising the dance, I’ve agreed to take on this seminar,’ Mitsuko said. She was at dinner with Nava, Melissa, and Rochester, as usual. Her contemplation of stress relief had risen to the point where she was almost ready to invite them all back to her place for an orgy. Maybe she could get Courtney and Kyle to come over…
‘Ahem,’ Melissa said. ‘You agreed that we would do it.’
Shifting thought patterns in an instant, Mitsuko put on her best pleading face. ‘You do want to do it, don’t you? You wouldn’t leave your poor president and friend out in the cold when she desperately needs her efficient, organised, brilliant, beautiful secretary to help, would you?’
‘I am not all of those things.’
‘I think you are,’ Rochester said.
‘I’ll help,’ Nava said. She forked rice into her mouth and let her words sink in. It took a second for Mitsuko to understand what she had heard.
‘What? Why? I mean, I won’t turn down the assistance and they did say three or four people would be best, but–’
‘I think I may have a unique perspective. Having grown up outside the normal clan system and coming to SAS-squared fresh. Without any preconceived ideas.’
‘That’s… an interesting idea. I like it. Yes, I could see how that might– Wait! You just want an excuse to
