Arkat Alumnus

2: The Disputation

Early Morning Call - The Contest Begins - Charming The Judges - Young Love
Watching And Waiting - The Limits Of Memory - Deathly Dull - Passing Phase
Men And Beasts - Water On The Brain - Friends And Favours - Accused
Following The Founder's Example - Warp and Weft - Keeping Score - Unwelcome Visitor
Suspicion - Girl Talk - Helping Aggie - Emotional Epiphany - Elementary Questions
Moment of Truth - Hubris - Anticipation - Approaching the End - Saints - Elements Again
At Any Cost - Rivalry - Glittering Prize

~oOo~

The day of the Spring Disputation has arrived at last.

Breakfast is served earlier than usual and all of the participants are required to register at the refectory, to ensure that everyone will be ready for the start of the competition at dawn. The guest participants from the other schools have also been invited to join their hosts for breakfast, so many of the bleary-eyed Imperial College students find themselves sharing a table with some unfamiliar faces.

Shortly before dawn, the Headmaster arrives and leads the thirty-two competitors across the quadrangle towards a pair of tall bronze-bound doors, which swing slowly open as the party approachs. Passing through the entrance, the students find themselves in a large entrance hall with another set of bronze-bound doors opposite. A quietly efficient junior master checks off their name on a list and asks them to draw a small flat stone from a black velvet bag.

"The number in blue is your round for the first phase," he explains to them all. "The red dots on the reverse determines who shall act take the Proposing role. In the first phase, this will be the person in each round with one red dot. In subsequent rounds, it will be the person with the least dots who has not already presented their thesis."

Clutching their stones, the students move towards the second set of doors. Another master gives them instructions as they enter.

"If you are in rounds one or two, please report immediately to the judges beside the debating platform. If you are in the later rounds, please take a seat on the second row. I would suggest that you remain in these seats for the duration, but you are free to move around the hall if you wish. However, it is imperative that you present yourself to the judges in good time for your round in each phase, at least a quarter of an hour before it is due to start."

Entering into the chamber beyond is practically guaranteed to elicit a thrill of excitement in even the most cynical students. Even Imperial College students like Eren and Exalian, who have been here before, cannot help but draw a breath of wonder as the spectacular, torch-lit vista opens up before them.

The Grand Oratory building has been designed to inspire this sort of awe in both orators and audience alike. Its breathtakingly symmetrical construction is widely acknowledged as a miracle of applied logic with few rivals. Built in the time of the school's founder, Helmat, it has been put to many uses in its long history, even housing the short-lived Council of Citizens during one of the city's numerous political convulsions. Now it is used almost exclusively by the College, for important meetings and rituals. It has always been the venue for the Spring Disputation.

The main floor is a huge circular space, 32 metres in diameter, with rows of seats and wooden benches arranged on broad (2m deep) stone terraces, which form five concentric rings around a circular platform (4m diameter) in the centre. The platform is elevated, surrounded by a ring of steps; these steps, and the space between them and the first terrace, continue the terraces' pattern of concentric rings. The terraces are divided into quarter segments by four wide (5m) aisles: two are staircases, providing access to the upper terraces, while the other two are a passageways leading to the building's main and subsidiary entrances.

Eight rows of four columns are arranged in a radial pattern (running along each aisle and in the middle of each quarter segment) to support the first of four balcony levels above. This first balcony level extends to a depth of half the radius of the main chamber and has sixteen pairs of columns to support the level above it. The next level is four metres deep, with thirty-two single columns; the last is a vertigo-inducing walkway only two metres deep, with no columns. Two narrow staircases within the external wall lead upwards from the two entrances; these provide the only means of access to the balcony levels.

The entire structure is covered by a hemispherical dome, its internal radius and height identical to the radius of the chamber (16m). An oculus (8m in diameter) at the apex of the dome is open to the sky, permitting sunlight (and less conveniently, rain) to stream down onto the central platform. The weight of the structure is supported by eight barrel vaults in the thick (6m) drum wall into 8 piers. The weight of the dome is reduced using sunken panels or coffers on the interior and its overall thickness varies from 6 metres at the base to little more than a metre around the oculus.

An audience of students and journeymen from the four schools is already gathering in the main chamber while others, including the participants' families and friends, can be seen on the balconies above. Their excited murmurs echo around the huge hall, increasing in intensity when they catch sight of the participants.

~~

Being raised on a farming community Kiki is up bright and early.

She quickly gets washed and dressed. *Sigh* "I wish mum could afford better clothes," she grumbles looking at he plain and somewhat threadbare clothes which are still the best she has. Unusually for her, she then finds herself with nothing to do so she grabs her broom sets about sweeping out her cell, before feeding her small collection of pets.

Kiki heads down to her own school's refectory in time for it opening and eats by herself, as usual. Mechanically chewing her food she wonders if her presentation will go down well or if she has headed off on entirely the wrong track for those stodgy Imperial College types.

No matter, she tells herself. Control your breathing and tell it as it is. Just like your mother always says.

There's still a little time to kill, so Kiki heads back and pick up her painting and all her magic items and foci, barring the Unicorn Dung. Ready, she heads off to the Imperial College refectory where all the participants have to meet. She is slightly surprised to find that she is not first. City people in her limited experience seem to find difficulty in getting up in the morning...

~~

Exalian, having risen early that morning to have breakfast with Neronil and others, tries to suppress a yawn, and an urge to stretch. Not much sleep last night, either. He looks about the hall looking for his family to see if they've arrived. He knows he's nervous, but feels it more physically than mentally, perhaps somewhat arrogantly shoving his nervousness well down below the level of his consciousness in order to concentrate. He goes over his thesis again in his head as he looks about at the crowd.

~~

Last night, Pavel had begun to think about this Disputation business but, feeling a headache looming, rolled over and blanked his mind totally, soon falling into a deep sleep. Feeling relaxed in the morning, Pavel cannot help but smirk when he sees some of his fellow students looking distinctly queasy. They have been selected, this disputation has no bearing on their future, yet they are nervous.

Pavel leaves them to their nerves and chats easily with Uncle Bojek and some of the other Ropemasters who have come to see Pavel perform.

~~

Another disputant entering the refectory at the same time as Eren askes her "Are you nervous?"

"Of course, I don't think I can eat."

"Really?" The boy asks skeptically.

"Well no, I'll eat, I don't want hunger to throw me off during the disputes."

In point of fact she does manage to eat a substantial breakfast, and the porridge soon sends it soothing tendrils outwards from her stomach, soon taming the bilious humors of her liver so that she feels calmer for the nonce. She has barely wiped her face clean when it is time to line up for the grand entry.

She works her way to near the end of the group, hoping to fade from view for at least a few more moments. She tries to soak up the feeling of the moment, but the anticipation and anxiety singing through her blood ascend to a crescendo, and she is reduced to checking for her scroll every few seconds and trying not to breathe too much like an horse pulling an overloaded cart up from the harbour.

"Did you know you have a blob of jam on your robes?" the voice cuts through her tension but sends her mind into a jangle of panic and shock.

"What? Where?" Looking down she sees nothing and starts frantically pulling and twisting at her robes to try and see around her curves and bulges.

"Just kidding" says the other with a smirk.

She is still trying to smooth her robes and her breathing when the line starts moving forward. As she passes through the doors she seems unable to find a breath at all and for a moment is tempted to bolt. But then she is through and into the chamber, onto that grand stage. As always it soothes her with its ideal proportions and logical perfection. It is awe inspiring, but it seems to draw her mind up and out of her nervous fit towards higher things.

Taking her stone she is even able to smile and say thank you, and walk on with head held high, the cool stone soothing against her sweaty fist. She waits until well away from the table before opening her hand and seeing what she has drawn.

Looking at her stone, Eren is both disappointed and relieved. She would really like to actually get started, sooner started sooner done! But as soon as she recognizes this feeling she realizes the illogic of it. It is better by far to have time to watch and learn before it is her turn. She is eager to find out with who she'll be disputing, but after brief consideration she decides to wait until they are all due to gather in preparation during the fourth round. She finds a place where she can see well, and listens to the opening disputations. In part she listens to the points themselves, but in part she observes the judges, the other disputants, and the wider audience.

~oOo~

A hush descends as the Headmaster climbs onto the debating platform.

"Students, colleagues and friends," he begins, his voice carrying clearly throughout the Oratory, thanks to the building's extraordinary construction. "It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all here for the Imperial College's two hundred and fifty third Spring Disputation. I am especially pleased to welcome a number of students from the School of Tenebrous Wisdom, the School of the Sacred Image and the Felster Naval Academy, who will be taking part in the competition for the first time in its long history. I sincerely hope that this will be the first of many such collaborations between our schools."

"For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Disputation, I will briefly outline the rules. This is a contest of logical debate, conducted in four phases with eight half hour rounds in each phase. As ever, it will commence at the the start of the day, as signalled by the ringing of the College clock, and its progress will be strictly regulated by the sounding of that clock. Four students will take part in each round: one, the Proposer, to present their thesis, the other three, the Disputants, challenging it."

"Points will be awarded by our panel of judges," he continues, indicating a group of eight masters on the front row. "Who will work in in pairs, taking it in turns to judge each successive round. The students taking part in each round are selected randomly, as is the student who takes the role of the Proposer. At the end of the four phases, each student will have taken their turn as the Proposer and the competition will be over. The student with the most points will be proclaimed the winner!"

He looks up at a signal from the main entrance. "Ah, but I see that the start of the competition is drawing near. Good luck to all of the competitors! Would the competitors for round one now come and take their places, please..."

Glancing down at his stone, Exalian realises with a start that he has been assigned to this first round, although he will be one of the Disputants, not the Proposer. Hastening to the platform, he glances around at the other students already standing there. The Disputants, two Imperial College apprentices that he vaguely recognises but does not know personally, look nervous and slightly sick. The Proposer, judging from her black robes, is a Tenebrous Wisdom apprentice. She doesn't look nervous at all.

Boldly returning his gaze, she narrows her eyes slightly as if challenging him to stare her down. Her eyes are rimmed with kohl and her face looks unnaturally pale, accentuated by the jet black hair that frames it. Casually breaking the eye contact, Exalian allows his gaze to wander down towards her feet, taking in a silver pendant in the shape of a skull, a black leather belt with metal studs and matching leather boots.

There's no time to ponder his opponent's mode of dress, however, because the clock is already sounding the beginning of the competition. The strange- looking girl wastes no time, stepping confidently into the middle of the platform and commencing her presentation. Her voice is strong, her manner assertive, almost aggressive. Her thesis is concerned with the nature of the correspondence between the so-called "abstract subject nodes" in the Essence Planes, which a spell acts upon, and the physical objects that correspond to them in the Material World.

"These nodes," she explains. "Are related to particulars - that is to say, to instances of objects and properties - in that a particular is regarded as a copy of its node. For example, a particular apple is said to be a copy of the form of 'Applehood' and the apple's redness is a copy of the form of Redness. Participation is another relationship between forms and particulars. Particulars are said to participate in the forms, and the forms are said to inhere in the particulars."

Her argument, which is developed with skilful clarity, is that there are important differences between what she calls 'secondary' nodes of this type, which correspond to subjective qualities such as colour, as opposed to 'primary' nodes which correspond to more objective qualities, such as size or shape. This distinction, she argues, is essential when attempting to understand how a spell acts upon its subject. More specifically, she contends, spells which act upon the 'secondary' qualities are either vanishingly rare or nearly impossible to use because of the comparative 'looseness' of the nodes that they operate upon.

She concludes her presentation by reiterating her main points, timing it almost precisely to the striking of the quarter-hour that signals the end of her allotted time, and an uncomfortable silence descends. The judges, who have been watching her like a pair of hawks, nod to the Disputants.

The argument goes to the very basis of the understanding of channeling essence, and how talismans are created and such. This touches on things that they already had a strong foundation on here in the courses Exalian has been given at the Imperial College, the laws of Helmat having something to say on the subject. He gets her point despite it being pretty tortured in it's details, but does not agree. This makes objection so much easier.

Exalian raises his hand, and waits to be identified by the judge. For a moment he considers starting with, "Well, when one proposes something so essentially obvious, it's not much of a thesis - but there are flaws still..." He considers the better of it, however. When pointed to by the judge he says, "The problem with this argument is that it presupposes that these primary types are identifiable, and that you've identified them correctly. As Helmat says, all things are as they seem. You might as well be saying that there are things for which there are fewer spells, and things for which there are more. What makes one thing more subjective than another? Then even if true, how can we know what is more objective and what more subjective..." He starts getting very philosophical here.

Exalian continues. He is emboldened because he can feel something inside himself that tells him that he is right. Exalian has, for several months, noted that when playing around with his own essence, or that of any of the subject matter essences brought into the classrooms that they are all equally easy to manipulate. It's almost as if they want to flow into him. His argument becomes almost an attempt for Exalian to describe to the world what his experiences are like in this regard.

He makes his points in rigorous logical order as the school has taught him, all the while clutching his paper token and using the spell he learned from the "Librarian." He even comes up with a counter that's a little tangential at one point, but still seems to pertain. As he finishes up, and awaits rebuttal, he stares at the girl straight in the eye, hoping that his confident stare will be even more disconcerting than her demeanor has been.

Her response is immediate and surprisingly vehement, striking him almost like a physical blow. Reeling, he tastes the distinctive tang of magic in the air and barely manages to maintain his composure. Eyes flashing, she launches into a refutation of his carefully constructed critique, while Exalian suppresses an urge to grin. There's no doubt about it: he's definitely managed to get her attention.

Her rather abrasive response is not going down quite as well as her proposal, but it she still mounts a strong defence of her thesis. Then Exalian's brief moment in the spotlight is over and the judges are signalling the other Disputants to make their contributions. Their arguments had been finely balanced, but he feels confident that he'd carried the day in the end - if only because he'd kept his cool when she hadn't.

The other two Disputants make tentative attempts to emulate his success. The first boy starts stammering whenever his opponent glares at him, but makes some good points, while the second seems completely out of his depth. The fiercely intelligent girl deals with their arguments quickly and almost dismissively. Suddenly, it's all over. As they are leaving the platform, Exalian catches her looking at him intently, her expression unreadable.

Turning away, Exalian allows himself a small grin of triumph.

~oOo~

As the first round is taking place, Pavel looks around at the other students assigned to his own round. He recognises the proposer as a new student at the Imperial College called Vey. His chums from the in-crowd at the Imperial College haven't formed an opinion of the newcomer yet, but they did mention that he's obviously studied wizardry before and there's a certain amount of speculation about where. The other disputants are an immaculately dressed student from the Sacred Image and another Imperial College student that he doesn't recognise.

The clock strikes the half hour, signalling the beginning of round two. As he climbs onto the debating platform, Pavel catches sight of Pensimmon in the crowd, glaring at him, then sees Uncle Bojek waving and grinning from the balcony above. Then he realises that the Proposer has started his presentation already, and does his best to focus on what the boy is saying.

This Vey fellow has an easy and appealing manner about him that Pavel doesn't quite trust. He seems to be turning his charms on the judges, a rather severe-looking woman that Pavel tentatively identifies as Mistress Hephania and a portly master with an exuberant moustache and a perpetual smile. There isn't much meat to the thesis, which outlines a slight and rather trivial variation on the standard solution to Hepaximander's Paradox, but his delivery seems to be going down reasonably well with the judges.

Pavel is startled by the quarter bell, signalling the Disputants' turn to speak, and struggles to gather his thoughts as one of his fellows makes a start on a critique. All too soon the female judge is staring down her nose at him expectantly...

A hush descends as Pavel surveys the scene before him. He quickly realizes that the watching Ropemasters, led by Uncle Bojek, had been murmuring quietly, then going suddenly quiet. He can't help but smile to himself as the pause extends almost uncomfortably long and Mistress Hephania's glower starts to turn dark. He turns his smile on her and mouths an apologetic "Sorry", pulling at the ruff on his neck as if nervous. Is she mollified? Who knows, he thinks to himself as he clears his throat, what matters is that this is going to be fun, and speaks warmly to his opponent.

"Friend Vey," he says, "I'm afraid that when you arrived on these shores, you brought with you a knowledge which to me, at least, is foreign." Pavel smiles at one of the Imperial crowd in the stands, thanking him for the tip.

"I speak not, of course, of the solution you offer to Hepaximander's Paradox, for I believe we are all aware," he offers this to the onlookers, "that this Paradox is veridical?" He recognizes the source of the murmurs of agreement and tries not to laugh this time – Bojek likely thinks a paradox is some mythical octopus from Magasta's Pool. "That is to say, it is no true paradox and was first solved some three hundred..." he looks blankly at the stands, having little idea when this paradox was first solved, "I forget, forgive me, several hundred years ago let us say."

"What matters though, is what purpose it serves to solve this already solved paradox by another route? It is this knowledge, Friend Vey, which you have yet to impart to the people of Syran"

Pavel pauses for a moment to let this different tack sink in as he eyes up his opponent's clothing to see if his plan will work. "I study at the Felster Naval College here in Syran, Friend Vey. My family is of fairly humble origin but I receive a stipend earned by the sweat of the people of Portside. Sweat and, I might add, a lot of fish! My good Uncle who is here today has this week, I suspect, seen a fair number of our folk pitch up dockside with the day's catch. I will not, when I have completed my studies, turn to the people of my district and tell them that I have landed a fish which was already landed three hundred or so years ago, will I?

"You will forgive my ignorance, then, Friend Vey," he says, ignoring Bojek's laughter, "if I ask again, what purpose this solution serves?" The look Pavel gives his opponent is an open one, but borders on pity.

The look of murderous hatred that distorts Vey's face rather undermines his subsequent attempt to pit his own, not inconsiderable, personal magnetism against Pavel's devastating charm.

"Well, Friend Pavel," he begins. "I... I... I... I'll have you know that I was born in Syran and my father is a graduate of this great College of ours, so I really don't need you to lecture me on... on... whatever it is you were trying to lecture me on," he concludes pathetically. "But I am sure, madam," he continues, addressing Hephania directly and practically blinding her with his dazzling smile. "That this transparent and misguided attempt to subvert the unquestionable logic of my thesis has not carried any weight with you. I feel no need, therefore, to refute it any further."

The female judge gives him a dark look that shows just how little she thinks of this argument and her colleague has suddenly stopped smiling. Mistress Hephania signals to the final Disputant, who tries to wipe the grin off his face before beginning his own challenge.

Vey had just about managed to counter the clumsy arguments of the first Disputant, who seemed more concerned with striding about the platform and showing off his (admittedly very fine) robes. After the drubbing that he'd received at Pavel's hands, however, he really needed to make mincemeat out of the final Disputant. In the end he deals effectively, and rather cruelly, with the poor lad's argument, which starts promisingly, but ultimately fails to deliver.

After leaving the platform, the obviously angry Imperial College student storms off without even looking at Pavel. Pavel follows, his arm extended in order to shake the fellow's hand but is left shaking thin air. A surprised and disappointed look on his face, he finds himself looking right at the two judges. He smiles weakly as if unable quite to understand quite why Vey would not wish to shake his hand, then retires from the scene.

~oOo~

Exalian, instead of waiting to see his score posted, waves to his father somewhat surreptitiously, and then heads in the direction the Kohl eyed girl went.

When he comes across her he says, "Well argued. I'm Exalian Urmantle. Who have I had the pleasure of debating with?"

She narrows her eyes and glares at him for a moment, her fists clenched tightly. Then she makes an exasperated noise and, with a toss of her magnificent mane, turns on her heel and walks quickly away. As Exalian is debating whether to follow her, a voice from behind pipes up:

"'With whom have I had the pleasure of debating'," it says.

He turns and finds a rather stolid-looking Tenebrous Wisdom student staring at him with a completely humourless expression.

"Errr... What did you say?" he asks.

"You should have said 'With whom have I had the pleasure of debating'," the boy explains. "Not 'Who have I had the pleasure of debating with'. It's a common mistake. I think Cecily likes you," he adds, looking glum.

"Cecily?" Exalian asks. "Oh, I see... Wait a minute! Likes me? What ever gave you that idea?"

"Well, she didn't hit you, did she? Last time a boy dared to speak to her, she broke his nose..."

"Seems scant evidence," says Exalian. Then wondering if he's exposing himself, "And what difference would it make anyhow? I was just looking for some decent conversation."

Realizing that his protestations are probably transparent, he turns to the student telling this to him, and says, "And to... whom... am I addressing myself?"

As he asks his eyes wander off in the direction of Cecily, trying to see if he can determine her current whereabouts.

"Oh, yes, sorry," the other boy apologises. "I'm Demetrius. I can't imagine why you'd want to have a conversation with Cecily. She's frightfully rude. Um... I'd be happy to have a conversation with you myself," he adds, without much conviction. "But I have to prepare for my presentation. Goodbye."

As Demetrius begins to edge away, Exalian realises that he has lost sight of Cecily and finds himself temporarily distracted by the current round of the Disputation. The Proposer is just hitting his stride, but his rehashed thesis can't compare with Cecily's glorious presentation. When he turns away to look for the girl again he catches sight of her, up on the back row, sitting with her arms crossed tightly in front of her, a scowl on her face.

Exalian makes note of where she's sitting, perhaps to speak with her later, but goes back to sit with Neronil to watch the proceedings. He also files away Demitrius' name for later contact.

~oOo~

What an unfriendly looking bunch, thinks Kiki, looking round the room. Still, not wanting to sit about doing nothing she starts sketching the other participants using the back of her notes as a pad. Having sketched the black robed girl she moves on to sketch the judges while at the same time trying to get a feel for what they are like.

There are eight judges and all of them seem to be masters or adepts from the Imperial College. They are judging the rounds in pairs, so Kiki guesses that they will alternate, with each pair judging two rounds in each phase. If they rotate in the same order, she thinks, that means the pair from round two will be judging in my round. The sole female judge is part of this pair - she looks rather severe, her brow furrowed in a perpetual frown. The other judge is quite a contrast - he never seems to stop smiling and even gives encouragement to the competitors, nodding enthusiastically and murmuring "Yes!" or "Good point!" when he likes what they are saying.

Well, I could do a lot worse, Kiki thinks. I could have that cross-looking man who keeps glaring at the female contestants - or that one who seems to be leering at them! And that one over there looks bored already, with the competition barely begun! What kind of mood is he going to be in later in the day? She hopes fervently that she doesn't get him in her Proposing round...

Kiki sees that she is not alone in her observations, as a wide-hipped girl moves in front of her and blocks her view while try to get a better view of the judges. Pushing down her minor irritation of having her sketching interrupted she decided to try and talk to the girl.

"Excuse me did you know you had a mark on your dress?" This does not get the reaction she had been hoping for at all...

"Err... tried what? Oh, has some one been picking on you," Kiki asks, her eyes open wide. "Well this stain is fresh. So they probably were setting you up. If you want I know a trick that get rid of stains."

Kiki looks up at Erens looming form she really would be rather taking a thorn out of a lion's foot at least she would be on sounder ground. She should have keep her self to herself instead of inviting trouble.

"Look the mark is here," she sighs, pointing. "I was just trying to help."

Looking abashed, Eren apologizes and tries to shrink herself down and back. She murmurs "Sorry, someone fooled me about jam on my robes on the way in. If you can help get the mark out I'd really appreciate it. I'll, well, I'll, ummm, try to do something nice for you when I can. I'm always getting stuff on my robes."

Glancing at the smaller girl's sketch she attempts a joke "I guess I'm a pretty big canvas. Oh, I forgot to say, my name is Erentona, I'm at Imperial College. When are you up? Oh, sorry, I'm babbling" Eren puts a hand over her mouth and takes on a listening posture. Internally she kicks herself for making Imperial College seem the home of overly emotional blabber mouths, but she can't help but think that the little scribbler [1] looks pretty harmless and kind.

"That's OK. This event gets to a lot of folk by the feel of it. There is a lot of tension and other less pleasant emotion flowing around here. Scary."

Kiki's shoulders give a little shiver.

"Here let me deal with that," she adds.

Kiki rubs something that smells of flowers and something else, that Eren's nose refuses to identify, on to her robe which quickly takes care of the mark on her robes.

"My name is Kiki. Unfortunately, you may have heard of me. I seem to be good at getting into trouble. I am the one who nearly got thrown out for painting a horse up in the attic. If only they had not got all hairy and let me lead the beast back, things would have been fine." She shakes her head sadly lost in her memories for a second. "Well that's that, when are you on?" asks Kiki, her mood lifting quickly.

She glances at the offered stone. "Oh good - we are not on together then. Well, what do you think of the judges, want to compare notes?"

Round three features a huge, bear-like boy called Berem. Eren and Exalian know him as a cheerful, if rather ponderous chap, who is unusual amongst their peers in that his father is a knight, a leading light in the Order of St Paslac. His presentation is delivered with enthusiasm, but it's nothing special and seems to hinge around an obscure historical anecdote about the College founder that Berem, after a protracted pause, delivers to the underwhelmed audience with an expression of triumph on his face.

For some reason the judges seem significantly more impressed with this Proposer than the audience, but the second half of the round is more interesting. The first Disputant, a puny-looking student* from Tenebrous Wisdom, conducts himself very impressively, making a series of quite brilliant arguments. The big Proposer makes a brave attempt to counter and comes up with some decent points, but the advantage is clearly with his opponent.

Berem does not seem at all deflated after this and manages to put up a spirited defence for the remainder of the round, rather less successfully against the second Disputant, but rather more successfully against the last. However, his two opponents, a plain girl from the School of the Sacred Image and a pudgy boy from the Felster Naval College, also acquit themselves fairly well, so everyone comes out of this round with points.

Not for the first time, Exalian wonders about Berem. Why hadn't his father trained him to be a knight of the order? He wasn't dumb, certainly, but his size and disposition, and, well, background, all certainly seem to point to him being a great candidate for knighthood. Why train him for an adept?

Exalian makes a note to see what he could find out about this. Berem would be a good ally to have in the right circumstances. Like when larger boys might threaten him.

In the next round, a pretty girl from the Naval College makes a difficult to follow case for re-classifying fish as vegetables, drawing her justification for this from an obscure reference in ZZabur's Descent of Animals. The judges are unconvinced, but the Disputants make a generally poor job of cross-examining her arguments, so she comes away with a few points for her defence. The last Disputant, an Imperial College student named Aldeth, shows some skill at argumentation, but lets herself down by indulging in a few spiteful remarks at her opponent's expense instead of following through with her line of reasoning. As a result she comes away with no points at all and looks furious about it.

~oOo~

Eren has been watching the round with interest and is quite surprised to see Aldeth performing so badly. The girl is a well-known member of the College's 'in crowd' and is renowned for her ability to win arguments. She glances around at the people in her own round: Ricardo, a tall, dark and handsome student from the School of Tenebrous Wisdom, who is the Proposer; a nervous-looking girl from the Imperial College whose name Eren has forgotten; and the odious Oren, a lazy and arrogant 'in-crowder' who seems to take endless delight in tormenting her.

As she climbs onto the platform, she notices that the judges from the first round will be judging the fifth: Master Olivant, a notoriously misogynistic curmudgeon, and Adept Harigan, a reputedly brilliant but disturbingly intense research fellow. Ricardo launches into his presentation without preamble and stumbles his way through a somewhat stilted series of arguments about the historical significance of the Dawn Schools. To Eren's ear, it sounds like something he's repeating from memory. but doesn't really understand.

Eren quickly decides that she would have preferred someone with better delivery of a more flawed argument. Her plan was to poke holes in the logic, but the logic is mostly solid, although there are a few stretches and in the time available he doesn't justify all his assumptions as thoroughly as Master Atlan normally requires that she do. Her lips curl in something approaching a smile at the thought of what he'd say, and how proud he'd surely be to see his student having learned that lesson well.

As he continues she divides her attention between listening to what he is proposing and thinking of how to attack it.

As Ricardo winds down his presentation, or recitation as she has come to think of it, her mind is racing. On the one hand the judge's don't seem impressed, so might look favorably at a strong, logical, attack. On the other at least one of the judges is not apt to give her a fair hearing, so might just give them both low marks if he can get away with it. Is it better to appeal to the judges, or the crowd? Then she recalls one of her father's expressions: "If I'm happy with my performance, so everyone else should be." It sounded arrogant, but the point had a curious logic, that you should focus foremost on doing well by your own standards the rest of the world should recognize that success. But still with master Olivant, dare she?

She has to decide quickly so that she can think out her critique. What really annoys me about this she thinks to herself is that he memorized this, he didn't learn it. Whether it is the best tactic or not, I can't just let him get away with that!

And so she decides, she will focus her attack on his mastery of the facts. More precisely she will focus on those areas where he did not explain well, on the assumption that he doesn't know much more than he has spoken, so he will not know how to defend those areas. Of course, simply asking him to justify himself is weak, what can she recall from her own lessons in these areas to create some sort of challenge? For that matter, the First Church has some doctrine regarding the early churches, it may not be somewhat weak parallel, but it should be sufficient to create a challenge. Because—"Oh" she actually murmurs it out loud as the quote comes into her mind, and with it the whole plan of attack comes together.

The audience applaud enthusiastically when Ricardo finishes, but judges appear completely unimpressed. When Olivant nods at her, his lip curling with distaste Eren stands up to her full height, and holds her head up proudly — now is the time to make Master Atlan proud! Pitching her voice so that it will carry well to the audience, she recites the familiar litany:

"As Arkat taught us, let consider..."

She scans the audience, seeing eyes turn towards her and lips begin to shape the next words.

"The eternal One in Solace, blessed be his many names
Makes his will manifest in the world by the Word and by the World
Let us proceed not into error, yet deliver ourselves from simpleness
Honour the beliefs of our fathers yet dishonour not the beliefs of our neighbours;
For the World is his Will and his Word is the World
So learn the many truths of the World to better illuminate his Word
Back through generation upon generation, to time before time."

She pauses briefly, hearing, as she expected, a few in the audience automatically say "amen" at the end of the familiar prayer of the Ecunimical Church. Then she lowers her voice just a shade, like the actors due when supposedly talking to another character but still pitched so the audience can hear — if they pay attention.

"I praise your efforts," she says, with just a slight emphasis on that last word. "To follow Arkat's instructions, and further illuminate the nature of the early schools. But his instructions tell us to seek all the truths. Your arguments seem soundly built upon the truths you choose, but like a bridge on its piers you skip over much else." She pauses for a heart beat to savor that line she stole from St. Brunel. In that beat the odious Oren 'coughs' out "Couldn't skip over you."

Eren tries to ignore the interruption, having expected something of the like, but she can feel her cheeks start to flush all the same. She hurries on "How do you reconcile your arguments with Helmat's assertion that the nature of the dawn was..."

Ricardo makes a creditable attempt to respond to her question, even managing to elicit a nod of satisfaction from one of the judges, but, as Eren had suspected, his grasp of the main substance of his thesis only seems to extend so far. Her argument, on the other hand, is concise and compelling and her virtuoso delivery lifts it into the realms of brilliance. Poor Ricardo doesn't really stand a chance; he's very obviously outmatched.

Oren, for once forgetting to be arrogant follows her with a fairly decent critique of his own, although Eren has the distinct impression that he, too, is quoting from memory. Indeed, Ricardo, who had been looking thoroughly crestfallen, seems to brighten when he hears the other boy's question, almost as if he...

No! Could they have arranged this somehow? She vaguely recalls seeing Ricardo hanging around with Oren and the rest of the Imperial College in crowd. Surely even Oren wouldn't stoop this low: rehearsing an argument beforehand with one of his rich friends, to make both of them look good! Eren is about just about to signal the judges and voice her suspicions, when she catches sight of Ricardo.

The momentary glimmer of hope that she'd seen on his face when Oren started asking his question has vanished utterly. His mouth opens and shuts a few times, but no words come out. Eventually, the judges signal the final Disputant, who asks another decent, if unspectacular, question, but by now it's obvious that Ricardo has lost it altogether. Eren is almost relieved when the clock finally signals the end of the round, but can't help feeling slightly guilty for the effect she's had on the hapless Ricardo.

"Happy now?" Oren hisses at her as they leave the platform. "I didn't realise that you'd taken to humiliating half-wits as a way of drawing attention away from your own abundantly obvious flaws. I'm almost impressed. Maybe you're not such a pathetic waste of space after all."

For once, though, Eren is able to ignore both him and her own misguided feelings of guilt, basking instead in her brief moment of glory. The audience are applauding, she realises. No, clarify that - the audience are applauding her! It is only with a great effort of will that Eren resists taking a bow. This is what she's always longed for, to have the crowd acknowledge her like it does her father. She'd just never realized that being an apprentice could lead to this! She rushes off to share her excitement with Kiki, then realizes that the younger girl's round is already starting. She finds a spot as far away from the Imperial College in-crowd as she can and tries to pay attention to the dispute, but mostly revels in the jubilation shooting through her veins.

~oOo~

Cheered by her new friend's success in the previous round, Kiki is in a good mood as she steps onto the debating platform. Thanks to Eren, she now knows that the first Disputant in her round, Kentan, is regarded as a bit of a clown by students and masters alike, and that the second, a girl called Kerra, is pleasant but otherwise undistinguished. The Proposer, a blank-faced Tenebrous Wisdom student, is a bit of an unknown quantity, but Kiki overheard him talking to another student after the first round and learnt that his name is Demetrius.

The presentation half of the round seems to drag on forever. Demetrius obviously knows his stuff, but he delivers it all in a flat tone that soon has the audience stirring restlessly. His thesis, which sets out a wearyingly comprehensive case for reviving the long-outmoded Garrick-Malvinus theory of node topology, is well-researched, but uninspiring. Kiki actually finds his arguments quite sound, but it's clear from the expressions on the judges faces that they're not convinced.

Kentan, a small freckle-faced boy with an infectious grin, seems more interested in making puns than in actually challenging Demetrius to defend his thesis. The humourless Proposer is obviously disconcerted by this line of attack, however, and makes a terrible hash of his response. The audience, and even one of the judges, end up laughing, not so much at Kentan's jokey questions, but at Demetrius' misguided attempts to answer them.

Kerra's hesitant and softly-spoken question, however, seems to be exactly the kind of thing that Demetrius was expecting and his answer is devastatingly effective. By the time he has finished, the poor girl is trembling and looks like she might burst into tears. The judges, on the other hand, are looking very impressed and there are murmurs of excited approval from the audience.

Kiki fidgets though the long dull presentation, but rather than fret she resolves to keep busy. She methodically logs his main points, trying to impartially separate the good point from the bad. But that theory was outmoded for a reason and that must be his main weak point. Ha! Inspiration strikes Kiki now, as she remembers how that style of node map looks. Right now - compared to modern node maps, the old style always had trouble when integrating the links to infer the higher plain. Good, now she must make the time to get all that over in the short time she has left.

Calming herself Kiki stands, ignoring the few laughs she generates when they realise that this little kid in the very plain country style dress really is part of the Disputation. Kiki quickly presents her main points hoping she has picked up on the judges mood correctly and that the bell won't ring too soon. She goes to the heart of the matter: the old system may deal well with many node relationships well, but when you come to analyse the more complicated topographies it just does not shape up.

Her arguments, seem a little weak at first, but by the time she has concluded, the judges are nodding and Demetrius is staring slack-mouthed at the little girl who just stomped on his thesis.

~oOo~

In the seventh round, an Imperial student called Filmore presents a complicated but enlightening thesis on cryptography. Eren tells Kiki that this student is generally regarded as one of the College's brightest. He's expected to go on and become either a research fellow or a master. A strange-looking boy with a slightly protuberant forehead, he seems timid and more than a little distracted, his explanation of some of the most common techniques used in grimoire ciphers is quite brilliant.

The first Disputant in this round is a student Iconographer called Hal. According to Kiki, he's a shy farmer's son and a bit of a daydreamer, with a gift for pencil drawing and visualisation that he's too modest to admit. He makes a surprisingly good account of himself, certainly much better than the other two Disputants. No-one is in any doubt by the end of the round that Filmore's reputation for brilliance is well-deserved, and when his points are tallied, it becomes clear that he is the only student threatening Cecily for the lead.

The participants pay rather less attention to the final round of the phase, because they are all summoned up to the foot of the debating platform to pick their stone for the next round. The Proposers from the first phase go first, drawing their stones from a separate bag to ensure that they aren't selected to present again in the new phase.

With a little thrill of excitement, Kiki finds that she has drawn a one-dot stone, so she'll be presenting her thesis in round two. Eren shows her new friend the stone she's drawn: she's Disputing again, in round five.

Pavel, too, will be Proposing in this phase; he's drawn the one-dot stone for round three. He notices that Gorbo and Pensimmon are both staying down at the front, so presumably they've drawn for the first round, but it's not clear whether either of them will be Proposing.

Exalian will be Disputing in round six; he overhears the bear-like Berem telling another student that he's drawn for that round as well.

The final round of the first phase is almost over. Having missed the presentation, the watching competitors are forced to deduce the topic from the questions asked by the Disputants. It seems to be concerned with Rune Theory, but the first cross-examination is not very revealing. The second Disputant, a small and rather young-looking student from the Naval College called Pensimmon, makes a very impressive debut, pressing the Proposer hard on a number of points and drawing nods of approval from the judges.

An Imperial apprentice called Neronil is the last competitor to take their turn in this first phase. If anything, his cross-examination is even more impressive than Pensimmon's. Having been harried by all three of his opponents, the poor Proposer ends the round looking completely pole-axed and has to be led from the platform by one of the judges.

Phase two starts immediately, with no pause after the last round of the first phase - which is rather unfortunate for Pensimmon, who is ushered straight back onto the platform. At least he isn't proposing - that honour falls to a nervous-looking Imperial student, who stumbles his way through a rather confused thesis that obviously goes down very badly with the judges.

Pensimmon is the first Disputant, wearing a rather superior smile as he poses a tricky question to his opponent. The Proposer's unexpectedly insightful response soon wipes that expression off his face and seems to make a slightly better impression on the judges. Next up is Gorbo, who comes off slightly better than his fellow Naval student, followed by Vey, whose question draws the first sign of genuine interest from the judges and a fiercely argued but pedestrian response from the beleaguered Proposer.

Kiki watches this from a close vantage, taking the opportunity to size up her Disputants - all Imperial College students - as she waits for her turn to present. The first, Kentan, had come across as a bit of a joker in the first round and greets her appraising glance with a broad grin. Number two hadn't made much of an impression - even Eren had been unable to remember his name. Number three had presented the last round in phase one and still looks completely shell-shocked by the mauling that he'd received.

~oOo~

Calming herself, Kiki places her painting where the judges can best see it and takes the platform, doing her best to ignore the few sniggers and stage whispers about her height and age. One of the judges clears his throat forcefully, reminding the audience that they are here on sufferance and if need be they can be dispensed with.

Kiki takes this as a signal and immediately launches into what she hopes will be an inspired, if philosophical, presentation.

Her subject is the clear and considered application of Logic as the overriding attribute that separates intelligent creatures like man from common animals.

The first part is a methodical presentation, aimed at what she thinks the judges want, giving the core of her argument. For the second part she strikes out, proposing, on the basis of her argument, that Unicorns should be reclassified from an intelligent animal to being considered a fully sentient race. This she illustrates with the aid of a painting of the encounter where St Xemela was saved from attack by a Unicorn. She points out that the unicorn had nothing to gain for defending the saint from the monster and that unicorns have never been shown to be territorial. So, after meticulously ruling all else out, that action could only be explained in terms of a pure and noble action of one healer, the unicorn, to save the queen of healers.

In the stunned silence that follows, Kiki smiles sweetly at the judges while the audience gape, open-mouthed, at this strange little girl and her remarkable painting. Then the timely tolling of the clock shakes everyone out of their trance and fills the room with an excited sussuration of whispers as the audience begins discussing her thesis amongst themselves. The male judge hastily calls for hush and then, quite unexpectedly, stands and addresses Kiki directly.

"Thank you, my dear," he says, smiling warmly. "That was delightful. Unorthodox, certainly, but delightful nonetheless. Ah, Disputants? If you'd like to begin your cross-examinations now?"

Eren is grinning madly and giving the Syran equivalent of a 'thumbs-up' sign. She'd been a little worried about whether Kiki could pull off such a thesis, but it had been brilliant!

"How do you follow that?" Kentan begins, flashing a grin at the audience. "Well, I could tell you the one about the unicorn and the unfaithful bride, but I'm sure, just like the not-so-innocent young lady in that story, you've already got the point..."

There are a few half-hearted chuckles, but they die away almost immediately.

"Anyway..." he continues hastily. "Time I got to my point, I suppose."

Kentan goes on to sketch a rather tenuous critique of her basic premise, arguing that rudimentary logical faculties can be ascribed to other animals, but his opening misstep and unrelentingly cheeky delivery doesn't seem to be winning him any friends amongst the judges or the audience. Kiki remains calm and avoids showing irritation at this frivolous waste of a question. Her reply gives him short shrift showing her dismissal of his question and reflecting the judges perceived opinion. But Kiki still takes care to answer his question.

The second Disputant makes a much better point, arguing that this is not a question of logic at all, but rather a case of sentiment - albeit a noble sentiment - triumphing over reason.

"My sentiment on Unicorns is public knowledge." Kiki begins. "But that formed no part of my dissertation. That logic can be applied to describe the actions of animals is clear and obvious. But the critical difference is the deliberate application of logic by the entity to solve a problem rather than a simple logical action. This is the defining factor I am arguing for."

The last participant in this round, who'd had the misfortune to have his own presentation dissected by Pensimmon and Neronil at the end of the last phase, makes a brave attempt to frame a question about Kiki's illustration of the saint's encounter with the beast. He expresses himself so haltingly, however, that it's not really clear whether he's attacking her depiction or merely commenting on it.

Kiki can't but help feel sorry for the boy, but none the less she needs to defend her painting and what it represents.

"The main imponderable in this story," she declares. "Is precisely who or what her attacker was. Some have even suggested the whole story is just an allegory of good versus evil. As such in my picture the attacker is only shown by his reaching claws. And the point of view of the whole picture is from that of the monster. A reminder, for those who need it, of where following the path of the Beast can lead."

This colourful and rather naive assertion gains Kiki some funny looks from the judges, but at least it doesn't seem to do her cause any harm. She doesn't have the heart to press the counter-argument any harder, for which her final Disputant seems pathetically grateful.

Kiki leaves the platform the excitement bubbling up inside her, desperate to get out. "Calm down girl just a little longer," she says to herself. "Get out of sight of the judges."

So she walks back with the final Disputant, offering him some moral support. "See it was not that bad, you will do better now you have your feet," she tells him, then heads off to hug Eren exuberantly.

~oOo~

"Will you stop moving around, you just about knocked me over you oaf."

Eren ducks her head in apology, and tries to stand still as Kiki continues to carve through her opponents. However it is so hard, seeing her new friend do so well makes Eren want to applaud and stamp her feet and whistle, and failing that to dance around. Still, she's learned to be still when she needs to be, so she does so, mouth clamped hard shut to restrain the cheers welling up in her throat.

It is easier to be quiet as Kiki gently handles her last opponent. Eren is at first disappointed that Kiki did not dash him to pieces in a dazzling fashion, but then hearing the approving comments around her she realizes that Kiki was being merciful. She thinks back to what Mr. Odious had said after their round, about her picking on imbeciles. Should she have been more gentle too? An uncomfortable note of empathy and sympathy finds its way into her head, and she wonders if she has been missing something?

The fortunately the bell rings to end the round, and Eren frees herself from such uncomfortable thoughts as she ploughs through the crowd to grab Kiki. She drags the younger girl off to a quieter area and enthuses: "That was amazing! I'd love to talk to you more about all of that sometime. My thesis is about how examining the lives of saints could help map nodes, but I think maybe looking at what unicorns and other essential creatures are like it could be used that way too."

Eren pauses, then adds more shyly: "Would you help me figure out who is in my round this time? I don't want to talk to the Imperial College in crowd. We, ummmm, don't always get along so well."

Kiki is virtually bursting with poorly suppressed energy and is bouncing up and down on the spot.

"What did you say?" she eventually replies to Eren as she comes back to earth a little. "Oh talk to strangers, err... I'm not very good at that." Hesitation flashes across her face followed by some new found resolve. "Ok I will mingle and see if any of them want to talk with me. Just don't expect me to start a conversation with any of the boys I haven't been introduced to."

With a parting hug Kiki heads off to where the imperial student she has just given encouragement to is standing.

~oOo~

Pavel watches with detached amusement as the diminutive scribbler girl enjoys her moment in the sun. Amazing what difference a visual aid can make to a presentation, he thinks as he glances down at the flask of water in his hand. Surreptitiously scanning the audience for Pensimmon, he is a little irritated to find that the boy is nowhere to be seen. How disappointing...

Taking his place on the platform while the audience continue to show their appreciation for the unicorn kid, he looks around at the students who have joined him. The Imperial girl, Kerra, didn't look like much of a threat in the previous phase and Hal, a girly-looking, long-haired bumpkin of an Iconographer, looks completely harmless. No, Pavel suspects that his main trouble is going to come from the last Disputant, Filmore, who'd made an impressive debut with his cryptography thesis.

Pavel's thesis is not necessarily brilliant. That isn't, however, necessarily the point: hopefully the delivery can make up for any flaws in the logic, and he is quite happy being the centre of attention. The argument itself, relating to the days in the week when water can or cannot flow upwards, likely seems irrelevant to some of the listeners, but Pavel reminds them that there is more than one approach to magic represented here, making an oblique reference to the unicorn girl in the last round.

Once again, he makes reference to practical uses of the problem at hand - a few noses wrinkle as he describes bilgewater. That's their problem, he thinks. Begging the judges' leave, he performs a minor magic, simply the mundane rope trick so as "Not to make a mess", he informs them.

The practical demonstration is simplicity itself. Taking out his canister of water, he tells the judges that, and here he informs them they will have to take his word for it, the other day he tried this and the water flowed, of course, down the rope. Today, however, he pours the rope into a puddle on the floor, kicks the tail end of the rope into it and collects the water in his canister held at the top.

He then proceeds to describe some of the reasoning behind this phenomenon, the sort of thing he has heard time and time again in class. This starts not only to bore him but also to give him the warning signs of a headache. He concludes, a little early perhaps, by rounding off with a few standard caveats and of course by reassuring the judges that the water is in no way enchanted, it is only the rope which is, and that this phenomenon is intrinsic to water in general.

This of course, is when, music to his ears, he hears an outraged interruption from a certain Pensimmon. "I saw him at the font!!!" calls the boy to the judges, interrupting the proceedings. "He's a cheat and a liar! That water is as enchanted as anything, and moreover is stolen from the Academy grounds."

As the accusations continue and the judges corral them into directed questions at Pavel, the Proposer pleads his innocence, almost unable to speak, such is the gravity of the charge. All he really manages is to proffer the canister to the judges for their perusal.

The first judge, who has been looking thoroughly bored with the proceedings until now, accepts the cannister and examines the water closely. Swirling it around, then pouring a little into the palm of his hand, he squints at it, first with one eye closed and then the other.

"Doesn't look very enchanted to me," he says. "What do you think, Hannigan?"

The second judge, a rather more sympathetic-looking master with a wispy white beard, sniffs the cannister cautiously and then produces a small lens from a pocket. Frowning, he studies the water through the eyeglass. After a tense few moments he looks up at Pensimmon.

"You say that this is enchanted water, from your Academy?" he asks. "And that... Pavel here stole it? That is a very serious accusation. On what grounds do you make it?"

"I saw him, sir! I saw him take it from the Font!"

There is a gasp and a lot of excited whispering from the audience. The judge holds up a hand to silence them.

"I see," he says, sternly. "And yet you saw fit to wait until now before drawing this matter to someone's attention?"

Pensimmon looks abashed. "I ... I wasn't sure he'd actually try to use it," he explains, rather unconvincingly. "But..."

"Well," the judge interrupts. "If our young friend here," he gestures at Pavel. "Really did steal some water from the Font, then that's a matter for your school to resolve. However, this," he adds, shaking the water cannister and sloshing some of its contents over himself in the process. "Is just ordinary water and your interruption has already cost your fellow student far too much time already."

Pensimmon starts to protest, but a stern-looking master from his own school silences him with a heavy hand on his shoulder and, with a suspicious glance at Pavel, leads the boy away. The tolling of the college clock draws a line under the episode, but the audience is

"I'm afraid that brings your presentation to an abrupt end, Pavel," the white-bearded judge observes. "Disputants? Let's see if you can make a better job of cross-examining this thesis..."

Following the excitement of Pavel's confrontation with Pensimmon, the rest of the round seems rather dull. The four students engage in a competent, if largely unambitious, debate regarding the merits of his thesis, but only one demonstrates any real insight. Filmore rather hesitantly poses a question that once again confirms his reputation for brilliance. Pavel surprises himself by framing a half-decent response, but his shy and conspicuously intellectual opponent succinctly demonstrates its limitations and reinforces the merits of his own insights.

On the whole, Pavel thinks as he leaves the debating platform, that all went rather well, except for the fact that his head feels it has been cleaved in two by an axe. Through his blurred vision, he sees the principal of the Naval College waiting for him at the foot of the steps and wonders if he will make it down without falling over...

~oOo~

Slevan smiles when he sees Kiki and beckons her closer.

"Thanks," he whispers. "I know you went easy on me back there. I lost my nerve a bit in the first round and I was going to drop out altogether, but my cousin is here in the audience and he talked me into trying again. I'm glad I did," he adds, with a shy smile.

Encouraged by this friendly reception, Kiki tells him that she's trying to help her new friend Eren. He's only to happy to lend a hand and promises to ask around and find out who else is in round five. True to his word, Slevan returns just before the start of the next round. The other participants of Eren's round are already making their way to the front. He smiles warmly at Kiki and a little more nervously at Eren.

"Um... That's Ioren," he says, nodding at a tall boy. "He's Proposing... something about the life of Helmat, I think. Neronil is the first Disputant. He was the one - well, one of the ones - who made me look such a dolt in my round. Then there's a girl from the Naval College, but I don't know her name. Oh, I also found out who the judges are going to be: Master Olivant and Adept Harigan."

"Thanks Kiki, it makes me feel a lot better knowing that."

Neronil. She doesn't trust Neronil, having pegged him as 'one of those in crowd boys'. Also, although she hates to admit it, he's pretty sharp. Still, he's just untrustworthy, not actually Odious. Besides which, she is not presenting, so being co-disputants should not be too bad. As for Ioren, actually, she barely knows him at all. She wouldn't want to admit that she really doesn't know her fellow student. Actually, on second thought, mostly she's paid attention to the in-crowd while keeping her distance from everyone, so maybe it isn't so surprising that she doesn't know him after all. Quietly a third thought points out that mostly she pays attention to those who pay her some sort of attention, good or bad, so she doesn't really know any of the others who keep to themselves.

Still thinking about how she hasn't reached out to others who maybe are on the outside, she has an uncharacteristic idea: She should warn the naval academy girl about their misogynistic judge. But there is one more unpleasant task to take care of first.

"Look, uh, thanks for helping, ummm, Slevan. Sometime if you want any hel--I mean, if you want to study together or something, let me know. And um, sorry about the disputation not going so well so far."

Cheeks flaming red she makes an odd bobbing motion and that was supposed to be a curtsy, then goes looking for the Naval Academy girl. Stupid, stupid, stupid! she thinks to herself. Why would he want to associate with you? And then almost offering to help, like you think you are so much better than him. At least he'll have a story to laugh about with his friends, the Lump offering to help him.

She thrusts past other students until she finds the Naval Academy girl that Slevan had mentioned. Oh dear," she thinks, realising that the girl is sitting with some other Naval Academy students, Do I really want to intrude on them? She literally vacillates, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, deciding between going forward and turning away. Then she remembers how Kiki has already made two of them feel better, and decides she has to try.

Approaching the small knot of students she looks at the girl and rushes out some words: "I'm Erentona, I'm in round five and I think you are too? But Imperial College has an advantage because we know the judges and you don't so well, right? And one of the judges that we have, he doesn't seem to like girls being here, have you noticed? Anyway I just wanted you to know so you were ready for him, if he's mean."

The Naval College girl and her female friend stare at her for a moment, then descend into a fit of giggles, covering their mouths with their hands. Eren is rather taken aback by this reaction and starts to back away, feeling her colour start to rise. Then the rotund boy sitting with them pipes up.

"Oh, for Solace's sake, Meredith. Can't you take anything seriously?" he asks, frowning. He looks apologetically at Eren. "Sorry 'bout these two, pet. They're always like this, so don't take it personal, like. Very decent of you - levelling the field like that. Gorbo," he concludes, holding out his hand.

It takes Eren a few moments to realise that he is introducing himself. "Umm... Eren," she responds, gingerly shaking his hand. She recalls that he had been one of the Disputants in the first round of this phase.

"Aye, so you said," he observes. "And these daft lasses are Meredith an' Abigail. Merry's the one you've drawn with i' the next round. Oh, pull yourself together, you two!" he snaps, this last comment directed at the still-giggling girls.

"S...s... sorry," Meredith gasps. "It was just that you looked so... so... very serious," she tells Eren, struggling to control herself as her friend starts giggling again. "Please don't be angry with me. It was really very nice of you to come over and tell us about the mean judge."

She is actually very pretty, Eren thinks, as Meredith smiles at her, fighting to retain her composure. She almost immediately loses the battle and she and her friend both erupt into peals of laughter. Their hilarity is starting to attract disapproving looks from other members of the audience.

Gorbo rolls his eyes and shakes his head. "Daft as brushes, the pair of 'em," he observes. "Not like that one," he adds, nodding towards to the debating platform, where one of the other Naval students is making a rather perfunctory defence of his thesis. "Just wish I knew what him and the Squirt were on about before, with all that guff about enchanted water. Looks like the Principal 'as a few questions of 'is own, too," he adds indicating a man in Naval College robes, who is watching his student intensely from the foot of the platform, a deep frown furrowing his brow.

~oOo~

The Principal leads Pavel out to the entrance hall, where Pensimmon is waiting with another Naval College master.

"I have already spoken to young Pensimmon here," the Principal tells Pavel, his tone grave. "And he insists that he saw you taking water from the Summoning Font. This is a very serious accusation, as I'm sure you know, so we must establish the truth of the matter immediately. Your canister, please, Pavel. Thank-you. Now, Pensimmon: is this the canister that you saw?" he asks, holding it up.

The small boy nods, his eyes flashing with anger.

"Very well, then. Let us see what it contains."

The master holds the container in both hands and closes his eyes; after a few moments the two boys notice a faint glowing aura around it. Opening his eyes again, the Principal regards it with interest.

"It seems that our Imperial College colleagues were right; there is nothing to indicate that this water came from the Font. Perhaps you can explain this, boys?"

"B...b... but I did see him at the Font, sir!" cries Pensimmon. "He was acting very suspiciously and I'm sure I saw him dip the canister in the water."

"If that is the case, young man," the other master interrupts. "Then why did you not report this misdemeanour to us?"

"I... I... I don't know," Pensimmon admits. "I guess I wasn't sure what he planned to do with it and thought it was probably none of my business. It was only when I saw the canister again and realised that he was going to use it as part of the presentation that I knew... knew I had to act. For the Academy's sake," he adds, weakly. "I just couldn't bear to see him sully the school's reputation by cheating."

"Well, Pavel?" the Principal asks. "What do you have to say in your defence? Can you explain what you were doing at the Font, or are must we conclude that Pavel is lying for some reason?"

Pavel blinks at the master through the fog of pain clouding his mind. "Um…", he says uselessly, "the Font. Yes."

He shifts his bleary gaze to Pensimmon and his mind focuses a touch, but Pavel still cannot decide what to do. He doesn’t like his schoolmate especially, but then he doesn’t particularly dislike him either. Easy way out and go easy on Pensimmon or try to finish him off?

"I did go to the Font, Sir, and I suppose Pensimmon must have seen me go there." Pavel feels quite detached from himself as he says this, just wanting to get away and sit somewhere dark. "I only went there because I needed somewhere quiet to think about my presentation and I needed," his eyes look at Pensimmon but are quite blank, "somewhere for a bit of inspiration."

"I suppose it’s like," he points at the smaller boy, having completely forgotten his name, "like he said: the Academy honour at stake and all."

He stops speaking, thinking for a moment he has finished, but then he remembers what he wanted to say. "And he," he points at Pensimmon again, "must just have misunderstood what I was doing." His shoulders unknot slightly as he feels he may be defusing the situation some.

"I’m sorry Sir," he says, hanging his head so he can close his eyes without it being seen. As an afterthought, he adds, "but did I do okay?" He lifts his half- opened eyes to the master, for once feeling as fragile as his sad eyes might make him look, albeit due to a wave of pain which courses up the left side of his neck rather than really being worried at the nature of the inevitable punishment.

The Principal leans towards him, narrowing his eyes and staring intently as if trying to see into the boy's soul. The senior master's steely gaze seems to be signifying the worst for Pavel, until he turns to Pensimmon and subjects him to the same searching analysis. The smaller boy, who had been starting to look smug, suddenly blanches and seems to shrink in on himself. After only a few moments under that relentless gaze, he starts to tremble. Straightening, the Principal stares down his nose at the obviously petrified younger student.

"Very well, then," he says. "Naturally, I shall be informing both of your hall sergeants that you're to be put on double latrine duty until further notice. However, it seems that Pavel did not, in fact, steal any water from the Font and Pensimmon's impetuous accusation may have been based on a genuine misunderstanding... so I think that it would be best for all concerned if we dropped this matter."

Both boys breath a sigh of relief. The Principal smiles.

"Now, Pavel," he continues. "In answer to your question: yes. You did do 'okay'," he says, a certain amount of distaste evident in his voice as he pronounces that last word. "But, as I'm sure you know, 'okay' is simply not good enough for the Felster Naval Academy! We expect the best! Your presentation was engaging enough, but your theory was sloppy and your argumentation leaves a lot to be desired. I hope that we will see a better performance from you this afternoon."

"And as for you," he adds, turning to Pensimmon. "Well, I suppose that you still have a chance to redeem yourself too. If you have demonstrated nothing else today, it is the fact that - for all your precocious talent - you still lack one of the fundamental requirements of a good apprentice. Maturity!" he barks, making Pensimmon jump. "I don't know why I ever let your tutor talk me into allowing you to take part in this competition. Our youngest able cadet! I should have known better..."

"But that's enough of this pointless retrospection!" he declares. "Able cadets, you will both come to atten... tion!" The two students instinctively follow his order. "Now, I want you both to shake hands and if you can't be friends, will you at least try to suspend your hostilities for the remainder of the Disputation?"

Pavel doesn't even notice the younger boy flinch as he steps forward to shake his hand. Pensimmon was obviously expecting some sort of final jibe, but then he seems to have difficulty in working the other boy out. Meanwhile, Pavel's head seems to be clearing - being told what to do by Masters is familiar and reassuring territory and he easily falls into the groove, even if it does involve latrines.

Contemplating this punishment makes Pavel realise that he needs to visit the facilities, but he is intercepted by two of his fellow Naval College students on the way there. Meredith and Abigail are amongst the many girls that seem to turn giggly and self-conscious in his presence - although in their case, this behaviour is not particularly unusual.

"Oh, there you are Pavel!" Meredith coos, fluttering her eyelashes at him. "We were soooo worried about you! Did you get in trouble with the Principal? Where's Pensimmon?" "Trouble?" asks Pavel in the vaguely dreamy way which some choose to take for depth, "No trouble at all," he lies, "Pensimmon? Not a clue. I expect he's talking to the Principal." he walks on, brushing past the girls, then turns back.

"Tell me," he fixes his eyes on Abigail, "have you seen anyone from Imperial College in your wanderings?"

"Well, duh!" she replies. "The place is crawling with them! This is their College we're in, remember?"

The two girls giggle irritatingly, then seem slightly abashed.

"Um... did you mean someone in particular?" Meredith asks.

"Yes I did," says Pavel, ignoring Abigail's jibe, but still looking at her rather than her friend. "I was looking for Aldeth", he announces suddenly, for some reason finding himself unable to look at Meredith. There is something about her which makes him uncomfortable - he can feel her looking straight at him and can almost feel the air grow colder as he sees her eyes narrow from the corner of his.

Not entirely sure why he decided he was looking for the clever (if somewhat spiteful) Aldeth, he sets his face blank and looks at Meredith. Trying to ignore the fierce look the girl is giving him, he feels his legs going cold and weak but keeps his face straight.

"Oh, I know who you mean," Abigail is saying. "I just saw her and that other one, Agnetha, coming out of the toilets. I think they were... Ow! What was that for?"

This last comment is directed at Meredith, who has just punched her in the arm. Her friend responds with a scowl and stomps off, dragging the still-protesting Abigail behind her.

"What? What did I do? Hey! Don't pull so hard, Merry..."

Ignoring them, Pavel spots Aldeth and Agnetha on the other side of the entrance hall, standing in the queue for the food.

Looking at the two girls for a moment, Pavel waits until Abigail and Meredith have gone then takes himself to the latrine before he looks for lunch.

~oOo~

Eren is not at all sure of what to make of the giggling girls. Not at all what she would have expected from the naval academy, she thought they were so serious and disciplined! Such behavior would only help convince people that girls were too flighty to be mages — imagine if she started giggling like that during the Disputation!

Then Eren has an idea. An evil idea, to be sure. But no worse, surely, than the boy who convinced her she had jam on her robe? A few mental games off the stage were part of the whole dispute, were they not? In her head she can map it out, starting by saying to the gigglers "You'll see him tilt his head back, then look along his nose at you, like this." Then she'd mime the movement, and add while holding her head that way "I'm sure it is supposed to show his disdain, but I think it looks like he is checking for things hanging from his nose!" When they saw him actually do that, would they be able to resist giggling, and what would it do to their marks if they couldn't?

Eren attempts a smile, trying to look less serious, and buying a couple of seconds to think it over.

Did she want to play that sort of trick? Imagine making them dance to her tune, the way others often played her? It would taste sweeter than honey!

But, could she do it without being obvious about it? And people were already watching, what if they thought she was making the girls giggle? And did she want to make girls in general seem any sillier?

Sweet though it would be, she dismisses the thought with a small shake of her head—the risks were just too high. Instead she murmurs "For the saints' sake, calm down or you'll get us all kicked out." Turning to Gorbo she adds "Would you like to compare notes on the contestants?"

"Errr... Perhaps later," says Gorbo, his face flushing. "Not sure it'd be fair on you, mind, seein' as 'ow I only know Merry, Pavel and the Squirt. You'd best get your skates on, though - your round'll be startin' before y'know it."

In fact, Eren realises, she is already supposed to be making her way down to the front, as the current round is ending and hers is the next but one. She and Meredith walk down together, but the latter makes no attempt to engage her in conversation and keeps glancing back at her friend and waving. The other participants in their round, Ioren and Neronil, are already waiting at the foot of the debating platform as round four gets under way.

Glancing at Neronil, Eren realises that she'd been mistaken in her earlier ruminations - this bookish student is not the one she'd been thinking of when she labelled him as an in-crowder. He's actually rather quiet, she recalls, and only seems friendly with that scrawny boy, the one who's family are supposed to be Galvosti... what was his name? Feeling a little more relaxed, she turns her attention back to the debating platform.

The Proposer in round four is Aldeth, who unquestionably is a member of the in-crowd. Eren has all-too-often seen the noble-born girl's unpleasant side, but she's certainly no dummy, as her well-articulated presentation on inductive reasoning ably demonstrates. The judges seem impressed and there are some loud cheers from her friends in the audience when she concludes.

Aldeth handles her Disputants almost as effectively. The first of these, a Tenebrous Wisdom student called Welspun, seems to be giving her a hard time initially, but by the end of their exchange neither has managed to make a convincing point. Aldeth must just have been warming up, though, because she proceeds to run circles around her next opponent, Derren, in spite of the tricky questions that he poses.

Her final exchange, with the impressive gloomer [2] girl from the first round, is a more even match. Aldeth is clearly riled by Cecily's searching and rather intimidating questions, coming dangerously close to letting her vanity and spiteful tendencies colour her response. In the end, though, she just about manages to restrain herself and seems to come off best in their brief, if heated, exchange. She finishes the round with an look of triumph on her face and can't resist a sneer at Eren as they pass on the steps.

~~

Round five starts slowly, with an unambitious but reasonably competent presentation from the lanky Ioren. He argues that the life of Helmat can be seen as both an inspiring model for the diligent but unassuming student and as an example of the radical and creative approaches that distinguish the lives of all the greatest wizards. It's difficult to argue with this 'thesis', partly because it is so uncontentious, but mostly because any counter-argument almost inevitably runs the risk of criticizing the Founder.

Eren has a hard time keeping her composure as she realizes the tricky path in front of her. Certainly she agrees that the founder was a great man, who laid the foundation for Imperial College's greatness. Hmmm, perhaps the most important issue to consider is what the judges think in all of this?

She listens as Ioren spins out the predictable details backing up his thesis, but at the same time splitting her attention to the judges. More accurately, to what she knows fo them. She has so wanted to be embraced by the college more than grudgingly accepted that she's tried to understand the common views, and those of the most important figures, masters included. If only she can recall what the judges think, then surely she can tailor her arguments to their biasses?

Ioren's lacklustre presentation also serves as a timely reminder that spouting the acknowledged truths about a subject is no route to success in the Disputation, and that, conversely, a well-argued case can win the judges' favour even if they disagree with the substance of the argument. Olivant, for all his misogyny, is widely regarded as a very fair man. Harigan, however, tends to be very critical and only seems impressed by intellectual rigour or by topics as complex as his own research area, which is something to do with node topology.

Eren realises that one interpretation of Helmat's life might serve as a good prelude to her thesis, by arguing that his flaws and the creative ways that he overcame them hold the real key to the Founder's greatness. There's a risk that this might take some of the punch out of her Proposing round, but it might also be a way to test the water with the judges. This view of the Founder is not one that has been explicitly taught in lessons, but it seems to chime well with the general character of the College, which prides itself on making a virtue out of its flaws.

Undeterred, Neronil, who has drawn the role of first Disputant, sets about his task with considerable enthusiasm and rather less grace. Citing from a number of texts to support his case, he fearlessly attacks one of Ioren's basic premises, the notion that Helmat was a model apprentice.

"Quite the contrary," Neronil asserts, drawing gasps from the audience and raised eyebrows from both of the judges. "As our Founder himself tells us, in his 'Recollections', he always regarded himself as 'a rather lazy student, relying far too heavily on my more sensible friends' and modestly goes on to insist that he only managed to complete his apprenticeship through 'a combination of their generosity and my own good fortune'. Helmat's characterisation of an ideal student, as his preface to the 'Rule' tells us, 'is an amalgam of all the virtues of those individuals that I had the good fortune to encounter during my own apprenticeship, without whose aid I would not be here today.'"

It is a risky position to take, but it's well-substantiated and seems to win approval from the judges. Ioren makes a decent attempt to defend himself, arguing that these remarks attest to Helmat's great modesty rather than his lack of accomplishment as an apprentice, but he can't really back this assertion up with any compelling evidence. Neronil looks happily surprised by his apparent success.

~~

Then the judges signal Eren to take her turn. She stands, but pauses half a second before speaking, asking herself one last time if this is the approach she wants to take. Still the same answer: he has set a boring trap, and she will not dutifully fall into it, her way is much more clever. She hopes.

Unintentional though it may be, her delay seems to gather everyone's attention to her a bit more. Finally she gives voice to her thoughts: "Well, yes, of course what you say is true."

This time her pause is intentional, a device she has seen her father use on stage many times. Just before she judges someone will intrude, she continues. "It is true, but it is trivial. What you say is surely acknowledged by all at Imperial College, and hopefully by those elsewhere. If you say 'Helmat is a great man, worthy of admiration' then have the courage of your convictions!"

What comes next she has been mulling over with half her mind for several minutes now. It is perhaps a claim that will create trouble later, but if not in a disputation then when else to make such a statement?

"I believe that what you should have been claiming is that Helmat is not merely a good example, but the best example that we have. That his rule is not only inspirational, but but the best rule that has been written yet. The result is that Imperial College is the best school in existence."

She pauses again, this time to let the predictable buzz sort itself out somewhat. While she had been listening she had split her attention, and come up with a quick list of supporting arguments for this extension of the thesis. Her time is limited, so she has focussed on making them as succinct as possible--but she knows as well that she will not get cross-examined on them, so she needs not so much evidence. She could never have done this without being so familiar with the rule of Helmat and having such a good memory--she is fortunate that she can recite many useful passages from memory. As she formulated her attack she tried to scan it for any obvious illogic to remove.

Pitching her voice to carry above the commotion, she continues: "I'm not saying you should claim that Imperial College is perfect, or that other schools or other founders have no merit. However let us examine the evidence that you presented, and extend it, shall we?"

Now she begins to pace a couple of steps from side to side. In part to release her own tension, in part to allow her to more easily scan the room and keep an eye out for trouble.

"Imperial College is an institution of great age, which has produced leading adepts for its entire existence. These adepts have thrived in many areas. A few examples are..." after naming a few great alumni that any proud Imperial College adherent would know, she continues "you note the variety of their accomplishments, and of their areas of study. Note also how Imperial College has managed to produce adepts able to meet the demands of every time period, no matter the nature of these demands."

"This seems to me to be a key point that you were missing: it is not only that we can observe the man and his rule and judge it good, but we can measure the surpassing success of Helmat and his rule. Further, having measured it, how do we tie this back to the nature of the rule?"

Getting to the meet of her argument, she begins to feel better. The arguments now are the kind she has made a hundred times with Master Atlan. It is a matter of following the method, something she has had drilled into her. As her father has said so many times, the better you know the material, the better you can present it. So for this final running through of the arguments she allows her passion for the subject to show.

"You gave examples of how Helmat is an inspiration both for the hardworking and studious apprentice, and for the more inspired. How is that he is both? I think it is his very flaws. His rule is open about these, some of which have already been mentioned. There are areas in which he struggled, and in which he excelled. There are things which he attempted without success, and others where he found success beyond expectation and made the most of it."

After illustrating with some examples, she continues: "Above all, he showed flexibility, adapting to the reality of the situation to achieve greatest success. His rule lays out this same flexibility for Imperial College. We have not one way, we have as many ways as there are alleys in Old Town. Thus Imperial College can make the most of all gifts, can readily add a new branch of research, knowledge of a new node, or simply a unique approach to our studies. This has kept the college fresh and relevent as the world has changed."

"All of this because he acknowledged his own flaws, and was willing to adapt and change, consider new ideas and new approaches. Had he not adapted, he would never have fit to his node, for we know some of his early ideas do not match with his later connections. Because he lived his life as an experiment, discarding that which did not work and developing that which did, he was able to become a fit for his eventual transcendance."

"In summary, I say you did not extend your thesis far enough, Helmat is not merely a good example, he is the best example that we have. We know this because of the continued success of Imperial College. The core of the reason that he is the best example is that he was willing to acknowledge his own imperfections and adapt himself to what worked, so his final form was both succesful in itself, but also a guide of how to adapt."

Eren steps back to her proper place, and looks at her opponent, finishing with "And so I ask, why did you not go to these further places with your argument?"

~~

Caught in his own trap, Ioren can do little more than echo Eren's sentiments and argue that "in the time available", his arguments were sufficient. The judges seem to have some sympathy with his plea, but they were clearly more impressed by Eren's passionately-argued case. There's little doubt who the audience favour: the applause that Eren receives is deafening and many of her fellow students strike up a chant of "Im-per-i-al's the best, we ain't impressed by all the rest!" until a few of their masters intervene.

Eren feels a little sorry for Ioren, who looks thoroughly deflated. The giggling Naval College girl Meredith tries to capitalise on this by attacking his thesis from a different angle, criticising its lack of logical rigour rather than its substance. It is a clever strategy, which she just about pulls off, but Ioren defends himself surprisingly well and makes Meredith's attack look a little petty.

Feeling slightly intoxicated by the applause and still a little guilty about the trouncing that she delivered to Ioren, Eren begins descending from the platform in a bit of a daze. Before she realises what is happening, she finds herself dangerously off-balance and about to pitch head-first down the stone steps.

Time seems to stand still for a moment as she teeters on the brink of disaster, questions crowding into her panic-stricken mind. Was that a subtle nudge that she'd felt from one of the students mounting the platform for the next round? Had that been a look of gleeful hatred that she'd glimpsed on a face in the crowd? And how, in the name of the Redeemer, was she going to stop herself from falling?

This is not the first time that Eren has found herself on the verge of falling. Bitter experience has taught her that she is better off aiming to survive the fall than to stop it. She's learned she is not too fragile, and when she learned how to use a staff she certainly learned to fall safely. As she starts to fall her feverish mind thinks about how the crowd will react as she tumbles down the stairs: laughter certainly. If she can just manage to stand up afterwards and bow, no matter how bad the pain, acting like she is laughing with the crowd, it won't be a disaster.....besides which, maybe if she recovers fast enough she can see who has the wrong expression on her face.

Fortunately, she only has a short way to fall, ending up in an undignified heap at the bottom of the steps. As she staggers to her feet, desperaely trying to put a brave face on it, she can feel that she'll have some nasty bruises, but it's the audience's reaction that is her biggest concern. They had taken a collective sharp intake of breath upon seeing her fall, but her forced smile and plucky bow seem to have misled them into thinking that she'd done it on purpose and many of them are laughing at what they now take to be her clumsy antics. She even hears one of the judges muttering "I suppose this is the sort of thing that we'll have to expect if we continue to admit common street entertainers as apprentices."

Hunting the crowd for the face she'd glimpsed just before she fell, Eren naturally finds herself gravitating towards the group of in-crowders. Oren is certainly smirking at her, but that's not a huge surprise. Glancing back up at the platform, she notices that one of his cohorts is taking part in this round: Agnetha, whose less-than-warm personality and icy stare have earned the nickname 'Ice Maiden' amongst the other students. Could she have been responsible for this?

Eren's eye then alights on the new boy, Vey, whose expression is strangely unreadable at first. When he notices her looking at him, however, he responds with a warm grin. Perhaps he was just lost in his own thoughts, she tells herself. His presentation in the last round had been rather convincingly undermined by that Naval student, after all. Hmmmm...

~oOo~

The immaculately-dressed (if rather flamboyant) student from the School of the Sacred Inmage is presenting his thesis in round six. Kiki tells Eren that this is Laramy, a tailor's son who makes all of his own clothes and who can work artistic wonders with all kinds of fabric. He is friendly enough, but can be a bit bitchy about his fellow students and likes to poke fun at Kiki's homespun graments.

His thesis is concerned with analysing the structure of materials and how this can affect their properties, both physical and magical. He draws upon his knowledge of textiles to make a clever illustration of his point, enlisting the aid of one of his Disputants to demonstrate how a piece of woven fabric exhibits remarkable strength when pulled in one direction, but tears easily when pulled in another. He extrapolates from this to talk about the "warp and weft" of natural materials and even magical substances, arguing that a proper understanding of this underlying structure can enable the logician to identify the origin of weaknesses such as metal fatigue.

The judges seem dubious about this at first, but by the end of the presentation they are both smiling and nodding, along with most of the audience. The first Disputant, by contrast scowls at her opponent and cooly delivers a belittling attack on what she calls his "excessively simplistic comparison between the cloth of men and the fabric of the world". Laramy defends quite well, but can't resist delivering a few sarcastic asides, which amuse the audience, but don't go down so well with the judges.

Exalian looks at Laramy's clothing enviously. His own are not terrible, but not nearly so nice. Concessions his family would not have had to make in their former position. And, Exalian hopes, will not have to make some day in the future. He notes his sister in the audience next to his father (seated protectively beside her), and how he's sure that father would purchase her a replacement for the threadbare dress she's wearing, if only he could afford to do so.

Considering Laramy's point, it occurs to Exalian that he wasn't prepared to agree so much with his opponents. Yet again he sees the validity of his opponent's argument. Hard to dispute something that you find so compelling. And the structure of essence speaks to Exalian again. He can feel the structure in his own essence, lining up with his Galvosti heritage.

Exalian considers how Eren had made points last round however - an unworthy one, that one, to be sure. But she'd discovered a way to make points by saying that the argument had not gone far enough. Perhaps...

But that wasn't good enough. He'd probably come off as copying Eren if he attacked directly like this without modification. If he could only point out how the shortcoming of the argument also made it substantively incorrect.

And then it hits Exalian. Hadn't Asalat once said that objects with essence existed because of their essence? That god had created the essence first, and that those things sans essence came to exist in later actions? Indeed, wasn't Exalian in tune with his own essence because he understood that it was what made him, him, and not he that made his essence into something else?

Exalian launches into his question. "Yes, essence underlies things. But is it not called essence because it causes these structures in the objects which it underlies? And not because these structures exist, and then the essence underlies them to match? If you observe that cloth splits more easily one way than another - and assuming there is essence underlying this cloth - then aren't you observing the essence at work, and not the physical structure? Indeed, if the cloth has some special property not found in mundane cloth, because of the essence that underlies it, might not the observation of cloth in general not lead you to incorrect assumptions about how the cloth in question can be manipulated?"

"If there is essence, one must observe that, and only that, to see God's true design. The physical form in this case is merely a shell that displays a form consistent with that essence."

Exalian leaves it there, fairly simple, hoping that the concise nature of his argument, and it's basic truth, will carry the day with flying colors. That, and he suddenly feels one of his terrible headaches coming on...

Laramy rolls his eyes and turns theatrically to the audience.

"Is it just me," he says, in acid tones. "Or are we getting a little too hung up on metaphor here, hmmmm? Saints alive, people! Can't a fellow use some fabric to illustrate a simple point, without pernickity know-it-alls like these two jumping all over it and pointing out the obvious: 'Uh, it's not really that simple, don't you know'. Well, duh!"

There are a few chuckles at this, which makes Laramy's smug smile grow a little wider, but they soon die away. Then the well-dressed boy starts to look uncomfortable as he realises that Exalian's insightful comments have had a much better reception than he'd thought.

Blinking hard in an effort to dispel the strange visual distortions that seem to accompany his incipient headaches, Exalian is encouraged to hear murmurs of approval from the audience and notices that one of the judges, Master Stockfish, is smiling and nodding. Even the stern Mistress Hephania seems to be looking at him in a new light, as if she has just noticed the promising glimmer of ore in a handful of dirt. His head immediately starts to feel better.

"Look," begins Laramy, addressing his opponent directly now. "You're really just saying what I said, but in a slightly different way, aren't you? So I talked about structure, where you talk about essence, but is there really that big a difference?"

This ill-advised comment actually provokes a bark of laughter from the audience and both of the judges are looking at him aghast.

"Uh, well obviously there *is* a difference," he backtracks hastily. "But that doesn't completely undermine my argument. Um.. that is... I... errr..."

"Next!" prompts Mistress Hephania hastily, startling the final disputant, Berem into action.

The big, soft-hearted student has obviously decided to go easy on his opponent, asking a perceptive but fairly straightforward question about his thesis. Laramy has a stab at answering, but it's obvious that his confidence has deserted him and he fails to convince. Berem looks rather apologetic as he frames a more appropriate response to his own question, but this only serves to earn him some well-deserved points and does little for the crestfallen Proposer.

"Can't help but feel sorry for the lad, eh?" the bear-like Berem whispers to Exalian as they leave the platform a few moments later. "I reckoned his presentation was pretty good, but he obviously hadn't thought it all through. Shame, really..."

Exalian is about to take this opportunity to have a long-delayed chat with the big apprentice about his unconventional background, when he catches sight of his master, Jayron, who is apparently having a blazing row with another adept.

The young apprentice had been glancing up at the balcony, hoping to catch a glimpse of his family, when he instead caught sight of the two men on one of the higher levels. Red-faced and gesticulating wildly, Jayron seems to be engaged in a hot exchange with a man that Exalian doesn't recognise - an adept from the Felster Naval Academy to judge by his robes - who is in turn scowling and repeatedly jabbing a finger, as if trying to emphasise a point.

Watching them curiously, Exalian wonders what business his master could have with an adept from another school and what kind of disagreement might inspire such emotional behaviour. Their argument seems to continue for some time, until the Naval College adept throws up his hands in gesture of despair and turns away from Jayron, who crosses his arms and glares at the other man's back. As Exalian's gaze strays away from the two men, he realises that someone is watching him from the first balcony: Cecily.

Catching his glance, the gloomer girl quickly flicks her eyes elsewhere and arranges her features in an expression of studied indifference. Fascinated, Exalian watches her for a few moments and sees her darting another quick look in his direction, as if checking to see whether he is still looking up at her. She suddenly seems to become very interested in the debate...

Smiling, Exalian does't forget that Berem was just skeaking to him.

"Sorry, just a lot going on just now," he replies finally. "Uh, yeah, he really should have put more thought into his presentation, and even more into what sort of questions might get asked."

Exalian tears his attention from Cecily, and now fully on Berem. One thing at a time. "You, on the other hand, are doing quite handsomely. I'm impressed. Do you think that, perhaps, you'd like to do some studying with myself and Neronil at some point?"

Exalian is, of course, trying to recruit Berem as an ally - more for his phsyical talents than his mental ones. But the fact that he was large and not a dolt (as Exalian assumes all large boys are) is a bonus.

As he awaits Berem's reply, he glances around quickly to see if Cecily is still in place, and if Master Jayron is still in sight.

"That would be most welcome," Berem responds, with an enormous smile. "But I think you're just being kind about how well I'm doing. I don't mind admitting that I've had to put in many hours of hard work just to keep up with my classmates and I haven't really had the opportunity - or an invitation - to work closely with any of them. Most of my contemporaries matriculated last year," he adds. "So I didn't want to trouble them with my beginner's questions."

Exalian can see that Jayron and the other man are talking again, in a less heated fashion. Cecily is still watching the debating platform.

"You and Neronil have just matriculated, though, haven't you?" Berem is saying. "So we are all likely to be having the same lessons. That'll be good, then. Oh," he says, his face falling. "But you might both be in this new experimental class..."

"Might be," agrees Exalian somewhat distracted again. "But that doesn't mean we won't be back at the school a lot, too. Let's see how it goes?"

He turns to Berem to shake his hand with a smile, giving him full attention. "And I think you're doing better than you think you are."

"I've got to go see about something," Exalian excuses himself and heads for Jayron.

~oOo~

Able to see over many heads, Eren manages to read the scores from a sufficiently calm spot that she can scribble them down with charcoal and a scrap of much sanded parchment. Afterwards looking at the barely legible and smudged list she could wish for a slate and chalk, but there was really no good way to stash those in robes.

She actually has to wait a bit to get Kiki alone, as it seems there are others who want to congratulate her on her success - or maybe they simply hope some of it will rub off on them by association? Kiki is standing looking some what bemused as people who normally would not look twice at her are suddenly keen to speak to her. How bizzare she thinks.

Finally Eren gets her opportunity to enthuse. "Look at that, top of the standing!"

"And you are top of those who have still to present, which is a good position too," replies Kiki, who is looking somewhat worried at attracting so much attention.

"A lot of people in Imperial are going to be grinding their teeth over that," Eren observes cheerfully.

"Yeah, they seem to think that is important. Kiki snorts down her nose to show what she thinks. "Typical - they miss the point entirely," she adds, looking into thin air. "When a bear is chasing you through the wood the important thing is not coming first. The important thing is not being last."

"Oh, and about what I said about Imperial being best, well, it was a disputation, ummmm....." Voice getting slower and weaker, Eren lamely continues "You have to make your points strongly, and ummmm, I know the other schools are good in their areas, so, uh, yah, I hope you aren't offended?" she finishes weakly, with a sick feeling in her stomach. What if she alienated what was looking like a new friend for the sake of making a couple of points? But wasn't that what you were supposed to do in the disputation?

"Err what are you going on about?" Kiki throws a puzzled expression at Eren. "You're supposed to show pride in your school, it's expected. If you don't you get dumped on". And more quietly to herself: "I should know".

Somewhat lost in her own thoughts, Eren does not immediately pick up on Kiki's last comment.

"I can tell you one thing, we don't do anything as cool as your painting at Imperial. It is all words, words, words. That's OK, words can be anything, but it does get dull sometimes." Looking around she adds "Can we go sit down? My knee is starting to really hurt—oh wait, it is the drawing for next round, better get through that first."

As they draw Eren pays attention to which of the Imperial students are in her group of "not yet presented." It is pretty easy to tell from expressions who draws what this phase, everyone is getting eager to get it over with. She knows she should find out who is in her round and all that, but she realizes that all she really wants to do right now is sit down, yet there are still things to do first.

She whispers to Kiki "I'll find you later, I'm going to the loo, and to check if my knee is bleeding." Trying not to limp too obviously, she hurries towards the facilities. On the way she pulls out a crust of bread she'd stashed in her robe that morning and gratefully devours it, immediately feeling somewhat better.

~oOo~

In the next round, a rather undistinguished Imperial College student called Hayward surprises everyone - himself included - with the confident and articulate delivery of his presentation. Sadly, his subsequent defence of the thesis is hesitant at best and almost wholly lacking in conviction. The highlight of the round is a frighteningly effective dissection of the hapless Proposer's argument by know-it-all Demetrius, who seems to be over-compensating for his lamentable lack of charisma.

The final round of phase two sees the Imperial in-crowder Oren deliver his presentation. It's rather light on substance, but seems to impress the judges anyway, who perhaps discern an admirable economy of expression in the Proposer's hurried delivery. It doesn't stand up quite so well under cross-examination, however, and even the final Disputant, a rather clueless Tenebrous Wisdom student called Ricardo, manages to stump Oren with a tricky question or two.

Since Ricardo regularly hangs around with the Imperial crowd and this is the second time that these two have faced each other in the competition. Eren can't help wondering whether her nemesis is colluding with the gloomer boy. She has no idea how they could have arranged to be in the same rounds, though. Perhaps all of the in-crowders are colluding! No, that's taking paranoia one step too far. Even odious Oren wouldn't be arrogant enough to think that he could get away with that sort of scheme and Ricardo doesn't seem to have the wit to pull it off.

~oOo~

It was only when she got into the side corridor that Eren realized how tense she had been under all those eyes. It was such a relief to just slouch into a more normal posture! And to be able to favour her sore knee. Walking was going to be painful tomorrow for sure, and she thought her left shoulder was stiffening up as well.

As soon as she can sit down she hikes up her robe to check her knee. It is already swelling a bit, and has a nice scrape, but it isn't bleeding or anything. That is a relief at least. Letting her robes back down Eren takes a moment to appreciate the environment—someone did some clever design, the room is dim, but it doesn't smell! So much nicer than at the university. Eren wonders what principles of architecture let them keep this room from smelling, and what that in turn might say about essential relationships. Was the architect an adept, following perfect visions from the higher planes? Or was he a skilled craftsman finding the same principles through mundane observation. Or perhaps he was simply lucky?

Architecture as a parallel to nodal mapping, that could be interesting too. Was it worth trying to fit it into her presentation somewhere? Probably not, she had worked out so carefully what to say that now was not the time to change it. Still, worth thinking about in the future. Along with Kiki's thesis. Really, there were so many things in the world that just had to reflect organization of the higher planes, but so much of wizardry seemed to be based on sitting in a room re-interpreting what someone else wrote years ago. Were they missing something by withdrawing from the world so much? What was the phrase Master Atlan used sometime? "Primary Observation" yes that was the word, although it seemed to her that it seemed to imply a slightly lower order of wizarding, that it was considered better to, oh, what was that other word again, yes: better to be the one synthesizing the information. Now that would be a great topic for next year, or at least something around those topics.

But leave next year for next year, first she had to get through next round! It sure seemed like the in-crowd was up to something. It was nice to be doing well so far. In a way she was glad that she was presenting in the last round, at least if her disputants totally tore her to shreds she would not have to get back up on the rostrum again afterwards. She was pretty sure she should score decent points on her presentation, but the defense scared her. Still, she had scored fairly well so far, so as long as she did average from here on in she should be in the top eight. Of course she would love to do better than average! But it would be best to give the in-crowd a wide berth. Maybe this coming round she should not do anything fancy. But it would not be fair to do less than her best, either! Oh, why did life have to be so complicated?

Oh, what was that noise? Oh, my stomach rumbling. I should really hurry back before the others eat all the food!

"Ah, so this is where you've been hiding, Piggy," an unpleasantly familiar voice remarks. "We were expecting to find you stuffing your face out in the hall, but I guess we should have known to look for you somewhere dank and dark."

~oOo~

As Eren hobbles away Kiki allows herself a shudder.

Oh God! She had done it again: over achieving - the bane of her short existence. Without it she could have still been at home in her village with few problems in her life. A further glance at the scoreboard shows that she is still at the top of the table. No mistake their then. A third place she could have been happy with but first! That sort of thing always caused problems with others sooner of later. And judging by what happened to Eren probably sooner in this crowd.

Briefly she considers throwing the following rounds but her mum had firm views on not being your self so she rejects that. [Sigh] She will just have to do the best she can and take the consequences,... again.

OK, first things first, so she demurely takes her place in the queue for food. Ignoring those who blatantly jump the queue in front of her. After all its easy to miss see her in this press flesh. You would think they had been starved for days before judging by the way some of the students are hogging the table.

Look on the bright side, she tells herself after quickly crunching the numbers in her head, any of the students who have still to present could overtake her with a good delivery. So better help Eren if she can, as she is best placed to overtake her. Besides she seems nice enough, if a bit clumsy with people.

Still Eren did seem to be taking a long time in the loo. Perhaps she needs help with her knee. Oh I should have offered instead of worrying about myself. Silly girl.

With that Kiki heads down to the loo.

Before she can extricate herself from the crowd around the food table, however, a sudden scream from nearby grabs her attention. One of the Imperial College girls is staring aghast at the table.

"What are you... Oh! What the Saints is that thing doing in here?" another student puts in, indicating something on the table. Standing on tiptoe, Kiki at last manages to see what he's pointing at. A small furry creature is busily helping itself to the food, twitching its whiskers in irritation at the noisy humans that have interrupted its meal.

"Um... Kiki," ways a soft voice at her shoulder. "That's not your pet squirrel, is it?"

The speaker is Jandrell, a quiet and rather serious student from her own school. One or two of the people around her overhear this and turn to look at Kiki, who suddenly wishes that she could fall through the floor. She peers intently at the creature on the table. It couldn't really be Alvin, could it? How had he got here? Unless perhaps he'd stowed away in her bag...

Oh well, no point in denying things - not with her reputation round here.

"It's a Red Tail tree squirrel," she observes. "She really should not be so comfortable around humans - it's not safe for her. Any way I better get hold of her".

With that Kiki slips through to the front of the table and attempts to take charge of her errant 'pet'.

Approaching the little creature cautiously, Kiki manages to get close enough to attract its attention without spooking it. Picking up a morsel of food, she succeeds in tempting it to come towards her and, with a practiced movement, quickly scoops it up and into her bag. Moving away calmly away from the crowded table, she tries to find a quiet corner to check on her mischeievous pet.

"Don't worry," she hears Jandrell reassuring the curious students around her. "Kiki's good with animals. I'm sure she'll take care of it..."

The animal seems to have been momentarily startled by this gambit. Just as Kiki is navigating her way out of the crowd, however, the squirrel seems to recovers its wits and make a fresh bid for freedom. Scrabbling out of her bag and up onto her shoulder, it stands up on its hind legs looking for somewhere to jump.

Kiki makes a hasty grab for it and just about manages to hold on as it struggles to wriggle free. Realising that her grip on the worried creature is tentative and the crowd is alarming it. Kiki stays calm while hurries out the crowd and bolts round the corner while presently trilling and chirping at the squirrel and trying to calm it down.

Unfortunately, trying to do all of these things at once proves to be more of a challenge than Kiki expected. Stumbling as she rounds the corner, she is forced to windmill her arms to keep balance, which only serves to attract more attention from nearby students. The squirrel, meanwhile, makes another attempt to elude her grasp, but manages to tangle itself in her robe. It tumbles to the floor and chitters indignantly up at her.

The two adversaries square off, Kiki keeping a wide stance while the rodent glancing skittishly about, trying to anticipate which way she is going to move. After a tense moment, the squirrel makes its choice and darts off, heading now for the main hall.

Damn, it's bolting for it, thinks Kiki.

Not panicking and thinking fast on how to stop a squirrel, Kiki projects a hawk image high in front of the fleeing pet. She hopes that seeing a hawk will make it freeze and allow her to put it some where dark and safe, as its instincts would want it to do.

Unfortunately, the squirrel's mad dash for freedom has already taken it well on its way, so Kiki's quick-thinking doesn't have quite the desired effect. The creature's scurrying trajectory along the stone floor has attracted a lot of curious attention and the image of the hawk only causes it to pause near the entrance to the main chamber. As Kiki runs towards it, the squirrel seems to be considering its possible escape routes: will it continue on into the auditoriom, or turn left to head up the stairs onto the balconies, or turn right to head downstairs into the lavatrina?

OK chasing it will just make it run harder, Kiki thinks. Best just to herd it to somewhere quiet, where it might calm down. With that in mind Kiki trys to get it to head down to the toilet.

The animal makes a break for the main chamber, but Kiki's judiciously positioned hawk image proves enough of a deterrent. With a noisy scrabble of its claws, the squirrel changes direction and heads downwards the toilet...

~oOo~

As Exalian approaches Master Jayron, he notes the creature and the girl chasing it. Wasn't she the girl who was in the lead? Good news - perhaps if the judges caught wind of this, they'd be inclined to give her low marks in the next few rounds.

He grins, and then turns his attention back to Jayron and the other man, and his careful approach vector. He attempts to approach slowly at an oblique angle, such that neither participant in the argument might think he's coming over to listen. The idea is to be noticed at some point by Jayron, as though he's coming to ask a question, so he prepares one as he heads over. His goal, however, is to try to catch a snippet of the conversation as he awaits at a theoretically respectable distance for the pair to conclude their discussion.

He learned this technique from watching his father at guild meetings. He makes his approach carefully, as his urge to know if this relates to Jayron's other doings is very strong.

Luckily, the supporting columns on the upper balcony make it fairly easy to approach the two men without being noticed. They don't seem to be arguing any more, but they are still having an intense discussion. As Exalian draws near, he hears the other adept speaking.

"...So we still don't really know whether she's working on their behalf or pursuing it for her own ends," he is saying. "She may even be part of a different group entirely. I'm also certain that one of your colleagues was involved with that slaughterhouse affair, but it remains to be seen what he was..."

"Who are we talking about?" Jayron interrupts. "Not the Gavon prodigy, surely?"

"No, of course not!" the other man scoffs. "Although he is part of yet another... ah, interest group. Not one that we have to worry about, I'm happy to say. Their goals seem to be broadly the same as ours, even if their methods differ. No, I was referring to one of your judges. 'One may smile and smile and be a villain', as they say."

"Him!" exclaims Jayron, sounding shocked. "But he seems so... well, nice, I suppose. I'd never have suspected him of dabbling in... I mean he could be excommunicated - or worse! - if anyone found out."

"You're a fine one to talk, Jayron! What do you think that the Council would make of your little project, if they ever found out?"

"Curse you, Carrick!" Jayron spits. "I keep telling you, my personal affairs are none of your blasted concern! How you can take that holier-than-thou attitude with all of your machinations..."

"Oh, come on! There's no sense in denying it, man! Our mutual friend told me what he's been supplying you with and why he stopped. There's no comparison with my... What? What are you...?"

"Ahem... Hello there, Exalian," Jayron says, in a tone of obviously forced good humour. "How are you enjoying the Disputation?"

His companion whirls, glaring at the approaching apprentice.

"Who the...?"

"This is one of my apprentices, Carrick. Exalian, let me introduce you to Adept Carrick, from the Felster Naval College. He and I are old friends. I'm very much looking forward to your presentation. Have you drawn for this phase yet?"

"Uh, yes," replies Exalian blankly, trying not to look like he's heard the intriguing things he's just heard. "I'm up soon. It's been very exciting. I hope that I do well."

Then he recalls the question he'd pepared to ask Jayron, so as to not look like he was eavesdropping. For a moment he considers not asking it - at the moment it looks like Jayron might be satisfied thinking that he'd come over for a social call. But just to be safe, he asks.

"I wanted to ask you, before my presentation, if..." he realizes now that his question about the judge he was going to ask about might be seen as being related to the subject that Jayron and Carrick were just discussing. Panicking slightly, Exalian changes his question midstride. "If you would sit near to the podium when I give my presentation. I'd feel better if you were nearby. Uh...inspired."

Exalian knows this flattery sounds forced, but hopes that Jayron figures that it's just nerves before his presentation. What would Jayron do if he suspected that Exalian knew as much as he does?

His master frowns. "Is everything all right, Exalian? You seem somewhat... flustered. I didn't think that you were really that nervous about the..."

"How much did you overhear, boy?" Carrick snaps suddenly, with a tone of menace in his voice. "That's what has you rattled, isn't it?"

Jayron looks momentarily s