It wasn’t that she disliked a lot of her fellow students. It was simply that for the most part she had so little in common with them that she might as well have been going to school with members of an alien species. In fact, generally speaking, I get along better with alien species than I do with a lot of these guys.
Nita laughed at herself as she picked up another small sandwich plate and started scrubbing at it with the abrasive side of the dish sponge. Then she sighed yet again and wondered what she and Kit were going to do about Penn. It’s not that he’s not a fairly competent wizard, she thought. He made it through his Ordeal, he goes on errantry when he’s sent, and he gets the job done. But beyond that, he didn’t seem to be much of a self-starter. Nita had checked her manual with an eye to having a look at Penn’s independent projects. What surprised her was that there weren’t any.
That had left her shaking her head. What does he do for fun? The answer seemed to be, not wizardry. He liked baseball, and ice hockey, which was slightly remarkable for someone from California; he sang with the choir at his church; he listened to a lot of rock and jazz. And all of these things he would talk about endlessly if you didn’t stop him. There were times when you’d be working with him and Penn would want to talk about anything except the wizardry you were debugging.
Or, Nita thought, times when Kit will be working with him. She was still having trouble trying to understand what possible reason Penn might have for not wanting to engage with her except as a girl. Or his image of a girl, Nita thought, and put the plate she was washing on the dish rack. Someone kind of sweet and friendly but not particularly dangerous. And as she picked up another dish and started scrubbing it, she had to snicker, because if that was Penn’s image of her, he was delusional. It’s not like I go around menacing people, exactly. But I’ve been dangerous enough on occasion. Does that bother him for some reason? And if it does, why?
She shook her head, rinsed the plate, and added it to the rack. Then she paused, having heard a floorboard creak in the upstairs hall. Dairine’s up . . . Or wait, maybe she’s just back. Her sister’s normal working hours had been badly thrown off by her own Invitational work: she’d been in India until nearly breakfast time today.
Nita heard the bathroom door upstairs shut, and reached out to grab the kettle, then filled it up and put it on the stove. From nowhere in particular Dairine had manifested a yen for coffee, and had even gone to the supermarket herself to buy it. Something her mentee’s got her onto, maybe? I should ask.
Nita went back to the sink and picked up the last dish. Meanwhile . . . Penn. They had another meeting set up with him for this afternoon, his time. On this side of things, thank heaven. I’m getting bored with being three hours out of whack half the time. Going off-world is so much easier, you don’t have to worry about zonelag . . . Nita stood there scrubbing, and sighed. There must be some spells that are good against that . . . I’ll look it up.
Don’t bother, Bobo said. There are several. But they’re energy-intensive, and I don’t recommend you start using them unless it’s an emergency. Fiddling around with your melatonin levels is dicey business.
Dairine came thumping down the stairs and leaned against the kitchen door, looking blearily at Nita. She was dressed in jeans and a long T-shirt—again, or still? Nita wondered. “Water’s about to boil,” she said.
“Thank you,” Dairine said, sounding like she’d prefer to go to sleep right where she stood.
“Go sit down before you fall down,” Nita said.
Dairine did that without discussion, which shocked Nita more than almost anything else her sister could’ve done. Then Dairine put her head down on her arms and blinked at Nita like someone who was finding it too much strain to think, let alone talk.
“You want some of your coffee?”
“Yes.”
Nita put the last dish on the rack, pulled two mugs down from the cupboard, and turned off the burner under the kettle. “How much sugar?”
“A lot. Two. Three if you’re using a small spoon.” She didn’t even look up. “Is Daddy here?”
“Nope, left for the shop around seven,” Nita said as she got herself a teabag and dropped it in one mug.
Dairine rolled her head on her arms and groaned. “Why do I feel like this?” she said to the table. “I’ve fought the Lone Power and I haven’t felt this tired.”
“Working hard, maybe?”
Dairine sighed. “Some. Not so much, really, my mentee’s smart. But I keep getting the feeling she’s keeping something under wraps that’s going to pop up at a bad moment.” She pushed herself upright, leaned against the back of the dining room chair with her head lolling back.
Nita rummaged in another cupboard for the coffee. “Family stuff?”
“I don’t know,” Dairine said, her eyes closed. “Haven’t seen any of them, it’s hard to tell. But I get a feeling it’s complicated.” She sighed. “I’m not used to family being complicated . . .”
“Maybe we’re too nuclear,” Nita said, prying the lid off the coffee jar.
Dairine made a slight puff of air that Nita recognized as a substitute for a laugh. “Yeah, but fusion, not fission,” she murmured.
Nita snickered. “How much of this do I use?” she said, squinting at the coffee jar.
“Sort of a big teaspoon . . .”
Nita measured it out, poured steaming water. “Lots of milk,” said the muffled voice from the table.
Nita took care of that, then put the mug down by Dairine’s head and sat down herself with her tea. “What’s on the agenda today?” Dairine said, reviving enough to sit up and slurp at her coffee.
“Penn’s coming over this afternoon,” Nita said. “He’s been doing more work on his spell, and we’re going to look it over at this end of things.”
“In the house?” Dairine said, sounding dubious. “There’s not a lot of room.”
“No,” Nita said, with a slight smile, “not in the house.”
Dairine looked at her out of the corner of her eye. “I know that look,” she said. “What’re you plotting?”
“Well . . .” Nita turned her tea mug around a couple times on the table. “You know, from back when we were working with Mom, I still have access to the aschetic spaces.”
Dairine’s eyes widened. “The practice universes? No, I didn’t know.”
Nita nodded. “Had a look at the manual to learn more about Penn, and you know . . . he doesn’t seem to have gotten out much. I mean, the High Road isn’t to everybody’s taste. There’s no law that says it has to be. But for someone who acts like he’s such a big deal—”
“Or thinks he has to act that way?”
“Whichever.” Nita shrugged. “Either way, it’s a pain in the butt. Anyhow, he doesn’t seem to have any circle or group of wizards he works with, not even as casual partners; he doesn’t get involved in joint wizardries. And the stuff he has done has all been on Earth. Not that that’s a hanging offense either.” She sighed. “It’s just that—Well, with most of the wizards you and I know, the minute they found out there were other planets with life on them, and that you could get at them—they were out there like a shot. At least once or twice, if only to see what it was like! But Penn?” She shook her head. “Not once, as far as I can tell.”