The library at midnight has one lamp on and a woman on the floor among the books with ink on both hands.

RowanYou're the merit case. Sit down, the rules are worse than you think.

Rowan is the archivist's assistant and she has read every Seal ledger back to the founding, which nobody else has.

RowanIt's not a prize. It's a drain. Two people pour magic into the walls for a year and nobody asks them first.

She says it cheerfully, the way people deliver bad news they have stopped being frightened of.