Then perhaps she will encounter another girl sitting under a tree. She has gotten hold of a spoon and is making it hover above her cupped hands.

She pauses a ways a way and squints. "Neat."

Margaretta waves, and almost drops the spoon. "Hello! Are you new?"

"...Yeah. New. I told them... Far away from Neuroi with mom please. So we came here on a boat."

"I came here on a boat too. Far away from Neuroi is good."

Sad nodding.

"...Your magic is neat. It's not the same as the other witch who could move things."

"You can tell things about my special from looking? Is that your special?"

"I can also copy them sometimes if I'm looking at them right."

"Oooh. What else can you tell about mine? Can you copy it?"

Small, pouty sigh. "I don't have a lot of prac-tice doing it. And they just had me do it all day yesterday. You can see metal or something."

"Oh, sorry. If you're bored of it we should do something else."

"It's okay. I'm just tired. Like what?"

"We could talk about where we're from. Or go to the library."

"Maybe the library. Reading is weird but everyone says it's important..."

"Sure! I love reading. The library's this way." She sets off.

Gren follows, still holding her stick. "If you can read you don't have to talk to someone to learn things. You can send letters and things. But almost nobody learned it in my village. Oh! My name is Grenadine, what's yours?"

"Oh, right! Margaretta. And yes, sending letters is nice. I send letters to my parents occasionally, but they have to get someone to read them."

"...I won't get to do that. Everyone had to leave, the whole country, because of the Neuroi."

"Oh no, I'm sorry to hear that."

"A lot of bad things happened... People are bad when they're scared. But the witch-knights helped us. And that's why I want to be one."

Nod. "I want to be an inventor and make things to fight the neuroi with. Here's the library!"

The library is watched over by one of the teachers. Gren tenses up as soon as they walk into view.

"Oh, there you are, Miss Nylund! We've been looking everywhere for you! Your mother and Mrs. Sheffield were very worried."

"I'm fine. I took a walk."

"Perhaps we should go see them. I know they wanted to speak to you about-"

"Can I read the books and you go tell them I'm fine?"

"-Well, it'd really be better to - I suppose you've had a long day. Very well. Don't wander off until I return, please. Would you like me to fetch you a snack?"

"No. Thanks. No thanks."

She lets out a deep breath when the teacher is gone.

"...They don't like to leave me alone."

"I expect they mean well, but that sounds very annoying. Do you know why?"

"I think it's because I can copy some kinds of magic. And see things. S'posed to be rare magic."

She peers at the half-dozen bookshelves that make up this small library uncertainly. "...Can you pick something easy to read for me?"

"It does sound like a really good magic." She looks over the shelves and picks one she's already read, a simple one about harvesting wheat and barley. "Try this? The English isn't as hard as some of the others."