"Not unless someone else cast it and talked about it with me, and you don't want to tell on them because they'd get expelled, or they weren't a student so can't get expelled anyway, and this casting was perfectly consensual."

"...but my dad is the headmaster and will definitely expect me to tell on whoever would've summoned you first. It might not even be actually legal, even if they weren't a student..."

"How is first contact handled at all, if it's illegal?"

"It's... not? Pretty much? But it is like especially illegal because we're students."

"Hmm... well, but if it's illegal that's double the reason why you wouldn't want to tell, isn't it?"

"I'm not sure if it's illegal enough that somebody could make us tell," says Korulen uncertainly.

"Would you be able to look that up without arousing suspicion?"

"I don't even know where to look, I'm not a law student -"

"But it's a possibility, if you can keep this quiet for long enough to verify, we could avoid the whole expulsion thing. I mean, sure, there's the lying part, but one way or another some form of trickery is going to have to take place."

"That's really nice of you," Saasnil says dejectedly, "but I think we'd probably get caught and then be in more trouble for trying not to get caught."

He sighs. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," sighs Korulen.

He shrugs. "Yeah, but I'm still not super thrilled about it either, from any angle."

"- so should I just go ahead and call Mom -"

"Yeah. Whatever," Saasnil says unhappily.

Korulen purses her lips, but then closes her eyes -

- and the door opens, a moment later, to reveal a really fucking magic lady with green hair.

Holy cow lady you are terrifying.

"Hello," he says steadily. "You must be Korulen's mother."

"Yes. My name's Keo. I'm very sorry about this," says Terrifying Green Haired Lady.

"I'm Kaede, and it's alright. I mean, not the part where I'm stuck here for the foreseeable future, but the part where I'm here at all is not terrible."

"Korulen said she explained to you that I need to check you over before you can leave the circle; it won't feel like anything and I won't look at anything I don't need to. Is that all right?"

"Sure."

A very precisely controlled tendril of invisible green magic sweeps over his mind, and then Keo steps forward and smudges the chalk line. The ward ceases to exist.

"I'm definitely going to want to learn to do that. The ward, I mean. Wizardry in general." He stands up, dusting himself. "—is Saasnil going to be expelled? Because although I understand the general principle behind the rule I don't feel it's warranted in this particular situation..."

"Saasnil is in an enormous amount of trouble but may not be outright expelled," says Keo, glancing at Saasnil, who shrinks under her gaze. "Same goes for Korulen." Korulen flinches. "In the meantime, what do you need to be comfortable here for a while? The problem that stuck you here will not apply to anyone competently summoned, so anyone you want to contact from home can be fetched, and we can send and summon written correspondence the same way."

"I don't really have anyone I need to talk to, but unless I get my hands on some magical artefacts or scrolls from back home or get some brand new magic here I will eventually run out." He pokes his backpack, on the floor, with a foot. "I got a couple of things here, so that's still a week or two out, maybe, depending. Other than that, er, I guess a place to sleep and a way to get food and stuff?"

"We can put you up in a dormitory here and you can have a cafeteria pass."

He nods. "I'd also like—library access, I guess, or something like that? How much did Korulen tell you—or did you get from my brain—about what I'd like to do here?"