Profs and Prophecy

Source and Sorcery

Then the Vice Chancellor thought about the Bursar’s parting words. On second thought, this was something he very much wanted to hear.

He opened the door to find the Bursar in much the same place he had left him. He had his two hands raised, as if he may have been intending to rub his nose. The Vice Chancellor grabbed him by the face and pulled him back into the room, shutting the door behind them.

“Excellent news, Bursar. Well done. Please, come in and tell me everything from the beginning. Did you bring him with you?”

“Not as such, no,” said the Bursar, looking very much as if he would rather be rubbing his swelling and reddened nose than having this conversation. “What I do have is this.” He reached into his robe and pulled out a copy of the form Priti had filled out in the bookshoppe.

The Vice Chancellor sat behind his desk. The Bursar was not invited to sit as well. “He was at the bookshoppe, was he? Picked up a complete set of first-year texts. Excellent, it appears he has finally arrived. Did anyone see him or speak to him?”

“Yes sir. I took a complete report from the shoppe assistant on duty at the time. She provided a complete description.”

“Well, go ahead. Read it to me.”

The Bursar reached down into his robe once again, pulling out a notepad. Flipping to the appropriate page he read, “The suspect in question was small, taller than five feet, but certainly no more than six. He walked on legs, and had a face with a small nose centred around the middle. Oh, and he wore clothes.”

The Vice Chancellor steepled his fingers. His reaction was indiscernible from his facial expression.

“I have an artist’s rendering, if you care to see it?” said the Bursar as he handed over the notepad.

The Vice Chancellor looked at the pad for a few moments before speaking. “Yes,” he said, “this could certainly be a rendering of William YoungEarl. Oh, I can see the nose over here. So could you tell me, the shoppe assistant on duty was…”

“Mrs. ShoutFire.”

“Of course, Mrs. ShoutFire. The dragon. Excellent. Well done. So Bursar, I’m just wondering. Do you think it might be possible to tell me something just slightly more useless? You see, it’s only that I’m trying to see if we can break the record.”

The Bursar took back his pad, and flipped through. “No, that’s all I’ve got.”

“Has he moved into StrongArm yet?”

The Bursar looked through all the notes in his pad once again, while the Vice Chancellor waited. Eventually he announced, “No.”

“Well get someone over there, and when he shows up bring him to me.” The Vice Chancellor turned to the side, and said dramatically, “By the end of the day we shall have him.”

“Yes sir,” said the Bursar. He sat and waited, to see if there were any other instructions. Or possibly some maniacal laughter to be participated in.

After a few awkward moments, the Vice Chancellor announced, “That’s all. Get out.”

The Bursar didn’t need to be told twice.

* * *

“Here you are! We thought you were going to meet us at SASAC.”

“We waited for a while. Eventually we figured you must have come back to the room, so we thought we should come find you.”

That wasn’t strictly true. Cassia and Sara had gone to SASAC, and had certainly waited for a long while. And they had discussed whether Priti might have gone back to the room, and whether she was sulking or angry and at which particular injustice at this particular time. They had also discussed whether they should go and find her. The decision to do so, however, was not quite as straightforward as Sara just made it out to be. Eventually they decided they should go home and take their chances. They had found Priti sitting on her bed, unfortunately with an unreadable expression on her face.