Blood Over Bright Haven

The epigraph is the suicide note of female mage Irma Mordra, who refuses to “stay in someone’s house where [she] [is] not wanted” (114).

Sciona and Thomil spend the next two weeks perfecting her spellwebs, which enable larger sourcing spells to draw energy from specific areas. As Sciona is finishing the last web, an explosion sounds from elsewhere on the floor, wrecking parts of her lab. Thomil insists they check on the others.

The explosion happened in the lab of mage Halaros, frightening him and his assistants. Sciona is suspicious—the spell Halaros was using should not have gone wrong—but Renthorn, arriving on the scene, dismisses her opinion. Sciona notices that Halaros’s spellograph is a rare Maclan Splendor 55; Halaros got it from the supply room, but she knows they do not usually keep that model there. Renthorn invites all the mages to work in his undamaged office, but Sciona recognizes that Renthorn wants to capitalize on everyone else’s research.

Sciona explains her concerns to Thomil: Halaros shouldn’t have made that mistake—it seems more likely that someone cursed the spellograph to explode. Given that the spellograph model is the one Bringham’s students use, she concludes that Renthorn, who also worked for Bringham and who now stands to benefit, is the culprit.