Tidefall in winter was a different school. The same towers remained. The same courtyards. The same stairs Harper claimed multiplied when nobody looked. But rain darkened the stone almost every morning. Sea-facing windows collected salt. The wind turned sharp enough that students learned to tie scarves properly or lose them to the cliffs. The first night back, Jasper woke to the sound of the western window rattling. Harper was already awake.

"Is it going to break?"

Ava answered from the dark.

"No."

"You don't know that."

"The frame is reinforced."

"That is not the same as unbreakable."

Jasper rolled over.

"Go to sleep."

Harper whispered, "Traitor." The window did not break. Morning arrived grey and cold. The winter timetable included more indoor practical work and fewer long cliff sessions. Ocean Studies moved to a chart room overlooking the harbour, where first-years learned currents, coastal safety and weather signs. Professor Elowen began the first lesson after break with a rope.

"Who can tie a bowline?"

Nobody raised a hand. Harper said, "Can magic tie it?"

"Eventually. You first."

"Why?"

"Because if your spell fails on a wet dock, you still need the knot."

That answer ended the argument. They spent an hour producing terrible loops. Ava's first bowline was technically correct and tightened too small. Harper's was not a bowline but looked extremely secure. Jasper's fell apart when pulled. Soren somehow tied his around his own wrist. Professor Elowen walked the room repeating, "Again." By the end of class, Jasper could make one without looking at the instruction card. He liked that more than expected. The academy treated nonmagical skills with strange seriousness. Students learned first aid before healing spells. Knots before levitation on working platforms. Fire safety before heating charms. Maps before navigation magic.

"Magic gives you more ways to make mistakes," Ward told them. "It does not remove the old ones."

Harper wrote that sentence down. Ava looked shocked.

"You took notes."

"I take notes."

"You draw swords in the margins."

"Those are notes about swords."

Their ordinary magic also became more interesting. Foundations introduced layered control: starting one small effect, maintaining it, then performing another. Ava could hold a floating bead while moving a cloth almost immediately. Jasper managed after three lessons. Harper's bead repeatedly dropped whenever she focused on the cloth. She became furious. Then, remembering the water-heating lesson, she slowed down. By Friday she could hold both.

"Easy," she said.

"You practised every night," Jasper said.

"Lies."

Bag Bed contained two cracked practice beads as evidence. Winter also brought the first illnesses. Half the west residence developed coughs within a week. Mia lost her voice completely and communicated by writing rude signs. Soren kept reading despite a fever until Mae confiscated his book and sent him to the infirmary. Jasper avoided everything for six days, then woke with a blocked nose and the magical control of a distracted potato. His bead would not lift. Professor Elowen sent him back to residence.

"But I can do the lesson."

"You can barely breathe through your nose."

"That doesn't use my hands."

"Jasper."

He went. Harper and Ava returned after lunch carrying soup.

"We rescued this," Harper said.

"From the dining hall?"

"Very dramatic rescue."

Ava placed a stack of class notes on the desk. Jasper stared.

"Why?"

"You missed two lessons."

"I'm sick, not dead."

"Exactly."

Harper looked at the pages.

"I told her not to."

"You asked for a copy."

"For later."

Jasper drank soup and listened to them argue. The room felt warm. Outside, rain streaked the western windows. He realised, not for the first time, that friendship was mostly people becoming part of the background you missed when it was gone. The presence stayed quiet while he was ill. Jasper was almost offended. Then, on the first morning he returned to class, he crossed the western gallery and felt it brush his awareness. Cool. Brief. There. Jasper smiled despite himself. Ava caught him.

"What?"

"Nothing."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Sea."

"Strong?"

"No."

"Any image?"

"No."

Ava nodded and did not write it down. Progress.