Harper had a bruised hip, a cut on one elbow, two scraped palms and an extremely poor attitude about staying in bed. This was the official medical assessment according to Harper. The healer's version included several more words.

"Nothing broken," Healer Moss said for the third time. "No head injury. You swallowed some seawater and your body has had a shock. You are staying here tonight."

"I feel fine."

"You fell off a cliff."

"Technically I fell off a ledge."

Healer Moss looked at Professor Elowen.

"Is she always like this?"

Elowen said, "Increasingly." Jasper hated that thought. Harper saw him staring. Jasper and Ava stood just inside the infirmary door. They had been allowed in after nearly an hour of waiting. Harper sat propped against white pillows wearing an infirmary shirt too large for her. Her hair was still damp at the ends. A bandage covered one elbow. She looked smaller than usual.

"Stop."

"What?"

"That face."

"I don't have a face."

"You absolutely have a face."

Ava put the bag of Harper's dry clothes on a chair.

"He means you nearly died."

Harper stared at her.

"Excellent comforting."

Ava's eyes filled. The joke died. Harper's expression changed immediately.

"Hey."

Ava looked away.

"I'm okay."

"I know."

"No, like actually. Look."

Harper lifted both hands.

"All fingers."

Ava laughed despite the tears. Jasper sat on the chair beside the bed. He had not cried yet. That worried him. He felt like he should. Instead everything inside him was packed too tightly. Harper looked at him.

"You too."

"What?"

"Say something."

Jasper opened his mouth. Nothing useful appeared.

"It caught you."

Harper went still. The infirmary sounds seemed louder. Rain beginning against the high windows. A trolley rolling in another room. Healer Moss speaking quietly with Professor Elowen near the doorway. Harper looked down at her hands.

"Yeah."

Ava sat on the end of the bed.

"The swell formed directly beneath your fall. Wind direction did not support it. The timing—"

Harper said, "Ava." Ava stopped.

"Sorry."

Harper rubbed one bandaged palm.

"I know."

Jasper looked at her.

"You felt it?"

"I felt water."

"No. Like... anything else?"

Harper shook her head.

"I was busy falling."

That made sense.

"I felt it," Jasper said.

Neither girl spoke.

"More than before. It wasn't just watching. It... decided."

Harper frowned.

"Decided what?"

"To catch you."

The word catch was too simple. The wave had not formed arms. Harper had still hit water hard enough to cough for twenty minutes. But without it, she would have fallen much farther. They all knew that. Ava asked, "Did it react to you?" Jasper thought carefully.

"No."

"You didn't reach?"

"I didn't have time."

He replayed the instant. Harper going over. Pressure exploding into awareness. The swell rising.

"It was already moving."

Ava's face changed.

"Independent response."

Jasper nodded. Harper looked between them.

"English."

Ava said, "It didn't wait for Jasper." Harper looked toward the infirmary window. The sea was visible as a strip of dark grey beyond the courtyard roofs.

"So why me?"

No one answered. That was the worst question in the room. Jasper had no idea. Ava had no pattern. Harper did not look grateful anymore. She looked angry.

"I don't like that."

Jasper understood.

"Me neither."

"I don't want it choosing whether I get to live."

Healer Moss looked over at that. Professor Elowen came closer.

"You are allowed to be angry."

Harper looked at her.

"Was it the sea?"

Elowen paused.

"The water moved in a way I cannot explain naturally."

"That's not what I asked."

"I know."

Harper's jaw tightened. Elowen sat on the edge of the second chair.

"I believe something acted. I don't know what name to give it."

Harper looked back at the window.

"Did it save me?"

"It changed the fall. Staff still reached you. The lower platform still mattered. Your own body still survived the impact. We do not need to turn one impossible thing into the only reason you are here."

That helped. Jasper saw it. Harper breathed out slowly.

"Okay."

Professor Elowen looked at all three.

"Headmaster Thorne will speak with you tomorrow. Tonight, nobody solves anything."

Harper said, "I'm in a bed."

"Exactly."

Jasper and Ava stayed until visiting hour ended. Before leaving, Jasper put the west-stair pebble from Bag Bed on Harper's bedside table. She stared.

"Why did you bring that?"

"You nearly fell there too."

"I know."

"Thought you'd want it."

Harper picked it up.

"This is a terrible gift."

"Give it back."

She closed her fist around it.

"No."

Back in Room Fourteen, the empty space where Harper should have been felt huge. Her bed was unmade. Her shoes sat crooked near the door. One sleeve hung from a drawer. Ava changed into pyjamas without speaking. Jasper sat on his own bed.

"Ava?"

"Yeah?"

"You okay?"

She nodded. Then shook her head. Jasper moved to the desk chair. Neither knew what to say. After a while Ava opened the Map of Things That Should Not Happen. Jasper expected notes. Instead she turned to the page about Harper's fall and drew one line through the entire section.

"What are you doing?"

"Not tonight."

She closed the book. Jasper smiled slightly. They went to bed. The sea was loud beyond the windows. Jasper felt no presence. For the first time, he was glad it stayed away.