The final day of classes contained no speech. Jasper expected one. Tidefall loved speeches whenever stone walls were available to echo them. Instead Professor Ward entered Foundations at eight-thirty and wrote three words on the board.

WHAT IS MAGIC?

Harper groaned. "We did this at the beginning of the year."

"Exactly."

Ward returned their first-week answer sheets. Jasper read his old response. Magic is making something happen that normal people can't make happen. It was not entirely wrong. It was also embarrassingly small. Harper's old answer said: Making stuff listen to you. She covered it immediately. Ava's was a paragraph with two definitions and a note saying insufficient evidence.

"You were born seventy," Harper told her.

They wrote new answers. Jasper took longer this time. Magic is a way people change the world using energy they can learn to channel and control. It has limits. It does not make judgment unnecessary. Being able to cause an effect is different from understanding whether you should. He looked at the sentence. Professor Ward stopped beside his desk. "Better."

Ancient Selari ended with a translation exercise chosen from an old Academy wall text. Ocean Studies ended with students walking the western terrace and naming everything that had changed there during the year. Making and Mending ended when Harper successfully repaired a torn canvas bag and then complained that she had become useful. At the final bell, nobody moved for a moment. Then chairs scraped back and everybody began talking at once. Classes were over.

The final day of classes did not contain a speech. Jasper expected one. Tidefall loved speeches when stone walls were available to echo them. Instead Foundations began at eight thirty with Professor Ward writing three words on the board. WHAT IS MAGIC? Harper groaned.

She handed out their first-week answer sheets. Jasper had forgotten his. His seven-year-old handwriting slanted downward across the page. Magic is making something happen that normal people can't make happen. He stared. Not wrong. Not enough. Harper's answer read: Magic is doing things with spells. Underneath she had drawn a flame. Ava's was longer. Magic is a controllable force used to alter physical conditions according to learned rules. Harper looked at it.

Jasper thought. Magic could move a feather. Heat water. Build shields. Record memory. Carry a message through a mirror. It could also be used badly. Overused. Misread. Made unnecessarily complicated when hands would work. And some things he had once called magic were not ordinary magic at all. Water was not a spell. Water was a being, or presence, or something for which Tidefall did not yet have a clean word. He wrote: Magic is a way people can change things, but being able to change something doesn't mean you understand it or should change it. He reread it. Very Tidefall. Maybe very him. Harper wrote: Magic is useful if you don't act stupid with it. Ward read it over her shoulder.

Harper folded hers into a paper bird. Ava nearly screamed. History with Elowen ended with no test. She took them to the oldest accessible courtyard and asked them to find evidence that Tidefall had changed. Students spread out. Old doorway filled with newer stone. Different generations of railing. Names carved into a bench before carving names into benches became prohibited. A rainwater channel widened after an old flood. A modern accessibility ramp crossing an older set of steps. The academy looked permanent from the sea. Up close, it was layers of decisions.

Ava loved that enough to write it down. Ocean Studies met last. Professor Elowen did not take them to the water. She brought them into a classroom and placed a bowl on the table. Plain water.

Still nobody moved. Then Theo stood. Everyone followed. The corridor outside was loud with every year finishing at once. Jasper stepped into it with Harper and Ava. No timetable tomorrow. Only final events. Choosing. Feast. Departure. First year had become past while they were still standing inside it. That felt impossible. First year had become past while they were still standing inside it. Jasper found that impossible.