Tidefall's end-of-year music evening had one rule.

Nobody had to perform.

Harper performed.

This surprised Jasper, Ava and, judging by her expression when she first agreed to it, Harper herself.

The music department opened Founders' Courtyard after dinner for an informal concert. Older students brought instruments. Younger students were allowed to perform in groups if a teacher had approved what they were doing. Everybody else sat on blankets, ate snacks and tried not to ruin the quiet songs by opening loud food wrappers.

Jasper intended to specialise in sitting.

Ava did too.

Harper disappeared after lunch.

At six thirty she walked onto the little stage carrying a hand drum.

Mia followed with another.

Theo carried a third and looked far too pleased with himself.

Jasper stared. "What is happening?"

Ava looked equally surprised. "Apparently planning."

Harper saw them and grinned.

Then the three children onstage began.

The rhythm was simple.

It also was not perfect.

Harper came in early once. Theo nearly dropped a drumstick. Mia laughed halfway through and had to catch the beat again.

Nobody stopped.

They found one another.

The rhythm grew steadier until older students started clapping along beneath the arches.

Jasper realised why Harper had not told them.

If she had announced the performance three days earlier, she would have spent three days trying to make it a competition.

Instead she had learned one rhythm.

With other people.

Enough.

When they finished, Harper looked shocked by the size of the applause.

She ran off the stage and reached Jasper and Ava still holding the drum.

"You knew?" Jasper asked.

"No."

"You were onstage."

"I knew that part."

Ava pointed at the instrument. "How long have you been practising?"

"Three afternoons."

"Without telling us."

Harper frowned. "Healthy separate friendship."

Jasper laughed.

The rest of the evening moved between polished older-student performances and younger children doing things they had learned because they liked them.

A Year Three student played violin.

Two Calyx students sang.

A Brannor group performed a percussion piece using buckets that had once held cleaning supplies.

A Velmor student played a tiny keyboard powered partly by Essence and partly by a very ordinary battery pack.

Tidefall's magic did not make the evening less familiar.

That was what Jasper liked most.

Music under stone arches still sounded like music.

At one point Professor Elowen sat beside them.

Harper was watching a sixth-year guitarist.

"Do you play anything?" Harper asked her.

"Poorly."

"What?"

"Piano."

"Play."

"No."

"Coward."

Elowen looked at Jasper. "Does she speak to every adult this way?"

"Yes."

"Useful to confirm."

Near the end, the courtyard lights were lowered and students joined one final rhythm together.

Harper did not rush back to the stage.

She sat with Jasper and Ava and tapped the beat against her knees.

Jasper looked at the three bracelets on their wrists.

Pink.

Green.

Yellow.

Bad knots.

Good enough.

When the final note faded, nobody announced a lesson.

The evening did not need one.

On the walk back to West Residence, Harper said, "I was good."

Ava considered. "You were adequate."

Harper looked wounded.

Then Ava smiled.

"Also good."

Harper bumped her shoulder.

Jasper walked between them.

For once, the sound following them through Tidefall had nothing to do with the sea.