Sometimes I want to jump out of my skin with happiness. (Sometimes I don’t.)

Tylenay may not be the best place to be, it feels less safe than even Veray, but just like in Veray we’ve got people looking out for us, and I’m doing what I do best.

The only thing is that Riei and I aren’t seeing nearly enough of each other, because most of the things each of us is doing are with other people. Good people, true, that priestess of Mizran who’s slated for Mighty Servant is a decent woman, and I like Tarn, too. Not as much as I like Rovin, because he’s as single-minded as Venla — as single-minded as me, I’m afraid. I agree with Riei that he should be in the school. Though it might be an even better idea for some of us, Venla and me and perhaps Lochan, to stay the whole summer and work together here, because the Ishey built a splendid mill and they have the perfect stream for it. And I’d want Riei to stay too, no way I’m going to spend a whole summer without her, worrying if she’s all right.

Perhaps that’s selfish of me. On the other hand if you’d asked me even a week ago which I valued more, the school or Riei — not which one I’d choose if I could have only one, that’s a cruel game and I’m not playing — I’d have said the school without thinking, but now I’m not so sure any more. Perhaps it’s because doctor Airath appointed me as Riei’s personal immovable object. I couldn’t stay in Tylenay if she goes back to Veray!

Riei looks like she’s thinking a lot more than in the past half-year. I wonder if it’s coming into her inheritance that’s done it, because when she shares her thinking with me it’s often about what to do with that, she doesn’t want to be stupidly rich! (And I thought I was stupidly rich, but she’s got almost twenty times as much, so much that we have to use Iss-Peranian numbers for it because Ilaini doesn’t have those numbers.)

I think — but we’d have to talk about it, and for that we need to be alone together and not very busy — that she thinks she’s taking care of me, and for all I know she’s right and we’re taking care of each other! But I wish we could go on an adventure together, no work to do, no other people to allow for, just the two of us, just adventure.