27 Senessay, evening

Today was a near-total loss. Cederic was every bit as exhausted as I was, and irritable in a way I wasn’t until I started talking to him, and we had an argument that was more of a squabble, in which he was sarcastic and I was rude. We managed to cut it short and apologize to each other, but neither of us meant it. Finally, he said, “This is pointless. Have your lunch, and take a nap, and let us see if we can salvage anything of this day after that.”

“You’d better take a nap, too,” I said. I think he did. I’m not sure. But he was less cranky when we met again, later that afternoon. We ended up in that sitting room again, talking for a long time about the concealment pouvra, and I explained what I wrote above about how I learn them. And he told me the book he mentioned explains more about residual magic, that it’s not leftover magic but pre-existing magic, sort of where magic comes from before it’s shaped by th’an. It’s still speculative, but more in the sense of unproven theory than crazy impossibility. Cederic said it was a metaphysical question, a sort of chicken-or-egg theory the mages of the Darssan don’t have the leisure to contemplate, but at least we know the madman wasn’t entirely mad, or possibly he was just lucky.

I’m still tired despite the nap, so I’m leaving the book alone tonight.