The foreigners decide to go off on their quest. Larrikan is not allowed to help them, but nothing keeps him from doing his work for the University, work of organizing and making healthy and safe, near the path out of town. His friends the pixies wind up following the travelers for a while, too. They liked the nice vixen.
Other than that, Larrikan has an ordinary week. He is well into his Mastery degree, and has magic classes and more special projects for the instructors. He is still learning a lot, and several of the instructors have taught him things, and then had him help with boring tasks related to those magics, telling him it is practice. And, he realizes, it is.
The questers return, successful and unscathed. Larrikan is not the only one of the students happy to see them return. The Silver Egg is a boisterous and happy place that evening. The questers remain quiet about some details of the trip, but that is normal.
Sakura is a little timid about the group bath, but comes in when she realizes Larrikan is helping. He doesn’t think a thing about doing so; he has seen all these folks, plus most of the rest of the town, at the bathhouse anyway.
After a relaxing evening, and the dawning of a fine day, Larrikan picks up Sakura and her friends at the Silver Egg and takes them to the University.
Sakura and her friends admire the beauty of the University. Larrikan wonders what else a University would look like, but does not ask. He takes them to Professor Djarlee’s usual lecture hall, which is empty. They try the Professor’s office next, and find him.
The Professor is pleased to see the questers return and more so when Sakura tells him they succeeded. When he asks for the pebble they were sent for, and is presented with four, he is astonished enough he has to check, “All four of you? Did you have help with this?”
Sakura replies, “Oh, no, Sensei, we did it all on our own.”
The professor’s face clears, and he happily collects all four pebbles. He weighs each of them, and then pauses to test their magical resonance potential. It looks like he is sniffing them, but Larrikan can hear the echoes of the magical soundings.
The Professor takes the most heavily charged – Sakuras’s, as it turns out – and files the rest with his other reagents. The piglet, who Sakura has given the foreign and clearly lucky name of Kawaii is fascinated by the scents from the reagents cabinet.
Having found the best pebble, the Professor plants in in the pot that he and Larrikan (mostly Larrikan, once the Professor showed him the spell) had spent two days preparing. A dose of moonlight water gets it started right.
All four of the visitors seem startled by this. Larrikan thinks, “It’s only magic.” but keeps it to himself.
The Professor tells Sakura, “The spell is begun. Please return in two days, and we shall finish, and bind the translators to each of you.” Having given his directions, the Professor almost literally shoos them off.
Outside, Larrikan spies someone, puts two fingers in his mouth and whistles sharply, while waving his other hand in the air. This done, he nudges Sakura out of the way.
Everyone but Douglas sees Annifred coming at a good clip. The hug/grab/impact he gets is hard, but he doesn’t seem to mind.
Annifred is delighted when Larrikan tells her the travellers have a couple of days to kill. She claims Douglas and takes him home. The others take a moment to realize it is not a general invitation, but it is met in good spirit.