19th day of the Blood Moon, 1426

“All I’m saying is, if all that with the Willclark girl is true, there could be far more going on that we have yet to see.”

“Sure. ‘If’ being the key.”

“I don’t think Captain Jirax would have sheared off his sword hand for a story. What does he gain from making himself the victim? Don’t you think, if he and his crew were making this all up, that he’d be the one with the magic powers?”

“Listen to yourself! This is ridiculous; there’s no such thing as magic. That’s common sense. The whole thing is simply impossible.”

“Exactly! Undeniably impossible, but there’s a chance it’s true. And if it is, what else have we been wrong about all this time? What other impossible feats are within reach? Is there something bigger than ourselves at work here?”

“If there is, I’m sure it has much better things to do than bless random girls with plague and exploding books. And we have much better things to do than theorize about phenomena for which we have no hard evidence! When young Lady Willclark can show me her tricks first hand, then we’ll talk about magic.”