News of a Northern Castle

Wednesday. There is talk of a third castle for the Headmaster, up in Brisbane, some time in the first half of this year. The year is very nearly half over, so I expect somebody knows more than I do. Somebody usually does.

I heard about it, I am sorry to say, from the margins of a book. One of the Sorcerers of the Dark Side keeps notes on that castle and its sanctum, and he has been fretting about Brisbane for months: the humidity, his hat, a moth he claims owes him a favour. I read him the way I read the weather forecast, for information and a little amusement.

Apprentices often ask whether they must face the castle before they come to me. They need not. My academy follows on from the castle’s story, and those who have been there will feel the thread, but newcomers pass the final test every week.

I have sent the Headmaster a card wishing him luck with the new building. I have sent the sorcerer nothing. He would only write about it.