Six Is a Full Class

Wednesday. A class of nine arrived this afternoon, all very excited, and I had to do the arithmetic at the door.

Six is the most I take into the academy at once. Not six and a half, not seven if two of them are small. Six. The founders built their spell for a certain number of hands, and beyond six the corridor becomes a crowd and somebody ends up holding a scroll they never get to read.

So we split them. Six came to me and three went into another room down the hall that started at the very same moment, and they all met again in the foyer afterwards with a great deal to tell each other. In Melbourne, I am told, the university takes eight at a time. I do not hold it against them.

Two is perfectly fine, incidentally. A pair of sisters came in on Tuesday and ran the place.