Science Fiction & Fantasy
by Tovah Strong
The Unhappy Impetus
If the book had begun differently, perhaps it would have ended. Syd was overconfident. Reckless enough to edge into paranoia. She practiced verbal deflection and kept her notebook on a table rigged with gunpowder. It was not enough. Of course. Every thief knows doors are near useless on good days and secrets are hard to keep when one is simultaneously power drunk and paranoid. The magistrate’s arrival at the Academy’s west tower was unsurprising. His knocking began at ten after three and continued for almost two minutes, gathering intensity when he hollered, “Open the door, bedeviled woman!”