((this is a followup to Am I Understood?))

Her face was calm, even as he cornered her in his office and frowned. Professor Devlin's frown had been known to scare straight even the most wayward of pupils, but the Headmistress was unbowed by such feats of influence.

"You lied to them," he said sternly, genuinely shocked and unhappy. He sucked in his breath, as though restraining himself from yelling. "You twisted the words of our research into something that will only make them hate passives more."

"Really," she said, her warm brown eyes narrowing. "The idea that a diablerie is random wouldn't make them more fearful? At least this way they will leave them alone. They all agreed to my measure."

"At what cost, Ophelia?" Without thinking, he used her first name. "The truth - the truth is what we do this for, isn't it? What will they say when our research comes out?"

She sighed, seating herself on a nearby stool, which made him blanch - he hadn't meant her to stay long. "When that happens," she said, "we have bigger things to worry about. You and your partner have your heads in the clouds, Devlin."

"Excuse me?"

"Do you really think the board will approve curing the gated passives we have here? Or any of them, for that matter? Even if you find the cause of the blockage of the monic pathways, even if there's a simple, easy answer, it won't be implemented without a fight. They don't trust them. The ones outside the school's control might have a hand in human affairs. Handing them the key to limitless power..." She shrugged, seeing no better gesture to convey her disappointment in galdorkind, even in her own solution.

"That's horrible, what you just said," said Devlin, his voice rumbling quietly like distant thunder. "You really have so little faith in our people, Headmistress? The search for the truth is paramount to us, all of us, even those of us who were trained to hate and fear passives. When the research is published, when all those fears are assuaged - why, it's highly possible that the cure would stop the risk of a diablerie-"

"The only thing they fear more than the diablerie right now is passives gaining control of it," said the Headmistress, infuriatingly patient, as though she were talking to a schoolchild. Devlin's face reddened. "We can't be too hasty in this. The idea of passive equality is one that has to be introduced slowly. They cannot resist it forever - this is a new era, after all. We live in exciting times."

Bloodied and broken bodies, stacked like play bricks, the smell of kerosene and the whispering of secrets.

"Exciting times, eh," said Devlin, a touch of bitterness tinging his voice.

"The lack of corporal punishment will take the edge off their hatred," she said. It sounded reasonable - everything sounded reasonable when she said it. "The passives might even be more...comfortable sounds insensitive, doesn't it? They might be alleviated for once. The Matrons and Patrons will appreciate it. More goodwill is necessary to pave the way for your research. Meanwhile, we can begin introducing the history of Brunnhold into more history courses, show the student body exactly how much of a role passives played in the school's history..."

He sunk into a chair, leaning over and rubbing his eyes.

"Are you going to be lying to them often?" he muttered.

"If I must," said Ophelia softly. She laid a hand on Devlin's knee. At least, he thought she had; a moment later the touch was gone, and he figured later that he might have imagined it. "Nothing about this is easy."

After a long pause, he said "You didn't have to make this your fight."

"I am 'inexorably attached to everything that goes on in these hallowed halls', remember?" She smiled a little, remembering the retirement speech that Achillius Merrin had given before leaving. "I stood up for Professor Aphasia when she requested a new industrial furnace and had to fight the Board of Antiquities because the fumes might stain the stonework."

"That's a bit different," said Devlin ruefully.

There was a block of silence a mile wide, an uncomfortable one. Ophelia recalled other times in the history of their friendship when there had been long silences, and it had never felt awkward, only quiet and thoughtful; here, she felt as though he was in another place altogether, and that they might as well have been convening via seer stone for all the understanding that was passing between them.