We look at one of the gaps in the Book of Amram; I read aloud what there is of the passage and he suggests a word that might fill the part that is missing. I’ve taught him that writing has styles, and that if one knows the poetic conventions of the day or the habits of a book’s author, it is sometimes possible to fill in the missing places even without a mafteach. And though Muqan still can’t read, he is adept at recognizing patterns.

As was customary in such cases of sedition and treason among the literary classes, every loose end required investigation, and Horn’s case was no different. Lady Mermingosa had been Horn’s instructor briefly during those two years he spent in his hither-mithering career studying at the city’s Symposia Alchemystica.