The dynamic in detention changed now that Amafu wasn't giving Storm and Inyanga the silent treatment — which was funny because all three were silent as they completed their educational busy work.

The atmosphere in Maestra Alondra's office just felt different, no longer ready to snap with static, or break out storming. In the late afternoon light that beamed in not through a window, because the curved office within the labyrinth of al-Maysan had none, but through a viewing link the Maestra had opened like a skylight above to get them some vitamin D and sunshine, pages were turned joyfully, with care. Stupid answers on the tests they were grading were passed around for a (silent) laugh. Storm kept accidentally finding herself humming a tune until the maestra gave her a look she didn't see because her nose was buried in tests and had to snap or "ah ha hem" to get her attention so she'd see the look.

No one asked any more questions since that time Inyanga got herself and Storm thrown out, so they just focused on their work, on getting through. Yet, sprawled out on the faux purple leather couch and armchairs in the rounded corner walls of afternoon sunlit bookshelves, they were in a good mood. Happy. Not having fun, this was a punishment, but in a good mood together.

It surprised them all when Alondra became the one asking a question. "So. Inyanga." She leaned in over her desk and rested her head on her hand. "Did you ever find out whether magic can run out?"

Three students' mouths dropped open, Amafu dropped her airweave cup of water (which didn't spill due to a good anti-spilling spell). Storm nearly choked on hers. Inyanga sat bolt upright like a scared rabbit hearing a threatening noise and freezing in just the right place to get shot at. 

After letting them stew in fear for a minute, Alondra shifted, sat back, watched their shock another moment, then said, "You girls are clever, but you do have so much on your minds — eight classes, midterm testing, part-time work for some, styling appointments for others, student elections coming up, ever looming examinations — but how exactly it did not occur to you that if I were going to get you with that silencing curse, I would have done it as soon as you asked me whether magic can run out? And yet I had hoped all this time that you would learn to become discreet. I hadn't imagined you would go sailing through the library discussing it, racing down hallways and screaming at each other in the hedge maze about it. I thought you would quiet down over time.

"But then you chose to discuss the secret in neuromagic this afternoon."

"Have you been surveilling us?" Storm got her voice and her fight back first. "Breach of privacy much?"

"I'm not watching you. I have set a red alert flag on the word 'taboo.' It simply notifies me when the word is used, by whom, and where. Cutting edge crime fighting magic developed for the guardia, which will allow them to round up dozens, perhaps hundreds, of black market magic providers — so long as no one tips off the criminals. Which means you are not to speak of it — all three of you are pre-enrolled for the surveillance link course in third year that will cover this information anyway. And it's classified."

Through her talk, the girls began to loosen up, crawling upright on the edge of their plush seats, and ready themselves for questions of their own.

"Maestra, are you giving us a warning?" asked Inyanga. "Not to get caught?"

"Top marks," said Maestra Alondra.

"But wh- why?" Amafu broke in.

"That is for me to know, and not for you to question. I'm appalled that it has come to the point I've had to give you a talking to. What I have done already has been far from professionalism."

Back to Inyanga. "But will you at least tell me the ta—"

Alondra held up a hand, and Inyanga gulped. Could others have the same word flagged? As if reading her mind, the maestra shook her head and said, "Sometimes new spells take a while before people realize all of the applications. I only flagged the word 'taboo' when . . . it was clear Inyanga hadn't been put under the spell. If any of the library magicians had flagged it, you would have been cursed by now."

Storm chuckled, "The library magicians?" at the same time Inyanga said, "Well, how about you tell me—"

Maestra Alondra's hand went back up. "Just practice not saying it, any of it, out loud. Just in case. And yes, Storm, the library magicians have come to enjoy the authority. They have taken it upon themselves to be the guardians of this information. And what is a dean but a glorified librarian—"

Inyanga thumped her hands on the table in front of her. "Can you just tell me already? It's been weeks! I'm at the cusp of knowing, why do you all know and I don't, is there or is there not a huge injustice and source of inequality hidden beneath fear mongering and silencing going on right under our noses?"

"I can't say," said Alondra, folding her hands. "I'm under the silencing curse."

"Well, will you help us figure out how to write it down?"

"Write it down?" said the maestra. And it became clear that she really hadn't been eavesdropping on their conversations. Too surprised for any follow up questions, she sank back, looking thoughtful. The students exchanged looks, and decided by unspoken agreement to let her puzzle it out on her own.

Perhaps because each feared they had been wrong and would sound stupid if they were the one to describe their plan.

Alondra began her puzzling out loud. "You should not be able to write the answer down any more than you could speak it. Unless. The middle temporal gyrus was left unaffected by the spell to allow you to read related information — for your stellar energy use calculations, for example. You may be able to construct a message without activating the blocked pathways in the mind. The breach has been completely overlooked . . . to my knowledge . . ."

Her voice faded away and she became thoughtful again. "And it never would have been exploited," she went on, "were it not for a single student failing to attend the assembly where the blanket spell was cast on everyone." Her dark eyes, shadowed with makeup in crisp dark lines, had a curious glint and a slight squint. "Preventing any questions ever being asked."

And Inyanga put together a few puzzle pieces of her own — as she would tell Storm and Amafu later. She would say, "What are the odds no one would have noticed I was absent? They go to great lengths to bind the tongue of every magician who passes through the school — the only magic school. Ensuring every magician in Soliara gets hit. She'll never admit it, but Alondra must have been in charge of marking attendance. I wasn't present and she . . . covered it up."

Now Inyanga's dark eyes met Alondra's, which were admitting to nothing.

The maestra's chin poked up defiantly. For the first time really studying her fairly youthful features, Inyanga noticed something she hadn't seen in hours of lectures. She always thought Alondra, like umama and grandmama, looked the same age, roughly, as every other immortal — just past adolescence, thanks to the eternal youth spell.

Yet many, like the library magician who confronted them, never underwent a youth spell, and so, if they had lived since the time before all of Soliara became infinitely young, they might still be aged, might still have wrinkles and grays.

Alondra didn't look old enough for a single wrinkle . . . but for the first time it occurred to her student that she was just a little bit older. That would make her older than Kyuma and even Amandla, who had never grown past adolescence in the first place. And not at all vain, since Alondra didn't mind her maturity enough to pay for the anti-aging spell. She wore her ash dark lengths long down her shoulders, kohl around her eyes, and flattering professorial gowns with flaring sleeves and sweeping skirts, yet unlike most every Soliari Inyanga had ever spent any time with, she wore her age, her matured skin, her imperfections, proudly.

Inyanga said, "I understand you don't feel right about helping us communicate . . . the answer. But are you going to let us figure out how?"

"Have you ever had a feeling," asked Alondra, "almost to the point that we are not in control of our actions? But that is not quite it. I don't mean outright determinism. It's that certain actions are encouraged. By the stars. Have you ever felt that way? That certain choices or instincts are right?"

Inyanga thought to how eager the stars had seemed to get her to pass a note through a link to Mingxia — but that couldn't be what Alondra meant, could it?

"It's as if the stars present you with a path of least resistance. There have been moments of rebellion  . . . when I have done something that would have been frowned upon, given my position . . . and yet I believe the stars cleared all obstacles to my spellcasting, removed the difficulties of forming an incantation, or doing mental calculations, and just give me an answer. I felt that way when . . . well . . ."

She shook her head as if to change tracks. And then she truly surprised Inyanga. "The attendance list on the Stellar register required a magical key signature for each student marked present, by me, the witness. It was as if the stars put the schemata in my head for me when I got to Inyanga Kyu Numbia on the list. Every other signature spell required a moment of consideration, just a quick calculation and the incantation modification for each student . . . But when I saw your name, Inyanga, the stars cleared all obstacles to my marking you present.

"Yes, I will allow you to figure it out. I think perhaps the stars are trying to tell me something. If I were to pick up my gnomon this moment and consider casting a silencing curse on you, I think the very stars would discourage me. I won't test it. I would rather take the credit myself for doing what is perhaps the right thing. For those little rebellions, I almost cannot take the credit, because I was only following the easy thing to do. That feeling of being encouraged by the stars themselves.

"And so I have come to believe that we are on a path. Yet as you let the stars guide you, you must be careful along the path, and you must . . . not . . . get . . . caught."

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A/N What did you think of Alondra's decision not to cast the spell on Inyanga? Tell me if you predicted it! Did you think she was going to get them? Thank you for reading Inyanga's Star in Constellations. Leave a star for her if you like the story so far. 

Inyanga is just one star in a constellation. Alondra is another. If you're looking for more Stars to read, check out the other Constellations stories: Izara's Star, and Bay's Star. And now, Stars Rise, a novel in the Constellations universe! I hope these stories entertain, illuminate, take away your troubles, or make you smile!