"You say that as if it makes any sense at all to me," he said dryly. "But very well. I've no objections to waiting a bit."

An examination of the blackboard revealed that the top edge was indeed pulled away from the wall enough to allow the edge of the blanket to be tucked behind it. Turned sideways and tucked in carefully, it blocked most of the board and what was written on it from view. Satisfied, Foulques returned to standing by the door, leaning on the wall there as he watched Ian work. Idly, the thought came to him that they might have made a fine Archanist, had they been born in his own world; from what little he could gather, there seemed to be a great deal of mathematics involved in what they were frantically writing, and it was from arcane formulas and geometries that Archanists drew their power.