Spinspace: The Space of Spins (The Metaspace Chronicles Book 2) by Matthew Kennedy

trying to catch her breath.  It was obvious she had dashed up the stairs from her gardens.  “And someone he found to be your first student.”
    His eyebrows lifted.  “Really?  Is he back already, then?  I wasn't expecting him until after the holidays.”
    She sucked in another breath and steadied herself.  “No, he's about an hour or two away. A rider came in from one of the checkpoints to tell us..  Looks like our LeStar didn't want to risk the new student changing their mind.”
    He shook his head, smiling.  “Don't let Lester hear you call him that.  He finds it embarrassing that someone who can't even spell his name right  is praising him in the local press.”  He paused. “Have you told your mother?”
    “I was with Mother and her advisors when the messenger came in.  We're still putting the finishing touches on the treaty with Texas.” 
    He heard the unspoken complaint: y ou should be there helping craft the treaty.   He lifted a hand to scratch his beard.
    “Why are you wearing those?  Are you cold?”
    Damn. I forgot about the gloves.   “Sometimes.”  He moved toward the stairwell.  “Maybe we should head down to street level.  It's not everyday a new student arrives.”
    As they passed the thirtieth floor Aria turned to him. “is is true what I heard? That you're going to give Gifts away?”
    He nodded.  “Rebuilding the infrastructure will require two basic ingredients: functioning gifts and tech support people to  maintain and make them. So since we're starting a school for wizards, which is the second ingredient – the tech support for magic, why not use their practice to generate artifacts to distribute – which are the first ingredient, functioning Gifts?”
    She frowned.  “But should we really give them away for free?  It would help raise money for the school if you sold them instead.”
    He sighed.  “True.  I believe, however, that for school-produced Gifts we should charge what people can afford, i.e. zero at first.  When some of them return to their homes, they will be able to make money making them for others if they wish.”
    “Why do you say 'some of them' will return to their homes?”
    “Becomes some of the first group of them will stay and become the nucleus of our faculty.  The best will stay and teach, so that we can be teaching larger and larger numbers of students as we grow.”
    “Grow?  How big do you think the school will get?”
    “As big as it needs to be to get the ball rolling.  Think of magic as the new literacy.  We Fell because almost everyone is illiterate in magic.  That has to change if we want to rise again.”
    Finally they reached the ground floor.  Xander had to smile inwardly when he caught the guards there ogling Aria when she wasn't looking.  Best for everyone if she gets married soon.
    As always, the descent down the staircase took its time.  By the time they reached the ground floor they did not have long to wait.  Soon the familiar yellow coach pulled up in front of the 'scraper, the normal clattering of hooves muffled by a dusting of fresh snow from the night before.
    Xander watched Lester emerge from the vehicle, then turn to help a young woman off the coach and accept her baggage  as Clem the driver passed it down to him.  But where was the new student?  No one else materialized, and as the two picked their way through the snow toward him the old wizard was chagrined by his failure to anticipate this. Well, well!  He had never had a female apprentice, though really there was no reason a woman wouldn't make a fine wizard.  Probably this would not be the time to mention to her that she would be the first female student; she was already out of her element and didn't need to feel any more out of place than she already did.
    Her eyes were wide as Lester made introductions. “Now I see why Lester is wearing gray,” said Carolyn.  “Is it going to be the school color?”
    Xander smiled at this.  “You know, I