Past Tense (Schooled in Magic Book 10) by Christopher Nuttall Page B

she knew she didn’t dare take the risk. It would blow a hole in established history. And yet ...
    She looked back at the parchment. Master Wolfe had done a remarkable job, but he still had a very long way to go before he could hope to tap the nexus point properly. It was unlikely that he wouldmake the breakthrough he needed tomorrow. The more she looked at his work, the clearer it became that he’d crafted a brute-force solution to the problem, rather than something capable of adapting and evolving to changing circumstances. There was no Warden—and there wouldn’t be, if he didn’t alter his approach.
    And if this is a stable time loop , she thought, I need to help him .
    She leaned on the table, thinking hard. If time couldn’t be changed, then she was meant to be here -- meant to be in the past. And if that was true, perhaps she was meant to be helping Lord Whitehall and Master Wolfe establish the school. It was what the Dark Lady had done , if the remaining stories were to be believed. And no other candidate for the role had shown up, as far as she knew. None of the other women in the castle knew magic.
    The possibilities opened up before her. If she was meant to help Master Wolfe, she’d have a chance to use the nexus point to get back home. And watching—and helping—as the original spellwork slipped into place would show her how to do it for herself, later. She’d be able to answer all of Professor Locke’s questions, even if it didn’t look as though there were any real secrets of the ancients. Only demons ... and the start of something more.
    Find out what else needs to be kicked off , she told herself. She’d have to pick Bernard’s brains and find out what he knew—and what he didn’t know. And then see how you can start the ball rolling .
    “Lady Emily,” Master Wolfe said. “Are you going to answer my question?”
    Emily blinked. What question?
    “I’m sorry, Master,” she said. “I was miles away.”
    “I could tell,” Master Wolfe said, sardonically. “I was asking you what your tutor taught you about controlling a nexus point.”
    “I didn’t learn everything,” Emily said, carefully. “He didn’t trust me with all of his secrets.”
    “A common problem,” Master Wolfe said, disdainfully. He sounded angry, although not with her. “A sorcerer discovers something new, then refuses to share it with his friends and apprentices. The secret is lost when he dies, only to be rediscovered years later by another sorcerer.”
    “And the whole pattern just keeps repeating itself,” Emily said. “Time and time again.”
    “I’ve been trying to convince some of the other masters to share their secrets more openly,” Master Wolfe told her. “But very few of them are willing to discuss such matters.”
    He sighed, then looked up at her. “What did your tutor tell you?”
    Emily took a breath, thinking hard. She didn’t know everything. She’d barely had the time to start unlocking the secrets beneath Whitehall before she’d been tossed back into the past. She couldn’t help feeling that Professor Lombardi would have done a better job, if he’d been sent back in time instead. But what she did know would be enough to start Master Wolfe working towards a proper control system. And he’d put it together personally, so he’d understand—at a very basic level—how it worked.
    “He believed that basic spellware was too ... rigid to handle the power flow,” she said, reaching for a sheet of parchment. She stopped herself a moment later. A piece of parchment would be hideously expensive in this time. Paper ... there was no way she could introduce paper, not now. “You need something that adapts to changing circumstances.”
    “Like a living mind,” Master Wolfe said. She’d half-expected him to dismiss the concept out of hand, but he sounded thoughtful rather than dismissive. “Did your tutor believe he could take control of the nexus point directly?”
    “He might have,”