As offhand as I sounded, I was secretly very pleased that the pencil hadn’t wavered when Aahz surprised me. Not breaking concentration on a spell, or, rather, maintaining a spell once concentration was broken, had been one of the harder lessons Aahz had taught me, and I thought I finally had it down pat. I only hoped he noticed.
“Got a few minutes for your old partner?”
“Sure, pull up a chair.”
I decided it would be rude to keep playing with the pencil while I was talking to Aahz, so I brought it down to where I could pluck it smoothly from the air as I leaned forward. Aahz didn’t seem to notice, though. He was craning his neck slightly to look at the papers scattered across my desk.
“What’s all this?”
“Oh, just going over the financials from The Fun House. I still don’t trust the Geek completely.”
Aahz settled back in his chair and cocked his head at me.
“The Fun House, eh? Haven’t really had a chance to talk with you much about that one. That was quite a coup you pulled off there.”
I felt warmed and flattered by his comment. While we were technically equals . . . had been for some time . . . he was still my old teacher, and I couldn’t help but react to praise from him.
“It seemed like the best route out of a bad situation,” I said offhandedly.
“That’s right,” he nodded. “It’s always easier to solve a problem by throwing money at it than by thinking your way out.”
Suddenly this no longer sounded particularly complimentary. I felt my pride turning to defensiveness with the speed of a snuffed candle.