Chapter Twenty-Six. Guidance

Nikki visits Walden’s austere office after mocks. Walden congratulates Nikki on her Oxford offer, but Nikki is flat and confesses she had contemplated dropping Invocation, even planning for expulsion and poverty to protect Matty. She frames her choice to reject Oxford as taking responsibility for the October summoning that could have killed many.

Nikki discloses trauma over her family’s deaths and her fear of being unsafe with magic. Walden, acknowledging the limits of her perspective, admits her own past: a classmate, Charlie Green, died after their reckless summoning at school. She argues that learning from failure enabled her to help Nikki in October, and that self-punishment is not responsibility. Walden affirms Nikki’s talent and prospects, addresses financial worries about Oxford, and gently reopens Nikki’s desire to study magic.

They discuss careers and current school issues. Walden outlines the ongoing audit of Chetwood’s nineteenth‑century engines after a Year Nine possession. Nikki, recalling warding protocols, suggests that if neither error nor decay explains the breach, deliberate sabotage might—by someone skilled with internal access. Walden dismisses a “bad actor” as unlikely, though Nikki pointedly asks whether such a person could exist at Chetwood.

After Nikki leaves, Walden reviews safety materials, then experiences a cascade of connections. Remembering December 19—Mark leaving her bed and likely finding her key to the engine room—she recognizes the possibility that Mark accessed the engines. The Phoenix exults at the prospect of danger. Walden considers contacting Chief Marshal Ramamurthy but, lacking proof, hesitates.

Walden identifies this hesitation as her worst mistake. Instead of calling or emailing the Marshals, she decides to go and look for Mark herself, setting in motion consequences she will come to regret.