should the master waste his time with one who thought he was

unworthy? So he had given long and careful thought to the answer

he would give.

He had said, “It is not for the student to measure his own worth.

This humble student can but measure his desire, which is greater

than that for life itself.”

Whereupon the housekeeper had produced a tanto and placed it

on the ground before him, the squared point facing him. And,

without another word or a backward glance, he turned and went

back into the house.

Kanno felt as if his heart had stopped. As he stared with horror

at the keen blade of the knife, he realized that the housekeeper

would never have taken such an act upon himself. The master had

anticipated him. And he had called his bluff. With a sinking feeling,

Kanno damned Yohaku for his cleverness. The master did not wish

to be bothered with petitions from eager and ambitious warlocks,

and so he had settled upon this diabolical manner of discouraging

all future applicants.

If Kanno walked away—and there was nothing stopping him—he

would be shamed. The stigma of his failure would cling to him like

a remora. Though it was twenty-third-century Japan and most

modern Japanese had been thoroughly westernized for generations,

there were certain things that never changed. His arrogance in

petitioning the mage, his audacity in even thinking that his petition

might be granted, and his being hoisted on his own petard would

become a story told among all students of thaumaturgy for years to

come and he would never be able to look any of them in the face.

Nor would any other wizard accept him as an apprentice after he

had made such a complete fool of himself. His entire education, his

whole life, would be wasted. He would shame his family. He really

cared very little about that, because of his arrogance and

selfishness, but he couldn’t face the prospect of seeing the smug

expressions on the faces of the other warlocks, hearing their

whispered remarks behind his back, or seeing their malicious,

knowing grins. Or, worse still, their looks of pity. There was simply

no way out.

He gazed at the knife before him, and suddenly everything took