Oh. Oh, the Murray cold open. Okay. Lots of things. But first?
This adds a lot of context to why she was so fucking gutted when her Nat 1 insight check made her think that Tallbarrel had sold out and betrayed not only the Penteveral but her.
Just. This ambitious, idealistic, opportunistic young woman, hearing this guy at a bar putting everything, his whole new fresh young school, on the line to avoid charging tuition and pricing most students out of being able to attend, this young woman who went out into the world on a charitable programme that was immediately bought out/co-opted by rich people to build their fucking vanity projects, this young woman who taught herself magic, the long way, the hard way, by her own genius, and even from other wizards has to have the first assumption be that she’s secretly a sorceress, and there was this guy, these people, these ‘most broke fancy folks I know’, talking so earnestly about keeping a school, a school of magic, open for everyone. In this one moment she found her place, found her people.
And then, unable to tell he’s lying through his teeth to stop Primus killing her on the spot, she thinks this man, the man who set her on this path, sold out, as drastically as possible, to the worst family possible. She thinks he sold her. Sold the school. Sold their dream.
God. I really, really hope she gets a chance to clear that up, to learn better. Come on, girl! He was trying to keep you alive and stop you from punching the murderous sociopath in the face. Give a little grace. Take some time and think it out.
I really, really hope she gets a chance to realise she wasn’t actually betrayed there.
(Also, sidenote? Tallbarrel having an adorable moth familiar, named Eustace, purely so they could have the visual gag of a moth flying out of an empty pocket to show how fucking poor wizards are, that cartoon gag of a literally moth-eaten purse, is … I love it. I love it so much. Also Eustace is just adorable, and I adore the idea of a moth familiar just in general).
