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"He does not have any," Julia said

"I don’t have any" He could speak for himself

"So did he want to take the test? Because otherwise he can’t stay here"

"I understand," Julia said

The really incredible thing was that she wasn’t evencivil! She, a queen of Fillory, respected the fucked-up protocol of this place

"Quentin, he wants you to take a test," she said "To show you do s too Do I have to do it?"

"Yes, you have to fucking do it," she said evenly "So do it It is just the first level, everybody who comes here does it their first time You just make a flash You probably have a fancy nah three well-rehearsed hand positions, lickety-split, snapped her fingers, and said:

"ışık!"

The snap produced a little pop of light, like a flashbulb

"Okay?"

"Hang on," Quentin said "Those hand positions weren’t quite generic Can you--?"

"Co this?"

Quentin sa that Alex had eight stars, four on the back of each hand Thatof the flophouse

"Coain"

She did the spell again Quentin caers the way she did Brakebills taught you all straight lines, your hands approxieo lined up And it had been two years since he’d worked with real-world Circu Then nothing again

This earned hi an interest in this transaction

"I’m sorry, one more try and then you’re out," Alex said "You can coain, but Alex put a hand over hers "Just let him try"

The bouncer, Potions Master, had co with his ar "ışık!" Every tio off

Screw this He wasn’t going to pick up soe-witch spell in thirty seconds that would probably screw up his technique He was classically trained, and a ht

"," he said ""

Let’s see who here’s got good Aramaic He closed his eyes and clapped his hands loudly

The light hite and blinding--a flashbulb at close range, right up in your face For a second the whole roo faces--was frozen, all the color driven out of it Quentin had to blink his vision back to normal, and he’d had his eyes closed

There was a beat of silence

"Holeeee" so at once Alex didn’t look happy, but he didn’t throw then in," he said He blinked and blotted his eyes on his sleeve "I don’t knohere you learned that, but just get your flash working next time"

"Cheers," Quentin said

Alex peeled a blue star sticker off a sheet and stuck it on the back of Quentin’s hand Then he handed Quentin the clipboard Where it said "Na Quentin and handed it to Julia

When she was done Quentin dragged her out through the kitchen, with its bu range and its countertops croith a h was enough

"What the hell are we doing here?" he hissed

"Come on"

She led him deeper into the house, down a hall that in another, saner universe would have accessed Daddy’s study and a TV room and a laundry room, until she found the cheap hollow-core door that opened on the basement staircase

He closed it behind them The chilly mildewed silence of suburban basements everywhere ey with cobwebs

"I don’t understand this, Julia," he said "You don’t belong here any more than I do You’re not like these people You didn’t learn what you know from a bunch of unlicensed losers in a frat house You can’t have"

They were alone except for a roomful of taped-up cardboard boxes, a dead TV the size of a washingtable

"Maybe I am not who you think I am Maybe I a" Was it? He was still trying to get his head around this place "I can’t believe they haven’t burned this whole house down by now"

"I think what you are trying to say is that you do not think they are good enough They do not meet your standards"

"This isn’t about standards!" Quentin said, though he felt the ground getting marshy under hi You have to earn this kind of power You don’t just pick it up at the 7-Eleven with your Big Gulp and your Poké cards"

"And what did I do? You think I did not pay dues?"

"I know you paid your dues" He took a deep breath Slon This place wasn’t the proble back to Fillory