"Kieran tells me you're a category eight," the headmistress said gently as the master lifted the princess back into her chair. "That's an unusually strong gift. Kieran is headmaster of the weather and environment school because he's a category eight himself."

"Rare is an understatement," replied Kieran, shaking his head. "Thankfully not all of your gifts are that strong or I'd be a drooling wreck on the floor myself from the backlash. Erik never warned us about this."

"How could he?" asked the bodyguard dryly. "It's not as though we're buried in subject matter experts on the topic of magical gifts."

"If I may add one more thing," Bernhard said in a much darker tone, "you have no idea how close you came to being a BROKEN, drooling wreck on the floor. If you don't want to warn her, fine, but I WILL be apprised of future decisions that put my charge at risk."

"That's a fair enough request, Bernhard," admitted the young man lounging in the chair across from them. "I'll bear it in mind. I shouldn't need to do anything quite so drastic again though; the channels are open and I can pull her back much more gently now if I need to."

"It's a bit like learning to fall off a horse," explained Headmistress Walker. "It can't really be explained. One has to actually fall off and then learn in retrospect what they should have done differently."

"In the case of those who have actively suppressed their gift," continued the matron, smiling at Katarina, "the process of making them aware of their abilities is often more traumatic. It's difficult to explain, but it is not unlike if I were to suddenly give a blind man sight. The change can be overwhelming."

"That's probably a decent analogy," said Katarina slowly. "I can't explain why I know it's going to rain tomorrow, or that the pink rosebush next to the statue of the fawn needs water, or that the sun will set in exactly sixty seven minutes from when the rain ends tomorrow. It's like I've suddenly become able to hear things that nobody else can, or see colors that don't really exist."

Nodding, Kieran smiled encouragingly. "For now, you'll only get vague glimmerings. I've toned it down a lot, otherwise you'd probably be catatonic with all the information coming in. Eighty per cent of people faint when it first hits, that's normal."

"What happens to the other twenty per cent?" asked Bernhard.

"About ten per cent have no adverse effects at all," said headmistress Walker with a shrug. "Those are usually the ones with mages in the family somewhere, who either have some training in control or at least are looking forward to the change."

"And the other ten per cent?" asked Katarina.

"We do lose some to the opening," admitted Kieran. "The moment of catatonia and overwhelming stimulation you experienced becomes a permanent fixture for a few. Those are the ones you probably think of when you think of the students that don't come back." the master frowned sadly. "The ones who have repressed their gift out of fear or pressure to be normal are the ones that most often have problems. That's why I wanted Headmistress Walker here to help if - something went badly."

"All the more reason I should have been told what was going to happen," Bernhard said through gritted teeth. "Her life and her safety are my responsibility. How do you think Gerald would respond if I did something that had a ten per cent chance of leaving the headmistress a drooling vegetable without at least mentioning it to him?"

"You have a point," the matron conceded with a rueful chuckle. "It doesn't mean we would have or could have done this one thing any differently, but we'll try to keep you informed in the future. Not everything about training Katarina's gift will be safe," she warned with a shrug. "It's the nature of such things that sometimes the learning how not to do a thing is better education by far than having done it right the first time would have been."

"Bernhard knows I can't be kept in swaddling wool," the princess finally admitted, trying not to poke at that strangely aware new place in her thoughts like a toddler worrying a lost tooth, "but if you could at least keep him appraised, it will make all of our lives easier. He's only trying to do his job, Headmistress, and frankly your dormitory policies are making that hard enough. Keeping him ignorant is not going to make any of us live pleasantly, trust me."

Kieran laughed. "Enough. The point has been made. I will meet with Bernhard once a week to review my lesson plans for you and keep him appraised of anything that looks as though it might be a stumbling block. Fair?"

Mumbling agreement from behind the princess, Bernhard nodded once, curtly. It would have been better to have this conversation before they'd taken the risk with her Majesty's safety, but it was better to get the agreement late than not to get it at all.