The Iron Trial

Call can’t sleep. He dresses and decides to sneak into Master Rufus’s office, hoping to contact his father using a magical device he saw on Rufus’s desk. He walks to the river and gets into one of the boats. He can’t work out how to use the water to direct the boat as Master Rufus does, but fortunately, the current is flowing the way he needs it to.

Master Rufus’s office door is open. Call goes to the ornament, which looks like a mini tornado in a glass orb; he pictures his dad clearly and speaks his name. Alastair appears within the orb as if on a video call; he is shocked to see Call. They speak briefly, and Alastair implores him to not be tempted by the wonders of the Magisterium. He warns Call that Call doesn’t understand who he is. Call is distracted by the strange sputtering sounds of a caged lizard on Master Rufus’s desk; this affects his concentration on his father in the orb, and Alastair vanishes.

The lizard asks to be let out of its cage; Call angrily tells it that he’s not going to let it out.

Call sees a letter on Master Rufus’s desk from his father.