"I'm so pleased to see you sitting there like you don't have an Emerson's in your pocket to repel any spell to wipe your mind."

Eliza knows. It's all over.

"Well, we haven't tried this route. I'm curious to see where it goes."

Quentin blinks. "What?"

What route? Curious to see where what goes? Eliza is making no sense.

Eliza smiles at him gently. "Shall we spare the theatrics then? There's no point wiping your mind if you have an Emerson, and I think you'll be more useful if you remember in any case. You'll still be expelled, but that will get you off the garden path."

"The garden path?" Quentin says. Like his dream? How did she know? Does she know?

"Everything's connected. Don't overthink it."

/

Julia listens to her messages while getting her first star tattoo.

"Hey, it's Q. Look I know when we last meet that—I'm sorry Jules, I am. I didn't know it, what it must be like for you, and I um, I hope that you're doing better. Um, so I got expelled and they are sending in a Specialist because the local brain wipe guy is dead and—long story. Um, so if you remember or you figured out why it didn't work on you I would like to know that about now because I need you to remind me that magic is real. You know, without Brakebills, I'm lost and you're not. You can't help and I can't help you and it's just-"

The message ends and Julia hangs up, takes a swallow of her beer, thinks. She was beyond angry at Quentin for the way he treated her, all smug and superior because he'd gotten into Brakebills. Now here he is, asking for help. She isn't sure she wants to give it or not.

"Congratulations, Julia. Big day." Marina comes sauntering in, holding an apple. The forbidden fruit metaphor of it all is a little too on the nose for Julia's liking. "First star. First of many."

"Yeah," Julia says and smiles.

Marina shares a look with Pete, then smiles back at her. "This is just the beginning."

Julia considers Quentin, if this is something she wants to share with him. He certainly wasn't fighting to share Brakebills with her. But...Quentin is her best friend. Has been since they were children. Angry at him or not, she can't take magic away from him.

"Hey, Marina, I have this friend whose getting expelled from Brakebills. He's going to need help, like I did."

Marina tilts her head and peers at Julia. "Is he any good?"

"Good enough to pass the exam that I failed."

Marina looks intrigued. "Expelled, huh? He won't have any memory of magic."

"That's why he needs us to remind him."

Marina looks over at Pete. Pete turns his gaze to Julia. "The kid who showed up with two other magicians to your birthday?"

"That's Q."

"He has potential." Pete is looking at Julia, but the words are addressed to Marina.

"I like you Julia, and because I like you, I'm going to check out this friend of yours. See if he's worth the trouble."

"He is."

/

Things aren't going quite as planned. Showing up with Marina at Q's place probably wasn't the best approach. Especially since Quentin remembers.

"How did you remember?"

"I had an Emerson."

Marina laser focuses on Quentin. "You have an Emerson?"

"Yeah."

"Give it to me and you're in."

Julia whips her head around to look at Marina. "What? That easy?"

Marina shrugs. "He has something I need, I have something he needs."

Julia did want Quentin here with her, she just wanted him to have to try a little harder. To feel how she felt when she was left out in the cold. She can't hold back her anger anymore.

"I told you to please tell them about me," she says, glaring at Quentin. "At first I thought maybe they would test me again, then they would at least try to come and take my memory again, and then...just waiting."

This is the part that hurts the most. "It took weeks to realize you never even told them about me at all."

"Look, Jules-"

"You were my best friend," Julia says. Were, as in the past. She isn't sure they can recover from this.

"I didn't know what it was like. I didn't. But do you ever stop to think about how maybe you treated me?"

"What? I was always there." Julia says. And she was, wasn't she? Through all the ups and the downs, so many downs, so many times talking him back from the ledge. She had been a good friend.

"You were so nice, you were so sweet to poor little Q who couldn't get his shit together."

Julia wants to kick him. Of course Quentin would take something as good as their friendship and turn it into something like pity. "Don't put that on me, that's your interpretation-"

"Between you and James it was a two for one charity case."

"Why are you saying this?" Julia doesn't understand where this is coming from. Quentin has never mentioned feeling this way before.

"Because that is true, Julia!"

"No, that's not true. I-" Julia starts.

"You know how I felt about you."

There it is. The real reason he's so angry. And what sort of gross entitlement makes him think his feelings owe him anything from her? But that's something they've always avoided. If she doesn't acknowledge Quentin is in love with her, it's like it isn't true. "I don't know what-"

"Admit it. Just admit it," Quentin says, then more softly, "Admit it."

"So what, that was punishment?"

"I don't know, maybe."

They stare at each other a moment. Finally, Julia speaks "Do you love magic? Is it in your soul? Is it like the secret heart of what you always were?"

"Yeah."

"So you know how I feel."

Marina fakes a yawn. "Boring. Are we done talking about our feelings now?"

"Yeah," Julia says, looking at Quentin, "we are."

Quentin would have thought himself above this, were he not desperate. She should hate him for that, but she thinks she may have been the same too. She isn't stupid and she isn't blind—she sees the way these people here treat magic like a drug. But she knows herself well enough to keep it in check. She's not going to become some tweaker or junkie. And she has Quentin here now to help.

If only things can go back to being right between them.