"Psychotic is such a harsh word," said Dean Jensen, readjusting the towel around his waist. A cold fog had blown through Selanto all day, but from the hotel's penthouse sauna weather was just part of the view. Dean Minnie Dobson looked across a cloudbank toward mountains almost lost in the dusk, and thought the University of Selanto had done itself proud with this conference. So much better than last year at the Royal Academy in Osyth, when they had been housed in graduate student dorms.

"Far too harsh," Jensen said, giving up and sitting on the ends of his towel. "Why, some of my best friends are faculty."

Minnie let that hang. She was here for an unguarded weekend with her peers, not to mouth platitudes. Jensen had been a dean forever, though; he'd probably forgotten how to speak his mind.

"Why are Social Magicians always so pessimistic, anyway?" he challenged her. "Are people really that bad?"

"Why are Natural Magicians always so optimistic?" Minnie retorted. "Is nature really that good?" She took a sip of her gin-and-tonic. "Of course, we have a union in Kasidora. That sours one."

Jensen laughed behind her. "You haven't heard about our union negotiations?"

"No!" said Minnie, dismayed, and turned around. "Will it be like ours? Will you have to choose between keeping your tenure as faculty and being a full-time administrator?" She was sorry the minute she said it. It had been nice to think of other things, like the ethical treatment of incubi or whether patent rights belonged to the Necromancer who made something or the person whose corpse it was made out of. Now she'd waste her last night worrying about the decision waiting for her at home ... but there was something about Jensen's expression. "It's not faculty?"

"Nooo," Jensen chuckled. "Our study subjects. It's a treat to watch them try."

"Your study subjects? In Natural Magic?"

Jensen raised his eyebrows and nodded, waiting for her to get it. "Uh-huh," he said encouragingly. Minnie was out of the loop, missing something obvious. Deans had always made her feel this way before she was one of them. She tried the feeling on, wondering if she could go back to it, until Jensen gave a polite cough. Oh yes, his study subjects.

"What, dryads and such?"

"Why does everyone think dryads," Jensen was musing, when the answer came to her.

"Demons? Your demons are trying to unionize!"

"Uh-huh," Jensen said again, grinning.

"But don't they want to eat each other?"

"Uh-huh."

She sat down across from him on the cedar-smelling benches, and felt a grin take over her face. "I'm beginning to understand why you people are cheerful."

"Yeah," said Jensen. "Nature's not always good, but it's funny."