In the science building, Helgart's twenty-sixth attempt to repair the auras of her expensive chinchillas had failed again. The bright life spikes of healthy aura were fading, and the healer is called upon to use her powers of mind streaming to diagnose and heal. The talented magician had worked all night to save her animals from sudden pneumonia. At 61, she had spent all her savings in buying the latest at the morning's Corporate and Talent Fair, thinking her husband, Geflen, in the traditional school of magic, which had a few old lady enrollers, would be proud of her.