Wizards' University

Wizards' University stands behind two intertwined histories: Maurice's ordinary life as a kitchen-door scavenger and the Rats' exposure to the magical refuse that preceded their awakening. Its kitchens offered food to a cat who had not yet learned to think, while its rubbish dump supplied the Rats with materials whose effects neither they nor Maurice understood at the time.

Setting and daily life

The University is a university for wizards, whose work makes strange things happen. Maurice recalls going to its kitchens before his brain began to feel as though it were whizzing like a firework. He would wait at the door while the cooks tried to guess what he wanted, offering milk, a biscuit, or scraps until they named something he recognized, such as turkey legs or minced lamb. The memory presents the University first as a familiar source of food, approached through the simple habits of a cat.

The dump and the Rats' awakening

Behind the University was the dump that the Rats called both home and lunch. The wizards threw away worn-out spell-books, stubs of dribbly candles, and the remains of green, bubbly mixtures from their cauldrons, along with tin cans, old boxes, and kitchen waste. Signs warned that the material was dangerous and toxic, but the Rats could not read them then and liked the candle ends. Maurice is certain that he never ate anything from the dump; his rule was, "don't eat anything that glows."

Maurice's recollection and the University's significance

Maurice remembers the dump as the place where the Rats ate magical materials, but not as an explanation he can prove: he became intelligent at about the same time as they did, and the cause remains a mystery. This distinction makes the University important less as a fully described institution than as the point where ordinary discarded matter and unexplained change meet. Its refuse links the wizards' unseen activity to the Rats' new intelligence, while Maurice's kitchen memories preserve the contrast between his earlier, food-directed life and the thinking creature he became.