Myfanwy Thomas and Steffi Blümen

Myfanwy Thomas and Steffi Blümen are connected by the formative years Myfanwy spent at the Estate, where Steffi served as Chief Instructrix. Their reunion in Myfanwy’s office makes the old affection between teacher and pupil immediately apparent, but it also gives the amnesiac Myfanwy something she cannot recover from her own experience: Steffi’s informed, candid account of her abilities and the choices that shaped her career.

Identity and Background

Steffi Blümen, whom Myfanwy’s secretary introduces as the Estate’s headmistress, taught Myfanwy when she was a child. By the time of their office meeting, Myfanwy has risen to the Court, and Steffi reminds her that they had agreed she would use Steffi’s first name after that promotion. The reminder conveys familiarity across a change in rank: Steffi is no longer merely the headmistress receiving a former pupil, but someone who knew Myfanwy before her ascent.

Myfanwy, however, has lost her memories. She welcomes Steffi with the formality of a stranger, and her questions are partly an effort to understand the history she herself cannot recall. Steffi’s visit therefore joins two different versions of the relationship: for Steffi, the returning pupil is recognizably “Miffy”; for Myfanwy, Steffi is a promising source of evidence about her predecessor’s life.

The Reunion

Steffi enters Myfanwy’s office with an exuberant, intimate greeting. She notices Myfanwy’s black eyes and asks what has happened to them; Myfanwy explains that people tried to mug her. Steffi responds with sympathy for Myfanwy and contempt for the assailants, then examines her and infers that the attack occurred roughly two days earlier. Her attention is direct and affectionate, rather than governed by the deference Myfanwy’s Court position might invite.

The reunion’s warmth is also slightly disorienting for Myfanwy. Steffi addresses her with endearments, embraces her, asks a stream of questions, and sometimes answers them herself. Myfanwy finds the affection welcome even as she struggles to follow the familiar ease that Steffi assumes between them. Their conversation settles on the couches over coffee and hot chocolate, and Steffi asks Ingrid Woodhouse to bring biscuits. Such ordinary hospitality gives Myfanwy room to ask the more consequential question: what did Steffi mean when she said Myfanwy’s powers were no secret?

What Steffi Knows About Myfanwy

Steffi explains that the Estate’s tutors had discussed Myfanwy’s potential widely. Even without her later Court appointment, she says, people would have known about the abilities that made Myfanwy one of the most exciting discoveries in decades. Steffi adds a second basis for Myfanwy’s rise: she had recognized Myfanwy’s intellectual gifts, which in her view would have taken her to the Court even without her powers.

Her account reaches further back, to Myfanwy’s arrival at the Estate. Steffi remembers a child clutching a driver’s hand, with chocolate on her face and tears in her eyes. She recalls that Lady Linda Farrier was then the only person Myfanwy had left, and that Myfanwy’s confidence faltered when she realized Farrier was not loyal to her. Steffi’s description is not a detached institutional record: she remembers Myfanwy’s dependence and hurt, and judges Farrier harshly for failing to recognize the child’s devotion.

Steffi also says she reviewed the files and records concerning Myfanwy before concluding that her ability was entirely new and had no precedent in the British Isles. The Estate was eager to learn the extent of that ability, but Steffi says its staff were careful not to push Myfanwy. She contrasts that care with the rough manner in which Myfanwy had been brought to the Estate, criticizing senior leaders who, in her view, lacked people skills despite their powers. In her account, the institution’s interest in Myfanwy’s potential coexisted with concern about how she was treated.

Limits, Career, and Affection

Steffi’s pride in Myfanwy does not keep her from being frank about the gap between potential and practice. She believes Myfanwy could have become much more powerful, but says she never seemed to enjoy using her gifts and developed only the control she needed. Steffi did not consider her suited to field work: Myfanwy was easily startled, and even the prospect of handling a gun seemed likely to overwhelm her. This judgment describes not an absence of ability, but a mismatch between extraordinary power and the demands of direct confrontation.

That mismatch helps explain Myfanwy’s administrative career. Steffi says she could not be sent into the dangerous locations where supernatural threats might be found, while her good memory, quick mind, and deep immersion in the Checquy made releasing her into ordinary life unthinkable. The organization therefore allowed her to move into administration. Steffi presents the decision as sensible, though not without regret: a powerful ability had not produced the field operative the institution might have wanted, but Myfanwy still had gifts suited to other work.

Steffi’s affection shapes the meaning of this assessment. She calls Myfanwy her dear pupil, expresses pride in her, and remembers her childhood vulnerabilities without treating them as proof of failure. When she says that Myfanwy never fully lived up to her potential, the criticism sits beside personal tenderness and respect for Myfanwy’s intellect. Their bond allows candor without reducing Myfanwy to a capability profile.

The Relationship’s Role in Myfanwy’s Reconstruction

Steffi’s visit is cut short when Ingrid announces that the twins will be visiting. Before leaving, Steffi says they should make another appointment: their reminiscences have taken up the meeting, and they have not yet reviewed the candidates for the Estate. She leaves a folder of candidate profiles on the coffee table and pats Myfanwy’s cheek. The practical handover brings their enduring connection back into the present: Steffi is still involved with the school, while Myfanwy now has authority and responsibilities of her own.

After Steffi leaves, Myfanwy returns to her desk and adds Steffi’s name, along with other unfamiliar terms, to the list she needs to investigate. The contrast is central to the scene. Steffi has recounted a shared past as if it were readily accessible; Myfanwy must record even the name of someone who remembers her as a child. Their relationship thus becomes a bridge between Myfanwy’s current identity and the self she cannot remember. Steffi cannot restore those memories, but her specific recollections help Myfanwy replace a vague impression of a damaged predecessor with a more complex picture: a gifted, vulnerable child whose abilities and temperament shaped a different kind of career.