Summary

Book Three, Chapter 13 opens with a quote from Ars Poetica that says that born from the mountains labor is only a mouse.

With no more notes from Griffin, Robin continues toward his third-year exams, certain Hermes will wait for when he is ready. The narrator explains that the students have multiple, three-hour long exams and a series of oral questions that determine whether they can continue at Babel. Then, they will all attempt silver-work, and only those with potential will learn more. The footnotes also reveal that Griffin failed that portion of the exam, and believed Lovell’s argument that those who cannot work silver are untalented idiots. Each of the students study obsessively and suffer from extreme anxiety symptoms such as physical pain and hallucinations. So, when Robin thinks he sees Anthony in Oxford, he dismisses it as his...