In the third "Circle Opens" book, fourteen-year-old smith-mage Daja has traveled far to the north with her teacher, Frostpine, and are enjoying the hospitality of two of his old friends and their children. Daja sees one of their twin daughters use magic, and realises the other must have it as well. Unlike in the previous two books, Daja is able to find appropriate teachers for the two girls, a cook-mage and a wood-mage respectively, and only trains them in meditation. This leaves Daja with a fair amount of free time in which to make a set of fire-proof gloves for her new hero, Ben, who is teaching and organising fire brigades for the island city. But Daja and Ben's newfound friendship is tested by his sharp-tongued mother and by the shocking truth about the arsonist who is plaguing the islands. I think the thing I enjoyed most about this book is the fact that the villain of the piece is actually a highly sympathetic madman. Daja learns that human nature is not black and white, good and evil, and that sometimes the right thing to do can seem like the hardest thing of all.