Yorkarea, and one block of information glowed a soft rose. Kit leaned over to look at it. In the Speech, it said:

McALLISTER, Darryl

18355HempsteadTurnpike

Baldwin,NY11568

(516)555-7384

powerrating: 5.6 +/- .3

status: on Ordeal

initiation: 4777598.3

completion:

durationto present date: 90.3

resolution: nil

Kit stared at the duration figure for a moment: There was something wrong with it.  That doesn t look right,  he said at last.  Did a decimal point get misplaced or something  That looks like months.

 Itis months,  Tom said. Just a whisker over three, which is why it came up for attention today. The manual normally flags such extended Ordeals to be audited by aSenior .

 I thought nobody was allowed to interfere with a wizard s Ordeal,  Kit said.  It s what determines whether you ought to be a wizard in the first place. Whether you can run into the Lone Power and survive 

 Normally that s true,  Tom said.  But Ordeals aren t always so clear-cut; they do sometimes go wrong. A resolution can get delayed somehow, or there can be local interference that keeps the resolution from happening. An area s Seniors are allowed a certain amount of information about Ordeals among probationary wizards who d be in theircatchment area if things went right, especially if something goes wrong in a specific sort of way a stuck Ordeal, or a contaminated one. We have some latitude to step in and try to kick that Ordeal back into operation again. While interfering as little as possible.

Kit nodded, glancing to one side as Carl came up from the basement with a very large roll of duct tape.  Ah,  Tom said. The substance that binds the universe together.