The Capstone Conundrum

For six grueling summers, Pansy Little has trained at the Enclave's Academy, keeping a low profile and hiding her Sight from everyone but her two best friends, Jack Ling and Mortimer Connolly. This year, she's set to graduate, if not at the bottom of her class, then somewhere in the unremarkable middle.But her newly issued umbrella is anything but unremarkable: pink with white polka-dots, fringed with attention-grabbing ruffles. Her umbrella seems intent on calling attention to itself, much to Pansy's dismay.But her umbrella may be the least of her problems. Mort is poised to graduate at the top of their class. All he needs is for his team to win the capstone exercise. His secret weapon?Pansy's Sight.Then there's that sharp-eyed principal field agent among this year's evaluators, the legendary Henry Darnelle-and the ever-present shadow cast not just by him, but by an unseen foe.Pansy's Sight, her umbrella: they might just be her salvation.Or her downfall.Note: The Capstone Conundrum is a companion novella to The Pansy Paradox. While technically a prequel, it's meant to be read after the first book in the series. The novella contains spoilers for the series and reveals character and plot developments that will resonate more deeply after reading the novel. Charity Tahmaseb has slung corn on the cob for Green Giant and jumped out of airplanes (but not at the same time). She spent twelve years as a Girl Scout and six in the Army; that she wore a green uniform for both may not be a coincidence. These days, she writes fiction (long and short) and works as a technical writer for a software company in St. Paul.Her novel, The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading (written with co-author Darcy Vance), was a YALSA 2012 Popular Paperback pick in the Get Your Geek On category.Her short speculative fiction has appeared in UFO Publishing's Unidentified Funny Objects and Coffee anthologies, Deep Magic, Escape Pod, and Cicada.