Slater grinned. “Howisour brother-mate?”
“Fine.” I blushed.
Zuko kissed my cheek, and we left for Data to Decisions.
House of Intellect was a classroom that mainly reminded me of a library. There were tall windows, shelves filled with books, and desks made of dark wood.
Professor Rionyx stood in front of her desk in heels. She was tall and graceful, dressed in the academy suit but with a long black robe accompanying it. Her crimson-gold hair was pulled into a loose braid down her back. Her roots were streaked with glowing embers, and her amber eyes ringed with a flickering flame.
“Data to Decisions,” she welcomed us in that clipped tone she always seemed to use. “Week two. We will be focusing on a multi-source incident breakdown. Your data is in your email. You have one hour. Decide what happened and what to do about it as a squad.”
I pulled up the email with the data and images.
Magical traces: Drake fire near civilians
Civilian chatter: A rogue coyote shifter caused it
Aura scans: Phoenix energy at the impact center
Surveillance: Looped, maybe edited
Dimitri and I stood at the same desk.
“That signature is a drake’s,” he mumbled, scrolling through the data. “So why was there magical energy of a phoenix in the center?”
“Look.” I magnified the first five-second screenshot from surveillance. “You can see both fire blooms from the aura scans. The drake fire hits first. The aura is aggressive. Phoenix fire spikes after. The aura is concerned.Response, not trigger.”
“You’re guessing,” he told me. “There’s no possible way you could know that.”
“I’mreading,” I snapped. “Not everything is difficult. Sometimes, instincts see clearer than logic.”
“Instincts mislead,” he countered. “That’s the point of this exercise.”
“Uh, guys?” Hawk muttered.
“No, the point is knowing what happened. You’re so busy chasing facts you’re forgetting that the evidence isn’t clear,” I told him.
“Let them argue it out,” Zuko groaned.
Dimitri pushed back from the tablet. “Andyou’reso certain you’re right that you’d override hard data for a gut feeling. You always do this.”
“It’s their foreplay,” Slater whispered.
I scowled. We’d been butting heads in this class since it started two weeks ago. “I do this because I’ve been right. Every time.”
“That’s not the same as thinking things through, Rune.” Dimitri narrowed his gaze at me.
“And you think cold calculations make you smarter?” I crossed my arms.
“No, but we should recommend containment,” he replied tightly. “Flag the phoenixandthe drake. Investigate the rest after neutralization.”
I crossed my arms. “And if that phoenix saved those people? We flag him, and we make him a villain instead of the hero he probably is.”
“What if it was just a fight between the two?” Hawk offered from two rows back.
Koa frowned. “There’s no drake signature. The arcane specialist on the scene confirmed that. So, that means the drake attacked from above. If it were a fight, it would make no sensethat he came from above. It doesn’t seem like the phoenix was the target.”
Dimitri’s jaw flexed. “So what’s our call?”
