“For a while.”
“Define a while.”
“I cannot.”
“I walked into that.”
“You did.”
She rose and the room felt colder with her no longer in front of me.
“If Hale taught you a fifth form, use it only if you must.”
“How do you know he taught me a fifth form?”
“Because if he cares about you enough to alter the Mark, he cares enough to cheat.”
“He didn’t touch my Mark.”
“No,” Juno said. “But it changed anyway. And that should worry you.”
She went to the door.
“Juno?”
She stopped with her hand on the latch.
“Is the assessment about combat?”
“For the other first-years, yes.”
“And for me?”
“For you, it is about what the room learns when someone is permitted to strike you.”
My blood went cold.
Annoying, since the room had been cold already.
Then she opened the door and left.
I shut it behind her and stood with my hand still on the latch.
Very useful, standing there doing nothing.
I did it for a while anyway.
Eventually, I moved away from the door and stood at the basin, because apparently I had become the kind of girl who waited for water to decide what came next.
The water stayed ordinary for a while, but eventually the basin lit.
Astra Verita. Training ring. Noon.
No mention of combat.
No mention of assessments.
But I knew what was coming.
