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"No discomfort? No instinct that you were alone?" Cassian adds.

"I was alone."

Cassian shakes his head. "That isn't the same thing."

Aldric does not answer. His fingers tighten around the edge of the bandage.

Rhyven looks toward the Academy doors. "We tell Neris."

The certainty in his voice ends the discussion. I should agree immediately. Instead, my body becomes tense. My father's face flashes through my mind. Not angry. Worse. Interested. Measuring what use my manifestation might have. Rhyven notices. Of course he does. "This does not go to the Council before we speak to her." He says.

"You can't promise that."

"No." He does not soften the answer. "But we're past hiding it."

I look back at Aldric. He is trying to appear calm. His blood remembers falling. It remembers laughter from the Place. It remembers nothing before that.

Whatever has happened is no longer confined to ancient stone or a Trial illusion. It has touched a student. Maybe more than one. "You're right." I say. Rhyven nods once. No victory in it. Only movement.

Professor Neris is teaching when we arrive. The Hall of Lineage doors are closed. Her voice carries faintly through the stone as she lectures on inherited magical resistance. Rhyven reaches for the handle. I catch his wrist. He looks down at my hand. Then at me.

"You're interrupting a class." I say.

"Yes."

"She'll hate that."

"Probably."

He turns the handle. Professor Neris stops speaking before the doors fully open. Every student in the room turns toward us. Rhyven enters first. I follow with Cassian and Aldric.

The silence becomes immediate. Professor Neris stands at the center of the teaching floor, one hand still raised toward a diagram of magical pathways suspended behind her. Her expression does not change. That makes the room more uncomfortable. "Officer Corvell." She says.

"Professor." Rhyven answers.

"You are aware that this lecture is in progress." She adds.

"Yes." Rhyven answers like it's the least important information he's heard today. Maybe it is.

"And yet."

Rhyven glances toward Aldric. Professor Neris follows his gaze. The bandaged arm. Cassian's controlled concern. My face. Something in her expression sharpens. Not fear. Recognition.

She lowers her hand. The diagram disappears. "Class dismissed." A murmur moves through the students. Professor Neris turns toward them. "Now."

Books close. Chairs scrape against stone. No one wastes time questioning her. Students file past us, eyes moving openly between Aldric and me. A few glance toward Rhyven as though hoping his presence provides an explanation. It does not.

Nyra is among the last to leave. She slows beside me. I want to tell her I am all right. The words would be useless. Instead, I touch her hand briefly. She searches my face. Then continues into the corridor.

Professor Neris waits until the doors shut. "What happened?"

I tell her. Not the entire history. Only what we proved this morning. Aldric's first blood sample carrying nothing. Cassian's responding normally. The second sample containing recent emotional residue but nothing before the previous night. Professor Neris does not interrupt. Her eyes remain on me throughout. When I finish, she looks toward Aldric.

"Do you consent to what Miss Vaelith performed?" She asks.

"Yes." Aldric nods once.

"No pressure?"