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"No." Silence. Rhyven points toward the student standing alone behind them. "You lost a person." That lands differently now. Everyone feels it. "Again." Second attempt. Better. Third. Better again. By the fourth, everyone is checking everyone. Not obsessively. Enough.

My group reaches the eastern marker when a first-year girl beside me suddenly stops. Her breathing changes. Fast. Too fast. I turn. "Hey." She's staring toward the far side of the field. Not seeing it. Rhyven notices from several yards away. He approaches. Doesn't touch her. Doesn't call attention to the fact that nearly everyone is watching. "Name."

She swallows. "Lyra." She says.

"Look at me."

"Are you afraid?"

Her cheeks flush. "Yes."

Rhyven nods. "Good." She blinks. He gestures toward the field. "Fear isn't the problem." His gaze moves across the formation. "The moment you let it decide for you is." Lyra takes a breath. Then another. Slower. Rhyven steps back. "Reset."

I watch him. Not because magic tells me anything. Because yesterday, I saw fear on his face. Real fear. When the second disappearance was announced. He had still gone straight to work. Still commanded. Still searched. Still made decisions. Fear isn't the problem. Oh. He's not only teaching them. His gaze catches mine. I must be staring. "What."

I shake my head. "Nothing."

His eyes narrow. "I hate that answer."

"Good."

Something almost appears at the corner of his mouth. Then he's Chief Corvell again. "Reset, Vaelith." I roll my eyes. But I reset.

Training ends twenty minutes early. Students react as though we've been granted a month-long holiday. I gather my equipment. A voice behind me says, "Your manifestation review is Friday." I turn. Rhyven.

"What?" I frown.

"Council schedule was posted."

My stomach immediately knots. Blood Echo. Of course. Every student's manifestation is being reviewed. Mine was always coming. Still... "Friday." I repeat.

"Yes." He nods.

"Who's evaluating?"

"Vayne. Two Council examiners." A pause. "Your father."

Of course. I look away. "Wonderful."

Rhyven watches me for a moment. "You're ready." Three words. No sarcasm. No qualification. I look back at him. He has already turned toward another student. Apparently that's all I get.

By dinner no new disappearance. The entire Academy knows. No announcement tells us. No professor says it. But everyone notices. One full day. No one else gone. The atmosphere changes by degrees. Not relief. Not yet. But the beginning of it. Someone behind us whispers, "Maybe that's it."

Another voice: "Maybe they're unrelated."

A third: "Maybe Jonas left on his own."

Cassian looks toward me. I look at Nyra. She looks down at her plate. No one at our table joins the conversation.

Professor Neris finds us after dinner. She doesn't sit. "Walk." The four of us follow her into the corridor beside the kitchens. Nyra hands her the sequence. Environmental changes. Magic. Wards. Disappearances. Attacks. Professor Neris reads every page. Then reads the forty-three-day calculation again. "What confidence?" She asks.

"Moderate." Nyra answers.

"Not high?"

"No."

"Why?"