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"Yours?"

"No." A pause. "My response to it is." The examiner's quill stops. Professor Neris's eyes lift. I continue before anyone asks. "The affection belongs to the donor. The warmth I feel remembering it now belongs to me." Silence. My father gives nothing away. Of course.

The second vial is opened. "Twenty seconds." This one hits harder. Water. Cold. Panic. A child struggling. Hands reaching. Someone shouting encouragement. Fear becomes laughter. Then relief. Deep enough that it aches. I stay. Not trapped. Present. The donor remembers believing they would drown. Then realizing someone had been holding them the entire time. Twenty seconds. I pull away.

My pulse is faster. That's all.

"Emotion?"

"Fear."

"Intensity?"

"High initially."

"Residual?"

"Minimal."

"How?"

I breathe once.

"Because it wasn't mine."

The first Councillor leans forward.

"Is that always sufficient?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Knowing an emotion isn't mine doesn't stop me from feeling it."

"Then how do you control it?"

There is no perfect answer. Good. I give them the true one. "I don't control the emotion." Their eyes remain on me. "I control what I do while I'm feeling it." Professor Vayne's expression changes. Barely. But I know that look. Good answer.

The third vial remains closed. The silver-haired Councillor reaches for it herself. "Final sample."

Professor Vayne says nothing. That bothers me. She breaks the seal. Places the vial before me. "Enter."

I step forward. Touch it. And immediately stop. Not inside. At the edge. Blood Echo opens beneath my skin. Waiting. The memory is there. Accessible. Dense. Private. Something in it pulls hard enough that I know I could fall much deeper than the previous two. Grief. Not ordinary grief. The kind built around a person. A child, maybe. Family. Loss. I don't know. I don't need to know. I remove my hand. Silence. The Councillor looks at me. "Continue."

"No." The word is calm. My heart isn't. Nothing in my voice reveals that.

Her eyebrows lift. "That was an instruction."

"I know."

"Then continue."

I look at the blood. Then back at her. "No." This time the room changes. Not visibly. But every person inside it pays closer attention. My father does not move. Professor Vayne's face becomes impossible to read.

The Councillor folds her hands. "Explain."

I choose my words carefully. "The sample is emotionally dense."