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"How agitated."

Mara looks toward me. "Enough." Not useful. Useful enough.

The room begins moving. Groups. Assignments. Food. Equipment. I take mine toward the lower dining hall. Nobody complains. Nobody asks why. Good.

Breakfast is awful. Not the food. The room. Every conversation is the same conversation. How. How. How. Two roommates. Feet away. Sleeping. Nothing.

No scream. No struggle. No alarm. No broken ward. Nothing.

Cassian arrives twenty minutes later. Nyra with him.

His face tells me he knows. He sits. Doesn't touch his food.

"You knew him?" I ask.

"A little." His voice is wrong. "Tavian."

I nod. "Manifestation theory."

"Yeah."

"What were his abilities?"

"Water manipulation."

"Strong?"

"Average."

"Anything unusual?"

"No."

"Bloodline?"

"Nothing relevant."

"Any connection to the others?"

"Not that I know."

Nyra sits beside him. "His roommates were interviewed."

I look at her. "And?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"They went to sleep."

"What time."

"One around eleven. The other after midnight."

"And Tavian?"

"In bed."