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The hall quieted. Alex's amusement disappeared and even Nykos stopped looking irritated.

"They tested it?" I asked.

"Yes."

"How extensively?"

Something closed behind her eyes, and her voice went flat. "Extensively."

I could have pushed for exact numbers. Commanders liked limitations they could plan around. But her file already held more assessments than most soldiers collected in a career, most of them starting when she was a child, and I wasn't running another one just because it made my planning easier.

"Then we'll learn your limits over time."

She frowned. "You're not going to test them?"

"I'm not damaging my healer because I'd like a prettier number on a planning sheet."

Her expression went blank, and I'd clearly said something heavier than I'd intended. My jaw had tightened enough that I felt it in my back teeth, and I unclenched it deliberately before I spoke again. Jade recovered before anyone else could react.

"You'd stop before I reached it."

"Yes."

She watched me for several seconds, searching for whatever condition she expected me to add. There wasn't one. Eventually she nodded, and I altered the procedure. Once Jade repaired an injury and cleared any secondary effects, the casualty returned directly to formation.

Then I signaled the Illusion Master.

Training Hall Four disappeared around us.

The stone remained beneath the illusion, and I knew every ridge was built from movable walls and raised platforms, but the effect was convincing enough that knowing did little to weaken it. Heat rolled across us first, dry and immediate, followed by the smell of smoke, sulfur and scorched minerals. Black ash spread across broken volcanic ground, dull red light pulsed through cracks beneath our boots and something shifted beyond the first ridge with a grinding sound that vibrated through the floor.

Jade turned slowly, and for the first time that morning every trace of awkwardness disappeared. She looked interested rather than uncertain, her eyes moving across the false ridges, ash banks and distant heat vents while the mission brief appeared in pale lettering against the nearest wall.

Missing Citadel scout. Last contact one click north of simulated entry. Probable injury. Extraction through western route.

Halver stepped toward the side staging passage, and Jade looked at him. "You're not coming?"

"Apparently I'm being sacrificed for educational purposes."

The Illusion Master laughed from his console while I ignored both of them. "Halver's part of the threat set. You won't know when or where he enters. Same command structure as before. The objective is the scout, medical decisions are yours, and if we encounter something you know better than I do, tell me before I have to ask."

Her eyes flicked toward mine at that last part. "Understood."

Halver was already working his shirt over his head as he crossed toward the staging corridor. Alex hooked the backpack holding his spare clothes over one shoulder without being asked, the same automatic motion he'd use for his own kit, and the rest of us moved.

The first stretch stayed deliberately clean. Jade held her position while we crossed the first ridge, adjusting when the ash deepened and the route narrowed. Halfway through the next section she caught Alex by the sleeve before he stepped onto a patch that looked identical to the rest.

"Don't. Heat vent. The staining around the edge is wrong."

I looked closer and only found the darker ring because she'd shown me exactly where to look. Alex stepped around it and glanced back at her.

We found the scout around twenty minutes into the exercise beneath a collapsed section of blackened framework. One of the simulation staff lay conscious with his lower leg pinned beneath a brace, an injury harness glowing with enough red markers to make the standard extraction procedure obvious.

Secure. Stabilize. Free. Move.

Jade crouched beside him and ignored the brightest marker along the trapped leg. "Chest first. Respiratory compromise. The leg looks worse, but if that marker is accurate, it can wait."

She placed one hand against the chest band and fed magic into the crystal. The red faded, followed by the abdominal marker and finally the leg. In less than a minute every indicator had cleared, and once we lifted the brace from his boot, the scout stood.