The physique evaluation burned through the rest of the afternoon the way those things always did: names, sand, the dull crack of wood on bone, a necklace flashing white when someone had been a breath from dying.
A few heirs left the ring looking smaller than they had on the monument. B
y the time the last ordinary-line student crawled out of the black sand, the yard had thinned to the ones who still had a reason to stand.
Vael'Zira did not give them a rest that felt like kindness.
The puppets sank, and the ring instantly widened.
The iron posts pulled back into the ground, and the academy floor kept going until it was no longer a test circle and more like a shallow crater with walls high enough that flying out would look like running.
Five hundred students remained.
That was the number the inspectors had been cutting toward all day. Talent below top-tier was already gone.
Bodies that could not take a beating were gone.
