The lockdown had been thirty-one days of mana drills and formation exercises and controlled sparring under instructor supervision.
Whatever the administration had been doing with the theory curriculum during that period, it wasn't nothing. The end-of-semester academic assessment was announced the morning after Rowan's practical evaluation briefing, posted on the Academic District boards with the same calm institutional indifference the Academy used for everything. Four sections. Six hours. Three days before the practical evaluation deployment window opened.
Vane read the notice and felt the specific quality of exhaustion that has nothing to do with the body.
The Grand Auditorium smelled of ink and anxiety.
