The notice arrived on academy letterhead.That meant it was a requirement rather than a request.
Rank reassessment for D-tier candidates was mandatory.
It would take place in the courtyard at the eighth hour.
Soren's name appeared three lines down without an asterisk. That omission was its own kind of message.
The asterisk used to follow him everywhere because the Council used it to mark him as a subject under observation.
Its absence didn't mean they had stopped watching.
Instead, it suggested they had found a cleaner way to monitor him. A mandatory evaluation with no flag was a perfect solution.
"They want to rank you up," Selah said. She had read the notice over his shoulder. "I wonder why they want that."
"They don't want the rank itself. They want to measure it."
A rank was a number and a number was a box.
The Council loved a box more than almost anything.
Soren was currently difficult to categorize.
