Before Myra could respond, the classroom door opened.
Viola and Nico walked in. The ambient noise of the room adjusted around their entrance — conversations tapering, attention shifting forward.
Viola took her position at the front of the class with the ease of someone accustomed to having a room arrange itself around her, and lifted the attendance sheet.
"The next five students, please proceed to Pak Leith's examination room."
Her voice carried the particular authority of someone who didn't need to raise it to be heard.
Liyn let out a quiet breath.
So Myra was right. The examination really only takes ten minutes.
The thought settled uncomfortably. She was aware of Viola glancing toward her as she read the list — quick, deliberate, the kind of look that carries more intention than it shows.
Then Viola's attention returned to the sheet.
"Elara Hesra. Myra Storm. Aiden Harkon. Atlas Arganox. Theo Nexora."
She closed the list.
"Those named, please head to the examination room now."
Several students rose. But before they had reached the door —
"Almost half an hour."
Elara said it lightly. Like an observation about the weather. But her eyes moved to Liyn as she spoke.
"I thought it was supposed to be quick."
Aiden straightened his collar and laughed. "Yeah. That's unusual."
A pause.
"Never heard of it taking that long before."
No one said Liyn's name. They didn't need to. The room knew the shape of what was happening — everyone oriented around the same unspoken center, everyone participating in the understanding without needing to make it explicit.
Liyn looked down at her desk. Her fingers found the edge of it again.
There it is.
The discomfort that had briefly receded came back — quieter this time, but more settled. More certain of its right to be there.
Beside her, Myra had gone still.
Her eyes traveled from Elara to Liyn, then to the corner of the room where two students were whispering. Then back to Liyn.
Something was assembling itself in Myra's expression. Recognition, arriving late.
The things I said earlier. The conversations I let run. What I didn't stop.
She looked at her friend. Liyn had lowered her head again — the particular way she lowered it when she was trying to reduce the amount of space she occupied.
And for the first time that day, Myra felt the specific weight of having done something she couldn't take back.
________________________________________
In the examination room, the atmosphere was considerably calmer.
The five students stood in a loose line before the marble table, which still held the same vessels from before, the water within them now still and clear.
Leith stood beside the table with his arms crossed, unhurried.
"Before we begin — a brief explanation."
Five pairs of eyes focused on him.
"Veyra is the energy possessed by every Syntara user. Your level doesn't entirely determine your strength, but it gives an accurate picture of your current energy capacity and potential."
He indicated the vessel.
"The process is simple. I'll take a small amount of blood from each of you. The instrument will react and register your Veyra level. It will take a few minutes per person."
He paused.
"No need to be nervous."
The students nodded.
"Atlas Arganox."
Atlas stepped forward. The examination proceeded without incident — needle, single drop, water responding in its slow, deliberate way.
While Leith watched the result, quiet conversation started up from somewhere behind him.
"Still can't get over it." Aiden's voice, low but not particularly careful. "Thirty minutes for one examination. That's excessive."
"Right?" Elara, barely a beat later. A glance toward Leith that she perhaps thought was subtle. "I'd never heard of one taking that long."
Leith kept his eyes on the vessel.
He heard everything.
"Supposedly Liyn's been hiding her Veyra level."
"Really?" Aiden sounded genuinely curious rather than malicious, which somehow made it worse. "Why would anyone do that?"
"Hard to say," Elara said thoughtfully.
Then, with the particular precision of someone choosing their volume carefully:
"Maybe she thinks she's different from other Syntara users."
Leith continued to observe the water darkening. From his peripheral vision, he catalogued the room without appearing to.
Theo — uninvested, already somewhere else mentally.
Atlas — focused entirely on his own result, not listening.
Aiden — genuinely curious. The kind of person who asked questions without understanding they were participating in something.
Elara — too deliberate. Each comment landed at exactly the right pitch to keep the conversation moving without her fingerprints becoming too visible. She was performing disinterest while engineering engagement.
Then his gaze found Myra.
She stood at the back of the group, saying nothing, taking part in nothing. Her head was tilted slightly downward. Her hands were clasped in front of her, fingers working against each other in small, restless movements.
Guilt. Recognizable at any distance.
Interesting.
He returned his attention to the vessel.
So. He didn't have the full picture — he never did, from the outside. But the outline was becoming clear. Rumor. Misplaced words. Something that had started as ordinary conversation and become something it was never meant to be. And at the center of it, a girl who had already demonstrated a considerable capacity for turning ordinary social pressure into something that felt like it confirmed everything she already feared about herself.
"Done."
His voice cut cleanly through the room.
The water had stabilized. Atlas blinked.
"Your Veyra level has been recorded."
Leith noted the result and set down his pen.
The room settled into silence.
Before calling the next student, he raised his eyes and let his gaze move across the room — slow, even, not unkind but completely without accommodation.
"You have a great deal of time for discussing other people."
No heat in it. No performance of displeasure. Just a statement of fact delivered in a voice that had no need to be raised.
"Consider using some of it to improve your own Veyra instead."
The silence that followed was of a different quality than the one before.
Elara's expression froze for a fraction of a second before it rearranged itself. Aiden sat up straighter without appearing to notice he'd done it. Myra — slowly — lifted her head.
Leith closed the examination sheet.
"Next."
He called the name and moved on, his attention shifting without remainder.
No one in the room had any doubt.
He had heard every word.