Written debriefs were supposed to be quiet.
Astral Zenith had apparently never met truth.
The debrief chamber opened one hour after Exercise One ended
The room's timing was the first cruelty.
One hour let pain settle without understanding. Enough for hands to shake when ink touched paper. Not enough for anyone to decide whether courage had been real or merely necessary. The academy chose well.
Fresh wounds wrote more honestly.
Or more dangerously.
Often both., which was a polite way of saying no one was allowed enough time to decide what they wanted to hide. The room had twenty desks, twenty ink trays, and a ceiling full of record crystals that hummed whenever someone lied too confidently.
Gold Hall arrived in formation.
Piety arrived in fragments.
Obsidian arrived late and together, which was its own form of discipline.
