Chapter 151: Chapter 151: Academy’s Entrance Phase Two [1]
Gianna looked at me, then held my arm tighter.
"Rev."
I didn’t turn.
My gaze stayed fixed on Giselle’s white hair as she rejoined her unit like the biscuit had never mattered.
Had she really read me?
How?
We haven’t even touched.
When the participants ran at my boot, had I leaked enough of the chain’s structure for a prodigy to steal the pattern mid-air?
Or was it simpler, eyes trained under Draven, taught to dissect supports the way other people dissected prey?
Did I let my—
"REV."
Gianna shook me hard enough that the hall tilted back into place.
I looked at her.
"...Yes?"
"All she did was copy a technique."
Gianna’s voice was low, precise, meant for me and the inch of air between us.
"It does not mean she understands how your power works, or that she can sense what you feel. It means she is fast, and she is trained, and she saw a line she could cut."
I stared at her for a second, caught off guard by how cleanly she had pulled the spiral out of my head.
"Prodigies have a lot up their sleeves," she continued.
"Some can mirror more than one technique in the same breath. Don’t fall into a trap of obsession because someone embarrassed your cleverness in public. I want you clear. We want you clear."
A beat.
"We three. Remember?"
I glanced at Rei.
She was watching the crowd settle, jaw tight, but her eyes flicked to mine when she felt the attention.
Then back to Gianna.
"Yes."
She cupped my face with one hand, thumb steady against my cheek.
"Good. Don’t let her think you are vulnerable. I’m here."
Our foreheads met for a brief, private second, anchor heat, no performance, then we broke apart and moved back toward the marked lines with the rest of the remaining candidates.
Laila Thornsworn waited until the hall had finished rearranging itself into something that resembled order.
"Very well."
Her voice carried without strain.
"Did you all read the test instructions?"
Most of the room nodded.
A few answered aloud.
Someone in the back said "mostly" and immediately regretted it under the weight of several hundred judging stares.
"Good enough."
Laila folded her hands behind her back.
"While the protocols may sound complicated in text, actions are always simpler. We will conduct the intelligence assessment first before we move to falcum&fury."
"Intelligence?"
"I told you, didn’t I?" Gianna said, smirking.
BANG!
The wooden floor under our boots shuddered.
Blocks rose in clean segments, interlocking, reshaping, until rows of plain chairs faced the stage in disciplined ranks.
Seats designed to keep spines straight and minds from wandering into sleep.
"Take your seats."
We sat.
A holographic screen bloomed into existence in front of my face, opaque from my side, invisible from behind, matte light and text.
Similar panes lit across the hall in a staggered wave until the entire cohort was sealed into private boxes of attention.
[Intelligence Assessment — Inverse Intake Cycle]
[Duration: 30:00]
[Question count: 30]
[Format: Scenario response / Forced choice + short justification]
[Minimum pass condition: Full attendance — all items addressed]
[Time allocation: ~60 seconds per item]
[Note: Truth-adjacent scoring active under proctor review]
Thirty questions. Thirty minutes. One minute each if you didn’t drown.
It reminded me, stupidly and completely, of the school back on Earth.
Not the good parts.
The feeling of a clock that didn’t care whether your life had recently included portals, gold biscuits, or a white-haired heir cutting your chain like string.
For a second the Sector 1 hall smelled like an old exam room and cheap pencil, and I had to blink hard to put myself back in a world where the wrong answer might eventually get civilians killed.
Gianna’s presence sat quiet through the anchor.
Rei was a sharper point at the edge of awareness, irritated, focused, already reading.
Laila’s voice came once more before the timer armed.
"You will not discuss. You will not look at your neighbor’s pane. You will not attempt to leave your seat until the assessment closes. Begin."
[00:30:00]
The first prompt filled my screen.
[Question 01 / 30]
[A mid-tier gate has been stable for eleven days under a four-person rotation. On day twelve, scans show the boss chamber’s signature has inverted, output climbing while physical size readings shrink.]
[Your Vanguard wants to push immediately and finish before the anomaly peaks. Your support’s core is already at sixty percent after two prior peels the same week. Civilian evacuation behind the cordon is only forty percent complete.]
Do you:
A) Authorize the push now, accepting elevated support risk to prevent a possible break while the street behind you is still half full.
B) Delay the push for ninety minutes, force the remaining evacuation, and accept that the inverted signature may become significantly worse.
C) Split the unit—send half to accelerate evacuation, half to hold the gate mouth—knowing neither half will be at full strength if the inversion spikes early.
Justify in one to three sentences.
I exhaled through my nose.
Fuck, this is hard.
Way harder than I thought.
School had never asked whether you were willing to burn a support’s core to buy civilians time they might waste arguing about luggage.
[Response field: Active]
[Host note: No "correct" key published — Consistency and operational honesty weighted]
I selected B, then typed:
An inverted boss signature is a future problem. An incomplete evacuation is a present massacre if the gate vomits early. A support at sixty percent is not a renewable battery you spend because a Vanguard is impatient.
Delay, empty the street, then push with a core that can still hold a peel.
Accept. Next.
[Question 02 / 30]
[During a Scramble-format exercise, your dual unit has successfully severed a rival fulcrum’s tether. The rival support is disoriented, isolated, and within legal non-lethal contact range. Capturing them for the remaining eight minutes would lock a top extraction score for your bracket.]
[Your primary anchor’s channel is unstable from the last rescue. Your secondary is bleeding from a self-opened blood technique and still combat-effective. The rival’s Vanguard is twelve seconds out on a direct line.]
Do you:
A) Commit to the capture, using both anchors to hold the isolated support until the clock favors you.
B) Tag the rival for score, break contact immediately, and reform your pocket before the enemy Vanguard arrives.
C) Offer the isolated support a temporary auxiliary link under your control for the remaining time, converting a peel into a forced network expansion mid-test.
Justify in one to three sentences.
My jaw tightened.
This one was not abstract. This one had my jealousy rule and Jenna’s voice and the biscuit still ghosting through my fingers.
[Response field: Active]