The examination chamber lay deeper than the lecture halls.
Stone walls curved inward, narrowing the space into a circular enclosure marked by containment etchings layered one over another. Some were recent. Others had been worn nearly smooth by age and repeated failure.
Six instructors stood at evenly spaced intervals along the perimeter.
Not all were mages.
That distinction mattered.
Klaen took his position at the center marker and waited. His focus remained on his own internal state. Pulse steady. Cognition clear. Residual strain from the morning within acceptable limits.
A bell sounded once.
Instructor Halvren stepped forward.
"This is a competency evaluation," he said. "Not an advancement trial. No Pathway specialization will be favored."
Several students stiffened at that, except for Klein of course .
"You will be given a structure," Halvren continued. "You will execute it using the assigned Pathway. Deviations will be noted. Optimization attempts will be penalized."
A crystalline panel rose from the floor in front of Klaen.
Symbols appeared across its surface—fixed, unambiguous, already resolved into a stable grammar. The structure was familiar. Elementary ordering. Moderate load.
Aurelian.
Halvren's gaze remained fixed on him. "Proceed."
Klaen inhaled and began.
The symbols assembled cleanly in his mind, each locking into place with practiced ease. He maintained strict ordering, resisting the instinct to refine. The construct manifested as instructed: a dense kinetic formation suspended at waist height.
....guess this is stable enough...
He released it.
The structure discharged into the target marker across the chamber. Stone deformed precisely along predicted stress lines.
Halvren nodded once.
"Acceptable."
The panel shifted.
New symbols replaced the old. The grammar changed.
Sylvan.
The structure was less rigid, its internal logic branching rather than stacking. Klaen adjusted his visualization accordingly. The spell took longer to stabilize, but once complete, it behaved as expected—force propagating outward through the target medium, altering its internal cohesion.
Again, acceptable.
... This is turning out as expected...
The panel shifted a third time.
This time, the symbols did not resolve immediately.
They hovered between interpretations.
A murmur moved through the instructors.
Halvren did not react.
"This is a mixed-condition structure," he said. "You will execute it using Congeris."
....nooo! , my weak point , well at least I should give it a try...
Klaen felt the chamber tighten.
Congeris was not a Pathway. It was a cognitive discipline—a method of holding multiple grammars in active alignment without collapse. Most students could invoke it briefly. Fewer could sustain it under load.
He examined the structure.
The components were simple. The interaction was not.
He began assembling the first Pathway, establishing its internal logic. Then the second, careful to maintain separation while defining points of convergence.
The strain arrived immediately.
A Delay.
Thoughts required effort to advance. The symbols resisted synchronization, each grammar attempting to resolve dominance. Klaen adjusted, reallocating attention, simplifying where possible.
The construct formed.
Barely.
He released it.
...I surely will pass , everything was done correctly , I guess...
The spell executed, but not cleanly. The discharge reached the target marker, yet its effect dispersed unevenly. The containment runes flared briefly before stabilizing.
Klaen's vision blurred.
He terminated the construct at once and stepped back.
The chamber remained intact.
Halvren raised a hand.
"Ars onset," he said. "Moderate."
One of the wardens stepped forward, observing Klaen closely.
"How long did you maintain Congeris?" the warden asked.
"Six seconds," Klaen replied.
"And how many grammars?"
"Two."
The warden nodded. "At your current threshold, four seconds would have been optimal."
Halvren turned back to Klaen. "You forced alignment."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"The structure required simultaneous resolution."
"It required functional resolution," Halvren corrected. "Not maximal coherence."
The crystalline panel dimmed.
"This is a failure," Halvren said. "Not a dangerous one. Not necessarily a disciplinary one. But a failure."
Klaen inclined his head.
"You exceeded your cognitive tolerance under the assumption that Congeris compensates for Pathway incompatibility," Halvren continued. "It does not. It delays collapse. That distinction matters."
Klaen absorbed the correction without response.
"Your Ars recovery time?" the warden asked.
"It is Thirty seconds," Klaen said.
"Documented."
Halvren stepped back. "You will not advance to open Congeris trials this cycle."
No reaction followed. The outcome had been predictable.
"However," Halvren added, "your Pathway isolation remains above standard. Continue refining separation before convergence."
The bell rang.
The chamber began to reset, symbols withdrawing into the stone.
Klaen exited without looking back.
...guess , I should practice more ...
In the corridor beyond, the air felt thinner. His thoughts moved freely again, the residual drag fading. Ars dissipated as expected.
He paused briefly, committing the failure to memory.
Congeris was not mastery.
It was a negotiation.
And Caladan did not reward those who mistook tolerance for permission.
Tomorrow, the thresholds would remain.
Whether Klaen remained within them was not a matter of will, but discipline.