The Shifting Labyrinth
The student flow fragments upon crossing the cafeteria's threshold. The compact mass of bodies thins out in the main corridors, where the murmur of a thousand conversations dissolves against the polymer walls. Aku advances with a methodical inertia. His eyes, fixed on a non-existent point in space, betray feverish cerebral activity; he doesn't remember the class he dissects it. He classifies the Azoth flow vectors into logical categories, discarding the accessory and welding new data to his previous framework of knowledge. At his flank, Gerald maintains a heavy pace. His fingers adjust the glasses on the bridge of his nose with nervous frequency a tic that surfaces every time academic uncertainty weighs on his chest.
