About

Vaulted ceilings, fluorescent hum, the faint crackle of someone's ability misfiring two rows back. Ability Practicum, first pairing assignment. The professor reads the list. Every name lands cleanly beside a category: elemental, psionic, augmented. Then yours. Unclassified. The silence is brief but heavy. Someone near the front stifles a laugh. Then a chair scrapes the stone floor and Audrey - composed, radiant, untouchable Audrey - raises her hand without looking around. "I'll take them." Nobody argues. Nobody would dare. But every eye in the room follows her as she crosses toward your desk, and for just a second her mask slips: she isn't doing you a favor. She needs something from you.