Location:Obsidian Academy
Date/Time:Late Sparkfall, 9939 AZI — Day 97
Realm:Lower Realm
"That can't be right."
Ryo was staring at his Formation paper like it had personally insulted his family. The brush in his hand hovered above the third node of a basic essence-channeling diagram — the kind of introductory exercise that most first-years could complete in twenty minutes. Ryo had been at it for forty.
"It's right," Kiran said. He didn't look up from his own work. His voice was quiet, precise — the voice he used when he was concentrating, which was most of the time. "Your second node is offset."
"It's exactly where the textbook says to put it."
"The textbook rounds to the nearest millimetre. Formations don't."
Ryo looked at him. Looked at the diagram. Looked at Kiran again. "How do you know it's offset? You haven't even glanced at my paper."
"I can hear it." Kiran's brush moved — steady, unhurried. "When the nodes are aligned, the essence flows evenly. Yours is stuttering."
