Chapter 4 4

Sofia

I looked at my notes very hard.

The session covered the integration of bloodline ability types in pack defence strategy, which was the theoretical framework for why the Academy trained students across bloodline tiers together for certain applications even while maintaining separate development tracks for others. Ramos was good at this material. He had a way of presenting the logic of the system that acknowledged its internal coherence without pretending it had no costs, which was more honest than I had expected from an institution that benefited from the system's existence.

"The model relies on ability complementarity," he was saying, drawing the integration diagram with his characteristic enthusiasm, "which is why bloodline diversity in a pack defence cohort is not a weakness but an amplifier. An Alpha-blood striker and an Omega-blood sensitivity reader occupy different functional positions in the same tactical framework."

"In theory," said a voice from the back, and I placed it without looking up and then looked up anyway, because I was done pretending I had a choice about it. "In practice, the ability monitoring systems used in joint sessions are calibrated for mid-tier baselines, which means the Omega-blood sensitivity output doesn't register within the accurate measurement window. Which means the integration model works tactically but the assessment framework doesn't support measuring it. Which means we don't actually have data on whether it works."

The room was quiet in the way that rooms go quiet when something accurate has been said about a flaw in an established system by someone who has the rank to make the observation uncomfortable.

Professor Ramos looked at him with the expression of someone who is being asked to acknowledge an inconvenient thing and has decided honesty is the policy. "That's a fair critique of the current assessment infrastructure," he said.

"It's not a critique," said the voice. "It's a structural observation. The model is sound. The measurement is insufficient to evaluate it."

"So improve the measurement," I said.

The room did not go quiet. The room went silent, which is a different category entirely. I became aware of it as something physical, a change in the air, and I sat with it, because I had said the thing and I was not going to unsay it.

I looked at the back row. He was looking at me. His expression was doing the thing I had catalogued on the staircase landing, the assessment quality, the not-yet-at-a-conclusion quality, and it was more visible here than it had been there because there was a room full of people for it to be visible to.

"The monitoring calibration for Omega-blood ability output would require a dedicated assessment protocol," he said, not pointedly, just factually. "That's a significant resource investment for a cohort of eight students across the full school population."

"The model that the Academy uses to justify integrated training relies on Omega-blood contribution," I said. "If the assessment doesn't measure that contribution, the model is built on an assumption. Either the assumption is worth investing in or the model should say clearly that it's theoretical." I looked at Professor Ramos rather than at the back row, because I was making a methodological point and not a personal one. "Those seem like the two options."

Professor Ramos looked between me and the back row and then at his diagram with the expression of someone who has had a meeting go somewhere unexpected and is deciding whether to welcome it or redirect it. He welcomed it, to his credit. "That's a debate worth having," he said. "What would the dedicated protocol look like? From either of your perspectives."

What followed was twelve minutes of the most direct and substantive classroom discussion I had been in at any school, and it involved Alejandro Reyes and me talking across a room about ability assessment methodology while the rest of the class watched with the specific quality of people who are not sure whether what they are seeing is interesting or alarming and have settled on both.

He was not wrong about the resource investment problem. I was not wrong about the assumption problem. By the time Ramos moved the session forward, we had outlined a version of the dedicated protocol that neither of us had started with and that had arrived through the specific process of two people who disagree on the details agreeing on the underlying logic.

When the session ended and students began moving out, Val stayed beside me and said nothing, for a long moment, which was unusual for Val.

"What?" I said.

"Nothing," she said. "I'm just. Observing."

"Observing what?"

"That he participated in a methodology discussion with a first-year student for twelve minutes," she said, "which he has never done with anyone below second year in any session I've sat through."

"He was making a valid point about resource allocation," I said.

"And you made a valid point about foundational assumptions," she said. "And you landed on the same answer." She paused. "Together."

"That's how academic discussion works," I said.

"Sure," she said, in the specific tone, and gathered her notebook, and I did not look at the back row and did not look at the west door and followed Val out of the classroom with my wolf at its settled-but-elevated position and told myself very firmly that academic discussion was academic discussion and data was data and I was going to need a great deal more of both before I made anything of any of this.

My wolf did not agree with the timeline I had proposed and communicated this through its continued vertical presence for the entire walk back to Block D.

"You're having an interior conversation," Paco said, falling into step beside me on the lower staircase.

"I'm thinking," I said.

"About the discussion," he said.

"About the assessment protocol framework," I said.

"About whether the discussion means something," he said.

I looked at him.

"It's okay if it does," he said, with the same mildness he applied to everything. "Just don't decide what it means before you have enough information. The mistake people make at this school is deciding what a thing means before they've let it be a thing first."

"That's surprisingly wise," I said.

"I spent a year making maps," he said. "You have time to think on maps." He went up the staircase toward his own dormitory block. "Good session, by the way. The protocol framework you outlined was better than what he started with."

He was gone before I could respond to that, which was exactly how Paco operated, and I stood at the bottom of the staircase with that particular piece of information and let it sit in me for a moment before I went inside.