Mina kept her left fingers on Pera’s outward pulse and her right thumb pressed firmly against the bounding artery at Seyun’s blood-stained wrist.
For three heartbeats, the only sounds in the lower vault were the steady four-count hum of the black bronze pillar and the faint hiss of pine resin burning in the wall lamps. Up at the top of the spiral stair, Daro Kesh and Ilyra stood silent above Vaska Ren’s shoulder. Across the stone circle, ten other pairs of eyes watched Bed Two from their numbered iron frames.
“Your right lung channel is running six beats faster than your left,” Mina said, her voice pitched low and exact so every word cut through the ringing in Seyun’s ears. “The pressure coming down from Master Daro’s mark is wide enough to split a Bronze vessel. Your foundation has been ready for the Bronze threshold since the ravine climb. If you let your lower hearth gather that pressure to form an external Bronze edge right now, you might very well cross the realm boundary before the morning watch ends.”
From the corner of the worktable, Osen Tal leaned forward a fraction, his clerk’s eyes narrowing with sudden math. If the expelled Ash Reed student broke through to Early Bronze. Meanwhile, his hand was on the pillar’s pipe hub, even a late Jade judge would have to respect the prodigy of the feat.
