Senior Examiner Varo Nenn stood before the pine test model. His hands shook slightly inside the wide sleeves of his azure robe. He was a man of sixty, soft-bellied and pale from forty years spent in the sunless archives of the College of Summoners, copying classical treatises on spirit holding. His fingers smelled of dried gum arabic and expensive lavender soap, contrasting sharply with the sour reek of lime and river silt rising from the zinc basin.
Korr Var handed him a three-inch forged brass lever, its hub fitted to a square-headed brass spindle that controlled the tiny water gate on the Third Gate channel. ‘This lever operates the Third Gate throttle, Master Nenn,’ Korr Var said, his tone entirely cold and exact. ‘It corresponds to the six-foot granite bypass leaf on the Lower Abutment. When Master Sorell activates the Hollow Crown, his working protocol needs this bypass to be driven down to zero. Turn the lever forty-five degrees to the right.’
Varo Nenn looked back toward the academy benches. Master Davin Sorell sat rigid, his chin raised, his face an unreadable mask of high-born calm distance. ‘Turn the lever, Judge,’ Councilor Vesk commanded from the center dais, her voice echoing off the stone walls like an iron knocker. Nenn placed his soft, white palm against the brass handle. He pushed.
