The corridor outside Amphitheater 2 stayed crowded long after the session ended.
Students moved through it in clusters that formed and dissolved every few steps. Some were arguing in low voices. Others spoke quietly while replaying pieces of the demonstration from memory, as if saying the words out loud might help them understand what they had just seen.
Lucas leaned against the wall near a tall window and watched the hallway fill and empty in uneven waves.
Nobody approached him directly.
They glanced at him. Some looked impressed. A few looked uncertain. A handful looked irritated in that specific way people did when they wanted to convince themselves they had seen something ordinary.
Lucas had been in the academy long enough to recognize the pattern.
They were deciding what his performance meant.
