Arthur did not sleep well.
Not because of the document.
The document itself was simple.
CADET ARTHUR VALE — COMPATIBILITY REVIEW: DEFERRED
SEVEN DAYS.
What bothered him was what it didn’t say.
No evaluator.
No location.
No reason.
No consequences.
Someone had given him a deadline without explaining what would happen when it expired.
Arthur had spent enough years negotiating contracts to know that missing information was rarely accidental.
By breakfast, he had already filled three pages of his notebook.
Most of them were crossed out.
Mira watched him from across the table.
“You’ve written twenty-seven possibilities.”
“Twenty-nine.”
“You crossed out half.”
“Twenty-four.”
She stared at him.
Arthur calmly continued eating.
“You’re overthinking it.”
Arthur looked up.
“That’s an accusation I don’t hear often.”
“I mean it.”
“So do I.”
Mira pushed her cup aside.
“You don’t know what the review means.”
“Correct.”
“You don’t know who scheduled it.”
“Correct.”
“You don’t know whether it’s connected to the nineteen students.”
“Correct.”
“Then stop trying to solve all three problems at once.”
Arthur paused.
That was annoyingly sensible.
He closed his notebook.
“Fine.”
Mira smiled.
“Good.”
Arthur picked up his spoon.
“I’ll solve them separately.”
Her smile disappeared.
“You really can’t help yourself.”
“No.”
The first problem was the deadline.
Arthur went to the academy records office.
He did not ask about the compatibility review.
Instead, he requested the rules governing deferred evaluations.
The clerk looked at him suspiciously.
“Why?”
“I want to understand the procedure.”
“There’s no need.”
“There usually is.”
The clerk sighed and searched the records.
After several minutes, she produced a regulation booklet.
Arthur read the relevant section.
Deferred evaluations may be initiated when an individual’s circumstances prevent immediate classification.
He frowned.
“What circumstances?”
“Varies.”
“Who decides?”
“Authorized faculty.”
“Who counts as authorized?”
“Faculty of Rank Three or above.”
Arthur nodded.
“Can a registrar initiate one?”
“No.”
That caught his attention.
“Harlan couldn’t have scheduled mine.”
The clerk looked at him.
“Not personally.”
“Then who can?”
“An instructor or faculty member.”
“Who approved mine?”
“I don’t know.”
Arthur thanked her and left.
Mira was waiting outside.
“Well?”
“Harlan isn’t authorized to initiate my review.”
“That doesn’t mean he’s uninvolved.”
“No.”
Arthur handed her the booklet.
“He can recommend one.”
Mira read the section.
“So someone else approved it.”
“Yes.”
“Voss?”
“Possible.”
“Corvin?”
“Possible.”
“Someone else?”
Arthur nodded.
“Most likely.”
Mira frowned.
“That’s not very satisfying.”
“Information rarely is.”
Their second problem was the nineteen students.
Mira had already started working on it.
She found Arthur in the lower library two hours later with six folders spread across a table.
“Those aren’t the students’ original files.”
“No.”
“Where did you get them?”
“Medical administration.”
Mira sat down.
Arthur pushed three folders toward her.
“Look at the dates.”
She opened the first.
Rhea Dorne.
Then the second.
Jon Bell.
Then the third.
Elian Frost.
Mira frowned.
“They were all examined before the compatibility review.”
“Yes.”
“By different medical staff.”
“Yes.”
“Different days.”
“Yes.”
She looked at Arthur.
“What am I missing?”
“The examination questions.”
Mira read the reports again.
Then her expression changed.
“They aren’t medical questions.”
Arthur nodded.
Rhea’s report asked about family relationships.
Jon’s asked about emotional stress.
Elian’s asked about fear responses.
Mira looked unsettled.
“They were profiling them before the evaluation.”
“Exactly.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
She leaned back.
“You really are getting comfortable saying that.”
Arthur looked at the reports. This story is hosted at g.com.
“I’d rather say it than invent an answer.”
Mira smiled slightly.
“That is progress.”
Arthur pointed to the folders.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Look at the examiner.”
Mira checked.
Three different names.
Then she noticed the department listed beneath each.
Medical Psychology.
Her expression hardened.
“Gallows Edge has a medical psychology department?”
“Apparently.”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“Neither had I.”
Mira turned another page.
The department seal appeared at the bottom.
It wasn’t the normal academy seal.
A smaller symbol had been stamped beneath it.
A circle.
Three lines.
Arthur went completely still.
Mira noticed.
“The symbol.”
“Yes.”
She lowered her voice.
“This is getting closer to the West Tower.”
“Or someone wants us to think it is.”
Mira frowned.
Arthur tapped the page.
“That’s the danger.”
They found the department by accident.
Or at least, that was what the academy map claimed.
The Medical Psychology Office occupied a small section of the eastern infirmary.
The door was locked.
There was no sign.
No receptionist.
No public schedule.
Mira looked at Arthur.
“That’s suspicious.”
“Yes.”
Arthur tried the handle.
Locked.
He didn’t force it.
Instead, he knocked.
Nothing.
He knocked again.
A voice came from inside.
“Who is it?”
“Cadet Arthur Vale.”
Silence.
Then:
“Leave.”
Arthur glanced at Mira.
She shrugged.
Arthur knocked again.
“I have questions.”
“So does everyone.”
“I’ll only ask one.”
The voice went quiet.
Arthur waited.
Finally, the door opened a few inches.
A woman in a plain gray faculty uniform looked through the gap.
She appeared to be in her forties.
Her badge read:
Dr. Elara Wynn — Behavioral Assessment
Arthur kept his expression neutral.
“Were you involved in the compatibility evaluations?”
“No.”
“Were you involved in the preliminary examinations?”
“No.”
“Do you know who was?”
Her eyes moved toward Mira.
Then back to Arthur.
“I shouldn’t discuss student records.”
“I’m not asking about the students.”
That caught her attention.
“Then what are you asking?”
“The purpose.”
She studied him.
Arthur continued.
“I’m not asking who was tested. I’m asking why.”
Dr. Wynn’s expression became guarded.
“You’re assuming there was a purpose.”
“Everything has a purpose.”
“That’s a dangerous belief.”
Arthur almost smiled.
“I’ve recently discovered that.”
She opened the door slightly wider.
“The evaluations were authorized.”
“By whom?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Were they authorized for all nineteen students?”
“Yes.”
“Were they authorized for me?”
A pause.
Arthur noticed it.
That pause was enough.
“You don’t know.”
“No.”
“But someone asked.”
Dr. Wynn looked away.
Arthur didn’t press.
He had already learned enough.
Mira stepped forward.
“What were they testing?”
Dr. Wynn’s face changed.
Not fear.
Something closer to discomfort.
“I can’t tell you.”
“Why?”
“Because the program was discontinued.”
“When?”
“After the West Tower incident.”
Arthur’s attention sharpened.
“Why?”
Dr. Wynn closed her eyes briefly.
“Because the results became unreliable.”
Arthur and Mira exchanged a glance.
“Unreliable how?” Arthur asked.
Dr. Wynn looked directly at him.
“Subjects began producing results that contradicted their recorded archetypes.”
Silence.
Arthur thought of Rhea.
Her archetype strengthening.
Jon.
His emotional response activating [Ironhand].
Elian.
The circles beneath the western rampart. Find the original chapter at g.com.
He asked one final question.
“Did the program have a name?”
Dr. Wynn hesitated.
Then she said:
“Compatibility Resonance.”
Arthur’s stomach tightened.
Not because the phrase was mysterious.
Because it sounded familiar.
He had seen it before.
Not in a record.
In a memory.
A white room.
His old hand resting on a table.
A voice saying:
The resonance isn’t stable.
Then another voice:
Then we need another candidate.
Arthur blinked.
The memory vanished.
Dr. Wynn was watching him.
“You remembered something.”
Arthur’s expression remained controlled.
“Possibly.”
She closed the door.
“Then you should leave.”
The lock clicked.
Mira stared at the door.
“Why?”
Arthur didn’t answer immediately.
His mind was working through the memory.
Another candidate.
Not another student.
A candidate.
Someone had been searching for something.
And the nineteen students might not have been the goal.
They might have been attempts.
That afternoon, Arthur found Harlan.
Not because he was looking for him.
Because Harlan was standing outside the training arena.
Arthur stopped.
Harlan turned.
“Cadet Vale.”
“Deputy Registrar.”
“You’ve been busy.”
Arthur smiled.
“So have you.”
Harlan’s expression didn’t change.
“Your compatibility review has been deferred.”
“I’ve heard.”
“Seven days.”
“I’ve heard that too.”
“You should use the time wisely.”
Arthur studied him.
“Is that advice?”
“An observation.”
Arthur nodded.
“Then I’ll return one.”
Harlan waited.
“You don’t like uncertainty.”
For the first time, Harlan’s face showed something.
A very small tightening around the eyes.
Arthur saw it.
He continued.
“You’re comfortable with rules. Procedures. Documents. Records.”
Harlan said nothing.
“But someone initiated my review without using your authority.”
Harlan’s eyes sharpened.
Arthur smiled faintly.
“That surprised you.”
“I am not surprised by administrative procedure.”
“No.”
Arthur stepped closer.
“You’re surprised I found it.”
Silence.
Neither man moved.
Finally, Harlan said,
“You think you’re good at reading people.”
“I know I’m good at it.”
“That may be your weakness.”
Arthur considered the statement.
“Perhaps.”
Harlan walked past him.
Then stopped.
Without turning, he said,
“Be careful what you learn, Cadet Vale.”
Arthur watched him disappear into the corridor.
Mira came around the corner a moment later.
“What happened?”
Arthur looked after Harlan.
“He warned me.”
“Threatened?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Arthur thought about it.
“Something worse.”
“What?”
“He sounded sincere.”
That night, Arthur returned to his room.
He opened his notebook.
The previous lessons filled the pages.
21.
Someone else can negotiate me.
22.
Advice is not control.
23.
The test isn’t only about the nineteen.
24.
When someone removes your name, ask what they are replacing it with.
25.
When someone gives you a deadline, find out what happens when it expires.
Arthur turned to a fresh page.
He thought about Rhea.
Jon.
Elian.
Tomas.
The nineteen.
Then himself.
He wrote:
26.
Find out whether we were subjects, candidates, or something else.
He stopped.
Then added:
27.
Don’t assume the experiment ended when the records say it did.
Arthur closed the notebook.
Outside his window, the academy lights burned against the dark.
Seven days remained.
But now he had something more important than a deadline.
A name.
Compatibility Resonance.
And somewhere in Gallows Edge, someone had once decided that Arthur Vale might be the right candidate for it.
The question was no longer why his name had appeared among the nineteen.
The question was much worse.
What had they wanted him to become?