Page 75 of Legacy Elite

Okay. That's not weird at all.

"These go to the Chancellor tonight." She closes the notebook. "You don't come back here. Not on your own, not with your friends, not on a free afternoon."

Freya frowns. "Why?"

"Because you're on placement, not an archaeological survey."

"That's not why."

Brann looks at her.

Freya doesn't look away.

"Say it back to me," Brann says.

There's a pause.

"We won't come back," Freya says.

"Good."

"Is that normal?" I ask. "Someone deliberately cutting the marks off?"

Brann puts her pen away.

"Most of the old structures were cleared when Luftis was built."

"Most."

Her eyes come to mine.

Then Declan clears his throat.

"Still injured."

Ines raises one hand from the stretcher. "Very."

Brann stands. "Then I suggest you finish extracting her."

We reach the fire road at nine minutes to three.

The evaluation happens standing up in the cold while Ines gets her boot back on and complains about her paperback getting wet.

Freya's tracking, excellent. Sophia's casualty management, better than most third-years. Renzo's route-keeping, good. Torres, good and quiet, and Brann looks at him a second longer than she looks at anybody else.

"Declan. You nearly lost the clock."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because the bank at the gully crossing was gone and I wasn't putting a stretcher over it."

"You gave up forty minutes."

"Yes."

Brann writes something down. "That's the best decision anybody's made on this exercise in two years. Don't let it go to your head."