Chapter 9: Maren's Return and the Warning She Can't Finish

The weekend field sessions happened on Saturday mornings, weather permitting, which at Ashenmoor meant weather that wasn't actively trying to kill anyone — a bar low enough that they'd gone out three Saturdays running despite conditions that would have cancelled anything at a school with functioning central heating and liability lawyers who returned calls.

Professor Stroud ran the sessions with the particular enthusiasm of a man who genuinely believed that the outdoors was good for the Grasp in ways that indoor practice couldn't replicate, and who was, as far as Elliot could tell, probably right. There was something about standing on actual ground, with actual wind doing actual things to the atmosphere, that made the Grasp feel less like a skill being assessed and more like a sense that had always been there, waiting for something real to reach for.

Today's exercise was simple in concept: walk the perimeter of the outer wall, east to west, and notice where the Grasp changed register. Not why. Not what the change meant. Just where. Stroud had a brisk, categorizing way of speaking that Elliot appreciated — he said what the task was and let them get on with it without filling the silence with enthusiasm.