"Would you?"
Toven's expression changed.
The question had sounded simple when separated from everything around it. An objective possessed points; completing it earned them, abandoning it presumably surrendered them, and examinations had spent generations teaching students to arrange their efforts around that uncomplicated arithmetic.
Yet the woman in the example had lost her husband that afternoon.
The objective remained.
The circumstance had changed.
Toven looked once more toward the floating words.
"…I don't know."
The instructor's mouth curved.
"Better."
Toven blinked.
That answer seemed to bother him even more.
Above the central floor, the illusion of Lady Merrow's circumstance dissolved, carrying the private objective with it. Five new words replaced the vanished seal, arranged in a slow arc of silver light.
FORM
AWARENESS
JUDGMENT
GRACE
OUTCOME
The students quieted.
