Gabriel's heart raced as Ms. Vesper activated her star-space scan, a faint glow in her eyes signalling a spiritual skill's activation. Star-space scanning was rare outside teaching—its complexity often demanded years of mastery, used to track students' cultivation or detect issues in their star spaces.
A girl with a jeweled hairpin stepped up, her shoulders straight but her eyes betraying nerves. Ms. Vesper's gaze lingered on her for a long, suffocating moment, as though weighing the measure of her cultivation against some invisible standard. At last she gave a short nod, and the girl's relieved exhale could be heard even in the hushed hall.
