Master Halden reviewed cultivation reports in silence.
Names. Measurements. Progress curves.
Vale's page troubled him.
No surge.
No expansion.
No instability either.
A resonance that refused to behave like resonance.
Halden summoned Vale at dusk.
"Your Aether Ring resists external vibration," he said plainly. "Do you understand why this is dangerous?"
Vale bowed. "Because it interferes."
"No," Halden corrected. "Because it cannot be guided."
He circled Vale slowly. "Sound-based cultivation relies on correction. Feedback. Echo. You provide none."
Vale hesitated. "Then… should I stop?"
Halden stopped walking.
For a long moment, he said nothing.
Finally: "I don't know."
The admission weighed heavier than reprimand.
"When instructors doubt," Halden continued quietly, "students either become failures—or precedents."
Vale lowered his head.
That night, Halden burned Vale's latest evaluation scroll instead of submitting it.