The realm was still being watched.
But something inside it was now watching back.
That truth did not change anything on the surface, at least not yet. The Primary Monitoring Hall still moved with the same steady rhythm it had kept since the midterm began.
Screens floated in slow arcs above the workstations, sliding from one team to another as reports came in and were cleared.
Projection walls showed forest paths, mist valleys, broken ridges, ruined stone fields, and lakes that reflected too much of the sky.
Token synchronization tables updated in soft lines of blue and white, each student marked by life signs, mana exposure, stress readings, movement pace, and location stability.
No one in the hall looked relaxed, but no one looked frightened either. This was the kind of pressure they were trained for.
It was not quiet work, but it was controlled work, and controlled work had a way of making danger feel smaller than it really was.
