Ava's name sat on the certification tier, and her guns still pointed out at the emptied challenge floor.
She read the rector's clause twice and did not answer it. The guns held the line they had kept all week.
"Load any floor you want and let the rubric grade what it grades," Ava said, her frontage still pointed at the road. "I owe the people I fight for more than I owe your clause or your rector, so strike the denunciation and post the test on a live objective or keep your rank and your paper both."
"The Hall posts the test without the clause and grades your method to the letter," Malrec said, loading a floor onto the certification tier. "You demonstrate a rescue on a live objective in front of the boards, and the rubric scores the ranked target first and everything you carry off beside it a distant second."
