By the time Selenne reached the middle of the roster, the atmosphere inside Hall C had changed.
The candidates who had entered carrying polished confidence had begun sitting a little straighter. Several had discovered that memorizing the Academy's preferred language offered limited protection once Selenne moved beyond the first answer. Definitions survived easily enough. Follow-up questions exposed whatever structure supported them.
One candidate could reproduce the accepted stages of spell invocation almost word for word, yet became tangled when Selenne removed one stage and asked how the remaining sequence would compensate. Another named six properties of sympathetic resonance before failing to explain why two apparently compatible formations rejected each other under pressure.
Selenne recorded both results without comment.
A correct term had value.
So did knowing what the term meant once the textbook disappeared.
The distinction had become increasingly relevant this year.
