The jealousy arrived in stages.
First, it was the looks. The particular kind that followed Kael down corridors and across the dining hall, not the curious looks from the first weeks or the confused looks from after the duel, but something with an edge to them, sharper, and more deliberate.
Mira cataloged them without being asked.
"Three first-year students in particular," she said on the morning of the second day after the dungeon mission. She had her notebook open at the breakfast table, columns of names and observed behaviors running down the page. "Aren Fell, Cassia Morne, and Toven Wick."
Kael looked at the names, and he did not recognize any of them.
"Who are they?" he asked.
"Top five-ranked students in the first year cohort," Mira said. "After Darius, they were considered the most likely candidates for early field rank promotion before your arrival."
Kael looked at his food.
"I see," he said.
"Aren Fell has been asking questions about the dungeon mission report," Mira continued. "Specifically about how a Provisional Field Operative with F rank mana was assigned a yellow-rated mission as a first assignment."
"Hale co-signed it," Kael said.
"Yes," Mira said. "Which is also a question. Why Hale specifically? He is a senior research faculty member, not an assigned field supervisor, and he does not typically co-sign first-year missions."
Kael looked at her.
"You are very good at identifying problems," he said.
"I am very good at documenting situations," she said. "The problems identify themselves."
By afternoon, the situation had developed.
Kael was in the east corridor after mana theory when Aren Fell stepped into his path, not aggressively, but deliberately. The way someone positioned themselves when they wanted a conversation on their own terms.
Aren was taller than Kael, with the particular build of someone who had been training since before the academy and knew it. His mana rank was B plus, achieved at assessment without unusual circumstances. He had, by all accounts, earned everything he had through consistent and considerable effort.
Kael suspected that was precisely the problem.
"Draven," Aren said.
"Yes," Kael said.
"The dungeon mission," Aren said.
"It is in the report," Kael said. "Filed with Director Orath."
"The standard report," Aren said. "Which says very little about how an F-ranked first-year student survived a structural collapse that would have killed a B-ranked student without injury."
Kael looked at him.
"There are no casualties according to the report," Kael said, "and that is accurate."
"The report does not explain how," Aren said.
"Reports often do not explain how," Kael said. "They document what?"
Aren looked at him steadily. Behind him, slightly to the left and right, Cassia Morne and Toven Wick stood with the particular arrangement of people who had agreed in advance on their positions.
"You have an ability you are not declaring," Aren said. "Something outside the standard assessment categories, and that is a conduct violation under academy rules."
"Do you have evidence of an undeclared ability?" Kael asked.
"I have documented incidents," Aren said.
"Documented by whom?" Kael asked.
A pause.
"The maintenance reports," Aren said. "The duel record, the training hall incident report, and the library record."
"All of which document outcomes," Kael said. "None of which documents an ability, because I do not have one to document."
Aren looked at him with the expression of someone who had prepared for several possible responses but not this one.
"An F rank mana output does not survive what you have survived," he said.
"And yet," Kael said.
Aren's expression shifted, not to anger, but to something more considered. He was, Kael could see, genuinely intelligent. The kind of person who did not stay invested in an argument that had failed but recalibrated instead, quietly and immediately.
"Professor Hale is your supervisor," Aren said.
"He co-signed my first mission, yes," Kael said.
"He does not co-sign first-year missions," Aren said.
"He co-signed mine," Kael said.
Aren looked at him for a long moment, and then he stepped aside.
"This is not over," he said.
"I expect not," Kael said.
He walked past.
He found Darius in the courtyard ten minutes later, not by plan. Darius was there, and Kael was there, and it was the same courtyard where they had spoken on the bench two weeks ago, before the dungeon and the shimmer and the rock shapers that did not engage.
Darius looked at him.
"Aren Fell," Darius said.
"Yes," Kael said.
"He spoke to me this morning as well," Darius said. "He wanted to know why I joined your mission."
"What did you tell him?" Kael asked.
"That I had a senior field rank and chose to," Darius said. "Which is accurate and sufficient."
Kael looked at the courtyard.
"He thinks I have an undeclared ability," Kael said.
"He thinks that because it is the most logical explanation available to him," Darius said. "He does not have the information that would produce a different conclusion."
"Should I give him that information?" Kael asked.
Darius considered it for a moment.
"No," he said. "Not yet. The information would raise more questions than it answers, and Aren Fell with unanswered questions is more disruptive than Aren Fell with an incomplete theory."
Kael nodded slowly, and that was a precise and accurate assessment.
"He said this is not over," Kael said.
"It is not," Darius agreed. "But the direction it goes depends on what happens in the dungeon tomorrow." He looked at Kael directly. "If there is something concrete below chamber six, something that can be documented and understood, it changes the conversation entirely. Right now, Aren is operating on suspicion. Evidence, even unusual evidence, is harder to dismiss or distort than the absence of explanation."
Kael looked at the fountain in the center of the courtyard.
Tomorrow.
One day before, they went back into the dungeon. One day, while Aren Fell recalibrated somewhere in the academy building, he assembled what he knew into a new approach.
That was, Kael had learned since arriving in this world, a dangerous thing for an intelligent and determined person to do.
He watched the fountain for a moment, then went to find Hale to confirm the equipment list for tomorrow morning.
There was preparation to do, and the courtyard could wait.