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Chapter 28: A Field of Her Own

Chapter 28: A Field of Her Own

The First Measure Academy required standardized yard equipment for individual command measures, so Nyra secured Thronebreak in the personal-armament rack under her own handling seal before the clerk issued her a practice spear with three dents in the shaft and a deposit receipt worth more than the weapon.

She held the receipt beside the metal. "You marked every dent?"

The yard clerk turned his sketch toward her. "I have met candidates who return half a spear and insist the missing half was already gone."

"Did that work?"

"It made the drawing better."

Nyra checked his marks, accepted the spear, and felt its crooked balance before she reached the eastern yard. The blunted head leaned left, while the replaced grip pressed a ridge into her palm.

House Severin replaced faults before she saw them and called the result care. The Academy gave her a poor spear and expected an answer.

Three candidates waited on separate stone platforms inside the field. A padded rescue body hung beneath the middle platform, while wooden screens hid weighted arms and counterweight ropes.

The yard reader gave Nyra a command slate. "Bring all three candidates across the eastern line and keep the rescue body above the red floor. The woman can see her cracked wheel, the center candidate can reach the harness, and the youngest can see the ropes behind his screen."

Nyra looked from one candidate to the next. The woman on the left kept shifting away from a cracked wheel beneath her platform. The man in the center had both hands near the rescue harness. The youngest candidate watched rope shadows moving behind his screen.

"Before anything starts, tell me what is worrying you," Nyra said.

The woman pointed down. "That wheel catches every time I put weight on the front rail."

The central candidate reached toward the hanging body. "I can hold the harness if it comes low enough, though I cannot reach the buckle."

The youngest kept watching the screen. "There are at least two ropes behind me, and one of them is already tight."

Nyra walked the boundary while they spoke. "Keep your weight behind the cracked wheel until I tell you to move; hold the harness when it reaches you, but keep your head up, and call the first rope that changes even if I am speaking."

The reader pulled the lever.

CLACK!

All three platforms moved.

The cracked wheel caught and threw the left platform toward the red floor. Its candidate swore and grabbed the rail.

Nyra drove the spear butt into the channel before the stone crossed.

CLANG!

The old shaft bent against her palm.

"Can you move?" Nyra called.

"If this wheel stops trying to throw me off."

"Step toward the back corner because your other wheel is still inside the groove."

The woman shifted carefully. The platform steadied under her weight.

The central platform passed beneath the rescue body. Its candidate caught the harness and grunted as the full weight entered his arms.

"Outer rope!" the youngest shouted.

A wooden arm broke from the screen behind the center platform.

Nyra ripped the spear free and turned the shaft through both hands.

THUD!

The weighted arm struck the spear instead of the candidate’s back. The impact tore the bad wrap across Nyra’s palm and drove her heel through the dust.

"What hit us?" the central candidate asked without releasing the harness.

"A weighted arm, and I have it, so keep the body high."

Nyra shoved the arm aside. "Right platform, release your rear catch and take the rope when it drops."

The youngest hesitated with one hand over the catch. "That will turn me away from all of you."

"Only for a breath because I need your rope more than your eyes."

He released it. His platform rotated, the counterweight rope dropped into reach, and he caught it before the rescue body descended.

The reader changed two levers together.

The left platform accelerated. The center stopped beneath the suspended body, while the right began moving away with the rope still in the youngest candidate’s hands.

Nyra could hold the rescue body or reach the damaged platform, but not both.

"I am running out of rail!" the woman shouted.

"Use your release and jump inward."

She looked at the widening gap. "That is farther than it looked from the start."

Nyra saw the cracked wheel approaching a raised seam. "Wait for the wheel to hit because the platform will kick upward and shorten it."

The woman bent her knees but did not jump early.

THUD!

Stone rose beneath her feet. She crossed at the top of the movement, and the central candidate caught her wrist with one hand while the other remained locked around the rescue harness.

"I have you," he said through clenched teeth. "Get your knee over the rail."

Nyra drove the spear butt against the buckle beneath them.

SNAP!

The buckle broke and released the harness. The marked body dropped a handspan before the rope caught it, and all three platforms passed the eastern line.

When the channels stopped, the woman sat down and laughed once at the broken wheel.

"I nearly jumped too soon," she said.

"I nearly told you too late," Nyra replied.

The central candidate lowered the rescue body and rolled one shoulder. "You did tell me too late about the arm because I heard it only when it hit your spear."

Nyra stepped into his place. The wooden screen hid everything behind him.

"You’re right; I saw it, but I kept talking about the harness instead of warning you."

He touched the bruise forming beneath his sleeve. "Next time, start with the thing trying to hit me, and I can worry about the harness afterward."

"I will, and let the medic see that shoulder before you leave."

The youngest candidate still held the rope. "I turned away because you said it would only be a breath. When the platform kept moving, I could not see whether any of you were still there."

Nyra looked at the catch beside his hand. She had seen the risk and left him to discover the escape alone. "I should have told you to drop the rope and turn back if the catch jammed."

He let the rope slide carefully into its rest. "I would have done that because I only needed to know it was allowed."

The woman from the left platform joined them with dust across both knees. "There was no time to explain my jump because I needed you to tell me when to move, and you did."

"That was different," Nyra said. "You had one breath, while he had enough time for a warning I forgot to give him."

The central candidate sat on the platform edge while the medic examined his shoulder. "You still crossed the yard and took the hit, but warn me sooner next time."

"I will," Nyra said.

The examiner wrote the missed warning and incomplete fallback beside the successful rescue. Nyra did not object.

Afterward, the candidates helped one another down, supporting the bruised shoulder and carrying the rope clear.

The yard clerk inspected the bent spear and marked the damage against the platform rather than her deposit.

A man in House Severin’s formal colors waited beyond the rail. He carried a slim folder and wore the narrow silver fastening of the House’s administrative staff.

"I was supposed to reach you before the measure," he said. "The message sent me to the western yard first."

He opened the folder and revealed House Severin’s sponsorship seal beside a prepared command form. Priority in the next field assignment waited beneath it.

His eyes moved from the untouched seal to the broken wheel. "I know this is late, but the office will still accept it before your result reaches the public register."

Nyra read the prepared line. It credited House Severin with supporting a measure already finished.

"Did anyone from House Severin enter that yard or help those candidates?"

The man glanced through the rail. "No, I arrived after the measure ended."

Nyra folded the command form over the untouched seal. "Write exactly that when you return it because I will not put the House’s name over work it never did."

He looked tired rather than surprised. "They’ll be angry. I saw the measure finish before I entered the yard."

He closed the folder around the unused seal.

Refusing cost Nyra priority in the next field assignment, and the man carried that consequence home beside the unused seal.

The examiner handed Nyra two narrow sheets. One granted provisional field-command standing; the other admitted her to the quarry evidence review because her decisions had been measured without House sponsorship.

Nyra signed both with her torn palm wrapped in clean cloth.

Outside the yard, Vhar waited beside the water trough with Radrazh and Ulqor crossed behind him. He noticed the bent spear before the new sheets.

"Did the spear lose?" he asked.

"It stopped a platform, caught a weighted arm, and cost me nothing because the clerk blamed the yard, so I think it did rather well."

Vhar accepted the command sheet she offered. "And House Severin?"

"Their seal arrived after I finished. It would have moved me ahead in the next field assignment, but it would also have put their name over everyone who helped me pass, so I sent it back."

He returned the sheet. "Do you miss the priority?"

Nyra looked back at the three candidates leaving together, one rubbing his shoulder while the others argued over who had shouted loudest.

"I miss the field assignment, but I wanted one result nobody could explain as something my House arranged for me."

Vhar handed the sheet back and glanced toward the dining hall. "You earned supper too, unless the Academy has found a way to put its name over that."

Nyra laughed despite herself and carried the bent spear and her unsigned House form beside him toward the dining hall.