The evaluation chamber was smaller than the Council room. White walls. A single table. Two chairs facing each other. Medical equipment arranged on a side table—devices Marron didn't recognize, presumably for measuring magical influence and tool resonance.
She sat in one chair. The Society's mage, an elderly woman named Callista, sat in the other.
"This won't hurt," Callista said, pulling on thin gloves. "I'm going to check for corruption markers, consciousness drift, tool influence patterns. Standard magical assessment. You'll feel a slight pressure when I examine your connection to the Blade, but nothing painful."
"Have you done this before?" Marron asked. "Assessed Legendary Tool wielders?"
"Not successfully." Callista's voice was dry. "By the time wielders reached assessment, they were usually too corrupted to cooperate. Or too broken to measure accurately. You're my first functional subject."
"Comforting."
