The barracks were quiet when they got back from statements.
The clerk had taken each of them separately — a small room off the administrative corridor, a slate on the table, a list of questions read in a flat, even voice.
Where were you standing?
What did you see?
What did you do?
Was there physical contact?
Did you activate an ability?
Describe the ability.
Xander had answered as clearly as he could. He'd been on the lower path. He'd seen the stone break loose from the terrace lip. He'd seen it falling toward Luna. He'd reached toward the air around it. The stone's path had changed.
The clerk wrote that down.
"Did you touch the stone?"
"No."
"Did you direct force at the stone?"
"No."
"Then how did it change direction?"
"I moved the air around it."
The clerk looked up. "You moved the air."
"Yes."
"With an ability."
"Yes."
"Which ability?"
"Wind."
The clerk wrote something down. "And how did moving the air change the stone's direction?"
Xander was quiet for a moment.
"I don't know."
The clerk didn't press. He wrote that down too, then moved on to the next question. Equipment used. Injuries sustained. Whether Xander had acted under orders or independently.
Xander answered everything. When the clerk finished, he set the stylus down and looked at him.
"That's everything. Thank you, Cadet."
---
Drake was already on his bunk when Xander came in. His boots were off. His left arm rested against his side, the sleeve still torn from the fight. He didn't say anything when Xander sat down. He just looked at him for a moment, then looked away.
Kara was at the small table near the window, picking at the edge of a ration bar she hadn't eaten. Luna was mending a cuff. James was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, knees up, eyes closed.
Nobody said anything for a while.
Then Luna spoke.
"You moved the stone."
"I moved the air."
"The stone changed direction."
"I know."
Kara looked up from her ration bar. "You don't know?"
"I know what happened. I don't know how."
"That's the same thing."
"It isn't."
Kara frowned. "You moved something. The stone moved. What else is there?"
Xander looked at his hands.
"The difference between doing something and understanding what you did."
Kara stared at him for a second, then shook her head and went back to the ration bar.
Luna didn't say anything. She just kept mending.
Drake reached down and tested the bench leg beside his bunk. The wedge was still in place. He nodded once to himself and sat back.
James didn't move.
---
The notice went up that afternoon.
TERRACE ACCESS RESTRICTED — STRUCTURAL REVIEW PENDING
And beneath it, on the same board:
SECTION 7 — SUPERVISED ACCESS REMAINS IN EFFECT
Halden had posted it himself. He didn't say anything when he did. He just pinned the paper to the board and walked away.
Squad 7 read it on their way to the mess hall. Nobody commented.
A maintenance crew was already at the terrace when they passed. Three workers in grey coats, carrying equipment up the slope. One of them was measuring the retaining wall. Another was marking cracks with chalk. They didn't look at Squad 7. They were already working.
Xander watched them for a moment, then kept walking.
---
That evening, Xander sat alone on the low stone step outside the barracks.
The sky was grey. The wind was light. Somewhere across the courtyard, a drill instructor was calling cadence.
He opened his notebook.
The first two lines were still there.
When the variables are separated, the phenomenon is absent.
When the variables interact, something else becomes possible.
He turned the page.
He started writing.
Stone mass: known.
Falling direction: down.
Initial trajectory: vertical.
Gravity: constant.
Surrounding airflow: eastward drift.
Pressure differential: unknown.
Air response: altered.
Result: trajectory shifted east by approximately three feet.
He looked at the list.
Every line was true. Every line was measurable. Every line made sense on its own.
None of them explained the transition.
He drew a line under the list.
He wrote: Cause:
Then he stopped.
He looked at the word for a long moment.
He crossed it out.
He wrote: Interaction:
Closer. Still not right.
He tried another word.
System:
Too big. It implied boundaries he could identify, a map he could draw. He couldn't.
He crossed it out.
He went back to Interaction.
He sat with it.
Behind him, the door opened.
Kara stepped out with a mug in her hand. She looked at him, then at the notebook.
"You've been out here a while."
"I know."
She sat down on the step next to him. Not close. Just on the step.
Neither of them said anything for a moment.
Kara took a drink and looked up at the sky.
"Still stuck on it?"
"Yeah."
She nodded and didn't say anything else.
They sat there for a while, not talking.
Then Kara got up and went back inside.
Xander looked at the word in the notebook one more time.
Interaction.
He closed it and followed her in.