Chapter Twelve

Violet attends Orientation for second-year riders, where Professor Grady introduces Rider Survival Course (RSC), a classified course teaching survival behind enemy lines and interrogation resistance, with surprise evaluations throughout the year. After class, troubled by the prospect of torture training and the weight of her secrets, Violet visits the Archives and approaches scribe Jesinia with a request for historical texts about Basgiath's founding and wards—ostensibly for a debate, but actually seeking information to help protect Aretia and Poromish civilians in the secret war effort.

Five days have passed since the previous chapter. Violet arrives at an Orientation class with her squad—Ridoc, Rhiannon, and Nadine—in a new third-floor amphitheater classroom. They discuss how none of them have been second-years before, and Nadine reveals she sprained her hand on the steps. Violet makes an insensitive joke about her six-day break that leaves her squad concerned, and Rhiannon offers to listen, but Violet, bound by Aetos's threat and fearing for her friends' safety, holds back. Professor Grady, a new instructor and former rider, introduces Rider Survival Course. He reveals eighty-nine second-year riders remain—the smallest class since the First Six—and explains that RSC teaches survival if separated from dragons behind enemy lines. The course culminates in two evaluations: one in a few weeks and another mid-year, both required to continue at Basgiath. Students will face unannounced trials throughout the quadrant involving navigation, survival, and interrogation resistance; failure to pass interrogation is treated as breaking completely. Violet's anxiety spikes at the mention of torture training, compounded by her knowledge of the venin threat and the revolution's plans. Later, at the Archives, Violet approaches Jesinia, a scribe and friend from her former training. Violet asks for old books about Basgiath's founding and the location of its wards, claiming it's for a history debate. She internally acknowledges this is her first real lie—not selectively true, but completely false—and commits herself to finding answers in the Archives to protect civilians, with or without the revolution's direct involvement.