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Students scattered to their assigned forges, panic evident in their hurried movements.Thalia made her way to station fourteen, marked with a tarnished copper plate.As she approached, she noted the small pile of iron ore beside each forge — a standard issue for first-year metallurgy projects.But her mind raced back to her late-night experiments, the ones she had conducted when sleep evaded her and the forge room stood empty.

Iron became brittle in extreme cold — that was basic metallurgy.But copper...copper maintained flexibility at lower temperatures.A copper blade would bend before it would break when imbued with frost magic.It wouldn't hold as sharp an edge, but it would survive the test.

Around her, students were already heating their iron, the clang of hammers beginning to fill the chamber.Thalia hesitated, then walked past her assigned iron ore to the storage shelves at the back wall.She ran her fingers over the ore samples, feeling their potential as her mother had taught her to sense herbs.Each metal had its own signature, its own...song, almost.Iron sang of strength but stubbornness.Copper whispered of flexibility.

She selected a chunk of copper ore, feeling the weight of it in her palm.As she turned back toward her forge, she caught Brynn's gaze from across the room.The Southern noble’s eyes narrowed, her perfectly composed features twisting into something ugly for just a moment before she returned her attention to her own work.

Thalia set the copper beside her forge, aware that her choice had drawn curious glances.To her left, a boy with sand-colored hair leaned over.

"That's not iron," he whispered, stating the obvious with a mixture of confusion and concern.

"It's copper," Thalia replied, not looking up as she began arranging her tools.

"But we haven't worked with copper yet."

Thalia shrugged.She didn't elaborate on her choice of metal, focusing instead on the unlit coals in her forge.She knelt, struck flint to steel, and nursed the resulting spark into a small flame that began licking at the coals.

As the fire slowly spread, casting an orange glow across her face, Thalia noticed something unusual — a thin crack in the stone at the right side of her forge.Within the fissure, a strange silvery ore caught the light, reflecting it back with unusual brightness.She wouldn't have noticed it if not for the tingling of the ore's resonance at the edge of her senses.

She leaned closer.She’d never seen this ore before, but it resonated with a strange, unstable energy — like a plucked string vibrating at a discordant note.Something about it felt wrong, dangerous.

The coals were now fully ignited, their heat intensifying.The silvery ore began to gleam more brightly, and Thalia could sense its volatility reaching a critical point.Without hesitation, she lunged for the water bucket at the edge of her station, hefted it with both hands, and dumped its contents over her carefully prepared fire.

A loud hiss filled the air as steam billowed upward.The sudden action drew startled looks from nearby students, their expressions shifting from surprise to confusion to disdain.Thalia stood panting, water dripping from her hands, her forge now a smoking, soggy mess of black coals.

"Greenspire!"Maven's voice cracked across the chamber like a whip.The instructor stalked toward her, fury evident in every step."What in the frozen hells do you think you're doing?"

Thalia swallowed hard, acutely aware of every eye in the room turning toward her."There's something in my forge, Instructor.A silver ore in the crack of the stone —"

"Excuses already?"Maven cut her off, looming over Thalia with her considerable height."If you're trying to fail this evaluation, there are less disruptive ways to do it."

"No, I'm serious."Thalia pointed to the crack."It's some kind of volatile ore.It was reacting to the heat."

Maven's face darkened."Are you suggesting that I assigned you a defective forge, recruit?"

"No, I —" Thalia hesitated, then steeled herself."I think someone put it there deliberately."

A ripple of whispers swept through the nearby students.Maven's single eye narrowed to a dangerous slit.

"A serious accusation."Her voice lowered to a dangerous pitch."Show me this...dangerous ore."

Thalia reached for a small chisel from her tool set, then leaned into the furnace.The coals were still hot, steaming gently.She carefully worked the chisel into the crack, prying out small, silvery fragments that she deposited on a flat piece of slate.

Maven examined the material, her expression unreadable.Then, without warning, she picked up a fragment with her bare fingers.

"Magnesium ore," she stated flatly.Her eye flicked back to Thalia, suspicion clear in her gaze."And how would a first-year from Verdant Port recognize magnesium ore on sight?"

Thalia's throat went dry."I didn't recognize it exactly.I sensed it was volatile.Unstable."

"Sensed?"Maven repeated, skepticism dripping from the word.

"Yes.I can...feel the properties of materials sometimes."Thalia swallowed."The magnesium felt wrong.Dangerous."

Maven studied her for a long, uncomfortable moment."Magnesium burns with an extremely bright white flame when heated sufficiently.It can cause blindness if you look directly at it."Her voice hardened."And it's not part of our standard first-year curriculum.So tell me, Greenspire, how did it end up in your forge?"

The accusation hung in the air between them.Thalia felt a flash of indignation rise in her chest.

"I didn't put it there," she said, meeting Maven's gaze directly despite the tremor in her voice."Why would I sabotage my own evaluation?"