The Grand Hall was truly grand. If all of Mirab's "Thousand Rooms" palace had been on one floor, it would have fit into the hall four times and still left some room. From one end of the hall, Eluvie could barely see the other end. Initially, she doubted that all the Illrum still arriving could fit into it, then she caught sight of the walls moving to make the hall larger, and she understood.

  As instructed, Amu never let her out of his sight. He led her to a secluded corner, positioned the guards around her, and instructed them to send off anyone who approached her. He made a chair appear so that she had something to sit in, but the others stood.

  There was little to entertain herself with, so Eluvie watched the census process. Illrum gathered in groups of ten to fifty. One Illrum in that group collected information - likely names - from those gathered. Then, at intervals, that Illrum met with representatives from other groups to trade information. One Illrum from that group of representatives then met with representatives of the larger groups, until the aggregated information was shared with a final group of ten senior Illrum. When a group was complete, it stopped taking part in the census and its members remained sitting in their group, chattering in their unintelligible language.

  Occasionally, a call would thunder through the hall, requesting a specific person. If the person was present, he would streak through the hall to report at the announcer's desk. Otherwise, the call would repeat at intervals until the person was found.

  Amu sent Maso as the representative from Eluvie's group. Several minutes after his initial report, he left again and returned with six square, wooden tags.

  "Don't lose this," he told Eluvie as he gave her one. "It has your name, number, and group. It also tells people which food to give you, so you won’t eat the wrong thing and die."

  Eluvie hung the tag over her neck. Across from her, Amu did the same with his. He had been resolutely quiet during their wait. And Eluvie, avoiding the feelings churning every time she saw his face, had ignored him. Suddenly, however, she wanted to speak with him.

  "So, how did you do it?" she asked.

  He turned to her, somehow instinctively knowing that she was addressing him.

  "I would have sworn to anyone that you were not an Illrum," Eluvie said. "Your knowledge was suspicious in hindsight, but even Mirab never suspected it."

  "I have excellent control," Amu said, "and extensive experience."

  "And what was even the point?" Eluvie asked. "You could have observed from a distance. It would have prevented any accusations of unfairness."

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  "The scenario required active involvement to steer it at certain points," he said. "It traditionally falls to the watcher to do that. There are fewer complications than involving an additional person."

  He spoke calmly, as if he was discussing the weather, not extended years of torture.

  "Was it easy?" she asked, her tone accusing.

  He finally met her eyes, and his looked like the depths of a well at midnight. "No," he said. "It was the hardest bloody thing I'd ever done."

  “Then, why do it? I don’t believe there weren't other capable watchers. You even knew the scenario beforehand.”

  Anger flitted across his face, but it was gone in an instant. Rather than respond, he stared at a spot over her head. She looked behind her, confirmed that there was nothing there, and returned her gaze to him.

  “Well?” she asked.

  He swallowed and responded in a stilted voice. “The watchers for trials are randomly chosen. When I was chosen, I elected to drop out, but you wouldn’t let me. We argued over it. You said that I could do it. That the opportunity to experience living on a planet is rare. It would teach me a lot, help me with my future trials. And to watch a Rauw trial? Who knew when such an opportunity would arise again? You would not let your mentee pass over such a life-changing experience. You said that if I was such a coward, then I did not deserve my rank. You threatened to end my mentorship.”

  “So, I bullied you into it.”

  “No. If I could be so easily bullied, I wouldn’t have made it this far. Besides, you were only speaking the truth.” He indicated the room around them. “Most people here never have the opportunity to experience any hardships. Guile, intrigue, sadness, pain, those are things we read about in stories. That’s likely why so many people fail their trials. We have little opportunity to practice the skills the trials want us to demonstrate. The opportunity to live through something so hard, it was worth another thousand years of learning.” He swallowed. “But that’s not why I did it. I’m a good watcher. You knew that I would never interfere, not even if I thought you would fail. If you got the wrong watcher, one without that much restraint, not only would he ruin his life, he may very well have ruined yours. I did it because it was an important event for you. And since you were stupid enough to go into a trial with only five days of preparation, the least I could do was make sure that no one ruined it for you.”

  Eluvie gave him a sardonic smile. “So, you were doing a good deed.”

  A part of her told her that she was being unfair to him. She squeezed that part until it fell silent.

  He stared down at his hands and spoke in a small voice. “Do you want me to say that I interfered?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “Honestly, it’s possible that I did. I tried not to, but there were moments… It’s not easy to tell when you have two reasons for doing something, which is the stronger reason. So, truly, my motives were not completely pure. And if I made a mistake, then you should get a second chance.”

  Eluvie gave him an even stare. “You should do whatever your conscience tells you,” she said. “I won’t forgive you just because you sacrifice yourself.”

  They fell into silence.