Jasper had spent most of first year learning not to ask the Water Titan for answers.

Now he had to step into seawater while several hundred people watched.

Excellent.

The basin was cold in an entirely ordinary way.

Water soaked his shoes and climbed to his knees as he walked toward the centre marker. Harper and Ava stood together on Brannor, both wearing temporary gold edging and trying not to look terrified on his behalf.

Jasper reached the centre.

The current stopped.

Not slowed.

Stopped.

A whisper spread through the gallery.

Jasper looked down.

Water circled his legs but did not move toward any Order.

Then the pressure arrived.

Far beyond the basin, beyond the old channels and the Academy stone, the Water Titan turned its attention toward Tidefall.

Jasper's breath caught.

Across the cavern, Alaric Thorne went completely still.

He felt something too.

Not the way Jasper did.

An echo, perhaps.

Enough.

Jasper did not reach.

He did not ask for Brannor.

He did not ask for anything.

The Titan's awareness pressed against the moment.

For a heartbeat, Jasper felt impressions rather than images: old stone, seawater moving through carved channels, three warm points gathered on one platform, and the vast age of something for which this ceremony was very small.

The basin current split.

Water moved toward all four channels at once.

The gallery gasped.

Professor Ward stepped closer to the emergency line.

Jasper stayed still.

Deepwater.

To hear is not to rule.

Harper had allowed the Tide to move her.

Ava had allowed herself not to know.

Jasper could do the same.

"I'm not choosing for you," he whispered.

He was not sure whether he meant the ritual, the Titan or himself.

The pressure changed.

Not approval.

Not instruction.

Something closer to attention releasing its grip.

The four-way current collapsed.

For one second the water drifted toward Velmor.

Jasper followed.

Then it curved toward Calyx.

He followed that too.

A nervous laugh escaped him.

Apparently his Choosing had decided to visit everywhere.

The current passed near Nocten.

Then returned to the centre.

Jasper could hear the gallery but could no longer make out individual voices.

The Water Titan remained present.

That was the part that frightened him.

If it wanted to push the ritual, could it?

If Jasper wanted Brannor badly enough, could his own connection change anything?

He did not know.

So he did the only thing first year had taught him to do when he did not know.

Nothing extra.

He stood.

He let the ritual work.

The Titan's attention shifted once more across the basin.

Then Jasper felt something astonishingly clear.

Withdrawal.

Not goodbye.

Not permission.

Simply the sense that the vast presence beyond Tidefall was no longer participating in the moment.

This part was human.

Academy magic.

Old channels.

Choosing Tide.

Jasper's shoulders loosened.

The basin current strengthened.

Left of centre.

Steady.

Brannor.

His breath caught.

He did not lean.

He did not help.

He let it carry him.

Harper began bouncing on her feet.

Ava grabbed her sleeve and failed to stop smiling.

When Jasper reached the platform, Harper hit him first.

Not hard.

Mostly towel.

Then she hugged him.

Ava joined half a second later.

Mia somehow became part of it too.

Jasper laughed so hard he nearly lost his balance.

"You took forever," Harper said.

"I noticed."

Ava's eyes were wet.

She looked furious about that.

The Brannor representative pinned dark gold edging to Jasper's scarf.

He looked down.

Brannor.

Not because the Water Titan had commanded it.

Not because Jasper had forced the Tide.

The Titan had noticed.

Then it had stepped away.

The Academy ritual had finished on its own.

Jasper did not know whether anybody else would understand why that distinction mattered so much.

He did.

Across the basin, Thorne was still watching him.

There were questions on the Headmaster's face.

Jasper had questions too.

For once, neither of them needed to answer immediately.

Harper squeezed Jasper's shoulder.

"Three."

Ava nodded.

"Three."

Jasper looked at the gold edging on all of them.

Room Fourteen had crossed together after all.