Choosing Tide rehearsal contained no tide.

That was deliberate.

The first-years walked through the empty basin while staff explained where to enter, where families would sit, what each bell meant and where students should wait after reaching an Order platform.

Harper considered the whole thing boring.

She also asked more questions than anybody else.

Professor Crowe noticed.

"Rehearsal is useful?"

"No."

"Yet you have asked about every step."

"I like being prepared to ignore instructions correctly."

Ava closed her eyes.

The basin looked different without water.

Carved channels crossed the floor from the central marker toward four Order platforms. A brass emergency line ran beneath one edge. Staff demonstrated how pulling it would close the Academy-controlled sea gate and stop the ceremony.

Harper raised her hand. "So you can stop the Tide."

"The ceremony," Crowe corrected. "The ocean does not belong to our switch."

Jasper liked that distinction.

Students practised entering one at a time.

Walk to the centre.

Stop.

Wait for the signal.

Follow the marked exit after placement.

Do not run.

Harper ran.

She was made to repeat the route.

"Targeted," she muttered.

Ava said, "Entirely self-created."

The rehearsal also showed them the support rooms.

Healers had towels and warming blankets ready.

Staff had spare grey uniform pieces.

Order edging had been sorted in labelled trays.

Ava stared at the trays.

"Do they know how many of each they need?"

"No," the staff member said.

"So what if the numbers are uneven?"

"We keep extras."

Ava seemed deeply relieved by inventory.

Families would arrive before breakfast on Choosing morning and sit in the gallery.

Students would eat first.

Then change into grey ceremonial uniform.

No Order colours until after placement.

Jasper touched the plain scarf folded over his arm.

For most of the year, Orders had been something older students wore.

Soon the grey would be temporary.

At the centre of the dry basin, Jasper looked toward Brannor's platform.

Then Velmor.

Calyx.

Nocten.

He felt nothing from the Water Titan.

Good.

Professor Crowe called the next student's name.

Jasper stepped aside.

The rehearsal continued.

By the end, Harper had stopped calling it pointless.

She did not admit this.

Nobody asked.