She found out about the test three hours before it happened.
Not from Draven, he was too good for that, too practiced in the specific art of making the engineered feel accidental.
She found out from the castle itself which was to say from the way information moved through it which was to say from Aldric.
Not directly from Aldric either.
Aldric was loyal to Kael with the bone-deep commitment of a man who had decided at some point early in his tenure that loyalty was not a professional posture but a personal one and who had structured his entire conduct accordingly.
He would not tell her something Kael hadn't sanctioned him to tell her.
But Aldric had a tell.
She'd identified it on the third day , a specific quality of over-thoroughness in his scheduling briefings when something was
