“The MedCel Revalida has only one true question,” the Proctor said, its voices now soft, almost gentle. “Will you see the patient no one else will see? Will you heal the wound everyone else calls incurable? Doctrines change. Protocols decay. But a physician who listens to the silence?”
Lirael’s chest tightened. Around her, the ghostly amphitheater filled with the shimmering forms of previous graduates — thousands of celestial physicians who had passed this test. They watched in cold, perfect judgment.
“Candidate Lirael,” intoned the Proctor, a being of seven overlapping faces and no discernible pulse. “Your final scenario. A patient has arrived at the Triage of Last Resort. He presents with the following symptoms: a hollow where his hope should be, a fracture in his causal timeline, and a persistent, low-grade infection of silence. What is your primary action?”