Chapter 114

Aria's POV

February brought the second institute residency applications.

Thirty-seven this time, for ten slots. The expansion from eight to ten had been Beth's decision, made after careful review of the first residency's dynamics — eight had been the right number for establishing culture, ten was the right number for deepening it. The cohort needed to be large enough that subgroups could form without fracturing the whole.

She'd held firm against pressure to expand further. A coordinator from one of the newer territories had written suggesting that fifteen or twenty would serve more practitioners and demonstrate the institute's ambition. Beth had written back in the measured direct tone...