"What you're holding is nothing but trash." Draven's voice cut through the silence of the office like a knife, his cold, emotionless gaze fixed on Amberine. His fingers rested lightly on the edges of her thesis proposal, which lay open on his desk. He didn't look up as he spoke, his eyes skimming over the document in front of him.
Amberine blinked, taken aback. "Wha—Why?" she stammered, her eyes widening as her face flushed. Her hands clenched at her sides, and she tried to hide her surprise.
Draven's gaze flicked up, pinning her in place with its intensity. "This," he said, tapping the page, "is amateur at best. Your attempt to theorize about elemental convergence lacks any solid grounding. You jump straight to conclusions without a single piece of verified data to back it up. You don't even begin to address the foundational aspects of energy balance, nor the limitations that come from merging such opposing forces."
