"Nnno. We memorize what different kinds of rock look like and how strong they are under compression and tension and shearing, and how heavy they are and stuff. The certification exam is watching a team of werewolves make a big stupid complicated structure with every possible problem and telling them how to fix it, in the right order...but no one ever says, first identify the rocks and then figure out how close to breaking they are and then decide if it's a problem. It's supposed to be obvious.

We practice by imagining different rocks in different situations, with flashcards to make sure we're doing it right. Not real rocks, and not just because that would be a huge waste of time for the wolves. I think the idea is that the training is exhausting, but once we're done, we can stroll along chatting with the foreman and it just works? If there was a procedure to follow, well, people might not follow it, but even if people were perfect, it would be tiring. Mentally. Ten hours of mentally-tiring safety-critical work in a mine is asking for trouble. If it's obvious, it's not tiring.

I don't thinnnk any of that's a Lei secret."

"Mm. I still think there might be a benefit from a very simple procedure; perhaps, on the very first chirp, check if this is a normal job or not. But for now, I'm only going to write, 'the vampire's training was insufficient'. And also, in the contributing factors, 'the vampire's prior experience may have led to complacency' - that's a technical term, not a moral judgement - 'because of the recent shift in the common work for vampires in northern Lei due to the Pes orogeny'. And that's still not the true root cause, but going deeper than that is for Lei to do."