"Super excellent!  That trick gets almost every apprentice wizard the first time they have to follow instructions like that, because it sounds easy to start but they don't visualize all the way to the end how hard it might be to keep going!  If somebody does manage to do it right, we give them trickier instructions until they either try and fail, or say that they're not sure they can."

"Cancel previous instructions.  Immediately count to ten!"

Opalyn is thrilled by this faceless stranger's praise, even though hasn't done all that much to earn her respect!

"One, two, three, four, fi--"

"Immediately shut up and slap yourself in the face!"

Opalyn shuts up and slaps herself in the face. It's clearly a slap but it's not the hardest possible slap; he didn't ask for that and she's not going to overdo it without even being asked.

This is, at this point, still amusing, though she can see 'unamusing' from here and hopes they won't continue to move in that direction.

"Very good!  Thank you for following that instruction right away!  Sometimes when I shout something like that, even if it sounds like you don't want to do it for some reason, it means you're about to die if you don't.  It's good that we didn't need to have a conversation about that part!"

"Put your body into whatever resting position you like.  It's now back under your control."

Opalyn doesn't budge, except to ask:

"You didn't say 'end' or 'go' or 'immediately' so possibly this is a trick to see if I'm really paying attention, but I think you probably just straightforwardly meant it. Clarify?"

"End.  It was a trick!  Keep on paying attention!  Well done!  Go."

"Saying out loud that I now believe you added 'end' to the previous instruction that I could relax and get out of command mode, and 'go' to make it official."

"I didn't actually say 'ready' before you said 'go' so technically I am still in command mode and asking a clarifying question and will only enact the order if you confirm that I have understood and then again say 'go.'"

"Yep, it can also be important to notice if I don't seem to be obeying the rules because that will usually indicate that you've misunderstood something yourself!  In this case, I haven't said what happens if I say 'go' and you haven't said 'ready'.  Mostly that should never happen unless I say 'go immediately' and then you should execute whatever instructions are in the queue."

"If you think something is about to go wrong, including that it looks like I'm not following the rules somehow, say 'exception'.  Now relax, end, go."

Opalyn has somewhat lost track of what is actually going on here with all the extra language, but thinks the previous rules have not actually changed, so going straight from 'end' to 'go' is still weird and wrong.

"Exception?"

"Yep!"

"Cancel all waiting instructions.  Immediately put your body into whatever position is comfortable; you're back in control of it."

Opalyn just glares at him but otherwise doesn't budge.

"It's real this time.  End."

"Ready." Opalyn is tired of this part and hopes he just says 'Go' but whatever. Fucking power-happy preschool teacher.

"Go."

"Immediate is always real.  We never fuck around with it or do anything tricky with it."

"Oh! I actually missed that you said 'immediately'! That one really was my fault."

"I realize now that I missed it because 'immediately' was not the first word of the instruction, so I had a pending half-instruction when you said 'immediately.' I will make a note to look for 'immediately' anywhere within an instruction and not just at the beginning."

Opalyn relaxes.

"When I talk to you, I'll try to remember to loudly emphasize the word quote immediately unquote so that it'll be easier to notice.  Remember that the next person you work with won't know that unless you tell them!"

"Despite that last part, you still did more than well enough at following instructions!  Are you ready for your real lightline charging now?"

Opalyn is actually feeling somewhat wrung out from the intense focus it took to follow Fdera's instructions perfectly, and had hoped for more than a five second break! But this is prison and and also they want her in a wrung out state, so she doesn't think asking for a longer break is particularly going to get her anywhere.

"Ready enough!"

"Thaaaat's not really the same as 'ready'.  Is there more you want to say?"

"When you told me I could relax I thought I'd get a real break from the intense focus but it seems not. You said before you don't have 'time' for certain things, like actually teaching wizardry, and I inferred from that that you're somehow in a hurry or understaffed or something, and I just kind of expect you wouldn't be interested in giving me a real break."

"You're right, we don't really have time, but you can have three-quarters of a minute to close your eyes and breathe at least."

Why don't they have time? What's the constraint in the system? Opalyn files away her question.

She closes her eyes and breathes. It helps.

When time's up, he speaks again.

"Are you ready for the real lightline charging?  It's your first time so we're doing the simplest and easiest kind of charging, and trust me, people do this successfully who are much, much, much worse than you at following instructions."

"I do feel ready now, yes!"

As ready as she can be, anyway. She's quite grateful to have been invited to Iilasir's charging, so she has any concept of what's about to happen here, at least as seen from the outside.

"Back in instruction-following mode, with the rules for 'end', 'ready', 'go', and 'immediate'."

"Next, I'm going to raise my wand to point at you, and then unlock your inhibitor collar.  Don't use any sorcery at all, until further instructed, and then do only what I tell you.  End."