Opalyn could not be more thrilled with this amount of information! She was quite worried about working from only one reference point and having no idea how far spaced the levels were from here! It is possible that Fdera is bullshitting here, and this is not an accurate accounting of the levels at all, but even having a lie to work with is far better than she expected!

Reviewing mentally: three triplings to get to Count, four more to Duchess, five more to Grand Duchess.

"To make sure I understand: just keep tripling until I can't anymore, stopping to check my work each time, and then continuing?"

"Nay, I'll want to check the beam myself when you reach Count and again each three triplings thereafter."

"It kinda is important at this point to do exactly what I say and nothing else.  It won't matter as much if everything goes normally, it may matter a lot if it doesn't."

"I say again:  Treble thrice; always pause and glance at your work to check it after each trebling.  End."

Opalyn says ready, Fdera says go.

Opalyn triples the intensity, waits several seconds to make sure everything is just right; triples again, checking even more closely this time, and finally triples again.

"Well done, at least Countess Healthy-Orphan!  You're at the start of an interesting and fun life at the Facility, so long as you don't blow your credits on pretending to be less powerful than you are, in which case it'll be an unpleasant time today and things will only start being fun later!"

"Treble thrice again, which takes you to the high end of Countess.  End."

She takes a deep breath. "Ready."

She waits for the go, and then triples the first time.

She takes a few more deep breaths, checking her work, and triples a second time.

And then, holding her shoulders more tensely, triples a third time.

Still doesn't particularly feel like a strain at all.  Orphan used more magic than this to make fire.

Does Orphan have any memories whatsoever of what magical strain actually feels like?

Nope.  The thought of testing her own limits just doesn't seem to have occurred to Healthy-Orphan at all, any more than she ever engaged in a desperate sprint to see how fast she could run.

Bummer.

"According to your file, you should be able to reach the next tier without any trouble.  Your file is obvious bullshit, and we are in a region where it's not great if stuff just breaks down in a disorderly way."

"We're going to go up by factors of a cube root of three," it having been earlier verified by him that Opalyn knew how to do this with her beam, "and you stop-as-in-freeze and let me know and don't keep going up, if it starts to be a little bit of a strain.  We'll continue going from there, after that, but it's important that I know."

"Increase by cube root of three nine times, glance-checking after each increase, end."

"I should note that I am beginning to feel it already, though it does seem like I can go up at least a few more cube-root-of-threes and probably even a full tripling from here. If that is okay, then Ready."

"Revised.  Cube-root-of-three three times, pausing for a full breath after each.  End."

After the ready/go, Opalyn does each of the next three cube-root-of-three increases, slowly, breathing and checking after each.

"I am not entirely sure what 'strain' is supposed to feel like but plausibly this is it? It is starting to feel like an actual effort. What should I be looking for?"

"A sense that you've taken on an unsustainable amount of effort, like you are lifting an overly heavy weight and might be about to drop it.  If that happens, drop back by a cube-root-of-three."

"Three cube-root-of-three-increases.  Pause for two breaths after each.  The moment you feel like your spellcasting is unsustainable, drop back by a cube-root-of-three.  Or if your instincts say you can't easily reach the next level, stop and tell me so instead of trying.  End."

Opalyn squares her shoulders, does the ready/go, and proceeds.

After the first increase, she pauses for two breaths, and then on the attempt at the second increase, she flickers upward a couple of times and then drops back to where she was.

She breathes a few more times and then says, "Couldn't quite get there."

"Duchess, if I may be frank here, you've only been a sorceress for minutes, you didn't even know what sorcery was, you have completely utterly absolutely zero chance of just guessing what it looks like to be under a lot of magical strain to somebody who's carefully examined hundreds of people who tried to fake it, and we're low on time.  Do we have to do this?"

"If there is one thing you have made clear to me over and over, it's that I'm supposed to do exactly as I'm told. You said to stop if it started to feel hard or if my instincts told me I was at the edge. It started to feel hard a while ago, it felt even harder just now, and my instincts are telling me to stop. Do you want me to try to push through, in direct opposition to your orders?"

Opalyn sounds genuinely offended.

"If you had ever actually seen what somebody looks like when they're nearing their first limit, you'd realize exactly how little chance you had of fooling me this way.  It's kind of charming, actually, like a ten-year-old with frosting smeared on their lips saying they had no idea what happened to that cake.  I'm not going to mark you down for it yet, any more than I would a ten-year-old sent to the Farm who tried the same thing, but seriously, you need to stop."

"Finish the previous set of increases, so two more, and then do three more cube-root-of-three increases after that.  Instructions same as before if you actually do feel the strain.  End."

Opalyn glares at Fdera, grits her teeth, and clenches her fists. She squeezes her eyes shut tight and spits, "Ready."

After he says "Go," she completes two more of the small increases, slows and completes one more small increase, and then stops.

"Happy now?"

"Nope.  Keep going and complete the set.  End."

"You're so infuriating! Raaaaaarrggggggh! Ready!"

After the go, Opalyn goes up two more small increases.

"RRrrrrrgh!  It's so hard... to say... words... but I can still... say... that you should... do another set of three cube-root increases!  Let me know... if you actually do... feel the strain!  END!"

Opalyn starts screaming continuously, does not say ready, and goes up two cube-root increases at the same time, flashes one cube-root increase hotter than that, drops back down, and continues screaming.