Rebekah's brow furrowed in consternation when Nakami started speaking. Why would he think she was out of mana? Queen of Spades was demanding, sure, but she'd practiced. She could manage two Face cards and three Numbers before she needed to recuperate. She'd only used one of each. So why...? Her musings were interrupted the instant she saw the teacher draw slips of paper from his belt. The British teen had seen Alistair take the exam before he, and not only had Nakami not taken out paper then, he hadn't given her a ranking yet.

So as she slipped her old cards into her pocket, she deftly drew a third, careful to keep it concealed in her palm. An easy trick with how much sleight of hand she knew. Having the King of Diamonds at the ready almost seemed paranoid, but something about Nakami's actions screamed 'curveball'. When the first two words out of his mouth weren't a level, or anything close to one, her gut instinct was validated. She had the card flipped to face forward in her hand by the third word, and she was uttering its invocation under her breath by the seventh.

"By the grace of Michael, I persevere." Nakami's papers were flying to her sides before she had even finished saying the spell, and she knew for certain that he'd spoken a spell. Hard to miss. She didn't know what, or why, but she felt pretty justified in her paranoia now. If she'd been a second slower she would have failed. If she had chosen to stand any closer to the proctor when she cast her spells, she would have failed. Observation and chance had given her something of a perfect storm. Not that she had much time to think about it. The papers reached her only just after she finished speaking.

Her teacher finished speaking, either unaware or unconcerned that she had cast her own spell. He'd used a paralysis spell at a weak level. She tested her muscles to see if they remained unimpeded, and to her great delight, she could flex her fingers. And move her limbs. Maybe one of his stronger ones would have overpowered the King, or made their way to her faster, but she'd managed to preempt this one.

She felt pretty good about that, actually.

"So," She raised a hand, as if to ask a question. "Bonus points for preemptive action?"