The academy announced my Silver status at breakfast.
Cowards.
They could have waited until lunch. Lunch offered knives.
Breakfast gave students spoons, gossip, and too much time to stare.
The Great Hall had been repaired badly after Gate Eleven. The ceiling crystals shone with new light, but the lower stone still carried faint lines where black bells had cracked through the floor. Green veins of Elara's emergency roots remained under transparent seal near the western stairs. One wall had been covered by a temporary tapestry depicting Astral Zenith's founding heroes.
The tapestry did not reach far enough.
A thin black scar still showed at the bottom.
Good.
Architecture should remember its lies.
I entered with Seraphina on my right and Veylan three paces behind. Officially, Veylan was not escorting me. Officially, she happened to be walking in the same direction with a baton and the expression of a woman willing to educate anyone who confused paperwork with permission.
