A slow, chaotic spill of students from the assembly hall.
The corridors became a mosaic of finalities: lockers clicking shut for the last time, whispered promises between clasped hands, quiet tears wiped quickly on uniform sleeves. The air thrummed with the low-frequency buzz of a chapter closing.
The four of them moved through it as a unit, a last bastion against the coming tide.
"S-choice: The Spire, obviously," Leo said, the words feeling heavier than he'd expected.
"S-choice: Central Tech Institute," Ramsey declared, already pulling up a holographic schematic only he could see. "They have a resonance forge. A forge."
"S-choice: Academy of Business and Arts," Jens said, adjusting his glasses. "The most efficient path to capital and influence. My C-choice is the same as my S-choice. I don't believe in leaving things to chance."
All eyes turned to Lisa. She walked silently for a few paces, watching the polished floor. "My choices are my own," she said finally, a gentle but firm wall in her voice. "But we meet. After the exam. At the event center. We watch the ranked matches, we share our results. No matter where they place us."
It was a promise to cling to. They all nodded, a silent pact sealed in the hallway's fading light.
As they neared the grand arch of the school's main gate, the city beyond humming with evening energy, Leo felt a knot in his stomach. He stopped.
"Hey, guys… can you give me and Lisa a minute?"
Ramsey's eyebrows shot up. "Oho! Okay, love birds—"
Jens's hand connected with the back of Ramsey's head in a smooth, practiced motion. "We'll be at the transit platform," he said, pulling a spluttering Ramsey away.
Leo reached for Lisa's hand. Her fingers were cool. Without a word, he led her away from the main flow, down a slender walkway lined with softly glowing guide-stones that curved toward the academy's secluded park.
The park was an island of engineered calm, walled by crystal academia on one side and the city's hum on the other. The air was scented with night-blooming luminescent jasmine. The last amber rays of sunset stretched long shadows from the silver-barked sentinel pines. Above, silent flying cars traced gentle arcs across the darkening peach-colored sky.
And there, in the center of a roundabout of whispering grass, was another statue of Aris Thorne. This one was contemplative, seated, looking at a tablet in his hands.
Lisa let out a soft, incredulous laugh. "You see? There's Thorne. Even in the quiet places."
Leo smiled, the tension easing for a moment. "Maybe he just liked parks."
They stopped under the wide canopy of a heritage oak, its bio-luminous leaves beginning to glow with a soft blue light.
His thumb stroked the back of her hand. "You never answered my question, you know."
"What question?" she asked, though her eyes said she knew.
"The proposal. Before all… this." He gestured vaguely, meaning the awakening, the fear, the impending fracture. "Do you not… like this?" He looked down at their joined hands.
Lisa was quiet. She was looking at her shoes, the neat, polished leather. In the twilight glow, she didn't look real—the sharp, intelligent lines of her face softened, her dark eyes pools of conflicted feeling. Leo caught his breath.
"Leo," she said, her voice barely a whisper. "I want you. I think… I love you. But we're still kids. We're about to be thrown into completely different worlds. What if we hold each other back? What if this," she squeezed his hand, "becomes a chain?"
"I don't want to lose you," Leo said, the words raw. "That's all I know. Everything is changing. You're the only thing that doesn't feel like it's spinning away."
She finally looked up, meeting his gaze. Her eyes were shiny. "Let's get to Senior High. Let's survive it. When we meet here, next vacation, I'll give you an answer. I promise. Let's see if the distance… if it changes our hearts." She reached up and touched his cheek. "Okay? Please, Leo."
He pulled her closer then, until they were standing chest-to-chest under the glowing tree.
The world—the statues, the exams, the kingdoms and churches—faded. There was only her, the scent of jasmine, and the frantic beat of his own heart. She stared into his eyes, and he saw it all there: love, yes, but also fear, ambition, and a stubborn, independent fire he could never extinguish.
"Lisa," he breathed, leaning in.
Bzzzt. Bzzzt. Bzzzt.
A harsh, electronic vibration shattered the moment. Leo jerked back, blinking. The spell was broken. On his wrist, his comm-watch glowed with an incoming call. FATHER.
"Ah, fuck," he muttered, the vulgarity sounding especially loud in the sacred quiet. "It's my dad."
The moment was gone, slipping through his fingers like smoke. He swallowed, trying to reclaim some piece of it. "A year, then. I'll wait. And you still won't tell me your S-choice?"
A ghost of her old, teasing smile touched her lips. "No. I'm not."
The walk back to the school gate was silent, but a different kind of silent. Not tense, not angry, but full of words they'd almost said and promises hovering in the air between them.
A sleek, silver rover car hummed at the curb, its door sighing open as Lisa approached. She paused, looked back at him, and for a second, he saw the girl who'd teased him in history class.
"See you, Leo."
"Later, Lisa."
The door sealed shut. The car lifted silently on a cushion of resonance and slid into the aerial stream, disappearing among a hundred other lights.
Leo stood alone at the gate, watching the spot where she'd vanished until the sky was fully dark. The vibration on his wrist returned, insistent. Reality.
He turned his back on the academy for the last time, slipping headphones over his ears. The muffled thump of music filled his skull as he started the long walk through the bustling common-sector streets toward home, toward a waiting father, and toward a future that suddenly felt vast, empty, and terrifyingly quiet.