The next day,

Author

The academy had fallen quiet long after the last bell rang. The corridors were empty, save for the faint echo of Aria’s boots on stone. She had stepped away from the others - from Malphas grading papers by the fire, from the children trading stories in the common room - needing a few minutes alone, needing to breathe in the silence that always settled deepest in the oldest parts of the building.

She had meant only to walk the west galleries, to clear her head before the week’s duties began. But as she turned a corner she had never taken before, she found a narrow archway...