Moments later,

Author

The last bell of the semester rang out across Obsidian University, slow and clear, echoing through empty corridors and over courtyards already filling with students hauling packs and saying their goodbyes. Carriages waited in long lines at the gates, and the air hummed with the buzz of coming holidays - until the doors to the Dean’s study clicked shut, cutting off all sound.

Dean Thorne sat behind his heavy oak desk, the stack of documents Aria had handed him an hour earlier spread out before him. He had read through them once without pausing, then leaned back in his chair, folded his hands, and sat in perfect...