The announcement shattered the Academy like a stone through stained glass.
In the hours that followed, the Great Hall emptied in waves—officials retreating to emergency consultations, Church representatives storming off to draft formal protests, and Crown observers hurrying to report to their masters. But the chaos did not end with their departure. It spread, seeping into every corridor, every common room, every whispered conversation from the dormitories to the faculty quarters.
I returned to my room under Sir Edric's guard, the weight of a hundred stares pressing against my back. The corridors we passed through were no longer silent; they buzzed with speculation, gossip, and the electric charge of history unfolding. Students pressed against the walls to watch me pass, their eyes wide with a mixture of awe, scandal, and desperate curiosity.
By evening, the Academy had become a furnace of rumour.
