The evening bled crimson across the sky.
Clouds rippled like bruises over the vast dome of the Academy's training field, casting long shadows across the perfectly trimmed lawn.
The grounds were arranged like a war memorial turned playground—training dummies, sparring circles outlined in chalk, racks of wooden weapons gleaming under soft magical lanterns.
On the eastern side, nobles trained with their private tutors, laughter sharp and condescending.
Commoners clustered to the west, trading bruises and camaraderie with equal fervor.
That included Caelum's group though Seraphine felt a little out of place among them.
And Tessa was one of them. The bright yellow eyes occasionally looked in the direction where a man and his maid sat.
And he looked sick.
Of course those two were…
Eclipse and Valeria sat on a stone bench at the edge of it all, the cold biting through the wood of the bench and into Eclipse's bones.
Or maybe that was just the Decay gnawing at his nerves again.
