The afternoon brought an unexpected development.
Someone had posted an anonymous message on the main announcement board titled "What the Council Won't Tell You." It was written on academy letterhead—which shouldn't have been accessible to students—and outlined various conspiracy theories about the instructor disappearances, Derek's sponsors, and supposed threats the administration was hiding.
Campus security removed it within twenty minutes, but not before students had read and discussed the contents extensively.
In the second-year common room, debate raged about the message's validity.
"It's obviously fake," argued one student. "Anonymous conspiracy theories on stolen letterhead? Classic disinformation."
"But some of the details it mentioned were specific. Like that Professor Larkin was threatened because he saw financial records linking Derek to a noble house. How would a random student know that?"
