The academy tried to return to normal after everything that had happened, but it did not truly succeed. Classes continued as usual, schedules were followed, and instructors acted like nothing had changed. Students walked through the halls, talking in small groups and going about their day. But beneath all of that, something had shifted. It was not obvious at first, but it was there in the way people spoke, in how they watched, and in how quiet things became when certain topics came up.
The island still hovered above the academy, silent and unchanged. From a distance, it looked like something strange but distant, something people could convince themselves was not important. But that was not true anymore. Everyone knew something had happened there, even if they did not know the details. The silence around it made it worse, because it left too much space for assumptions.
