During the time Riley and Snow were away from the academy, a lot had happened—things people would call important, things that quietly shifted the balance of everything.
Most of it passed them by.
For Riley, though, none of that really mattered back then.
The trial dragged on longer than anyone expected, and what happened in the north… it was strange.
Loud in the moment, but empty once it was over.
But now he was back.
And the academy hadn't waited for him.
That quiet, creeping pressure—the one he knew too well—was still there.
The main scenarios hadn't stopped just because he stepped away.
They moved forward on their own, just like they always did.
As expected.
Most of the big events in Act 4 had already played out without him.
The rest were smaller, more personal—individual threads tied to the main heroines, each one building up in its own way.
There wasn't much left to interfere with directly.
