The murmurs began as soon as Marisse's group was far enough down the path that her voice could no longer carry back to them.
It wasn't loud—just the low, unfiltered kind of noise people made when they thought they were safe behind the cover of a crowd.
Elara caught the first threads from the other side—the cluster of well-dressed students who'd followed Marisse. Their accents carried the clipped edges of court schooling, their tones pitched just enough to be overheard without ever looking directly at Selenne's group.
"…always was strange, the Tower naming her an Archmage early."
"Strange? More like shameless. Seven-star and they bend the rules for her? Please."
"She's not even proper lineage. Some fishing-village nobody with a lucky element."
"That's not 'lucky,' that's politics. You think the Royal Family forgot she refused their commission? And in public?"
