Then Professor Sylvia left the ground after she spoke to her class.
The morning sun cast long shadows across Ground Zero, students slowly dispersing after the announcement. Their murmurs lingered behind her like fading echoes.
But something tugged at her chest.
A faint unease.
Just as she reached the podium near the teacher's office, hurried footsteps slapped against the stone behind her.
"Madam Sylvia… Madam Sylvia!"
The voice was breathless, panicked.
Sylvia turned sharply.
A female worker—one of the academy's maintenance staff—came rushing toward her, her face pale, hair half undone, hands trembling as if she'd run the entire way.
"What happened?" Sylvia asked immediately.
"There's—there's been someone in the ice chamber," the woman said, gulping for air. "I could tell… just one is there."
Sylvia's pupils shrank.
"…What?"
Her mind moved faster than her body.
