The afterparty had ended, but the echoes of celebration still lingered in the cool night air. Laughter, music, and the drunken cheers of students faded behind me as I walked the cobbled path back toward the dorms, a solitary figure moving through the long shadows cast by the Academy's towers. The stars overhead blinked faintly, cold and distant, utterly uninterested in the dramas of humans and monsters alike. My new student council coat hung loose on my shoulders, the collar flipped up to guard against the midnight chill. The silver badge on my chest, a symbol of my new position, glinted in the moonlight—an ironic testament to a victory that felt hollow.
Victory was quiet.
Too quiet.
Just as I rounded the dormitory garden wall, a silhouette broke from the shadows, a familiar form waiting near the stone steps. I didn't need to see her face to know who it was. The air itself seemed to grow heavy with her presence, thick with unspoken history and a desperate, clinging hope.
