The territory felt different on the second year's first morning.
Not the space itself. The Academy's staff had maintained it through the recess with their usual efficiency — furniture in place, training areas cleared, documentation surfaces clean and ready. The physical space was exactly what thirty Westia delegates had left behind thirty days ago.
What was different was the weight of purpose that had settled into it overnight. The kind of weight a room carried when the people inside it knew exactly why they were there.
Fedora was already present when Raze arrived.
