Elsewhere in the academy...
High above the clouds, where the wind screamed endlessly against floating stone, the Floating Academy drifted in silent majesty.
At its highest spire lay the Council Chamber.
A place few students would ever see, if at all.
A place where decisions were made that could alter the fate of generations of students.
The chamber was vast, circular, and carved directly into a single slab of astral marble, its surface veined with faintly glowing lines of mana that pulsed like a slow, patient heartbeat. Tiered seating rose in concentric arcs, with each level being higher than the last, reflecting hierarchy as much as architecture.
At the lowest ring sat the first-year professors.
Above them, second and third.
And higher still, the fourth and fifth-year professors—men and women whose mere presence caused the ambient mana to warp subtly around them, like heat haze over stone.
This was no coincidence.
