Until the lecture-hall door opened, Elara's first morning of formal classes had contained nothing she had not expected.
The route from the Magicians' residence had been comparatively simple. Her Academy card carried the necessary permissions, the internal passages had ceased rearranging themselves for newly placed students, and she reached the first-year lecture wing without being redirected across half the sector.
What required more adjustment was the absence of people who had once belonged naturally to the same morning.
Cedric had departed much earlier for the western grounds, where the Martial curriculum gathered most of his classes. Selphine had joined Elara outside the lecture wing, and several familiar faces from Block 7-A appeared wherever magical courses brought their schedules together, but the rest had already been scattered into other buildings.
There was nothing remarkable about that.
