The allocation day arrived. The day they stepped into a new future—one they didn't get to choose. One that shaped them or destroyed them but for their family, for their loved ones, for their empire, for the great and history of the future, they willingly stepped in it with brave.
Chloe stood at the back of the crowd, half-hidden by the shoulders in front of her. Her eyes scanned the mass of bodies stretching out before her. Over ten thousand students, maybe more, all crammed into the courtyard. Ten thousand lives that could be cut short in the next minute, or the next hour, or the next breath. The air smelled like sweat and cheap soap and something metallic she didn't want to name. It smelled courage of young blood.
