While the trio—Mia, Verena, and Kaelira—bickered among themselves with laughter, jabs, and exasperated sighs, something passed them.
A shadow.
Fast.
Silent.
Hungry.
It moved like a streak of warped night, the air around it folding with unnatural stillness.
But none of the girls noticed. Too preoccupied with mocking each other's sanity and Cassius's questionable virtue to register the faint tremor in the earth… or the sharp drop in temperature.
That was their first mistake.
The figure didn't stop.
It blitzed past the trio and made a beeline straight toward the tent area—the so-called base of operations. Though most students had already left in search of rifts or to patrol the surroundings, a handful had been stationed there. The idea was simple: protect the rear, provide fallback, and keep the wounded safe.
But ideals don't hold up when reality bites back.
Because the ones left behind… were the broken.
