The East Wing dormitories were quieter than I remembered.
No glittering chandeliers, no embroidered carpets, no fawning servants like in the manor. Just cold stone walls and the faint scent of lavender oil.
But I liked it better this way. Silence made it easier to think.
"Oh! You must be Elira!"
A girl with strawberry-blonde hair burst into the room, arms full of books and pouches of dried herbs.
"I'm Elyse. Elyse Clovre. I heard we'd be roommates."
Her smile was bright, her posture relaxed. She didn't try to calculate me with her eyes.
I watched her carefully.
Clovre… the name sounded familiar. A minor noble house. Loyalists. No political power.
In my last life, I don't remember her at all.
"Nice to meet you, Elyse," I said, soft but measured.
"Oh thank goodness, I was so worried you'd be the quiet, scary type. Not that quiet is bad! Just—uh—not talkative scary. You know?"
She flushed, then laughed at herself. I said nothing, but let the corner of my mouth tilt—just enough to keep her comfortable.
She didn't seem dangerous. Not the way Reina was. But people didn't have to be cruel to be useful… or manipulated.
As Elyse unpacked, I walked to the tall window beside my bed.
The courtyard below was bustling. New students. Professors in long robes. Flying familiars swooping between towers.
This place hadn't changed.But I had.
Behind me, Elyse was humming softly as she arranged her tea leaves by type.
"I love it here," she said. "It's a little dusty, but it feels like freedom, doesn't it?"
Freedom.
I hadn't known that word in my last life.
Now, I intended to own it.