Aisha arrived first, hair still damp, eyes blazing with purpose. “We can’t ignore what’s out there,” she said. Her voice had the easy certainty of someone who moved with tides. Musa followed, quieter than usual, fingers ghosting an invisible melody that hummed with the tension in the castle walls. Terra’s laugh cut through them—too bright—then went thin. “It’s not only in the Hollow,” she said. “It’s back in the halls, in the teachers’ whispers. Someone’s rewriting what happened.”