The dining hall that evening had the buzz of the night before a big event — louder than usual, with students from four different academies filling the space with varying comfort, and conversations flowing in multiple directions between tables.
Patricia sat with her study group and watched the room.
"It's strange," she said.
"What is," Emma asked.
"All of this." She gestured at the room. "A week ago we were in crisis mode — Derek, assassins, safety petitions, institutional chaos. And now there are students from three other academies eating dinner in our dining hall and talking about competition brackets, and it feels almost normal."
"Institutions are good at returning to surface normality," David said. "The underlying issues haven't been resolved, but the immediate anxiety has been partially addressed through the assembly and Volmer's response, which created enough stability for the competition to proceed as planned."
"That sounds like you're describing a problem," Marcus said.
