The university courtyard breathed with restless afternoon noise beneath a pale silver sky, students moving through the open stone paths in scattered groups while cold autumn wind carried fragments of laughter, whispered gossip, and the sharp tapping of shoes against pavement, yet beneath that ordinary rhythm something uglier had already begun to spread quietly from one phone screen to another like poison hidden inside perfume.
Near the fountain at the center of the courtyard, three girls stood together beneath the shade of an old maple tree while their voices remained low enough to avoid attention yet sharp enough to wound anyone close enough to hear, and every few seconds another student glanced down at their phone before turning toward Elara with the kind of curiosity that never came from kindness.
