POV: Mina (Age 18 - Midnight)
The ceremonial grounds were older than the Academy itself.
I knew that now, after months of research in the archives. The stone circle at the center, the pathways radiating outward like spokes, the raised platform where the headmaster stood—all of it had been Oracle construction originally, built a thousand years ago when my bloodline had been the protectors rather than the hunted.
The Academy had simply built on top of it. Used it. Claimed it as their own while forgetting what it had been.
But the stones remembered.
I felt them humming as I walked the torch-lit pathway toward the ceremonial circle, felt the ancient magic in the foundation responding to my presence the way it had been responding for months. The Awakening Stone was here somewhere, at the c
