Krystal nudged me lightly.
“Come on,” she said.
“We’ve got supplies to gather.”
About twenty minutes later, for the first time since arriving at the academy, I found myself alone. Truly alone. Not surrounded by my team, not watched by instructors, not moving as part of something larger, but alone with a task, a list, and the quiet weight of what tomorrow would bring pressing steadily against my thoughts.
Krystal had argued, of course. She always did.
“There’s no reason you should go alone,” she had said, arms crossed, her tone firm in that way that usually meant she had already decided she was right.
“There is,” I had replied, adjusting the strap of the bag slung carefully over my shoulder, mindful of my arm, even if it was practically healed by now.
“What you and Lumi have to
