Riven's POV
Someone shook me awake before the sun had fully cleared the ridge, my shoulder still throbbing from the wound I had barely let the healers touch overnight. My whole body ached in places I did not know could hurt, the aftermath of a night that had cost all of us far more than sleep.
"It is time," the guard said. "The courtyard. Your father is waiting."
I sat up slowly, every muscle protesting, smoke still hanging faint in the air from the fires still burning somewhere across the academy grounds. The war had not stopped for my personal problems. It had simply paused long enough to let tradition run its course first, as if honor still mattered in the middle of everything falling apart around us.
I walked to the courtyard alone, my burned sleeves rolled back, my knuckles still
