The Hollow Ring would answer not to the court, but to the people.
And the people noticed.
Shops reopened. Crime dropped. Former dissenters started volunteering in city programs. For the first time in years, mothers walked their children past the palace walls without fear.
Sophia didn’t sit on the council’s dais.
She stood beside it.
And every step she took was deliberate.
---
One morning, just before first light, she walked through the lower districts with Remi. No guards. No entourage. Just her boots echoing softly on the cobbled road.
They stopped at an empty lot just off Solace Street.
“This is where it’ll be,” she said, gazing at the open land. “The academy.”
Remi raised an eyebrow. “Here? In the center of the old militia barracks?”
“Yes,” she replied, a faint smile forming.
