Arwen's POV
The announcement goes up on a Tuesday morning and by Tuesday afternoon the academy is a different place.
Not dramatically. Not all at once. But the energy shifts in the specific way it shifts when something that has been anticipated for a long time suddenly has a date attached to it, and that date is close enough to feel real. Students who passed each other in corridors without particular notice start paying closer attention. Study groups that were about coursework become something more complicated. The dining hall fills with conversations that drop in volume when someone walks too close.
The Harvest Moon Bonding Ceremony. Fourteen days away.
I read the announcement on the board outside the main hall and feel the specific weight of something I have been not-thinking-about b
