# Chapter 10: The Invisible Line
Hundreds of cadets filled the arrival hall, all of them first-years like herself, all of them arriving on different shuttles from different processing centers across Earth and the colonies. The noise was overwhelming—conversations, announcements, the rumble of luggage carts, the echo of footsteps on hard floors.
And the divisions were immediately, painfully visible.
To the left side of the hall, a formal reception area had been set up with elegant barriers and decorative banners bearing family crests. Academy officials in dress uniforms stood at attention, greeting arriving cadets by name. Families—actual families, parents and siblings who'd traveled to Primori Academy for the occasion—waited with obvious pride. Isabella watched as a tall boy with perfec
