This chapter isn't really sitting right with me so it could be subject to change.CaleThe day the princesses and the duke’s son actually started school at Arclight Academy was a special kind of stupid and crazy.Rich people on the Upper Planes had way too much time on their hands.There was an atmosphere, though. You could feel it in the air—like a storm that had passed overhead but left the pressure wrong. The Academy had spent an entire day cycling assemblies about recent events, about security enhancements, about confidence in institutional response. No one said the Ghost’s name out loud, but everyone danced around it like the word itself might break something.By the end of it, the interim Headmaster finally brought the three of them forward.Mrs. Dantain stood at the center of the platform, plain-looking, composed, and utterly unbothered. A legend in the Technica department, she handled the moment with the calm authority of someone who had seen systems fail before and survived them.First impressions were predictable.The princesses were pretty—strong mana tended to do that—but that was where the similarity ended.Princess Elain of Lysara stepped forward first.She was shorter than people expected a princess to be—compact, solid, her posture so controlled the stage felt built around her rather than the other way around. She waved like she’d been trained to do it since childhood, but her eyes didn’t drift the way performers’ eyes did.They tracked. They cataloged.Her smile was real enough to sell the moment, but not soft enough to make her harmless.Princess Maeryn of Threniel followed.She was tall, willowy and appeared composed to the bone.She looked like a piece of formal sculpture given permission to breathe. Her wave had discipline, her smile felt calibrated. She was beautiful in a way that discouraged familiarity, and her presence made the space feel (...)