Night settled deeply over the inner parts of the commercial district.
Streetlights flickered softly, casting pale golden halos over the snow-covered stone roads.
Though a few people still wandered about—couples walking hand in hand, a stray group of students laughing as they stumbled out of a nearby tavern—the usual vibrancy was gone.
The shops and stalls, once packed and alive with voices at this hour, now stood dim or shuttered.
Maybe it was the cold. Maybe it was the looming winter break.
Or maybe the entire city was holding its breath, waiting for something none of them could quite name.
Whatever it was, it made the academy feel different.
Quieter.
More distant.
The snow continued to fall in slow, weightless spirals, piling in soft mounds along the sides of the roads and clinging to windowsills like whispered memories.
It had already covered the rooftops in a fine white sheet, untouched and still.
"I guess I really was gone for months, huh…"
