Dane did not argue. He had heard similar things from older staff over the years, always said the same way, as if saying it too loudly would invite bad luck.
"It doesn't always behave like a tool," Lysa added, softer.
In the security deck, Rook watched a feed where fog density shifted in a way that didn't match the wind model.
It wasn't enough to trigger an alarm. Fog did strange things in mana-rich space. Still, he tagged it. A small note. A time stamp. He trusted the habit of marking things that felt slightly wrong.
Redundancy was not just technology. It was attention.
The morning continued. Teachers sipped coffee. Security watched live combat feeds. Medical staff stayed ready. The whole system ran like a machine, not a fragile one, but a machine built with patience and experience.
And somewhere in that machine, something small moved.
