Felaris Academy, Phavia Kingdom
The golden gates of Felaris Academy creak open for another year—tall, baroque, and needlessly pompous. A small army of carriages lines up outside, one after the other, each bearing returning nobles swaddled in expensive silks and inflated legacies.
Tails flick. Ears twitch.
Students stretch their limbs and fan their furred ears in the late morning sun, exchanging hugs, gossip, and thinly veiled dominance displays. For most, the start of the term is a chance to reassert their rank, to parade their new feathers—literally, in the case of House Aeri.
But then—
The air shifts.
The breeze stills like prey sensing a predator.
A sleek, matte-black carriage veers out of formation and cuts the entire line without hesitation. It glides to a halt with the smoothness of a blade drawing across silk.
Everyone turns.
The door is kicked open from inside, hard enough to slam against the gilded frame, and from its shadow steps a girl.
No—a panther.
