They came for Serina first.
Not with blades. With paper.
A forged warrant. Sealed. Legal. Deadly.
"Suspicion of subversion. Withholding royal property."
It arrived at dawn. So did the guards.
She wasn't there.
We had moved her the night before.
"You said this would happen," she told me. "No," I said. "I said it might. You're the one who planned for certainty."
By noon, the papers reached the university.
Whispers turned. Some professors stopped nodding when they saw me. One girl crossed the hall to avoid my eyes.
"They're shifting the ground," I said.
"Then we take the air," Serina replied. "We go higher."