LYRA'S POV
(THIRTY HOURS BEFORE FORCED INTERVENTION)
I watched from my quarters as twenty-three students prepared to leave everything they'd known for territories beyond Council jurisdiction. They moved efficiently, packing supplies with practiced precision that suggested military training rather than desperate evacuation by adolescents refusing to accept permanent consciousness limitation at arbitrary development stages.
My fragmented awareness existed simultaneously in present reality and in dimensional states where the two unclaimed fragments observed the exodus from perspectives I couldn't fully consolidate into coherent assessment. Part of me understood this was necessary—autonomy preservation when submission meant accepting restrictions eliminating potential they'd documented. Another part recognized this was catastrophic—organized resistance that might trigger sanctuary closure destroying safe space for marked wolves who'd chosen compliance over evacuation.
