It was a day like any other.
Or it should have been.
But the matter of the dead student had put everybody on edge. Students walked through hallways with nervous tension. Conversations dropped to whispers when instructors passed. Even the normally confident foreign exchange students from Ashmar and solhaven moved with wary alertness, watching Republic students for signs of hostility or accusation.
The instructors were feeling the heat of trouble like it scalded along their faces. They were busy through and through—emergency meetings with the Senate, coordination with Ashmar's diplomatic representatives, investigation protocols for the death, enhanced security measures, damage control for the exchange program.
Well, some of them were busy.
Head Disciplinary Caldwell was not one of them.
Instead, Caldwell had come to a conclusion in his deliberations on the case of a certain outpost student. Duncan varn. The theft accusation that had been adjourned pending further investigation.
