“That maybe you were just trying to keep me safe. Or maybe you were afraid. Or maybe you didn’t know what I’d become and didn’t want to force me into a path I wasn’t ready to walk.” I paused. “Or maybe you were just tired.”
She let out a slow breath. “All of those things.”
I looked at her, really looked.
“I didn’t mean to put that on you,” I said. “But I still felt it.”
“I know,” she said. “And I knew it might come. But knowing something doesn’t make it easier to watch.”
We sat with that.
The whisper of the Academy buzzed somewhere in the background, content for now to wait.
“I was afraid,” she said after a long pause. “Not just for you. Of what it would mean. Of the dragons stirring. Of the Wards changing. Of this place waking. I’ve lived long enough to know that when things start shifting, there’s always a price.”
“And yet,” I said, “you’ve stayed here. With all of it.”
She looked at me. “Because I believe in it. And now… I believe inyou.Even when I’m afraid. I’ve made more mistakes than I care to think about, and I don’t want to shift any of that onto you.”
I swallowed the lump rising in my throat.
“It’s hard, isn’t it? Being chosen by something bigger than yourself.”
“It’s worse when yousay it out loud,” I muttered.
That earned a laugh.
“But yes,” I said. “It’s hard. And it’s not just the title. It’s… the trust. The weight. The wondering if you’re going to mess it up and take everything down with you.”
“You will,” she said.
I blinked.
“You’ll mess things up. We all do. That’s part of it. But everything won’t come tumbling down with you.”
She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees.
“But you’ll also make things right. And grow. And build something better with what’s left behind. That’s the part no one tells you.”
The lights above shimmered a little brighter.
We sat there a while longer. The Academy let us.
Eventually, she reached over and took my hand.
“Nothing’s broken between us,” she said. “But we are different now. And that’s not a bad thing.”
I nodded. “Different isn’t the same as distant.”
“No,” she said. “And different means we’re still growing.”
I leaned back and looked up at the beams above, the strange, beautiful architecture of this room that had waited so long to be seen again.
“Do you think the first student is out there?” I asked.
Her smile returned.
“I think they’re already on their way.”
