For the next few days, the institute didn’t call at all.

Those days slid out of life like warm butter leaving a pan.

Cranes rose like iron saplings, bare frames painted in anti-rust, wrapping the flats with guardrails, ready to rework the steam core underground.

Far off, excavators roared; the sidewalk shivered like a pond under wind.

The uproar braided into a chaotic rhythm and poured into the ears, too real to ignore.

After resigning, Selina spent most days in a daze; each evening, she lay back, eyes on the ceiling, listening to imperial gossip on the radio.

Brat, you said you’d be at the door waiting for me...

It went on like that for a while; the teaching assistant paperwork Bruns promised finally came through.

“Professor!”

Hedi’s thoughts snapped. “What is it? You’ve been changing forever.”

“There’s a button.”

“Won’t close? I’ll help.”

“No, no, you should look forward to my new look!”

“It’s just the academy. No need to go all out—”

Selina burst from the bathroom.

She wore a deep-blue velvet long-sleeved top cut clean as blade-light.

At the cuffs, folded lace braided with gear-shaped ornaments fluttered as she waved, light as mist.

A Peter Pan collar edged in brass framed the graceful line of her neck, a whisper of industry under silk.

Below, a high-waisted black pleated skirt; at the hem, a ring of fine corded ribbon stitched like rivets.

Her long legs showed in glints, sheathed inside snug knee-high boots.

The boots paired leather with brass buckles; tiny pressure valves sat clever in each heel.

“How’s this?”

Selina spread her arms, offering every detail to Hedi’s eyes like petals to sun.

Her glossy black hair was half-up in the new fashion; a slim temple braid echoed the clip crowning her head.

“Looks great. It does make you look like my TA.”

“I want to leave a good impression on your colleagues.”

“With lines like that, you sound like a wife boosting her husband’s reputation.”

“Hehe.”

Bright with childlike joy, Selina gave Hedi a full top-to-toe once-over, like rain admiring the moon.

Hedi slid her foot into her boot, tugged the side zipper; the lining hugged her skin like a warm pelt. The other foot followed.

She straightened. Heel kissed floor with a soft tap.

“Let’s go, or we’ll be late.”

“Mm.”

As usual, Hedi took Selina’s hand and they headed for the academy; near the gates, she let go without warning. Selina, high on excitement, didn’t notice.

Hedi meant to keep talking about the academy; the sight of a busy tide of students cooled her lifted smile into quiet restraint.

Selina finally felt her hand empty. She turned to Hedi, puzzled, and was drowned by a stream of greetings.

“Good morning, Professor Melvina.”

“Professor, thank you for the lectures these days.”

“If you need someone to sort files, you can ask me!”

Panic.

A sharp, flooding panic rose like winter water.

Selina had always longed to enter the academy, to share the daily life of the studious; but at the gate, she stood alone, watching the greetings, watching Hedi answer, lost like a leaf in wind.

“What’s wrong?” Hedi stepped to her. “You look unwell.”

“Just... too excited!”

“Rein it in a little. This is a school.”

“Mm... I know...”

Hedi gave a tender smile and stepped in first, laying out the rules of Hervor Academy of Magic to the trailing Selina. She kept checking if Selina remembered.

Selina promised she did, yet her wary black eyes were a fawn dodging a forest hunter.

“I let go of your hand,” Hedi explained, “because we’re at the academy.”

“I’m not mad at you. I know.”

“But you look unhappy.”

“I’m not.”

Hedi wanted to press on; the words pooled at her lips, but Bruns’s brass-bell voice cut in.

“This the TA you mentioned?” Bruns stroked his beard as he strolled over. “Don’t be timid, young lady!”

Selina nodded stiffly. From Hedi’s introduction, she learned he was the head of the academy; she bent deep, giving a very standard old-style bow.

Surprise flickered across Bruns’s face, then his eyes creased to slits; he burst into a contagious laugh, rolling like thunder.

“Too loud!” Hedi scooped at her ear with her pinky, then told Selina he wasn’t mocking her.

“Got it,” Selina said timidly. “I did it wrong.”

“Nope. Nobody uses that old bow now.”

Hedi shot Bruns a glare, then led Selina into the office; she showed her how to open the little file cabinet, which shelf held lesson plans, what color ink to grade with, and so on.

“Don’t mind the dean’s words; he’s not a bad man.” Hedi saw Selina’s worry and soothed her, voice soft as rain.

“I know.”

“Ever since you came in, it’s been ‘I know, I understand, I know.’”

“Sorry...”

Hedi stopped sorting papers, settled Selina into the wide chair, and said gently, like a lantern in fog, “If something’s wrong, say it.”

“No.”

“Nonsense. I haven’t heard you talk like this for a long time.”

“I’m just not used to it yet.”

“That all?”

Looking down, Selina fussed with the folds of her clothes; replaying her arrival, she felt a keen hollow, like a drum with no skin.

After a long moment, she murmured, “That’s all.”

“Everyone feels off in a new place.”

“Mm.”

“It’s nothing. A few days and you’ll adjust.”

“I know.”

Hedi crouched before her, protective as a hand over a flame, looking up at her pale, timid face.

“It’s really fine.” Seeing Hedi’s sadness, Selina felt her own rise like a tide. “I’ll get used to it.”

“You do have something.”

“I... I’m afraid I’ll trouble you.”

“How could you? You’re here to lighten my load, remember? I teach a lot of classes.”

“Professor.”

Hedi froze for a beat; for the first time, Selina used the title as who she was, not a name.

“At the gate, you felt isolated?”

“No.”

“Then... no one praised your new outfit?” Hedi kept guessing; these students were nobles, caring nothing for new or pretty clothes. “Or me letting go of your hand? Bruns’s laugh?”

“I just feel I don’t fit here. I don’t know anything.”

Hedi let out a breath, like a kettle easing. “You scared me, you know? Almost to death.”

“I’ll make trouble for you.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’m patient.”

“And... the rules you mentioned.”

“The academy’s rules?”

“Yours.”

“I have to keep authority in the academy; I can’t be too affectionate.”

Hedi saw Selina fall silent; she rose, checked the corridor for footsteps, then softly locked the office door, click like a bead dropping.

“Brr— it is a bit cold.”

She loosened her coat belt; the fabric opened like a butterfly half-spreading its wings.

“Pr—Professor?! I’m just not used to the academic air!”

“You only get used to the academy slowly.” Hedi’s fingers moved, stiff at first, undoing her shirt buttons one by one.

Tight lines of her waist and the small, cute navel came into Selina’s sight like moonlight through shutters.

“But your ‘my rules’... can be eased. It’s been days since we— well.”

Selina’s lips parted.

The Professor was bolder than she’d imagined.