Not with a dramatic crack of thunder or a shower of sparks. Just a shimmer in the air above the cobblestone path, thin as glass at first, then thickening into light.

A young woman stepped through, and the light bent to recognize her.

Crown & Quill Academy sprawled before her in all its impossible grandeur—towers that twisted like ancient roots reaching for the sky, windows that caught the light from three suns that didn't always agree on where they hung, a courtyard where the fountain was currently a deep, brooding purple.

The sigil above her wrist flickered once, warming against her skin.

No crown. No title. Not yet.