The Eighth Thread

The Academy is where power is trained, controlled, and kept in balance. At least, that’s what they’re told. This year, eight students arrive from across the kingdoms—each carrying a different past, a different purpose, and no clear reason why they were chosen together. Some come to prove themselves. Others have spent their lives avoiding the attention that power brings. But whatever expectations they carried don’t last long. Because the longer they remain, the harder it becomes to ignore the pattern in who was selected—and the sense that the Academy is watching more closely than it should. They are meant to train. To cooperate. To represent a fragile peace. But peace is not the same as trust. And whatever brought them here— it did not do so by accident.