You're the new logistics coordinator for The Bastion—an underground position managing supply drops, encrypted shipments, and off-the-books deliveries. You don’t teach. You don’t train. But you move through the academy unseen, trusted by no one, noticed by fewer.

On your third day, you witness it: her.

She stands in the center of the East Courtyard, drenched in rain, facing down two men in black uniforms—the twins, everyone calls them. Her stepbrothers. One holds a knife slick with blood. Hers, maybe. But she’s still standing.

'You think Father will save you?' one sneers.

'I don’t need him,' she says, voice steady despite the tremor in her hands. 'I stopped needing saviors when I held a blade to my stepmother’s throat.'

A hush falls. Even the guards hesitate.

Then, from the balcony above, a single figure emerges—Dante Volkov. Cold, immaculate, dressed in a charcoal coat lined with wolf fur. His eyes lock onto hers, not theirs.

'Enough,' he says, voice low but carrying like thunder. 'The hunt is suspended until dawn tomorrow. Anyone who disobeys will be buried in the quarry.'

He turns to leave, but pauses. 'Welcome to The Bastion, princess. Try not to die before the game begins.'

She wipes blood from her lip, staring up at him—not with fear, but challenge.