A hundred faces, etched with the same grim defiance as Calyx and Haze, stared up at the Director, their shadows dancing like restless demons on the polished marble floor. Gone were the bright-eyed hopefuls of the day before; these were veterans of the shadows, their smiles replaced by scars, their laughter by a cold, calculating silence.
The admin, a woman with the demeanor of a warrior, stood on a raised platform, her voice echoing through the cavernous hall like a dirge carried on the wind. "You all stand here as the few unafraid of fates far worse than death," she declared, her words resonating with a dark magnetism. "The universe's edge seems to close in every day, and the evil kept in it seeks our destruction. But within you also lies the power to push back, to fight the darkness with the fire in your hearts."
