Chapter 31: The Unlikely Alliance
She wasn't alone in this. Word of her standoff in the garden had traveled through the dorms, sparking a dormant fire among the students. That evening, a group she barely knew—the ones who had saluted in the auditorium—arrived at her door, their faces tight with nervous anticipation. They brought documents, old photos, and personal journals they had scavenged from their own families' attics—proof that their parents had also been victims of the board’s manipulation.
The alliance was fragile, built on a foundation of shared anger and mutual fear, but it was incredibly powerful. They had the numbers, the connections, and more importantly, they had the irrefutable truth. They began to plan under the dim light of her desk lamp, the shadows casting long, jagged silhouettes as they mapped out the deep corruption of the academy board. They weren't just students anymore; they were a collective force of history being rewritten.
