The scrap of parchment felt like a hot coal pressed into my palm, searing not just my skin but my very understanding of reality. It shouldn’t have existed. In this prehistoric world of cedar-smoke, obsidian blades, and raw, primal magic, the crisp, laser-cut edges of an 8.5x11 digital printout were a heresy against the laws of time. The paper was too white, too smooth, an artificial intruder in a world that smelled of wet earth and ancient stone.I stared at the list of names, my vision blurring as the world around me seemed to tilt. These were my classmates—the people I had sat beside in the sterile, air-conditioned lecture halls of The Royal Academy. I could almost hear the scratch of pens on notebooks and the low hum of the projector. These were people who, by the brutal calendar of this prehistoric era, wouldn't be born for another thousand years.My name sat at the top, stark and official, printed in the familiar, rigid font of the Academy's administration. It looked like a sim
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