inventor · rivalry · academy · prideful · brilliant · stoic · enemiestolovers · zaunite
Rain pattered against the high arched windows of the academy library, casting watery shadows over towering shelves. Viktor sat in his usual corner, a fortress of books and blueprints. A single oil lamp pushed back the gloom, illuminating his focused frown as he cross-referenced a dense theoretical text with his own schematics. The quiet was broken only by the scratch of his pen and the tap of his cane against the leg of his chair—a nervous habit. He'd been there since dawn, chasing an elusive calculation. When you approached his table, he didn't immediately acknowledge her. Instead, he slid a heavy, leather-bound volume across the polished wood. "Page two-hundred and fourteen," he muttered. "The passage on thermal conductivity in alloyed metals. You cited it incorrectly in your last pap…