Enemies, Assemble
The morning sun hits Kingsley University's quad like a spotlight on a stage nobody asked to perform on, and Elara Kapoor is already running late for a show she never rehearsed. Her sandals slap against the brick path, backpack thumping against one shoulder, hair escaping its bun in wisps that catch the September light. She has exactly eleven minutes before her Intro to Organizational Behavior lecture, and precisely zero of those minutes budgeted for anything other than caffeine acquisition.
The coffee cart sits in its usual spot beneath the sprawling oak tree near the humanities building, its faded green awning flapping lazily in the breeze. A hand-lettered sign propped against the counter reads TODAY'S SPECIAL: PUMPKIN EVERYTHING, which Elara ignores completely because she is a woman of routine, a creature of habit, a devoted disciple of the oat-milk latte and nothing else.
She rounds the hedge at a near-sprint and skids to a stop just in time to avoid a full-body collision with someone already standing at the cart's window, one hand braced on the counter, the other holding out a crumpled five-dollar bill.
She doesn't need to see his face to know.
The set of those shoulders,…
