The wind off the Havel whipped straight across the Griebnitzsee campus, cutting through Lena’s coat like it wasn’t there. She was late. Again. The seminar on Kant’s Third Critique started in seven minutes, and her laptop battery had just blinked red.

The login screen appeared. Pale. Judgment. She typed her full uni Potsdam email— lena.schmidt@uni-potsdam.de —then the password she’d reset three times this semester. The one she’d written inside her notebook cover: Kant&derHavelbär22 .

A group of first-years shuffled past, phones held high like offerings, muttering: “Did you configure the CA certificate?” “No, you have to use mschapv2 .” “I swear it worked in the library yesterday.”