The Great Banquet Hall of Azurefall Academy had not seen a feast like this in a century.
Usually, the long oak tables were segregated by house or year, filled with the quiet murmur of study and gossip. Tonight, they were a chaotic, boisterous mess of blue and gray. The air was thick with the smell of roasted boar, spiced wine, and the sweat of soldiers who had beaten each other half to death and lived to talk about it.
The rivalry, so sharp and dangerous only hours ago, had dissolved into the camaraderie of survival. There is a specific bond forged when two people try their absolute hardest to break each other and fail. It is the bond of mutual, grudging respect.
At the center of the chaos sat the two captains.
