"First impressions matter. Which is why mine is going to be terrible on purpose."
***
Our carriage crested the final hill.
The academy sprawled before us in impossible grandeur. A monument to concentrated power and architectural excess that made even the Leone estate's faded majesty seem quaint by comparison.
The wheels of our modest conveyance groaned as they rolled over worn cobblestones. Each rotation carried us closer to what the original novel had described as "the crucible where Aethelgard's future was forged."
Four towers pierced the sky like spears thrust into the heavens. Each one a monument to its respective House. Each one a declaration of dominance written in stone and magic.
