To the Void with it. I give Hebe back my full attention. After talking to her some more I learned she knows a surprising amount about spices. My nose instinctively wrinkles for a moment.
She suddenly looks ahead at one approaching guard. ''It's time.''
Before I can ask her to eborate, seven additional guards begin to surround us.
We are herded like sheep into one cluster of scared children. I look up. Acrona's stare has no pity for us. Our group numbers a total of twenty-five, thirteen of which are girls.
''Boys over there,'' a heavyset Crimson Guard member in his forties points to his left. ''Girls move here.'' He points to the other side. After a little commotion and ''gentle'' guidance from the other seven spear-holding brutes, we are divided. He then tells us to wait.
About twenty paces away, a man in blue says something to the boys and then takes them away.
A young woman smashes her hands together with loud cpping that grabs all of our attention. Just when I thought she would start addressing us an elderly woman, appearing out of nowhere, stands next to her and starts talking instead. The twelve girls around me are so quiet I can hear their lightly-quivering breaths.
''My name is Leto Vitellia. I'm one of the caretakers of this pce.'' Like so many people I've seen at the Academy, she also wears a smooth dark-blue woolen surcoat over her white tunic. In her right hand she holds a simple iron ntern with a single shining, adult-fist-sized Cobalt, firmly fixed inside the casing. ''Over the next weeks and months we will get to know each other well enough. For now, all you need to know is this: respect others of my ilk and me so that your stay here is mbswool-smooth. Now follow me and try not to get lost.''
A voidload of staircases and a plethora of corridors combined to form a byrinth of twists and turns that led us to the main cssrooms we need to memorize. Carvings of signs and arrows on the walls reduce the possibility of getting lost—I mean...they help a little bit but during the near future I intend to follow the other students while at the same time pretending to know this pce like I know the roof of my home.
After being shown where the cssrooms are, and a few other main spots of interest like the communal showering cavern, The Hall, and the trine, we are nearing the dormitory. All of us are told that within a few weeks, we will quickly learn where the other facilities and amenities are—especially outside ones.
''Obviously, we had to divide you into male and female quarters. You are only to mix during csses,'' Vitellia tells us. She keeps talking about this pce with great reverence. I ignore her words about the history of the Academy since I've read most of that stuff.
I think about everything I've seen so far and wonder why so many rge chambers and even some smaller rooms in this pce have a dome-like ceiling. Most cssrooms shown to us seemed unprepared for csses and were in complete darkness—the light of the Caretaker Vitellia's crystal ntern wasn't nearly enough for me to see deeper inside. She mostly focused on showing us the entry door and the numbers carved on them. The tour is unimpressive and somehow seems to have made me feel more disoriented. I'm not a mole.
