From one castle to the other was a solid twenty-minute walk, at least, depending on where you were. And then from one of the coloured castles to the Central Castle – the castle in which the dining hall was housed – was fifteen minutes.
That Central Castle stood, as its name indicated, in the centre of the other four, like a magnificent keep, three times as tall as the rest of them, and just as wide. A castle within four castles, with tall stone walls protecting all of it. It would have made for a terrifying fortress to conquer, and yet here it was, being devoted entirely to schooling.
There was much to learn, and much that simply looking would teach him. This was not the place that he had assumed it to be. When they named it an Academy, and told him that he was to be taught there, he'd imagined in his head a sword school of the type he would have dreamed of attending as a child, back in the village, as he discussed such things with his friends.
