The morning bell woke the entire academy before the sun even cleared the horizon.
The novices were already exhausted.
Lucian woke the entire first-year dormitory in the middle of the night screaming about an earthquake when Lithos fell into the sinkhole.
The instructors spent three hours calming the panicked students down and checking the stone walls for cracks.
They told everyone it was just a natural tremor from the mountains and ordered them back to sleep.
Now the instructors banged their fists on the dormitory doors and ordered hundreds of tired novices out of their beds again.
The cold morning wind hit their faces in the main courtyard.
A heavy, unspoken panic hung over the crowd.
Raziel stood in the back row next to Lucian. He kept his hands hidden inside his dark cloak and watched the wooden podium.
Father Marius climbed the wooden stairs.
The director lacked his usual arrogant posture today. He had no color in his face and sweat coated his forehead.
