The air was crisp with the bite of the impending winter as students bustled through the courtyards of the Driochta Academy. Callum sniffled and briefly pulled his handkerchief to wipe his nose. He looked down at his coat, brown leather handsewn by his mother on his 16th birthday, and smiled. He ran a hand through his  hair and sighed. Winter didn’t get this cold in the south, not even after the Attrition. His father told him stories passed down from his great-grandfather about how it “never so much as snowed” in Tarrintown. The weather was the same on every day of every year. Even in father’s retelling, Callum could tell that his great-grandfather yearned for simpler times. The predictable weather patterns made farming more of a task and less of an art. Callum stopped suddenly as he entered the main square of the campus, his attention drawn to the enormous tower in front of him. It had to be nearly a mile high, made of the most ornate and well-carved stone he’d ever seen. His back foot moved without thought and caught him - Callum’s sense of balance did not enjoy looking at something this tall, apparently. He quickly stood up straight, his embarrassment telling him not to look around for fear of someone having taken notice. 

Callum continued forward toward the towering building that would be his new home - the Driochta - the best and largest academy of learned magic in the entire world. He had received a raven from the archmage’s office two weeks before, informing him of his acceptance and providing direction on travel. His father was ecstatic to hear of Callum’s approval, and gifted him a riding horse named Thicket, who safely brought him across the continent over the next 12 days. Callum’s father, Galdren, was an accomplished mage who studied at the Driochta as well, and with Callum now being accepted, he’d only been the 2nd human from the entire city of Tarrintown to be accepted. Much had been learned of magic since the Attrition, and one thing that had become clear is that humans did not possess the highest innate ability to learn it. With one of the shorter lifespans of all the species in the world, it was difficult for most humans to truly gain a grasp on magic in such a short time.

Callum walked up the large, marble staircase that wrapped the front of the ornate stone  tower, alongside several other students and professors, who all seemed too busy to notice him. Not that this surprised Callum; he learned at a young age that there wasn’t anything truly remarkable about his appearance. Short, shaggy brown hair, tan skin, freckles, and hazel eyes were a fairly common description for a human from the south. He blended in just fine with any farmer or blacksmith’s apprentice for many miles around. He did begin to notice, however, that he was one of the only humans in the area. He began to take a tally as he traversed up the stairs toward the Grand Hall. The first he saw was two elven girls, possibly twins, who were rushing excitedly down the stairs. They were… Arbor Elves? Callum thought to himself, believing this to be correct from his limited knowledge. All elves had distinct pointed ears and sharp features, but arbor elves had darker skin than their counterparts, and usually reddish brown hair. These two fit the bill. Callum counted a number of arbor elves as well as a starlight elf - paler skin with silver hair, standing a head taller than his counterparts from the wooded areas of the continent, and with a certain air about him. He always admired elves, they had a grace to them that Callum couldn’t explain. Perhaps it had been simply because he had seen so few growing up in the south, but it was almost as if they would float ever-so-slightly as they walked. Callum then quickly noticed a couple of Drakken - they weren’t hard to miss - taller than even the tallest elves, Drakken had scales ranging a number of colors anywhere from black to white and all shades in between. The two he saw were cinderdrakken, with bright red scales, draconic features, a tail, and a natural affinity for fire. He had a friend, Branax, back home who was also a cinderdrakken, and he was always an excellent help at his father’s forge. Drakken were common enough back home - more common than any other species anyway - and Callum believed he had been told that was still true for the majority of the world. As he finished the long climb up the grand staircase, he took note of a few dwarves, red dwarves he believed, standing at the top and making jokes to each other. Dwarves were also a common sight at home. Strong-minded, boastful folk as they were, you would never find a person more willing to give you the shirt off their back than a dwarf. Callum took a long breath in and stopped to capture the view behind him. He could see the entire southern bay from up here on the platform. It was a stunning view. The sun was getting ready to set off toward the western horizon to his right, and the bay was glistening, dotted with the last ships of the day making port. Something in his head told him that once he turned around and entered the grand hall, his life was going to be different. Taking one last look at the horizon, he took another breath and pivoted on his heel, marching determined toward the doors.

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The Grand Hall buzzed with anticipation. Although classes would not begin for nearly a day and a half more, many students had arrived early and were being assigned rooms, meeting new roommates, and taking in the verbosity of the hall before them. Callum’s father had described it to him growing up, but to see it himself was another experience entirely. Pillars made of ornately etched marble surrounded the long, rectangular room. The nearly fifty-foot tall ceiling of the Grand Hall was painted with ornate tapestries of historical events in between robust wooden beams, and a large staircase to the second floor dominated the back of the room. He walked forward, noticing a makeshift greeting center off to the right where several new students had lined up. He assumed this was the right place, as everyone in this area had mismatched clothes from home, juxtaposed by all of the other people in the room wearing their official robes. Callum was impressed by the quality as one current student drifted by; long, dark blue robes with a silver cloth belt. It appeared to have quite a few pockets, as well as a padded hood, presumably for the impending winter. The man in front of him turned quickly once he noticed Callum standing behind him, an elven man with wild brown hair and bright green eyes stared at him, smiling. 

“Hi, I’m Avandor! It’s a pleasure to meet you” he said with a soft voice that could hardly hide his excitement. The elf extended his hand, and Callum quickly shook it. “Callum.. Callum Thorne.” Callum smiled, happy at the thought of making a friend this quickly. “Amazing! Amazing! A human! Wow, you don’t see a lot of humans passing the entry exam for this place, I imagine you’re quite the quick learner, then, eh?” His eyes widened in an almost unnatural way as he let his enthusiasm escape. Callum cleared his throat and barely got a chance to mumble some affirmation before a booming voice called out from behind his new friend: “NEXT” the voice echoed through the Great Hall. Avandor quickly and effortlessly spun around toward the desk in the front of the line. 

Callum wasn’t sure when or how the line got so short, but he was relieved that he was going to get his room information soon - he was truly exhausted from the last 12 days of travel. Even on the safe, main roads through Validaine, the continent was still a place to remain vigilant. There had been rumors of Skolkin taking up residence in the ruins of Blightspear, and the road from Tarrintown to Gandava skates awfully close to that ancient place. Don’t you think about rooting around that old ruin, Callum. It’s full of memories of death and blood. He remembered his father’s words as he left several mornings ago. Callum was already a learned student of history, and knowing that the entire city of Blightspear was reduced to rubble during the Attrition did spark a bit of curiosity in the young boy’s heart, but not enough to overcome the fear his father’s words left.

Almost drifting off to sleep standing there, Callum roused suddenly when he felt a breeze hit his face. He refocused his eyes and caught a glimpse of Avandor rushing past him, Callum was next in line. He turned to face the source of the booming yell heard moments ago and was surprised to see a woman - an older dwarven woman with long red hair, tied back in a neat braid, sporting a long braided beard, impatiently looking at Callum. “Well, come on then, I haven’t got all night and you look like you need a room” she exclaimed. He stepped another pace toward the desk and reached into his jacket pocket, retrieving the acceptance letter and placing it neatly in the hands of the woman. She opened it and her eyes darted across the page. She quickly put it down and haphazardly began shuffling through other papers on the desk. “Thane, Theirra, Thorpe - ope, there it is, Thorne” her eyes narrowed, as if to read smaller text - “Says here you’ll be in Gander Hall on the fourth floor, and your roommate is Brand Hallspark” she handed him a small pamphlet and forced a smile. “Go up the center stairs and take the hall on either side” she pointed behind him - “you’ll find the dormitory stairs through the first door, then your room number should be easy to find from there. Brand hasn’t arrived yet, so you may have the place to yourself tonight. Good luck.” She quickly stated. He turned around to give a thankful smile, but stopped short when he noticed her waving her hands aggressively, as if to shoo him. He quickly stepped toward the center stairs, excited to lay in a warm bed for the first time in weeks.