Location:Obsidian Academy — Headmaster Qin's Private Study
Date/Time:9 Frostforge, 9942 AZI — afternoon
Realm:Lower Realm
Seven layers of ward stood between this study and the weather, and not one sound came through them. Four winters in that chair and she had never once heard the mountain from inside it. No wind. No bell. Only the room — paper settling somewhere in the towers, a teapot ticking as it cooled, and the small dry noise of an old man breathing after the worst hour of his life.
"I'm going to use the time," Jayde said. "You can keep looking at me while I talk."
"That is convenient," Qin said, "since I am going to."
"Two schools. They're not the same school, and I need you to hear them separately."
He didn't reach for a pen. That was the first thing.
