Chapter 64: The Road to Ruin
Astaria Academy no longer felt like a school.
The spires that once rang with the laughter of students and the echo of lectures were now crowned with siege ballistae. Wardstones glowed along the ramparts, etched with runes so ancient even the professors could not decipher them all. The banners of a dozen kingdoms hung over the great courtyard — some tattered, some burned — but they flew side by side, carried by those who had nowhere else to go.
What had once been a cradle of learning was now a fortress — the last fortress.
From every gate and portal they came: warriors bearing the crest of Lionhart’s golden lion; battlemages of Veylun in their gleaming iron masks; beastkin scouts from the Sylveraine woodlands with eyes like moonlight. The dragonriders of Dra
