Page 26 of Architecti
Imake my way across campus, from the faculty wing over the cobbled sandstone paths.There’s a shortcut through the Veilwalker lecture hall and down the main path to the Great Library.The campus is stunning.Even to me, and I’ve lived here my entire life.
There’s a secretive beauty to Finis Academy.At first glance, it’s all archways and cloisters, creeping ivy crawling over sandy-coloured bricks.But if you keep looking, the truth lies in your periphery.An aged wisdom of sorts, buried in crumbling shadows that lurk and move in unnatural ways, a clock that never tells the truth, doors that move and shiver away when they don’t want to be opened.A cemetery that doesn’t want to let you out and a church that won’t let you in.
The campus is alive in ways it shouldn’t be.Perhaps then, Father is right, and Finis Tower is haunted.Or maybe my students wish the stories were true.
The Great Library is circular, an endless spiral building that houses our oldest tomes and grimoires and doubles as a kind of fortress protecting Finis Tower itself—the magnum opus of the campus.
Maldrip, the library’s goyle, sits on an oak-studded door, the dark stone of his skin matching the black metal studs.He mumbles “Good afternoon,” followed by a line of gravelly spittle sprinkling out of his mouth.It lands in a stone dust pile by my feet.
Delightful.
“It’s very much the morning,” I say.
“Professor Corvine, glad I caught you,” Thalia Morrow calls from behind me.
She’s a professor of Veilwalking, but has a specialism in contracts.She’s brilliant and was my mentor through my own studies.She must be in her late sixties now, though her bronzed skin doesn’t seem to have aged enough.Grey streaks her hair, except for the ends, which are dipped in black.It’s graceful the way the faintest of lines kiss her eyes, all of them etching in smiles instead of grimaces.Don’t be fooled though, we all carry an edge, and hers is terrifying.I never crossed her as her mentee, but the lashings she’ll give the students that do are enough to give even the senior faculty members nightmares.
“Looking forward to term starting?”I ask.
“About that.There’s an urgent staff meeting in Finis Tower.Everyone has been called.”
I follow after her, and we pass through a huge stone archway and onto the bridge perched above the moat that lays between the circular library and the tower.
She tugs my arm and pulls it over hers.“Now tell me, how is the love life, hmm?”
“Demon’s above, Thalia, do we have to talk about this?”
Thalia has known me twenty-five years at least.Since I was a teenager.She saw me grow up with Ignatius and often took, not a motherly role as such, but more of the naughty aunt always encouraging me to rebel-type role.
“Absolutely, you’re not getting any younger, when are you going to meet a nice young woman to keep you warm at night?”She winks her golden eye while her blue one glitters at me in the early light.
“Thalia,” I hiss.“Stop it.”
“If I’m still getting it, why can’t you?”
I open my mouth about to say something and stop.I guess she’s right.But also, I don’t feel like spilling the fact I fucked a total stranger in a grave last night, not least because if Midnight survives the Severance Rite, she’ll be a student, and there are only two rules here.One of which is students are forbidden from fraternising with professors and vice versa.
“I don’t have time for frivolities like sex,” I lie.
She tuts at me and leads me to the tower entrance as the autumn breeze whips under my blazer.
It’s not compulsory to wear Finis attire as a professor here.Thalia isn’t.But I find there’s something deeply satisfying about looking the part.It makes me feel more professional, like I belong here, more than rocking up in gym sweats or whatever.
Besides, the neat lines and pinched waist does wonders for my curves.Maybe I should take more leaves out of Thalia’s book.I’m forty, not dead.The way the uniform flatters me, I’m convinced whoever designed it must have been a woman.If nothing else, the black and red fabric matches my hair.
When I reach the tower door, Mordax, our most grumpy of gargoyles, is chewing on his knocking handle.His wing-like ears ruffle as I incline my head at him.
“Good morning, may we gain entry to Finis Tower?”I say.
His stony eyes glide up to meet mine, all the while he chews on his iron ring.
“Don finkth soh,” he mumbles around the handle.
“Much as we’d love to exchange pleasantries, we’ve been summoned for a staff meeting, so open up or I’ll tweak your ring,” Thalia growls.
He chews on the iron a little more aggressively, scowling at the pair of us, but the door swings open.I tickle him under his wing-tip ears, trying to appease the situation.He shivers in delight but continues to chunter insults under his breath at Thalia.
“Thank you,” I say and can’t help but smile in spite of the glare he’s giving us.
