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kimurho20200902
Borderlands Academy
Tower of Learning
The Door
Borderlands Academy enrolled students from First Years, those who turned 11 years of age before the Autumnal Equinox, to Seventh Years. Each year group, one through six, had their own floor in the tower for academic learning. They had halls for group lectures, classrooms for smaller groups, still rooms for brewing and workrooms for casting. Every morning after breakfast, the entire student enrollment would meet in assembly for announcements and then would be dismissed to their classes, starting with first years, ending with ...
It never occurred to the youngermost students, First through Third, to wonder where the Seventh Year classes met. They were always there in the afternoons, for the outside activities; animal care, fieldwork, kitchen chores or gardening. They were definitely there for the evening games. But where did they go for academic lessons?
By Fifth Year, the rumours were rampant. There was a secret level deep, deep under the Tower, rumour said. A level below the refectory and kitchen level. A level that was even below the cave under the kitchen level - the cave that housed the dragon that kept the tower warm in winter.
Rumour was right about the dragon, at least. Sixth and Seventh year students shared the task of mucking out the den while the great beast slept through the cold and after Fifth year, students regularly visited it looking for scales or tears to use in various potions or spells.
Search as much as they could, no student below Seventh year ever found the secret hidden level. And no Seventh year student ever revealed the secret.
Because it was a bit embarassing.
Under the stairs that led up to the teaching levels was a door. It was an ordinary door, much like any other door on the ground floor and it was a door well known to every student at Academy. Behind that door, cleaning supplies were kept. Brooms, mops, buckets, cleaning solutions, rags, brushes. Anything needed to polish, sweep, mop, pick up, wipe up, ... clean, was kept in the room behind that door, neat and organized on shelves that lined the walls. It was not a very large room.
Usually.
Every morning, after the Sixth Year students were dismissed to class, the Seventh Year students picked up their books and gear and left the refectory. By that time, the Sixth Years would be out of sight, up the stairs, around the spiral, heading upward and worried about arriving late.
Every morning, the Seventh Year students would mount to the ground floor and, one by one, open the door that usually opened onto the cleaning closet. Usually. They would open the door and step through. One by one.
Borderlands Academy
Tower of Learning
Borderlands Academy enrolled students from First Years, those who turned 11 years of age before the Autumnal Equinox, to Seventh Years. Each year group, one through six, had their own floor in the tower for academic learning. They had halls for group lectures, classrooms for smaller groups, still rooms for brewing and workrooms for casting. Every morning after breakfast, the entire student enrollment would meet in assembly for announcements and then would be dismissed to their classes, starting with first years, ending with ...
It never occurred to the youngermost students, First through Third, to wonder where the Seventh Year classes met. They were always there in the afternoons, for the outside activities; animal care, fieldwork, kitchen chores or gardening. They were definitely there for the evening games. But where did they go for academic lessons?
By Fifth Year, the rumours were rampant. There was a secret level deep, deep under the Tower, rumour said. A level below the refectory and kitchen level. A level that was even below the cave under the kitchen level - the cave that housed the dragon that kept the tower warm in winter.
Rumour was right about the dragon, at least. Sixth and Seventh year students shared the task of mucking out the den while the great beast slept through the cold and after Fifth year, students regularly visited it looking for scales or tears to use in various potions or spells.
Search as much as they could, no student below Seventh year ever found the secret hidden level. And no Seventh year student ever revealed the secret.
Because it was a bit embarassing.
Under the stairs that led up to the teaching levels was a door. It was an ordinary door, much like any other door on the ground floor and it was a door well known to every student at Academy. Behind that door, cleaning supplies were kept. Brooms, mops, buckets, cleaning solutions, rags, brushes. Anything needed to polish, sweep, mop, pick up, wipe up, ... clean, was kept in the room behind that door, neat and organized on shelves that lined the walls. It was not a very large room.
Usually.
Every morning, after the Sixth Year students were dismissed to class, the Seventh Year students picked up their books and gear and left the refectory. By that time, the Sixth Years would be out of sight, up the stairs, around the spiral, heading upward and worried about arriving late.
Every morning, the Seventh Year students would mount to the ground floor and, one by one, open the door that usually opened onto the cleaning closet. Usually. They would open the door and step through. One by one.
