The courtyard smelled faintly of iron and damp stone. Theo followed Warden Cael across it, Magda a silent shadow at his side. Other new arrivals were being ushered in different directions, each with their own attendant — tutors, guards, or, in one case, a creature that looked suspiciously like a living statue carrying a trunk on its shoulder.
The main doors of Grimwald were enormous slabs of oak bound with blackened iron. They groaned as Cael pushed them open, revealing a cavernous hall lit entirely by chandeliers filled with cold, bluish flame.
The Hall of Oaths was unlike anything Theo had imagined. A vaulted ceiling arched high above, painted with constellations that shifted slowly as though the stars themselves were alive. Along the walls stood towering statues of past graduates — kings, queens, warlords, and mages whose deeds had shaped centuries. Some of their marble eyes seemed to follow the new arrivals.
At the center of the chamber was a circular dais made of dark stone, etched with intricate runes.
Theo wasn't the first to arrive.
Across the dais stood a girl in silver armor that caught the ghostly light and scattered it into shards. Her hair was cropped short, her posture perfect, and her gaze fixed on him as though measuring the space between his throat and the point of her sword.
"House Verrane," Magda muttered under her breath. "Don't turn your back."
Near one of the statues lounged a tall boy with hair black as midnight and an expression that said the world bored him. A silver sun — obsidian at its center — gleamed on his chest. House Drexmoor. He gave Theo a slow, mocking once-over and smiled without warmth.
Theo had never seen so many kinds of danger in one room.
A soft chime echoed from nowhere and everywhere at once. The bluish flames in the chandeliers dimmed, and a figure emerged from the shadows behind the dais.
She was tall, robed in black and silver, her hair a cascade of white down to her waist. Her eyes were the pale, almost colorless blue of a winter morning.
"I am Archmistress Serayne," she said, her voice carrying effortlessly to every corner of the hall. "You have been summoned here by decree of the High Council. You come as heirs, but you will remain only if you prove yourselves worthy of inheritance."
She circled the dais as she spoke, her gaze touching each of them in turn. "The Hall of Oaths binds all who enter it. From this moment until the day you leave these gates, you may not kill another student — though you may come as close as you like."
Theo caught Magda's small grunt of disapproval.
"You will forge alliances, and you will make enemies," Serayne continued. "If you survive to graduation, you will understand that both are valuable. You will begin tonight."
A door opened at the far end of the hall. Two robed attendants entered, carrying a black chest between them. They set it down on the dais and opened it to reveal a basin filled with shimmering silver liquid.
"This is moonwater," Serayne said. "Older than your kingdoms. Place your hand within and speak your name, your title, and the House you swear to serve while within these walls."
One by one, the heirs stepped forward. The girl from House Verrane went first, her voice ringing with confidence. The Drexmoor boy followed, smirking as he swore his oath.
When it was Theo's turn, he stepped forward slowly. The moonwater rippled before his hand even touched it, silver waves shifting outward as though recognizing him — or warning him.
He pressed his palm into the cold liquid. "I am Prince Theodor Lupenstein," he said, his voice steady, "heir to the Lupenstein crown. I swear to serve my House, and to honor the laws of Grimwald… for as long as I remain within its walls."
The water flashed once, like a mirror catching moonlight, and then stilled.
As Theo stepped back, he could feel the eyes of the other heirs on him — weighing, judging, calculating.
Somewhere deep in his chest, the knot of unease twisted tighter.
The games had already begun.