Location: Obsidian Academy — Base of Mountain → Interior
Date/Time: 18 Ashwhisper, 9938 AZI
Realm: Lower Realm
Registration was held in what the Student Handbook called the Grand Hall and what two hundred thousand nervous applicants called "the queue."
The space was enormous. Once, it had clearly been a single vast chamber — the vaulted ceiling soared overhead, carved with symbols that made Jayde's ward-sense itch with the pressure of layered formations, the stone pillars thick enough to drive a cart through. Now, centuries of administrative pragmatism had subdivided it into sections: Merit Hall, Registration, Discipline, Mission Hall, each separated by wooden partitions that looked deeply temporary against the ancient stone. Clerks sat behind long desks piled with scrolls and registration forms, their expressions carrying the particular endurance of bureaucrats who processed human ambition six thousand forms at a time.
