Ember Academy
Shelves rose three stories high around a central spiral stair, and Oren moved through the dark with the ease of someone who'd walked this path many times before, pulling Sera along by the sleeve past sections marked with old iron plaques, House Histories, Elemental Theory, The Founder's Age.
"Here." He stopped at a shelf near the back, low and half hidden behind a fallen curtain of cobweb, and ran his fingers along the spines until he found what he was looking for, a slim volume, its cover charred black at the edges, spine cracked with age. "This survived the purge. Barely. Most copies didn't."
"What is it?"
"A private journal. Not an official history, those were rewritten a hundred times ov