Work on the academy began at once. Builders were summoned—some arriving under the banner of the Deveroux Guild, others drawn from the kingdom's own ranks, both living and undead. Hammer and spell worked side by side, bound not by blood, but by purpose.
Trusted architects were brought in from across the realm, each one carefully vetted and bound by oath. By the day after Riven's meeting with Elara, the first schematics had already taken shape—rough sketches of towers, lecture halls, vaults, and skybridges inked across scrolls and thick parchment.
It would be a monumental undertaking—vast not only in physical scale, but in arcane intricacy. The academy would require layer upon layer of enchantments: wards etched into every wall, protection sigils carved into stone and steel, channels of elemental mana threaded through its foundations like veins. It had to be more than a place of learning. It had to endure.
