Adom had been in the library for four hours already, and the nerd in him still wasn't tired of it. The smell of old books, the quiet rustle of turning pages, the occasional whispered consultation—it felt like home. More home than his actual dorm did, if he was being honest.He glanced at the timepiece in his pocket. Nine minutes left.On the fourth level of the Academy's grand library, hidden behind the section on pre-empire farming techniques, there was a narrow passage. So narrow you had to turn sideways and squeeze through, which made it hilariously impractical as an entrance to anything. But Adom knew what lay beyond.He gathered his notes and the three books he hadn't finished yet, carefully marking his place in each. He returned the other nine to the re-shelving cart, then made his way back to the passage."Excuse me," he muttered as he squeezed past a tall shelf that seemed determined to make the already tight space even more claustrophobic.And then, like stepping through a curtain, he was out.Blue sky stretched overhead. Not the dark stone ceiling of the library, but actual sky with wispy clouds and birds circling lazily above. Green grass carpeted the ground, dotted with wildflowers in purples and whites. Butterflies drifted between the blooms, and the air smelled of spring.This wasn't a room at all. It was a portal to another part of the Academy—the private gardens of former headmistress Athena Ravenshadow.Well, "private" was a bit of a misnomer. Anyone could access it with a reservation. Four hours max per reservation, strictly enforced by the garden's enchantments. Which meant in approximately eight minutes, Adom would be unceremoniously ejected back through that narrow passage, probably right into some poor confused first-year student.The garden had been designed to replicate the environment of Elhar, an elven land where Headmistress Ravenshadow had been born. She was (...)