The humming in the room grew louder until the floating crystals above settled into a steady glow. A faint ripple passed through the air, almost like a shift in the atmosphere itself.
Then the door at the front of the lecture hall opened.
An old man walked in.
He was tall but hunched, his long grey beard reaching down to his chest, but it wasn't uncared for. His robes were faded dark blue, and his hair, tied loosely behind his head, was the same shade of grey as his beard.
Lines creased his face so deeply that Morena wondered if he had ever smiled in the last fifty years.
His eyes, however, were sharp; he did not show the same hazy eyes someone at his age would have. Far too sharp for someone who looked moments away from crumbling into dust.
He stepped slowly to the front of the room, where all eyes could focus on him, leaning slightly on a table made of dark wood. Once he reached the center of the platform, he looked over the students without speaking.
