The transition from the Academic District to the Red Tower territory was a physical slap to the senses.
The white marble and ivory towers of the West gave way to structures of dark basalt and reinforced iron. Here, the air did not smell of old parchment and jasmine. It smelled of hot metal and the acrid tang of sulfur. This was the Vanguard, the section of the Academy designed to mimic the brutal efficiency of a border fortress.
Vane walked through the heavy iron gates, his eyes scanning the architecture. While the Blue and White Towers celebrated the elegance of the Aurelian Empire, the Red Tower felt like a compromise between industrial utility and Eastern grit.
He didn't have to look far to find the source of the tension.
