Three
The Guild’s Hall of Honor is a vast room filled with pillars. On each side of every pillar is a plaque where the name of the top guardian graduate is written each year. It isn’t a room I visit very often, but every now and then I stop by to remind myself why I keep working so hard to be the top graduate in my class. And right now, before receiving my final assignment, seems like a good time.
I walk slowly between the pillars as I head for the plaque with my mother’s name. My boots cause a faint echo each time they connect with the centuries-old wooden floor. Shadows flicker from the flames that burn perpetually in the torches attached to the walls. I thought it was a little eerie the first time I came in here, but now it evokes a sense of comfortable familiarity.
I stop when I rea
