The bench near the center of the ruined stone courtyard groaned under the weight of three heavy iron pots, filled with boiled vegetables and salted pork.
Around the edges of the old, forgotten fort, sitting high on a grassy hill overlooking a huge, mist-covered forest, the forty-two remaining students of Class Veritas were scattered in small, quiet groups.
Some sharpened their weapons.
Others leaned against crumbling, moss-covered archways. Below their hill, a group of local villagers, farmers, old women, and crying children, were huddled inside the lower building, guarded by a squad of six students led by Dame Flint and Lucia Jane.
"Ugh, I'm tired of this salted meat scraps! I don't want to eat it anymore! Can't we get something else?" Finn grumbled, leaning back against a wall as he tossed a spoon into his empty wooden bowl.
