Arwen's POV
The amphitheater fills up slowly, the way things fill that people have been anticipating long enough to approach carefully when they finally arrive.
I stand near the back with Maya and watch the standing stones in the center of the ancient space and try to decide what I feel about the next two hours. The stones are taller than I expected up close. I have seen them from the grounds at night, dark shapes at the far edge of the east gardens, but proximity changes them. They are old in a way that the academy building, which is itself old, does not quite match. The stone is a different color, a different texture, and the air around them carries the specific quality of somewhere that has held accumulated intention for so long it has become part of the atmosphere.
The amphitheater
