Caelith's Letter Home to Step-Mother Rosalind Morvain

To Mother,
(there’s a doodle of the castle at the top—complete with exaggerated towers, a smiling sun, and a tunnel labeled “??? secret maybe”)
 
Dear Mother,
 
You would love this place. It’s massive and half-finished and drafty in the best possible way. They say the school used to be a fortress—and I believe it. There are staircases that go nowhere and a suit of armor that keeps showing up in different hallways. No one admits to moving it. That’s probably fine.
 
I’ve been spending a lot of time in the library. There’s a west wall that echoes too much when you knock on it—like there’s a hollow space behind it. I may have found a way into the restricted section after lights out (Eva doesn’t approve, naturally), and I may have found half-burned castle blueprints with a chunk missing right where the “weird echo wall” is. Coincidence? I think not.
 
Also—get this—the headmaster chose this place. He’s the King’s Royal Wizard, you know, and he’s obsessed with Nytheris Iluthar. Everyone’s whispering that this school sits on top of actual Nytherian ruins. Eva calls it superstition. I call it destiny. (She did sneak a peek at one of his old journals though. Just saying.)
 
Anyway, I might’ve let it slip to a few classmates that there’s treasure buried beneath the school. And by “let it slip” I mean “enthusiastically described in great detail.” Now they’re calling it “The Vault of Eldrimor.” Oops.
 
Eva's fine. She's pretending she’s above it all, but I catch her smiling when I get in trouble. She says I’ll end up permanently assigned to kitchen duty. Joke’s on her—I already know how to burn soup.
 
Love to everyone,
Caelith the Bold
(Secret Tunnel Investigator and Founding Member of the Secret Society for the Discovery of Secret Stuff)
 
P.S.
Tell Mom that Eva’s making very sure I’m studying. She acts like a second professor and keeps quizzing me on spell forms during breakfast. Magic class is fun, but I think I might like swordship even more. Captain Lysara Vexmere teaches it—she’s incredible. The way she swings a sword... it’s like dancing, but with more yelling. Half the boys signed up after watching her once. Totally unrelated, of course.