The interior of the Tri-keep was nothing like the exterior. On the outside, the small fortress was short, squat, and constructed of ugly stones fitted together in a grotesque way that resembled layers of melted wax.
There were rumors that three towers once rose up out of the each of the three corners of the building, but there was nothing there now. The students tended to whisper and speculate on what kind of battle must have been fought here to destroy even a small part of the massive fortification, but that’s all they were. Rumors. There was no historical basis in any of the records that gave any indication of whether the rumors were true or not and, if the staff knew the truth, they never told.
The interior of the Tri-keep was nothing less than posh. Other words used to describe the inside of the Dragon Knight’s administration building were luxurious, lavish, grand, and extravagant. It could also be said that it was much too showy and pretentious, almost to the point of garishness.
It wasn’t even that the knighthood used the building to impress visitors. The Tri-keep was off limits to anyone that wasn’t a Dragon Knight, staff, or a student. In fact, anyone not directly affiliated with the knighthood was prohibited from progressing past the ceremonial Grand Hall, a large, almost palatial building farther down the mountain, closer to the island’s only town.
Terync stood in the foyer of the Tri-keep, a triangular room about forty feet along each side. In fact, all of the rooms in the fortress were triangular. It was just one of those odd quirks that the original designers kept true to. Normally, there was a knight stationed here as a guard, but none stood here now.
The whelp looked around and then down each of the two halls leading from the other two sides of the three-sided chamber. By tradition, he was supposed to stand here at attention until recognized by the guard, who would then direct him to his appointment. It wasn’t that Terync didn’t know the way to the Commandant’s office, but it would potentially be demerit worthy if he failed to adhere to tradition.
He gave it half a minute before he resolved to make his way down the hall, underneath the stern eyes of past Commandants, staring down at him from their portraits. The way to the office was a bit of a winding path as there was only the single hallway that started on one side of the foyer and ended on the other.
As the Commandant’s office was exactly halfway down the hallway, one could go either way from the foyer to reach it but, as was typical with the knighthood, tradition dictated that Dragon Knights must always venture to the right from the foyer. Why this was the case? No one really knew, but still they adhered to tradition.
Terync paused in front of the antiqued bronze door and reached a hand up to grasp the black gold, lion-headed door knocker.
“Well, blow me down,” came the muffled voice from within the office. “Damn whelp broke protocol. You win the bet.”