The winter snow was flying.
The first snowfall in the southern borders had come a little later than usual, but it arrived in full force. Endless snowflakes tumbled down from the sky, spreading a desolate pallor across the leaden Firmament, and this hazy heavenscape seemed to mirror the future of the two countries—murky and chaotic, with no clear direction in sight.
A thick sheet of hard ice had formed on the pond in the academy district, and a foot of snow lay piled upon the ice and in the nearby nursery beds. A cold wind blew from the direction of the bell tower, shaking loose the snow accumulated on the roofs of nearby buildings and scattering vast white curtains down across the corridors and open courtyards. In such a snowy scene, there were hardly any students or teachers to be seen moving about outside.
