“Daniel, how many years have you been studying?” she asked, her voice deliberately stern. Whenever she scolded him, Daniel froze like a startled deer. He was like an automaton, conditioned to obey her every command. “Three years…” “That’s right, three years. You only have two more to go before you can enter the Royal Academy, and you want to quit now? You’re already on a scholarship, and your grades are good enough to earn you one there, too. Does giving that up make any sense?”