4 /5 Vlad: Four years I sojourned here, contending with the registry’s wardens who barred my sought teachings, while advisors offered counsel as fleeting as dew. I, a tender of systems and gates, bore edicts of Mathematics and labors unneeded, my weeks a scroll of one hundred and seven hours—tending tasks, delving in study, and leading assemblies. As it is mused, ‘He who piles straw upon the wheat delays the yield’—so my days were spent in strife. The halls of sustenance wavered, the chambers modest, yet from this tumult I wove bonds of fellowship, and the grounds rose fair to behold. Verily, the toil was a trial grievous, yet now I depart, my spirit gladdened, strengthened by the bounty of wisdom and kinship reaped amidst the storm—a harvest worth the threshing