Morning in the knight city began with the ring of steel on steel.
They rose in the room above the blade-smith's shop without hurry. Water from the basin. Clean clothes pulled on in the same order as the day before. The residual weight of Kael's bloodshot eyes and the empty flask still sat under Atlas's ribs alongside everything carried from Alasta.
Lara's fingers brushed his wrist once before they left the room. Eli checked the blade at his side. Clara marked the eastern yard on the small map she kept inside the ledger.
They went to the side yard Kael had named.
It was smaller than the main practice ground. Older posts stood worn smooth by years of the same forms.
No instructor waited at the edge. A few older knights worked in silence, repeating sequences that looked simpler until the final cut showed the weight behind them. The air smelled of oil and packed earth. No one asked the four of them to leave.
Lara stepped onto the packed ground first.
