Kael Verenthis received the offer in the War College's training hall — a cavernous stone chamber where the kingdom's finest swordsmen practiced technique against opponents who were, by any reasonable standard, inferior. The training hall was empty except for Kael and the six practice dummies he had just destroyed in a demonstration of the Storm Severance school's advanced curriculum.
The dummies were reinforced oak on iron armatures — designed to absorb repeated weapon strikes without structural failure. Each dummy wore standard-issue chainmail over a padded undershirt, representing a soldier in typical garrison equipment. The dummies were spaced four meters apart in a semicircle, representing a standard skirmish engagement against multiple opponents.
