[Deck — 6:15 AM]
Seraph with a wooden staff one and a half meters long.
Alex looked at her.
"Phase three."
"Taking damage, you said."
"Yes." Seraph held the staff. "Activate F1 at thirty percent. Maintain a conversation with me. I strike. You hold the Fragment."
Alex activated F1.
The pressure. The familiar pain.
"Tell me what you're thinking about the training," said Seraph.
"That talking costs more than—"
The staff struck his left shoulder. Not hard — enough.
F1 pushed at the impact.
Alex held it. He lost half a second of the sentence.
"Continue," said Seraph.
"—more than walking, because your thinking has to be fully present."
Strike to his right side.
F1 pushed harder this time — the pain of the impact plus the pain of the tense channel plus the boat's movement, all at once.
He held it.
"Why does damage activate the Fragment more than movement?" asked Seraph as she prepared the next strike.
