Chapter 320: The Patriarch's Lesson (Part 1)
The air in the private training yard was freezing and thick with pre-dawn mist.
Vance Hennessey stood on the wet cobblestones. He did not wear his pristine, heavy golden armor. He wore a simple, unadorned linen shirt and dark woolen trousers. The Patriarch of a Great House looked terrifyingly fragile.
Months ago, he had radiated the suffocating heat of a dying sun. Now, his hair was completely ash-gray. The vibrant, healthy color had drained from his skin, leaving behind a pale, hollowed shell. He had burned a full decade of his natural lifespan outside the Great Wall to avenge a son he thought was dead.
He had insisted on holding the morning drills personally. He had dismissed the master-at-arms and locked the heavy iron gates of the courtyard.
Neville stood ten paces away, holding a weighted wooden practice sword.
