Vhar fastened the crossed harness while walking toward the training yard. Radrazh's grip rested above his left shoulder for his right hand, while Ulqor waited above the other shoulder for his left.
Four nights had taken pain from his ribs. He filled his lungs, rolled both shoulders, and turned until the scabbard tips swept behind him. His wrists carried pale new skin, and neither blade shifted.
Candidates crowded the corridors. Vhar turned sideways through a narrow door, leaned over a bench, and warned the students behind him before reaching over one shoulder. Wearing the blades alone was easy; drawing beside moving people required practice.
He found Reth, Sera, and Kavos in the yard behind the residence kitchens. Sera had borrowed a padded rescue body and propped it against a wall. Its painted smile remained undisturbed each time it fell.
"It looks happier on the ground," Vhar said.
Sera caught the dummy before its head struck the stones again. "You can tell it that while carrying it because my shoulder still remembers the quarry."
Reth stretched a cord between two drainage posts, choosing a part of the yard where laundry workers could pass without entering the practice space. Kavos climbed onto a low water platform and looked down over Vhar's right shoulder.
Nyra waited near the gate with an Academy practice spear balanced in one hand. Three old dents crossed its shaft.
"Are you staying?" Vhar asked.
"Long enough to watch the first attempt, though I have my own measure in the eastern yard." She tested the spear's crooked balance. "The weapon desk also wants this back with the same number of dents."
Sera looked at the shaft. "They counted them?"
"They charged me enough to count scratches I cannot see."
Reth waved Vhar into the corded space. "Walk through once before you draw anything because the stones narrow beside the drain."
Vhar crossed the yard while Sera carried the dummy beside him. Kavos called down when either grip vanished behind Vhar's shoulders, and Reth moved one end of the cord until a laundry cart could still clear the wall.
They made Vhar turn, sit, step around Sera, and reach a falling person without putting a blade through that person first.
On the first draw, Vhar reached for Radrazh with his right hand before Sera changed sides. His elbow met her shoulder and stopped.
Sera stepped away and rolled the shoulder he had caught. "If I had been carrying someone hurt, I might have dropped them."
Vhar released the grip. "I chose Radrazh too early, so rest your shoulder; on the next pass, I will watch the harness first."
She tested her arm before lifting the dummy again. "It still works, and I would like to keep it that way."
Nyra had been watching Vhar's eyes rather than his hand. "You keep checking the grips while Sera changes direction, and although her feet may slide under that weight, the harness will show where her shoulders are going."
Vhar looked at the straps pulled tight across Sera's coat. "Alright, move when you're ready, and I'll watch the harness."
This time he kept both hands free until the harness turned left. Ulqor rolled into his left hand through the open rear channel without passing behind Sera's neck.
SHING!
Kavos leaned farther over the platform. "The edge was clear, but I lost the grip behind your shoulder. Keep it lower when you turn."
Vhar lowered his hand on the next pass. Reth tapped the stone beside his rear heel.
"The drain steals half your step here, so if you move the same way on level ground and broken ground, one of them will surprise you."
"Can you make it worse?" Vhar asked.
Reth looked at the loose stones beside the channel. "Easily."
He shifted three of them beneath Vhar's starting foot. Sera waited until Vhar adjusted, then dragged the dummy across the nearer sword.
Vhar drew Radrazh into his right hand, but Sera's weight slipped toward that side before the blade could settle. He passed the grip into his left hand, caught the harness with his freed right palm, and turned the dummy beyond his hip. Radrazh returned to its sheath as soon as Sera regained her feet.
Sera released the weight and rubbed her shoulder. "That felt safer because I did not have to guess whether you had seen me."
"What told you?" Vhar asked.
"You moved the sword out of the hand nearest me and reached for the harness first."
Vhar looked at the hand still resting against the padded shoulder. "Keep watching that, and if I reach for a sword first again, stop the pass."
Nyra gave him a brief nod. "That worked, but I need to return this expensive piece of bent iron before someone discovers a fourth dent."
She left for the eastern yard carrying her own work with her.
The others changed the exercise until the meal bell. Kavos dropped cloth bags, Reth shifted the stones, and Sera abandoned the dummy without warning.
Her shoulder began tightening before the final set. Vhar saw her shorten one pull and lowered the dummy himself.
"That is enough weight for today," he said.
Sera loosened the brace strap. "Reth, replace the dummy with a sandbag because I need to know whether Vhar sees me without a harness to follow."
Reth fetched a smaller bag from the kitchen wall, and Kavos moved down one platform step so the scabbards would hide more of Vhar's turn.
"You all have your own training," Vhar said while Sera adjusted the lighter load.
"I do," Reth answered, checking the drain stones. "My survey hour starts after the meal bell, which gives you two more passes."
Kavos shaded his eyes against the roof glare. "The range is closed until late afternoon, so I would be staring at an empty target from here anyway."
Sera settled the sandbag against her good shoulder. "And I would like the man beside me in a field trial to know where my head is before he draws two swords."
Vhar accepted the answer without pretending their time belonged to him. They completed two more passes, and Sera left the circle as soon as the second ended.
Vhar learned to leave one sword sheathed when a second edge created more danger than reach. His body remained the weapon nobody could take from him, while either blade entered only when its exact work justified another edge beside an ally. He used an empty palm to guide weight, a shoulder to shield Sera, and his hips to open the space the scabbards required.
Reth replaced the rescue body with a practice frame carrying two separate tests. A thick iron plate covered its center, reinforced by four bolts that shared the load across the rear brace. Beside it, one braided cable ran through three narrow catches and held a weighted wooden arm above the stones.
Vhar released Radrazh into his right hand.
SHING!
The blade met the center plate.
CLANG!
Ruin traveled beyond the cut and through the bolts carrying the defense. Two heads burst from the rear brace, the other pair folded inward, and the entire plate collapsed although Radrazh had touched only its center.
Vhar resheathed it before drawing Ulqor with his left hand. He placed the edge against the exposed cable between the first two catches rather than swinging through the wooden arm.
SNAP!
Every loaded strand running through the three connected catches parted at once. The weight dropped into its sand bed while the catches, frame, and wood remained untouched.
Reth lifted the nearest iron catch and turned it toward the light. "You touched one stretch of cable, but every loaded section parted."
"They were carrying the same weight," Vhar said, "so Ulqor found the connection between them."
When a second iron body replaced the frame, Vhar kept both blades secured and settled his fist against its reinforced center. The confirmed Tattoo route would join body and steel, but convergence meant little around protected people unless every elbow, scabbard, edge, and empty hand went where he intended.
He exhaled and spoke clearly across the crowded yard.
| PRIMEVAL WAR RUIN ART |
CRACK!
His fist folded the iron face inward and tore one rear bolt from the ground. The destruction stopped inside the target, leaving Sera, the laundry wall, and the passing cart untouched.
Kavos climbed down while Reth checked the stones thrown by the broken bolt. Sera pushed the ruined target with one boot.
"I knew exactly where the force was going that time," she said. "With the swords, I kept watching both shoulders because I did not know which side would open."
Vhar looked at the folded iron. "I will keep practicing until you do know."
A staff struck the paving beyond Reth's cord.
THUD!
The young man holding it had stopped outside their space. A faded Academy access cord circled one wrist, and years of handling had darkened two places along the iron shaft.
"Orven, you are early," the yard instructor called from the covered walkway.
"I heard the hazardous-field seat might be reassigned." Orven kept his staff grounded. "Did you ask the Academy for it?"
"They offered me a chance to compete for the seat," Vhar said. "No one told me who already held it."
Orven breathed out through his nose. "That sounds familiar because I spent last season earning it, yet I found out about this measure from two students outside the dining hall."
Vhar studied the worn grips and the cord at his wrist. "How did they measure you?"
"Force first, movement second, and controlled contact after both candidates are tired; I cannot match what you did to that target, but the other stations should still tell them something useful."
The request carried no insult. Orven had seen the broken iron, admitted what it meant, and still wanted the work behind his name counted properly.
"Have them set up the same stations," Vhar said. "I will be here after breakfast."
Orven's grip eased around the staff. "I'll be ready."
He went inside with the instructor to file the measure, while Sera carried the smiling dummy away before anyone volunteered it for another round.