Silence settled over the wet flat stone slabs between the frame stand bench and the courtyard gate. High on the burial house gable, a crow shook rainwater from its wings and hopped along the freshly mortared ridge tiles Seyun had laid two afternoons ago. Seyun didn’t reach for his canvas pack, nor did he pull his feet back beneath the bench into a defensive crouch. Even with his new Flame circuit humming steadily through his solar nerve web, he knew that a sudden movement against an experienced Bronze swordsman at four paces would end before his heels cleared the stone. Instead, he let his bandaged hands remain visible on his knees and studied the lines around Daro Kesh’s mouth.
“The masked man in Tanner’s Lane told you the stone was a Balance breathing diagram,” Seyun said evenly. “Did he also tell you what the diagram needs?”
“He told me enough to know why the old sect was wiped off the mountain,” Daro replied, his dark eyes steady and unblinking. “And Mother Renn’s mule-driver talked enough at the ferry tavern to fill in the rest. You found Master Uren’s last stone—the Answering Spirit vein. An art built for fighters whose return channels close inward, which opens its circuits by binding itself to the breakthroughs of a sworn enemy.”
