“Slow exchange,” Daro Kesh said, raising his heavy hickory practice sword in a low, open guard at the center of the seal court. “I’ll not use Jade speed. I’ll only shift the angle of pressure across three side vectors—high left, center flat, low right—the way the echo is pressing your right collarbone. Show me how your Answering Edge receives it.”
Seyun nodded, setting his feet in the fourth base stance of Ash Reed and raising his ash staff. Inside his chest, the newly arrived Jade echo hummed like a taut bowstring, showing him the exact sharp-angled shape of Daro’s Adaptable Depth. Eager to prove that his seven days of preparation and his three active rival marks could meet the question head-on, Seyun didn’t scale the problem down. Daro stepped forward and laid the hickory blade against the upper third of his ash staff. Then, Seyun tried to split his Early Bronze focus into three same-time, adaptable branches. One holding the high left block, one preparing a center-line thrust, and the third keeping a low right pullback route open at the same time.
On the first breath, the three branches held in his imagination. On the second breath, Daro rotated his wrist fifteen degrees. It slid the hickory flat down the ash wood toward Seyun’s right elbow while stepping laterally across the seam.
