Back in the center ring of the seal court, Mina set her fifteen-breath brass sand glass on the western mounting block. Then she checked the angle of the afternoon shadows before nodding to Seyun and Bel Sar. Behind the chalked ring stood a four-foot granite boundary stone that Seyun had chosen as his objective for the drill. His task was to preserve a clean forward strike to touch that boundary stone with his staff tip while answering Bel’s heavy Bronze staff interceptions.
“Fifteen breaths on the first glass,” Mina called. “Keep your rear heel at the two-finger width you practiced last night, Seyun.”
Seyun and Bel Sar stepped into the center ring of the seal court for the mid-afternoon contact drill. Then, Hall Mistress Soran walked down two steps from the upper terrace so she could watch the exact point where the two ash staves met. Beside the mounting block, sixteen-year-old Halin sat next to Mina with a clean slate board, practicing how to count breath intervals against Seyun’s chest movement. Just then, Pera had done the day before.
“Remember the difference between this drill and the hillside screen,” Daro Kesh called from the eastern pillar as Seyun chalked his palms for a dry grip. “On the hillside, Bel is fanning rock away from your back. Here in the ring, Bel is playing the lower hub’s load-bearing rebound. The wide, rolling blast wave that comes through the floor and the socket housing whenever you strike it. If your Answering Edge…
