For the third afternoon set, Daro Kesh arranged a three-station triangle around the center ring of the seal court. At the western point stood Ilyra with her shortened, rawhide-bound White Heron spear. At the eastern point stood student Kes holding twelve feet of weighted, braided hemp practice cord. At the northern point stood Bel Sar with his six-foot iron-shod ash staff. Behind each of the three fighters, Vaska Ren had placed an upturned clay flowerpot on the flat stone slabs to serve as Seyun’s target marker.
“Five breaths against each station, with three full reset breaths between them to turn your feet,” Daro instructed from the southern steps as Mina prepared her brass sand glass. “Your Answering Edge has to touch the clay pot behind each partner without crushing it. Show us that your hands know the difference between iron point, hemp rope, and mountain ash without having to stop and think.”
Up on the terrace, Hall Mistress Soran leaned forward over her plain iron spear. She watched Seyun’s knuckles and wrists. When the defenders reached the lower returning hub on the twelfth night, the physical terrain around the three test sockets wouldn’t offer a single uniform surface. There would be rigid Jade blade planes. It whipped stone cables, and broad load-bearing blast waves rolling through the granite floor.
