Sitting together on the warm limestone bench, both fighters looked squarely at the temptation that Master Uren had warned against on the fifth page of the abbey tablet. The exact temptation that had destroyed the Counterpoise Sect from the inside three hundred years ago.
Every qualitative step Seyun now held in his body had begun with the woman sitting beside him. His first Flame—the Returning Step that shielded a frightened apprentice from boiling water in the limewashed storeroom—had answered Ilyra’s Bronze wake in the reed marsh. His Early Bronze—the Answering Edge proved in Ash Reed’s oldest yard with a broken toe—had answered her snow-bridge stand against Arel Fen. And his Early Jade—the responsive purpose that split the northern hub—had answered the question posed. Just then, she reached Jade escorting Kes up the hillside.
Right now, with Nara Soth’s third mark beneath his chest bone already closed. Then he locked for a full season. He closed Ilyra’s first mark under his left collarbone would seal a second of his three return pathways, cutting his lung and spirit vein endurance sharply again. Meanwhile, his shoulder was still in a sling.
“If we wanted to cheat the rule,” Seyun said aloud, his voice calm and shiny as he traced the binding of his Account Book, “we could tell ourselves that we still disagree about plenty of things. We disagreed two days ago about how soon White Heron should send student patrols back to the unchartered marsh villages. We always disagree about how much…
