CHAPTER 53: SILENT OBSERVATIONS (1)

Ayren’s words clung to Soren like frost. "Know them better than they know themselves."

The memory of that cold voice followed him into the training yard, where morning light cast long shadows across packed dirt. His muscles still ached from yesterday’s session with Kaelor, but the pain had become a familiar companion, almost comforting in its constancy.

Soren settled against the stone wall, legs stretched before him as if resting. The practice sword lay across his lap, his bandaged hands resting lightly on the worn wood. To any observer, he appeared to be catching his breath between drills.

But his eyes never stopped moving.

’Not about making friends,’ he reminded himself, watching Tavren demonstrate a complex parry to his usual circle of admirers. ’About survival.’

The training yard hummed with activity, recruits paired off in practice bouts, others working through forms alone, a few gathered around the water barrel trading insults and boasts. On the surface, mere daily routine. Beneath it, Soren now understood, lay the true battlefield Ayren had sent him to map.

He observed Marken first, a tall, rangy recruit with quick hands and quicker feet. The boy moved like a dancer, his blade describing perfect arcs through the morning air. But there, when pressed from the left, a slight hesitation, a fractional widening of his stance. A weakness, carefully hidden but present nonetheless.

Soren’s gaze shifted to Dane, the massive recruit currently battering his opponent’s guard with methodical power. Strength to spare, endurance that seemed limitless, but slow to change tactics. Three times now, the same approach, the same sequence. Predictable, if one knew what to watch for.

The shard pulsed once against his chest, a gentle warmth that seemed to sharpen his vision. He didn’t need Valenna’s prompting to understand the importance of this task. Knowledge was armor. Knowledge was weaponry. Knowledge, properly applied, meant survival.

He spent the morning this way, eyes half-lidded but missing nothing. Who favored their right leg? Who tired quickest? Who fought with anger rather than technique? The details accumulated, small pieces of a larger puzzle that began to form patterns in his mind.

More telling were the interactions between bouts. Tavren and his followers clustered near the weapon racks, their laughter cutting through the general din whenever someone outside their circle faltered.

Marken and three others always practiced near the eastern wall, sharing water and occasional quiet conversations. Lone wolves like Kale kept to themselves, trusting no one, speaking to few.

By midday, Soren had identified at least four distinct factions among the recruits, with several outliers who shifted allegiance as circumstances dictated. The politics of the yard were as complex as any noble court, with hierarchies established through skill, birth, and the subtle currency of respect.

"Pathetic," Kaelor’s voice cut through Soren’s observations, the swordmaster’s single eye fixed on a pair of recruits whose bout had devolved into an awkward grapple. "If you want to dance, find a tavern. This is a training yard, not a wedding feast."

The recruits separated immediately, faces flushed with embarrassment. Kaelor stalked toward them, his uneven gait somehow enhancing rather than diminishing his menace. "Again," he barked. "And this time, remember you’re holding swords, not your mother’s skirts."

Soren noted how the other recruits reacted to the swordmaster’s approach, some straightening their stances, others subtly increasing the intensity of their practice, a few edging away to avoid attention. Fear, respect, resentment, all visible in the minute adjustments of bodies and expressions.

He filed these reactions away alongside his other observations. Kaelor inspired different responses in different recruits. Understanding those differences might prove valuable later.

The afternoon brought new insights. As fatigue set in, masks slipped. Tempers flared more readily, alliances became more apparent, weaknesses more pronounced. Soren watched it all from his position against the wall, moving occasionally to avoid drawing attention but always returning to his role as the invisible observer.

"Water?"

The voice startled him from his thoughts. Dane stood before him, offering a ladle from the barrel. The big recruit’s face revealed nothing of his intentions.

Soren accepted with a nod, careful to keep his expression neutral. Was this a gesture of friendship? A test? Or merely courtesy extended to a fellow sufferer of Kaelor’s attention?

"You’ve been watching all day," Dane said, his voice low enough that only Soren could hear. "Figured you must be thirsty by now."

The water tasted of iron and dust, but Soren drank deeply before responding. "Resting," he said, the lie coming easily. "Kaelor’s special training takes its toll."

Dane’s eyes narrowed slightly, not with suspicion but with something closer to assessment. "Must be important, whatever he’s teaching you," he said, taking the ladle back. "Important enough for Tavren to be plotting how to break your other hand once the first heals."

The warning, for that’s what it was, came without inflection, as if Dane were commenting on the weather. Soren filed this information away with the rest. Tavren’s jealousy had teeth, it seemed. Another detail in the emerging map.

"Thanks for the water," Soren said, neither confirming nor denying his awareness of the threat.

Dane shrugged his massive shoulders. "Everyone needs water," he replied, then moved away, returning to his practice partner without a backward glance.

Interesting. Not quite an alliance offered, but a connection made. Soren added this to his mental catalog: Dane, independent, observant, willing to share information but not commit to sides.

The shard warmed against his chest, Valenna’s presence stirring with what felt like approval. "Yes," she whispered, her voice clear despite the yard’s clamor. "The strongest blade is the one they don’t see coming."

As evening approached and shadows lengthened across the yard, Soren gathered his observations like a miser counting coins. He now knew which recruits favored their right leg, Tavren, Marken, the twins from the eastern provinces, which tired quickest, Kale, despite his fierce offense, which fought with anger rather than technique, half a dozen at least, all of them dangerous in different ways..

More importantly, he understood the web of relationships that bound them together or set them apart. Who respected whom. Who resented whom. Who feared whom. The invisible lines of power and influence that defined their small society.

’Knowledge,’ he thought as he finally rose, muscles protesting the movement after hours of stillness. ’More dangerous than any blade.’