Up on the freezing upper deck that afternoon, Ryuken ordered Vane and Lancelot to spar.
He did not make a ceremony of it. He strolled up, told them to draw weapons and begin, and sat on the iron storage crate.
They began.
Vane hit the deck in four exchanges the first round. He got up. Down in six the second. Up. Down in five the third, which was marginally worse than the second and was exactly how things went when you stopped trying to force extension and started trying to understand something you did not yet have. Ryuken watched without comment.
After the fifth round he raised a hand. "Stop."
He looked at Lancelot. "What did you observe."
Lancelot was not breathing hard. "He telegraphs weight shifts. Five consistent patterns. They allow positional prediction before the physical commitment completes."
Ryuken: "Yes." He looked at Vane. "You heard that."
"Yes."
