The dawn came the way it always did in Eiswald.... without apology, pale and cold, the light arriving before the warmth ever did.
Vivienne was already in the courtyard.
She had not slept well. This was not unusual. What was unusual was the reason, which she was not examining directly, because examining it directly would require her to admit what the reason was, and she had already spent three years being more honest with herself than she found comfortable.
She ran the sixth form.
'He knows,' she thought, moving through the opening sequence. The spear felt familiar in her hands in a way the longsword had taken two years to feel. Her body knew this. Her body had always known this, which was part of the problem with the body as a source of information.... it knew things before the mind had finished catching up.
'He knows and he said nothing.'
The blade cut low, turned, recovered.
