The afternoon free period lasted until the 5PM dinner alarm, which meant the prison temporarily pretended human beings could be trusted with unsupervised movement so long as it came with a timer attached.
In a section of the yard where nobody was within fifteen meters of them in any direction, they exchanged everything the day had produced. Not dramatically. Just efficiently.
By the time they sat down in the canteen, there was no longer any distinction between what one of them knew and what the other did.
The dinner alarm also brought the swordsman back from wherever he had chosen to spend the afternoon, and he announced this fact the way thunderstorms announced themselves, by altering the atmosphere before arrival was technically complete.
Before he even sat down, he was already the loudest thing in the room.
Not because he was shouting. That would have required effort.
He simply existed at a volume the rest of the room adjusted itself around instead of competing with.
