The training yard was empty when Runa arrived, the grey light of afternoon casting long shadows across the packed earth. The practice dummies stood in their usual places, scarred and battered from months of use by countless warriors. Their wooden bodies were marked with the evidence of countless drills: deep gouges, splintered edges, patches of dark stain that might have been blood. The weapon racks were full, the swords and axes and spears waiting for hands that were too weary to lift them, their metal edges gleaming dully in the pale light.
She had not come to train.
She had come to find Kaelen.
