The joint schedule named Merrit Solvane and Bram Otyr across the same hours in the same hall for six weeks. Solvane held the district scoring seat, and Otyr held the training-hall certification that had failed eleven independent applicants in two years.
"Two offices," Yenna said, laying the schedule flat beside the target board, "and the pair of them have been rehearsing you since the day the ladder posted."
Vell read the hours rather than the names, since a schedule tells you what two men practised as well as when. Four hours a week on paired footwork, two on what the hall clerk had written down as containment drill.
Containment drill is a phrase with one meaning, which is holding a man in place while somebody else does the work. Neither of them had booked a single hour of solo conditioning across the whole six weeks.
"Take it to the board," Luna said over the relay, "joint preparation for a gauntlet bout is a charter violation on the paper alone."
