I woke up before the sun rose.
Not out of habit this time. I woke up because I heard a sound.
Metallic.
Low.
A steady rhythm.
I lay still in bed for a few seconds trying to understand what it was. The room was still dark, silent, except for that distant noise coming from outside the mansion.
I looked around. They were all still asleep.
I got up slowly, grabbed the nearest clothes, and left without making a sound.
When I opened the front door, the early morning air was cold and damp. The street was almost empty. The sky still dark, but beginning to lighten at the horizon.
And then I heard it again.
The sound of steel meeting.
It was coming from the side yard.
I walked around the house and found Lyannis.
She was training.
Alone.
A simple sword in her hand. Slow movements. Precise. Repetitive.
She wasn't fighting anything. Just repeating cuts through the air as if engraving each gesture into her body.
I stood watching in silence.
She noticed my presence, but didn't stop.
"Do you do this every day?" I asked.
"Since we came back."
"Why?"
She made another controlled cut.
"Because if I stop, I start thinking too much."
That made me understand immediately.
She was dealing with the same weight as I was.
Just in a different way.
"May I?" I asked.
She handed me the sword without saying anything.
The hilt was still slightly warm from her hand.
I took the stance and repeated the movement she had been doing. A simple diagonal cut. Then another. Then one more.
No rush.
No force.
Just repetition.
After a few minutes, she spoke.
"You're steadier."
"What do you mean?"
"Before, you trained like someone who needed to become stronger. Now you train like someone who already knows he's strong."
I paused for a moment.
I had never thought about it that way.
I continued.
The sound of the blade cutting through the air began to create an almost relaxing rhythm.
The sky slowly brightened as we trained in silence.
After a while, we heard Rai'kanna's voice coming from the window.
"What are you two doing without me?"
I looked up. Her hair was completely messy.
"Come train," I replied.
"No. I'm sleepy."
She disappeared from the window.
Lyannis let out a faint smile.
We trained until the sun fully rose. When we stopped, I was lightly sweating, but not tired.
It was different from a battle.
It was mental cleansing.
We went back inside and found Elara already in the kitchen.
"You woke up way too early."
"Not really," I replied.
Vespera and Liriel appeared shortly after, still drowsy. Rai'kanna came last, complaining about the cold floor.
During breakfast, I mentioned that I had been training with Lyannis.
Elara rested her chin on her hand.
"Maybe we should do that more often."
"Train?"
"No. Empty our heads."
After breakfast, I picked up the legendary sword for the first time since we returned.
I stood there for a few seconds looking at it.
The faintly glowing runes.
The balanced weight.
I went out to the yard again.
This time they all came.
"You're going to train with that?" Vespera asked.
"I'm going to test a few movements."
Elara sat on the step. Liriel crossed her arms watching. Rai'kanna stood beside me. Lyannis leaned against the wall.
I made the first movement.
The sword cut through the air with an ease that still surprised me.
It wasn't strength.
It was fluidity.
Each movement seemed to fit perfectly into the next.
After a few minutes, I stopped.
Rai'kanna spoke.
"You're faster."
"I'm not trying to be."
"That's the point."
I put the sword away.
I realized I wasn't training to fight.
I was training to maintain control.
The rest of the day passed peacefully. We did small tasks around the mansion. Normal conversations. Simple moments.
But there was something different.
A faint sense of preparation in the air.
Not tension.
Preparation.
As if, without agreeing on it, everyone was adjusting themselves.
In the late afternoon, I sat alone on the porch. The sun was already low. Long shadows stretched across the street.
Elara sat beside me.
"You heard it too, didn't you?"
"What?"
"The sound of steel early this morning."
"I did."
"It's good, sometimes. To remember that we still know how to fight. Even when we don't need to."
I kept looking at the street.
"I don't want the next fight to catch us off guard."
"It won't."
"How can you be so sure?"
She shrugged.
"Because now we're not waiting for danger to arrive. We're preparing before it does."
That brought me a strange sense of confidence.
When night came, we had dinner in comfortable silence. Nothing heavy. Nothing tense.
Before going to sleep, I went back to the yard alone for a few minutes.
I stood in the same place where Lyannis had been that morning.
I closed my eyes.
And listened.
The wind.
The leaves.
The silence.
And, in my memory, the sound of steel cutting through the air.
This time, it didn't sound like a warning.
It sounded like a reminder.
I was still in control.