She started before dawn.
She walked to where he was sitting on his bedroll still finishing the last of the morning ration and said "stand up" in the tone of someone who had already decided the day's itinerary and wasn't presenting it for discussion.
He stood up.
"Leave the pack," she said. "We walk and work simultaneously. You don't get to stop moving because you're learning something."
He left the pack as she instructed, curious to know why.
Seraphine picked it up without comment and added it to her carry without being asked, settling the extra weight across her shoulders with the quiet efficiency of someone resolving a logistical problem before it became one. She caught his look and shrugged fractionally.
He waited until she was ready, then started walking.
The first hour wasn't sparring. It wasn't even close to sparring.
Valeria walked beside him on the road and talked about his feet.
Specifically about everything wrong with them.
