The reinforcement guards moved through the canteen with the efficiency of people who had done this enough times that thinking about it was no longer required.
They came in pairs, one to grab, one to cover, and the process had a rhythm to it that Proxy clocked in the first thirty seconds and noted alongside everything else he had been collecting since the morning alarm.
The swordsman needed four of them. Two on the arms, one at the back of the knees, one managing the head, which had opinions of its own.
Four guards occupied with one inmate who had decided to keep being a problem after the room had already decided to stop.
Proxy noted the number and what it implied about the guard-to-difficult-inmate ratio when the inmate in question was genuinely difficult.
