LUCIAN'S LAST MOVE
He came to find me the next morning.
I was in the training yard with Soren, working the broad-range anchoring technique that had been resisting me for two weeks. I felt Lucian's approach before I heard his footsteps, not through the bond, just the ordinary awareness of someone moving toward you with purpose.
I finished the drill. Dropped the training dummy from twelve feet using only ground contact. Soren raised an eyebrow that meant he was impressed and would not say so directly.
Then I turned.
Lucian stood at the yard entrance with his hands in his jacket pockets and his expression arranged into something that was trying to be casual and was not quite achieving it. He looked like a man who had made a decision he was still justifying to himself.
"Good morning," I
