Arvid came down the stairs with a weapon case under one arm and the unhurried manner of someone who had done this many times and had no investment in how quickly it concluded.
He set the case on the bench along the wall and looked at Cael standing in the middle of the training floor and said nothing for a moment, running whatever assessment his Armourer class gave him, the read that went beyond visual, the soul-level evaluation of a person's relationship to weapons and force.
'Before we start,' Arvid said. 'Tell me what you know about Fracture weapons.'
Cael looked at him. 'Is this part of the assessment?'
'Everything from when you walked in is part of the assessment,' Arvid said, betraying a hint of impatience. 'Answer the question.'
Cael thought about six years of reading guild publ
