Chapter 34: Astra Ashbourne Does Not Lose Sparring Sessions

She was already there when he arrived.

Five forty three in the morning and Astra was standing in the center of the training ground with two wooden swords and the expression of someone who had been waiting long enough to have opinions about it. Not annoyed. Just present. The way a blade was present in a sheath, completely still and completely ready and not confused about what it was for.

Orion had slept six hours which was two more than the night before and one less than he needed but close enough. Cultivation thread active from the moment he’d woken up, holding it through dressing and eating and the walk here, the stability-under-movement work becoming background process rather than foreground effort.

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