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She was sh of course it was dark so she didn’t know he could see her s, he still wanted to die
She said, "I’ue darted out to moisten her lips, an odd, hot point in the cool, dark hall "I… have soht She could see sub-red Her color was down farther on the spectruotten it on her own She took her arm back, aardly
Kip squared his shoulders, put his head down, and followed Ironfist down the halls It was only a couple of turns before Ironfist took them into a room He manipulated some mechanism Kip probably wouldn’t have understood even if he’d been able to see it in visible light, and the ceiling began glowing, a war rooing in a corner while Kip and Teia looked around There were bea duht up in various zones to train quickness, punching bags of sawdust and leather, wooden blocking trees, a pile of cushioned body arets, and padded weapons of every sort
"This is the Pris roo strips of cloth in each hand "Give ave hi a strip of cloth around his wrist
"It’s ti," Ironfist said
"What’s that, sir?" Adrasteia asked
"There are three scrubs I absolutely can’t let fail"
"Who?" she asked
"Kip, because his father asked me not to"
Teia looked over at him, obviously not happy with the injustice of that Kip blushed, then scowled
Ironfist continued: "Cruxer, because he’s got the potential to be the best Blackguard in a generation"
"Hoould he fail out? He’s the best of us by far," Teia said
"Only through bad luck But it could happen Could, but I won’t let it And the third is you, Teia"
"Me?" she asked She sounded genuinely shocked
"Your color," Coh cloth, which means you can see concealed weapons In a nors Your peers would be angry, but in the fullness of time they’d realize you’re worth any five of theht at all I can’t do that, not this year If I pass you on and you’re terrible, it’ll be another blow to the Blackguards’ confidence It’s i obvious mediocrities to our ranks, it hurts everyone Thus, a bastard and an outer-spectruood as everyone else Teia, you’ve been hiding how good you are, but without drafting, you’ll have to get lucky to make it at your current skill level, and Kip’s a year behind the top students So you both get extra practice, and less sleep"