The next morning, the training yard filled as usual.
Jenna took her place at the front of the cavalry ranks with the same aggressive posture she always used.
The difference showed the moment the first set began.
Every time she dropped into a low stance or pivoted hard, her legs trembled.
The shake was visible. She locked her jaw and forced the movement through anyway, refusing to yield form or speed. Sweat darkened the leather across her chest faster than the women around her.
On the platform, Misha watched with quiet interest. Thora stood beside her, arms crossed, a small, satisfied curve at the corner of her mouth. Sira leaned on the railing and made no effort to hide the short laugh that escaped when Jenna’s knee almost buckled on a particularly deep lunge.
Seraphine noticed all of it and simply trained them harder.
"Again," she called, voice carrying cleanly across the packed dirt.
"If your legs shake, your stance is still too high. Drop lower. Hold it longer. The ranking is finished. Now we build what the ranking revealed."
Jenna reset without complaint and dropped lower.
The tremor in her thighs intensified. She held the position until Seraphine released the count, then rose and moved to the next drill without looking toward the platform.
Kane left them to it.
He took an open stretch of ground near the far wall and worked through his own forms with Mjoldr.
The axe moved in controlled arcs, each strike precise, each pivot loading power through his hips and core. He had cleared the morning’s first rotation when a familiar weight settled across his back.
Kessa climbed on as if she belonged there, tiger-striped thighs bracketing his ribs, hands resting lightly on his shoulders for balance.
Kane adjusted without comment and dropped into push-ups, the added load of the beastwoman forcing every muscle in his arms and chest to work harder.
"I’m going with you," Kessa said above him.
"I know."
"You might die."
"Not my first time."
She stretched out along his back as he continued the count, cheek resting between his shoulder blades, striped arms folding under her chin.
"I have seen Grathak biting the head off the previous emperor when he was fifteen," she said, voice almost conversational.
"He’s not a normal opponent, Kane. He’s as strong as a divine familiar."
Kane slowed for two full repetitions, absorbing the information, then resumed the steady rhythm.
"I’m not going for a fight."
Kessa’s smile was audible in her voice.
"You always say that before killing off someone."
He smiled despite himself, the expression hidden from her by the angle.
"Grathak must have already known you would be coming."
Kane tilted his head slightly, still moving through the push-ups. He knew of no one inside the Beastworld capable of that kind of warning.
The region had always been fogged and restricted even in the game.
"How?"
"His sister. Marisa. She can see the future."
Kane filed the name away.
A fortune-teller sister changed the approach. He wasn’t the type to walk into prepared traps, but anticipation was different.
Anticipation meant Grathak would already have the packs positioned, the guardian alert, and the breeding grounds ready for whatever walked out of the trees.
"We’ll deal with that," he said.
Kessa hummed in acknowledgment and stayed draped across his back until he finished the set.
When he finally stopped and sat back on his heels, she slid off, stripes shifting across her skin in the morning light.
"Three days," she said. "I’ll be ready."
"I know."
Night settled over the keep with the same quiet weight as the previous evenings.
Kane left the study later than usual.
Thora and Misha had already drifted into early sleep after the long day of observation and quiet commentary. He stepped into the corridor intending only to clear his head before joining them.
Two figures waited in the shadow of the eastern stair.
Vessa stepped forward first.
She was tall for a southern captain, broad-shouldered, with warm brown skin and dark hair kept in a braid that hung over one shoulder.
Her training leather had been exchanged for a simple sleeveless wrap that left the strong lines of her arms and the curve of her breasts bare to the cool air. Muscle showed clearly along her stomach and thighs, practical strength rather than ornament.
Beside her stood Rina.
Where Vessa was solid and grounded, Rina was longer-limbed, almost willowy, with pale skin that caught the corridor torchlight and ash-blonde hair cut short enough to stay out of her eyes during drills.
Her wrap sat lower on her hips, and the thin fabric did little to hide the high, firm shape of her breasts or the narrow waist that flared into surprisingly full hips.
She carried herself with the confidence of someone who had ranked third for three straight days without ever raising her voice.
Vessa spoke first.
"Ranking’s finished. You took Jenna alone. We’re still waiting."
Kane stopped a few paces away.
"You pulled me into a corridor to tell me that?"
Rina’s mouth curved slightly.
"We pulled you into a corridor to finish what the board started. Jenna refused to share. We didn’t."
Vessa stepped closer.
"Our barracks room is empty. Door locks. No one will interrupt. You already know what first, second, and third means in this empire. Jenna claimed the private night. We’re claiming the one that comes after."
Kane looked between them, the southern captain with her solid, powerful frame and the leaner, sharper Rina whose pale skin already showed a faint flush across her collarbones.
"You’re both still ranking under Seraphine’s drills tomorrow."
"We’ll manage," Vessa said. "We’ve managed worse."
Rina’s voice was quieter, but no less certain.
"Jenna could barely walk this morning. We watched. We also watched you leave her room at midnight and not return. That means you still have something left. We’re here to take it."
Kane exhaled slowly through his nose.
These two had waited their turn without forcing the issue in the yard. That restraint carried its own weight.
"One night," he said. "No claims. No attempts to turn it into ranking leverage afterward."
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