Word of Kael Verenthis traveled through Ashenveil the way fire traveled through dry timber — fast, hot, and with the particular brightness that dangerous things acquired when observed by people who had never seen anything like them.
Within three days, the War College's sparring yard became the most attended facility on campus. Cadets watched. Officers watched. Academy students — including Ryn and his cohort — found reasons to visit the military quarter. The rumor network, always efficient when transmitting extraordinary claims, had elevated the stranger from "skilled fighter" to "unbeatable phenomenon" in the time it took the institutional bureaucracy to process his enrollment paperwork.
