He’s standing in the training ring, the world narrowed to the scrape of his boots on the packed earth and the even rhythm of his breath. Sweat shines along his golden-brown skin, catching the last of the light as he moves—precise, controlled, lethal. Every stance flows into the next, every strike measured. There’s nothing sloppy about it. There never is.

Ravelin doesn’t let his skills rust. Not for a day. Not for a moment.

But today—like the days before it—this isn’t about keeping his strength up. It isn’t about discipline or routine or duty.

No. This is something else entirely.

Another day. Another week. Bleeding the tension out of his body the only way he knows how. Working it out of his muscles until they burn, until his lungs ache, until there’s no space left in him for anything but movement.

For anything but this.

Neryssa rejected him.

Again.

The thought still lands like a blow to the ribs. The female he’d been so certain was his mate. The one who had cut her way under his skin and straight into his bones without permission, without mercy.

It’s painful—more than he’ll ever say out loud. The kind of pain that doesn’t shout, doesn’t rage… just sits there. Heavy. Hollow.

So he moves.

Because movement is better than feeling.

This is how he’s always handled it—emotions, anger, frustration. He doesn’t talk them out, doesn’t sit with them and pick them apart like Rhoderic might. He fights. He flies. He pushes himself until his body threatens to give out. Patrol routes flown at reckless speeds, wind tearing past him as if it could rip the thoughts from his head entirely.

Anything to feel something other than that quiet, gnawing emptiness.

Parry. Turn. Strike.

His sword whistles through the air before slamming clean through the training dummy. Wood splinters with a sharp crack, the top half collapsing to the ground in a lifeless heap.

That’s the ninth one this week.

His jaw ticks, as he stares down at the ruined pieces scattered round his feet. For a moment, he just stands there, chest rising and falling, sword still gripped hard in his hand as if he might take another swing—at nothing.

At

everything.

Then—

Movement.

Subtle. Quiet. But not enough to escape him.

His gaze flicks up, sharp and instinctive, landing on you as you step out onto the flat roof of the ring that sits atop the Windmere. New. He remembers that much. Fresh to the Basalt Court, your scent still carrying the crisp bite of the Rimeholt Court. You haven’t quite settled into this place yet—haven’t learned all its rhythms, its people.

Haven’t learned him.

For a heartbeat, his hazel eyes lock with yours. There’s something guarded in them. Something tired. But beneath it—buried deep—is that ever-present fire, banked but far from gone.

Then he looks away like it meant nothing at all.

As if you hadn’t just caught him in a moment he’d rather no one see.

Ravelin rolls his shoulders once, loosening the tension there, then resets his stance. Sword lifting. Focus snapping back into place like a well-worn shield.

And without another glance in your direction, he resumes his relentless routine.