---
He looked past the drones to the pool. The essence lay smooth; the silk cradles held their hum; the chamber's runes breathed the same steady light. He thought of the slope and the pits and the thin doors where the dunes pretend to be harmless.
He thought of Shadeclaw's fist on his shield and Silvershadow's eyes moving ahead of his hands. He thought of Vexor bouncing on the balls of his feet, a man who wanted to move and could now move without wasting breath on "left" and "right."
"Battle drill," he thought, and made a list the way his old fear had taught him to do when fear was still useful.
