Liora touched my coat with the point of her sword.
I looked down at it.
"I was outside your reach."
"You were outside the reach you gave me."
She lowered the blade and returned to the starting mark. We were moving slowly enough for Veylan to watch from the bench without interrupting. My right arm rested in its support. A light practice blade occupied my left hand, where it seemed to gain weight whenever somebody expected me to use it properly.
Liora's repaired grip looked ordinary. The outer wrap had been seated again after Kara found the raised edge. Its formal load inspection was still due before the match, so today involved controlled placements rather than hard exchanges.
Apparently, she didn't need a hard exchange to make me look foolish.
I checked the fold she'd touched. Nothing on the cloth explained how confidently I'd decided it was out of reach a moment earlier.
"You were looking at the wrong end of me," she said.
"I thought the sharp end deserved attention."
