Chapter 5: The Weight of a Fist

The morning bell had not yet rung when Ryu Jin slipped out of the Windstep dormitory, his ironwood staff resting on his shoulder like a familiar burden. The air was cold and thin, carrying the scent of pine and distant smoke. He moved through the quiet corridors, past the training yards where straw dummies stood like silent sentinels, and into a narrow gap between the Stone Bastion armory and the...