Foundation of Smoke and Steel

Chapter 193

DanielDaniel found them by sound.

The courtyard noise reached him halfway down the corridor: steel ringing, Nathan shouting instruction with the energy of a man who had discovered his calling approximately twenty minutes ago, and beneath all of it a younger voice working hard to keep up.

He turned the corner and stopped.

Ryan was moving well. That was the first surprise. Daniel had half-expected to find his youngest brother being put through something embarrassing, but what he saw instead was a boy who had clearly been at this for a while, breathing hard, sweat at his collar, feet finding the ground with the particular focus of someone who had stopped thinking and started doing.

Nathan was pushing him without mercy and loving every second of it.

"The foundation of cultivation and practice is the physical body, younger Zhou," Nathan said, circling. "I have shirked my duties for too long. But worry not. I shall get you into fighting shape so that we may destroy thy enemies together."

Daniel pressed his hand over his face and walked over to Gavin and Lucas, who were watching from the side with the particular expression of men who had decided this was not their problem.

"Someone want to tell me what's happening?" he said, coming up behind them.

Gavin and Lucas exchanged a look. Both shrugged.

Gavin answered first. "Nathan kept saying something about making sure your younger brother was protected and not insulted. He thought Ryan had been bullied, or was being bullied, or was about to be bullied. With Nathan, once he gets worked up, the details tend to blur together."

Lucas added, "It's actually worse than that. Apparently a few months ago, Ryan's girl was approached by someone. Nathan found out, and according to the servants who witnessed it, he punched himself in the face for failing his duties as an older brother-in-law to Ryan. Then he made an impassioned speech about destroying the offending family. The speech was compelling but somewhat unclear on the specifics."

Daniel raised an eyebrow. "The fact that the two of you are this calm about it either gives me a lot of hope or a lot of concern. I genuinely can't tell which."

They exchanged another look, both visibly amused. Lucas answered. "Don't worry too much. Nathan talks about destroying families and enemies fairly regularly. He wanted to destroy a gang last year because they'd been sniffing around Sabine."

Daniel let out a slow breath. "So what you're telling me is that Nathan is mostly talk, and this will blow over."

Gavin raised an eyebrow. "We didn't say that at all. Nathan absolutely destroyed that gang. Thirty members, give or take, when he went to politely ask their leader to leave Sabine alone. They attacked him first. It didn't go well for them."

Daniel went slightly pale.

Gavin continued, "I don't think he's actually going to wipe out the Wei family over this. But in fairness, what happened to Ryan's girl was unacceptable. If Vivian hadn't already threatened to crush them under the family's political weight, and Nathan had decided to go over and make his own point, I wouldn't have been against it."

Daniel exhaled. He really should have known better by now. This entire family, seriously.

Just then Nathan's voice cut across the yard with the volume of a man who had spent years competing with battlefield noise. "Again. Keep that bastard's face in your sights, Ryan. How dare he touch your woman."

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Ryan's rhythm faltered. "She's not actually my — "

"Again," Nathan said, as though he had not heard a word.

"Master Nathan, she's not — "

"The blade, younger Zhou. Focus. Picture the white of his eyes. And the red that will fill them as he's run through with your blade."

Ryan looked briefly at the sky with the expression of a man appealing to a higher authority, found no help there, and kept moving. The blade came up in a line that was rough but real, and Nathan corrected his form with quick taps to his feet, legs, and wrists before stepping back and pointing at the space between them with his sheathed sword.

"There. That gap. What do you do with that?"

Ryan hesitated.

"I've shown you the three basic forms and the mana method. Don't think. Move."

Ryan moved, wrong direction, but he moved, and Nathan grinned like that was exactly what he had wanted. The exchange that followed was clean, three moves. Ryan ended up disarmed, but his mana application had been almost correct, and there was something real underneath the roughness.

Gavin watched for another moment, then crossed his arms. "You can't just have him mimic Ethan's mana method, little brother. He's not done growing yet. It could strain his meridians."

Nathan did not look at him. "He's definitely not done growing. The Brother-in-Law has added two inches since he came to the estate. His mana method adjusts in real time. The Zhou family's disposition allows for it, even under heavy application."

"There's no way you can know that with certainty. We wouldn't want to hamper his development. Maybe I should take over his training. You're a prodigy, little brother, but you seriously lack as a teacher. His footwork needs correction."

"His footwork is perfectly fine. He doesn't need leverage yet. He needs to learn to commit. The natural leverage point will adjust as he grows more comfortable with the application. You're getting too bogged down in the details, eldest brother. And who wouldn't want me as their master?"

"He can't commit properly with a misaligned base."

Ryan looked between them with the expression of a man watching two people argue about how best to help him drown.

Lucas walked up, studied Ryan's grip for approximately three seconds, and silently adjusted it.

Ryan looked down at his own hand as though he had never seen it before.

"Which—" he started.

"Feet," said Nathan.

"Base," said Gavin.

Lucas said nothing and repositioned his elbow.

Daniel watched from just behind the three of them as they argued about Ryan's method, positioning, grip, and anything else within reach. Then he felt a presence settle beside him without announcement.

He did not need to look.

Caleb stood at his shoulder, arms folded, taking in the scene with an expression that lived somewhere between amusement and genuine concern for their brother's sanity.

In the yard, Ryan attempted to incorporate all three corrections simultaneously and achieved none of them. He caught himself before he went fully off balance, straightened, and looked at the three men around him with the expression of a person standing in a river being handed buckets.

Caleb exhaled. Almost a laugh.

"How long has this been going on?" he asked.

"Not entirely clear," Daniel said. "At least as long as I've been away meeting with Mother and the others. How much do you know about Marissa Lin's condition?"

Caleb's expression shifted slightly. "Not much. I heard it was worse than initially thought."

"The corruption is deeper set than anyone expected. That's why they brought Yu Meishan in. Apparently her spirit cultivation has specific properties against demonic energy."

Caleb almost smiled at that. "Little surprise you didn't know that going in, little brother."

Daniel was slightly caught off guard by the ease in his tone. "I can't know everything. That's for sure."

"Doesn't really stop you from trying, does it."

It wasn't quite a question. Daniel didn't answer it.

Another beat of quiet settled between them, the kind that had weight without being hostile, two people who had not yet worked out what they were to each other in this life, standing next to each other anyway.

In the yard, Ryan had stopped trying to reconcile the three competing voices and was simply moving, the sword finding a line that was rough but honest. Nathan pushed harder. Ryan held.

Caleb watched, and something in his face changed, small, almost invisible, but there.

"He grew up," Caleb said quietly.

Daniel looked at Ryan, then back at Caleb.

"Yeah," he said. "He did."

They stood in silence for a moment.

"Go ahead and say what you want to say, Caleb. I was always willing to listen."

Caleb gave him a sharp look, measuring. "I can't. Not yet. But know that I know."

Daniel raised an eyebrow. "Know what exactly?"

"That I was wrong." Caleb held his gaze, something direct and unguarded in it that Daniel had not seen from him before. "And I know what's coming. I want to help."