The usual routes weren't as safe as they used to be.

That's what Rian had told himself as he'd picked out the sword and that was what he told himself as he stood in a familiar clearing in the middle of the night, his surroundings lit only by the quarter moon.

With a deep breath, he began working through exercises he'd not done since before the war. His new sword was smaller and lighter than what he'd used then, but it was enough.

Maybe he could even pick up a bit of guard work...

Rian smiled beneath the waning quarter-moon.