Location: Obsidian Academy
Date/Time: 19–22 Emberrise, 9939 AZI
Realm: Lower Realm
Heizan was eating a peach.
He sat cross-legged on the training ground wall, bare feet dangling over the edge, peach juice running down his chin and dripping onto faded practice robes that might have been black once but had surrendered to a shade of greyish-brown sometime during the previous century. The dawn light caught the iron-grey of his hair — thinning at the temples, tied back with what appeared to be a strip torn from a student's discarded belt — and outlined a frame that was lean to the point of gaunt, ropy muscle under deep brown skin that had been weathered into something resembling old leather.
He looked like a caretaker who'd wandered onto the training grounds by accident.
Jayde had stopped believing that on the second day.
"You're late," Heizan said. He didn't look up from the peach. His voice was mild — the mildness of a blade so sharp it didn't need to announce itself.
