The Sovereign Codex.

Lord Cassian Orreth

Training began before the sun had fully risen over the hills. The first command issued was to run. Around the camp in a continuous loop. Edrin’s legs were accustomed to long hours spent in the fields, but this running required a different kind of endurance that he was still getting used to. The pace did not slow down. Instructors yelled at any recruit who fell out of rhythm. A recruit from the western villages collapsed during the second lap, and they just left him there on the ground until everyone else finished.

Then they moved on to wooden weapons that were heavy and unbalanced. The edges were rough, and some parts had splinters. Edrin’s hands, which were already rough due to working with a hoe and rope, quickly started to develop blisters within an hour. The drills required repetitive motions like raising, striking, and recovering. Instructors walked along the lines with thin rods. If anyone made a mistake in angle, there would be a sharp crack on the shoulders. Several men knelt down before midday, but no orders were given for any kind of help.

Formations were even more difficult. Edrin understood the shape they needed to form, but his body could not stay still. When he noticed an opening in the line, he would move toward it without thinking, and the instructor caught him each and every time.

“Hold your place!” The rod struck hard against Edrin’s back. He staggered, adjusted himself, and made the same mistake again an hour later, leading to another punishment. By the third day, the skin beneath his shirt felt sore and sensitive.

Taren faced different kinds of challenges. He did not have the endurance necessary for long runs nor the strength to effectively hold heavy shields. His arms trembled when he had to hold the wooden sword for too long. However, his eyes were always alert, and he seemed to hear commands even before they were fully spoken. He would position himself in formations a moment before others, which meant the instructors rarely scolded him about where he stood.

They started training in close proximity without any intent to do so. Taren would quietly whisper the next command just loud enough for Edrin to catch it, and Edrin would then move a step sooner. No more words were exchanged during the exercises. At night, when it was quiet inside the tent, Taren would discuss formations or how the instructors seemed to pay more attention to certain individuals rather than others. Edrin tended to listen more than he talked. They slowly became friends, almost by accident, probably because life kept pushing them together in ways they could not avoid.

The differences between the two types of recruits became more visible with each passing day.

The nobles trained in a separate yard. Their swords were real and had clean edges, the right weight, and they had already spent several years practicing motions that the common recruits were still struggling to learn. Whenever the two groups crossed paths on the trails, the common recruits always stepped aside.

Edrin was carrying a practice shield that had a crack in it when Cassian’s group came through the narrow gap between the tents. The others quickly moved out of the way, but Edrin moved slower, and the shield got caught on a tent rope for a moment.

Cassian stopped as he noticed Edrin.

He looked young with a clean jawline, and his eyes seemed to expect the world to change for him. He examined Edrin from head to toe as if Edrin were an oddity in his view.

“Do people from Rhel never learn how to stand before nobility?”

Edrin held Cassian’s gaze directly. “People from Rhel mainly learned farming.”

A few recruits behind Edrin let out a short, nervous laugh, but Cassian did not smile. He stared at Edrin’s face for what felt like a long moment, as if trying to memorize it, then moved on without saying anything further as his group followed after him.

That night, Taren sat close in the dark of the tent. “Making nobles remember you is rarely useful,” he spoke quietly.

Edrin played with the old knife that had belonged to his father, flipping it between his fingers. “He will probably forget by tomorrow.”

Taren did not reply after that.

Morning brought the same sun light, The assignments were posted on a rough board set up near the cooking fires. Men gathered around the board. Edrin waited until the crowd thinned out before he stepped forward to look for his name.

His group had been assigned a new supervising officer.

Lord Cassian Orreth.