The martial training continued for more than the few weeks. Hvare's lessons remained individual - the group training was next, as Self learned from Fan after asking about the shield wall. The lessons gradually settled into a repetitive pattern - Hvare would demonstrate a new technique, the students would practice. The students would then be made to run laps, then practice some more. Then they would be put through a series of each of the previous lessons, which now included wooden rings tossed in the air by assistants, for striking through, and wooden staves shoved into the ground. Self broke several staves on the latter practice.

Finally, they'd spar. Shields and bucklers were introduced; the former, held in the hand, the latter strapped to both arms. Hvare's lessons taught the use of all four objects as a unified whole. Techniques used the tip of the staves they used as spears, the butt, and two points halfway between the grips and either end. In sparring, when using the shield, they were additionally expected to use it to strike, and when using the bucklers, those as well.

The practice was complex; it was difficult to remember the multiple ways to strike their opponent, and Hvare split the sparring sessions between teaching Self, and walking amidst the other students, barking at them whenever they started to focus on only one element of attack, or when they fell into predictable patterns.

Hvare's lessons gave Self a reference point for order; Harabi's, for chaos. Every lesson Hvare gave built on the previous, both through repetition, and also through increasing complexity. Harabi's lessons had repetition - sometimes word for word - but it wasn't planned. An hour might include a discussion of the amount of water a soldier needed on the road per day given the weather and the workload, and also the appropriate and inappropriate times for volleys versus free loosing - volleys were better for breaking morale, but inflicted fewer actual casualties, as they were both more visibly damaging even given the fewer deaths they caused, but also easier to defend against than random arrows.

Self's evenings were often spent with Fan and Sidou. And it was with them, seated in the common dining area as Fan spoke over cooling food while Sidou quietly looked down at an already empty plate, when the news of the fall of Southreach arrived.

"I heard Alima and Tachim made it out, but they were the only ones." A messenger and two apprentices had arrived; the messenger went to Zana, and one of the apprentices, clothes still covered in dust and sand from the journey, was eating while discussing the matter with a djinn that Self did not know. "Twenty eight loop-bound, and only one got out, and a few hundred djinn. The communities are all gone."

Sidou spoke a little more now, but was still characteristically quiet as the news reached them; Fan's silence, on the other hand, was somewhat more unusual. The entire dining hall was listening to the conversation taking place over a meal. The djinn sitting across from the messenger, short and wide-set, with a deeper red tint, asked in response, "Tachim? That name isn't familiar."

"The new loop-bound. Deige and Riss were training Tachim when the attack came; they returned to help in the defense, and sent Alima with Tachim to warn Cliffwater. They didn't make it before the peri arrived."

The news, judging by the reactions of the djinn around, was grim. There had been nine communities in the Southreach, and less than a thousand djinn had escaped; the messenger thought more than a hundred peri loop-bound had been sent, and at least seventy had been destroyed in the fighting.

Conversations began rising throughout the hall, as the news began circulating to those who had been sitting on the far end from the messenger, and djinn began discussing the news.

"We will sent a retaliatory force." Sidou spoke, tones intense with a mixture of anger and fear. "They destroyed nine of our border communities; we'll burn twenty seven of theirs before we're done." Fan's spectacles got an adjustment.

"The thieves of infants know where this ends. The last time they raided, the div took the opportunity to take a third of their lands as their own, and we ruined another third."

Neither Self nor Sidou had anything to say to this, and they settled into a companionable silence, Fan and Sidou picking up their utensils to resume eating. Self had found that their company was something to look forward to each day, that the world felt a little less empty when they were around. They, in turn, seemed happy to include Self in their activities.

Self found a question, typically, several minutes after the conversation had drifted on, or in this case ended. "How do the div win any fights? They don't have loop-bound." There was a lengthy silence, in which Fan and Sidou shared a look. Sidou finally spoke.

"Iron and magic." Another silence, until Self realized that was the whole of the response.

"What is iron?" The word had no conceptual referent. Fan responded this time.

"The blood of the earth, that man digs from the ground. The div trade for it, make weapons and armor out of it. It sometimes rains from the heavens, as well; the div treasure the blood of the heavens. They also make cages and traps out of it, that even loop-bound cannot escape." Fan's voice carried disgust. "Never touch it, it carries the earth's curse upon it; if it comes from the heavens it is worse still."

Self considered this for a moment. The blood of the earth, made into weapons and armor. "Why would anyone use such a thing?"

"Because they're rapacious, uncivilized demons. Well, the div, anyways. Man is just uncivilized, stupid." Fan shoved the last few pieces of food away. "At least they kill the peri."

Sidou wore an expression Self couldn't identify. "They kill us, too. And they put our loop-bound in cages of iron and bury them."

"Rapacious, uncivilized demons, yeah. But at least they kill the peri."

"The div and the peri fight each other more than either fight us," Sidou turned to Self to explain. "Their ancestors fought in the coldlands before coming to our lands. The peri came first, and we fought them, and then the div came. At first they just fought the peri, and nearly won, but then they turned on us as well, and we fought them to a stalemate."

Self found this more than satisfactory, although had some curiosity about iron, and went back through the conversation. "And magic? I have some idea of magic, but nothing of magic in war." Self's concepts for magic included rituals for fertility, for curing illness and healing injury.

"The demons mostly fight with iron, but they have mages, as well, who throw fire and lightning, and can hold back even loop-bound for a time." It was Fan, again, who continued with pride, "Their fires do little against us, and their lightning only little more. Our natural magic is better."

"Fighting us, the div mostly hold the loop-bound to be bound in sky-iron, while their warriors do the bulk of the fighting." Sidou added. "We have an advantage fighting them; their iron is poison, and the wounds are nasty, but only sky-iron burns us the way earth iron burns any of the peri, and they have little of it. Earth iron won't hold our loop-bound very well."

Self made a mental note to ask Harabi and Hvare about the use of magic and iron in combat, as it hadn't come up in the lessons of either.

The conversation gradually lightened again; while the news was grim, it was something for Zana and Hadi to consider. But it was ultimately the failure and the responsibility of Setareh, who was responsible for the protection of all communities, and while there was some discussion of the failure involved, Self noticed it was more in consideration of how Setareh would respond, than a belief that Setareh had been failed.

The meal came to an end, and djinn began filtering out of the hall to resume their duties. Self's personal room felt empty, once more.

Self had been considering a new name, but had yet to decide on one. It was important, and the conversation had a ... resonance, with Self. Iron, the blood of the earth and heavens. A potent weapon against the peri, who had brought destruction to Southreach.

Soha slowly nodded.