The first week was a lesson in pain.
Vane had spent fourteen consecutive nights in the Old Gymnasium, a place that had become more of a home to him than his luxurious room in Villa 3. The dust of the rotted floorboards had settled into his skin, and the smell of stale air was a constant companion. Every morning, he would return to the academic district just as the sun began to leak through the clouds, his muscles twitching with exhaustion and his bones aching with a deep, cold resonance.
He was not training his muscles. He was training his reality.
