Kyrie Ironhowl's Arc

Chapter 12 of 13

Kyrie walked back toward the hall entrance, her blade still wrapped in cloth under her arm. The verification was done. Her design was logged. Now she had to wait for the noble to submit his version—the one built from stolen plans. She just needed to be there when the judges started asking questions. The noble arrived an hour later, carrying a blade wrapped in crimson silk. Kyrie watched from the rear of the hall as he approached the verification stand. The judges unwrapped it, examined the tang, photographed the fuller. One judge tilted her head, then turned to whisper to her colleague. They both frowned. The noble smiled, confident and oblivious. The lead judge gestured toward a moss-covered brick building across the courtyard—the private hearing house where judges challenged flagged entries. The noble's smile faltered. Kyrie's chest tightened. The judges had seen it: the design flaw she'd deliberately left in her stolen plans. The blade matched her submitted design in concept, but the stolen version included a balance error she'd sketched as a dead end two months ago. The noble had forged it exactly as written, never questioning whether the design was sound. The judges beckoned Kyrie forward. She crossed the courtyard and entered the hearing house, where cypress beams framed a quiet room with a single table. The lead judge placed both blades side by side. "Miss Ironhowl," she said, "your submitted blade corrects a structural flaw present in this one. Can you explain why another competitor would replicate your mistake?" Kyrie met the judge's gaze. "Because he stole an earlier draft. That flaw was intentional." The noble's face went pale. The judge nodded once, then turned to him. "You're disqualified." Kyrie left the hearing house with her blade and walked back to the platform. She'd won nothing yet—her rival still stood between her and first place. But she'd protected her work, and that was enough for now.