God's Blessing is a Curse

The wind changed before the breakthrough came.

It had been warm the week before—too warm for late autumn—but that morning a chill had crept into the clearing. The trees had lost their color overnight. The scene of firewood drifted from distant homes down in the valley.

Genzo said nothing about it. But he'd been watching the sky all day.

That meant something was shifting.

And something was.

***

My body moved on instinct now. Parry. Step. Strike. Reset. The forms Genzo drilled into me had me become more than movement. They were rhythm. Memory. Breath.

But something still held me back.

"You hesitate at the last step,

" he said. "Every time."

"I don't know why."