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Halver leaned against the wall beside the entrance with his arms folded, which explained how she'd found the hall, although judging by his expression his contribution had ended after pointing her in the correct direction. Jade stood just inside the marked combat floor with her black hair braided down her back, both thigh holsters secured over her pants and enough knives strapped to her that the weight should have been noticeable on someone her size.

A thin silver bracelet circled her left wrist, a small white crystal set into the clasp. She kept touching the whisper-stone, testing whether it was allowed to stay there. I'd fastened it myself the night before, after dinner, once the others had cleared the table and there was nobody left to turn it into a moment. She caught me looking and stilled her hand at once, the way she stilled anything she thought might be judged.

I looked away and let her keep it.

She hadn't touched any of the equipment I'd arranged the previous evening, but she had clearly inspected it. Her attention traveled over the low wall sections positioned around the floor, the suspended target tracks overhead and the channels where training partitions could rise from beneath the stone.

She paused on the injury-marker bands stacked beside the control table before looking toward the observation gallery above us.

At first I'd thought she simply didn't trust us, which was understandable after one day, but that wasn't all of it. Somebody had taught her to expect permission before ordinary choices, and the file Janus had handed me made it painfully obvious who. Years of schedules, assigned Masters, assessments and Council oversight filled those pages. Other people had decided where she trained, what she learned, where she went and when she was trusted with access to an ability that belonged inside her own body.

The more I understood what that had done to her, the angrier it made me, although none of that anger belonged to Jade. That distinction was becoming increasingly important because I sounded exactly the same either way.

I'd made a decision after dinner the previous night. Jade was Nephrite now, and on deployment I would command her exactly as I commanded Alex, Nykos and Halver. If I told her to hold a position, I expected her to hold it. If I told her to move, she moved. If she saw something I hadn't, knew something that changed the situation or had a problem with her ability, I expected her to tell me before blind obedience turned a bad decision into a dangerous one.

Outside that, I had no intention of becoming another person who controlled her life. The Council had already done enough of that.

Jade had looked different when Alex brought her back from Gledhi after dark. Leaves had caught near the end of her braid, Ashter had padded beside her in solid form and Alex had been talking enough for all three of them, but it was Jade's posture that caught my attention. Her shoulders weren't quite as tight as they had been when she left. I'd asked where they'd been because knowing where two members of my squad had spent half the afternoon was reasonable, and Alex had answered before Jade could.

Gledhi.

Jade's attention had moved directly to me, and I'd watched expectation gather behind her eyes. Where exactly had they gone? Why had she left without telling anyone? How long had she been there? Why Gledhi?

I hadn't asked any of it.

I'd told them Halver had kept dinner warm, and the surprise flickering across her face before she smoothed it away.

"You're early," I said as I crossed farther into the hall.

Jade turned toward me. "So are you. You said six."

"I was supposed to be early." I glanced toward the clock mounted above the doors. "It's five forty."

"Yes. Arriving at six would make me late."

Halver's mouth moved faintly, and when I asked whether he'd told her to arrive this early, he shook his head. Jade frowned between us as though there were something fundamentally wrong with the question. "You said training starts at six."

"Fair." I looked toward the equipment and then back at her. "Integration first. Formation, movement, casualty response and ability coordination. After that we'll run a simulation."

Her shoulders settled slightly. "What position?"

"I haven't decided yet. I know where I'd normally position a healer, but I'm not assuming that's where you belong until I've seen you move with us."

She considered that for a moment, then glanced down at her holsters. "Am I allowed to use my knives, or do you want training blades?"

The irritation caught me before I could stop it. "Stop asking whether you're allowed to use your own things."

Her head snapped up. Her shoulders drew back and whatever ease had appeared while discussing the session disappeared behind something guarded enough that I regretted my tone before the silence even settled.

"That wasn't aimed at you," I said.

"It sounded like it was."

"It did." I opened and closed my hand once at my side, working the temper down to where it actually belonged before I spoke again. "I'm not angry because you asked, Jade. I'm angry at the people who taught you that you need my permission before you can use a knife you own."

She watched me for several seconds while Halver remained wisely uninvolved, her arms still folded the same careful way they'd folded the moment I'd raised my voice, like she hadn't yet decided whether the apology changed anything.

"You're my squad commander," she said finally, "so there are things I need permission for."