We had a great lunch. Nice and hot, steaks and potatoes, salad and bread; all cooked for us and served on plates. It felt almost civilised. Finger Roberts warned us not to get too used to it because, he said, our second phase of training would be hard.

After lunch, we got called to see Fist Ryon. We were directed to a room in the main base that looked like a mini conference center, similar to but larger than the one that we had been in to receive our first briefing on arrival on War World. Sitting at a table in the front of the room was Fist Ryon, and he was flanked by Hand Evans and a couple of the other Hand Leaders that I hadn't met yet. I was directed to the front row of seats facing the table and I sat, with the rest of the Finger following suit. It looked as if we were the last to enter the room as there were a number of other people in the ‘spectator’ seats, and after we entered the door was closed.

Once we were settled, Fist Ryon looked around the room and then called on Finger Roberts. He proceeded to grill Finger Roberts about all the aspects of the training that we had been through, with the odd question thrown in by one or the other of the Hand Leaders sitting at the table, and even a few questions from the seats behind us. Once he was finished with Finger Roberts, he moved on to me and I had to tell it all again. I explained everything that had happened to me from my perspective, although I left out any reference to S'Alor as I figured that would just cloud the waters. After that, there was some too-and-froing with questions put to us both, mostly just to clarify something that we had said. Once that was out of the way, Hand Evans took over from Fist Ryon and started on a different tack.

“Can you explain to me the tactical choices you made in the two battles you had today Cy?” he asked in a rather friendly voice. He had the ability to make it seem as if we were the only people in the room and were having a little chat over a drink, not as aggressive as Fist Ryon at all.

“Sure Hand Evans. I decided that we would have to approach the first battle as if we were in the meleé ...” I started out and proceeded to go through both battles step by step, explaining exactly why I made the choices I had and being forced to think about them to answer the questions. A lot of the details of the action had happened so fast, I couldn't believe that they had even been seen, never mind having to explain and justify them. I decided that Hand Leader Evans was an absolute master at debriefing as he wrung me completely dry without ever making me feel defensive or scared to voice an opinion or to shade what I was saying to satisfy what I thought he wanted to hear.

It was impossible to tell what he thought about the things he was asking; there were no clues from his face or his voice. Each member of my Finger got a chance to answer questions from him, and then he moved on to Lorraine's Finger and repeated the process. It was an incredible learning experience for me, as it showed me how a proper post-combat debrief should be run, and also taught me how to look at the action from all sides and extract ‘lessons learnt’.

Once Hand Evans was finished, Fist Ryon took over again. He summarised what had been discussed in the first part of the session and then thanked us all for cooperating so well in the second.

“Do you think you would be able to demonstrate your Sword Dance to us?” Fist Ryon asked.

“I would be only too happy to do so,” I replied and the whole crowd of us moved outside.

Once we were all outside, Fist Ryon asked “Please demonstrate the Sword Dance and then, if possible, pull me and a few others into it.”

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“I will try my best Fist,” I told him.

I focused on moving into the meditative state and entered it smoothly and easily. I started doing the Sword Dance and without any concious thought swept my Finger up into doing it with me. Once I started, I contacted Fist Ryon mentally and went through the same process of showing him what was required as I had done with the others the first time I showed them the Dance.

Fist Ryon caught on incredibly quickly. It was obvious to me that the Battle Mode I had seen in Lorraine's Finger was pretty much the same thing that I had discovered, and that Fist Ryon knew it very well. The difference lay in how I used that state, and in how I applied it to learning.

Within a minute or two Fist Ryon was moving through the forms with us and I moved on to Hand Leader Evans and the other Hand Leaders standing there. Within a very short period of time, they were all moving through the forms with us. On an impulse I swept Lorraine up into it as well, and it turned out that she was only too happy that I had.

Once we were all moving with the forms, I began accelerating both their speed and complexity. After a few minutes, I asked Fist Ryon “[Is there something from your experience that we don't know that you could show me?]”

“[Sure. {image/taste}. How's that?]”

“[Perfect.]”

I took the manoeuvre that Fist Ryon had given me and passed it out to all those involved in the Sword Dance. Once I determined that it had ‘settled’ in all the minds involved, I moved us into the sequence of forms that comprised the manoeuvre. We executed it flawlessly, almost as if it had been something that we had rehearsed. I was feeling pretty good, and a little peeved that Fist Ryon had not taken what he was told about us seriously, so I moved up the pace; getting faster and faster until I hit my limit.

They were all sucked along with me. I kept it up for as long as I could, then started to wind it down and eventually stopped. I looked at Fist Ryon, and could see that I had wasted my time. he was obviously just as fit as we were.

“Dammitalltohell!” exclaimed Fist Ryon. “That was incredible. Amazing to be able to teach and learn like that, and I think I like the Sword Dance. What is your limit on the number of people who can take part knuckle-head?”

It seemed like that was his way of keeping me in place. Not that I minded being called names. I was not something that had ever bothered me. More importantly, it reminded me that I had been told that there was a limit to the number of people that someone at each level could communicate with, and I had just exceeded the limit for a Finger Leader, never-mind that of a ‘knuckle-head’.

“That is the most I have done Fist. I have no idea what my limit is,” I answered him.

“OK. Can you teach anyone else how to do this?”

“I've never tried Fist.”

“Try. This could make a huge difference to us. We will have to think this through. Decide what impact it could have on us.”

He turned and walked away, with all the Hand Leaders following after him. Hand Leader Evans gave me a brief smile and a nod before he left.

“You did good!” Lorraine told me. “I really enjoyed that. I would like you to try and teach me how you do it. I will teach you some of the stuff you need to know in exchange. OK?”

“Sure. Do you know what we are supposed to be doing now?”

“As far as I know, all the others have been assigned barracks. You will be over-nighting here and leaving in the morning,” Lorraine shrugged.

“That's right.” Finger Roberts confirmed. Your room is [here {image/map}]. You are on your own 'till morning. Enjoy." He walked off leaving me with my Finger and Lorraine.

“Cy,” said Desrae, “I'll take the others to our room. Why don't you spend some time with Lorraine and see if you can't teach her what you know?”

“Ok Des. Thanks. See you later.”

“Have fun,” Desrae said and walked off with the others trailing her.

“Let's get to some shade and we can try this,” Lorraine said and I followed her across the parade-ground to collect my kit. We wandered between the trees for a couple of hundred meters until we came into a shaded grove.

“This ought to do it,” Lorraine said and we dumped our kit and looked at each other.