Ivan was nearby. If anyone looked at him, he might have thought him to be dead.<br/>The truth was far more marvelous. Ivan was practicing the Ambushing Darkness Meditation of the Ebon Dragon Form - a skill that, whispers said, was much more necessary for those who could infuse the Ebon Shadow Form with magical power and the slinking of outwordly shadows...<br/>But it was also crucial to reaching the necessary state for performing the moves of the form correctly, so he practiced it regularly all the same. Bound was always wondering what all of this was about.<br/>Some day he might show her...<br/>But not now. Now, the artist was waiting for the directions of Karal Daila. And they were incoming, he knew. Her face was clearly worried when she had passed through the camp on the way to the tent.<br/><br/>The "corpse" rose, pulling a knife and stabbing in a single motion.<br/>There was nothing but air, since Ivan was merely practicing a familiar move. But he fell back to the ground as if to avoid the counter of a mortally wounded foe, than rolled in a wheel, ending on top of the invisible enemy, and "slit his throat".<br/>Then he wiped the non-existent blood from his blade, and sheathed it.<br/>It was exactly the moment that a distant wolf chose to howl in the darkness. Ivan looked in its direction and smiled.<br/>Was that a portent for "wolf times" included? In his city-state that phrase meant "time of intense danger and opportunities for the daring"...<br/><br/>Hopefully that was the case, he reasoned. There hasn't been any job since Bound showed him where to enlist, and he didn't want to get rusty.