Seren feels it too—the instinct to drive forward instead of upward. To lean from her center rather than lift from her chest.
Her body reorganizes around momentum.
Cleaner.
More deliberate.
Morecommitted.
She sharpens her pace—not by reaching further, but by turning her steps faster, feet landing beneath her hips, breath settling into controlled rhythm.
She passes one soldier.
Then another.
Heat floods her limbs. Sweat drips down her spine. But something inside her feels… aligned. Purpose traveling through muscle. Motion without hesitation. That hidden, unknown part of her sharpening into a tangible thing.
Across the clearing, Teddy turns sharply. His gaze locks onto her. He watches not her speed—but her mechanics. Her arms are driving too hard now. Crossing slightly across her body. Twisting her torso with each stride. Wasted rotation. Energy leaking away. She can feel it. Can feel the way she’s moving inefficiently—even more so under his gaze.
He moves.
One moment he is across the field—the next he is running beside her, matching her pace effortlessly, his breathing steady, controlled, barely elevated.
“Contain your arms,” he says quietly, but the words land like a physical adjustment. “Forward drive only. Rotation wastes momentum.”
She corrects instantly, arms tightening into cleaner motion.
He watches her feet next.
“You’re lifting your knees to prove effort,” he says. “Effort is irrelevant. Efficiency is everything. Lift only what you must to clear the ground.”
She lowers the motion. Feels the difference immediately—less strain through her hips, less impact through her thighs.
Gods.
He seeseverything.
Every inefficiency.
Every waste.
Every small betrayal of structure.
He knows her body in motion better than he allows himself to know her heart. The realization slices through her ribs—but she runs harder anyway.
If he will not move toward her…
She will move forward regardless.
He tracks her as she pushes beyond the rhythm of the group. For a fraction of a second—barely there—his composure fractures. Pride. Fear. Longing.
Then it’s gone.
His expression smooths back into the General’s mask.
But she saw it.
And the knowledge drives her faster.
