"When I first came here?"

He shrugs slightly, skips the stone a little better this time. "I came here knowing how to fight. I spent a lot of time in the practice rooms."

When getting English words right became too difficult. When he couldn't stand the sight of books anymore. When his thighs ached from learning to ride. When he wanted to make sure all those people who looked at him out the corners of their eyes for the way he'd taken his rank in the Deck knew that he was no one to be trifled with.