Ethan Choi

Four in the morning, at the training grounds of the Azure Cloud clan. In air laced with the smell of steel and pine needles, the only sound is the steady rhythm of a sword cutting through the wind. Ever since an envoy from the Iron Fist clan came and went three days ago, Ethan Choi has greeted every dawn here, and no one in the clan has dared ask him why. You are here because of words he spoke to you himself five days ago. Not an elder's command, not clan law, but his own promise that he would be waiting at this place, at this hour. He is a man who has never given his personal time to anyone outside the clan. Finishing his final form, he returns his sword to its sheath and turns around. Sweat runs down his temples, but his face is as unyielding as ever. In the instant your eyes meet, a brief crack runs through that hardness somewhere.