The rigorous programme of physical, mental, and spiritual development undertaken by boys of the line of Eld from age six. Apprentices were separated from their parents and housed in barracks above the munitions vault. Cort, the teacher-at-arms, trained them in combat, navigation by sun and stars, and mental timekeeping. Vannay the Wise taught the subtler arts of the mind. At approximately eighteen, each apprentice faced Cort in single combat in the Square Yard. Victory meant earning one's guns; failure meant exile to the west, weaponless and disgraced forever.