The Practice Floor
Set apart from the main house but never far from it, Twisted Blades occupies its own wing of the compound — a long, mirrored room with a barre worn smooth by years of use, and tall windows that catch the last of the evening light rather than the first of the morning.
It is here that the women of the household are taught to hold a room the way the Halifax men are taught to hold a blade — posture, presence, and the particular kind of stillness that reads as control.
The Armory
Beyond the practice floor, the walls change character entirely. Blades of every make hang in neat rows beside coils of chain, and the air smells of oil and old iron rather than candle wax.
Officially, this is where the family's weapons are kept and maintained. Unofficially, everyone in the house understands that Twisted Blades has never only been about swords.
The Training Room
Deeper still, past the armory, is the room the family doesn't name directly. A circle is worked into the floor, iron fittings built into the furniture itself, and the door is heavier than any other in the building.
What happens here is understood rather than discussed — one more part of the Halifax trade the family keeps, quite literally, behind closed doors.
Cold Steel keeps the family's name. Twisted Blades keeps its business.