Ranvir feeling contemplative, decided to avoid the cafeteria and headed straight for his room. Sitting down on his bed, he considered what he knew about Floki. The man seemed to waver between teaching being an useless effort, something not worth trying too hard at. Then swing into a poorly hidden passion, which he made weak attempts at hiding.

Through the door, he could hear other students filtering into the common room, their talk slipping through the cracks. When he heard Grev’s loud voice, Ranvir pulled open his chest, grabbing Figir’s primer.

He wasn’t feeling social at the moment, and would rather avoid interaction. Hopefully, they wouldn’t come looking for him, but he had a feeling Grev wouldn’t understand the notion.

Opening the book, he briefly looked at where he’d left off. It was the introduction, but seemed to mainly be about Figir herself, and less about spatial manipulation, or the way she trained.

Returning to the front, he examined the contents looking for anything of potential use. The Three Disciplines.

Shifting through quickly, he found the relevant chapter. He was interrupted by the door opening. Grev peeking his head inside.

“There you are!” His enthusiasm didn’t usually bother Ranvir, but this time ground against his senses.

Behind Grev he could see Esmund, he was noticeably less energetic than their friend.

“Hey Grev.” Ranvir greeted, not putting the book down. He briefly glanced at Esmund, making eye contact before returning to the book.

“I don’t think he’s up for much tonight.” Esmund said.

“Really, why not?”

“I’ve known him for a long time, just give him some space.”

“If you’re sure…” Grev sounded hesitant, but Ranvir heard the door close.

Looking up he was alone once more. Noise from the common room still seeped in, on the tones of the students’ voices.

After finishing reading Figir’s take on the Disciplines, Ranvir closed the book leaving his finger as a stopper for progress.

She certainly had a colored opinion. Though he couldn’t help but feel a bit of black frustration at her seemingly narrow minded approach. She’d briefly outlined the Three Disciplines and their first stage.

————

The Discipline of Wings: when achieving Veil, allows one control of their immediate vicinity enabling them to wield their power within a sphere around them.

The Discipline of Body: When achieving Flesh, allows one to infuse a concept within fabric of their form, that will enhance them.

————

She was noticeably vaguer about Body, even in the in-depth sections of the chapter she still held a notable disdain for Discipline.

————

The Discipline of Piercer: When achieving Knife, allows one to control a narrow space in front of them, enabling them to master the area in front of them. It’s width is much narrower than veil, but it makes up for it with reach.

————

She also described Piercer as the best Discipline for space manipulators. What good is manipulating a small sphere around you, when you could reach across a battlefield?

Ranvir could think of some uses, depending on what he might be able to do with his power, if he’d achieved Veil. He might be able to achieve something like what Teacher Floki had done, stretching or squeezing space. That kind of power would make anyone a menace on the battlefield.

Of course, Knife might be able to achieve a similar effect. In fact he wasn’t sure Floki hadn’t been a Piercer.

She outright said Body wasn’t useful to space tethered at all. That it was a waste of time and effort, especially considering how difficult Flesh already was to achieve.

Her last notion that Body was a tougher Discipline to master sparked bright blue curiosity in Ranvir. What did she mean by more difficult to achieve? Why was it harder? She’d mentioned a concept, maybe that was the difficult part.

As he continued mulling over Figir’s words, he put the book down. He wasn’t sure she actually knew what she was talking about. In the introduction she claimed to have reached Knife, by the end of the second trimester at the Royal School of Elusria. Yet, she hadn’t mentioned any specifics about her training, other than how impressive reaching the first stage of a Discipline was at such an early time.

He could potentially pick up Wings as his Discipline to go after, though part of him wanted to pick Body out of spite. Still, he had to give Piercer an honest thought, he couldn’t rule out one of the Goddess’ Disciplines just because of dark violet spite.

Ranvir heard the activities from outside slow down. A quick glance out the shuttered windows showed that it was getting dark.

How long have I been sitting here? He hadn’t made much progress in terms of the last hour, or so, of thinking. Mostly turning around the same things over and over again.

“Maybe I just need a break.”

Closing the book fully, he put it back in the chest and headed out the door.

“I’m telling you, we should go to the city tomorrow. You need to see what a real town is like!” Ranvir joined Esmund on the seat next to his, opposite Grev and Sansir on the couch.

It was already a rare occurrence that those two sat next to each other. It was harder to play chess that way.

“You’re back! Quick! Tell them it’s waste of time to spend it practicing, instead of going to the city.”

Sansir simply nodded at him and Esmund acted like he’d always been there.

“Are we discussing practicing or going to the city tomorrow?” Ranvir asked.

“We are going to the city tomorrow, they just think we’re going to practice.” Grev’s words were quick, before anyone else could butt in.

“Mostly it’s Sansir that’s arguing for practice.” Esmund added. “I don’t know if I’ve got another bone of work in me, let alone for this week.”

He sat in his chair like a discarded doll, all bend legs and floppy arms.

“Exactly, you’re already starting to see it my way, now we just gotta convince this Goddess forsaken mule.”

Sansir rolled his eyes, as Grev’s comment, but didn’t say anything.

“I was actually thinking of visiting the library, get some reading in.” Ranvir said. His words were met with utter silence, as the three seventeen-year-olds stared at him.

“I like practicing and training as much as any guy, but you want to spend your only free day reading?” Sansir finally spoke up.

“Didn’t you just come from your room, where you were reading? You don’t have to. You do have a choice.” Grev added.

“I’m with the guys on this one.” Esmund said. “That doesn’t sound like much fun.”

“It’s decided then!” Grev proclaimed loudly. “We’re going to see the capital.”

Sansir raised a hand in protest but with a sigh let it fall, slumping deeper into the couch.

The capital was a messy experience. The group went to the city the following morning, along with a large group of students, they formed something akin to a caravan as thousands of students all went to visit the capital. There were a few teachers among them, but Ranvir couldn’t imagine they were as limited as the students were, in terms of free time.

At first, Ranvir was worried that their procession would completely and utterly overrun city. Even the biggest towns, he’d seen, would be utterly demolished by such a sudden influx of people. Stores would be emptied, fields would be ruined, even the citizens might not be safe.

He should’ve known better, when they reached the usually busy road, and found it was largely empty. He should’ve known, when they reached the gates and they were simply open, with a few guards standing to either side. But he only knew it wasn’t a problem when he first laid his eyes on the main street.

The sheer amount of people could’ve drowned out the black and white uniforms of the students. People were talking, yelling and screaming at each other. There were dogs barking, cats yowling and cows mooing. The noise hit him like a physical force, as they broke through the gates.

The buildings, while they didn’t make the academy’s seem small, did put them into a relative perspective. The academy was still massive, but compared to the buildings of his village, so were these buildings. He saw constructions stacked two or three stories high, and not just a few, everywhere. On both sides of him were buildings taller even than the mayor’s house.

The only reason their group wasn’t immediately drowned out by the enormous populace of the city, was how tight knit they were. And the respect for the uniform, it seemed. There was a small buffer around their group. People trying their best to avoid getting too close.

If Ranvir looked anywhere else, people were all too happy to shove, shuffle, and push through the crowds, but their group went largely unmolested. Though he was sure some of the boys would do their best to stop that soon enough. Already he heard excited murmurs of the gardens.

As he looked around, Ranvir saw he wasn’t the only one in his friend group awed by the capital. Esmund and Sansir seemed just as dumbstruck as him. A tiny green part of him was happy he’d found something even Sansir wasn’t prepared for.

Grev on the other hand looked like he’d jump out of his good skin from glee, though his eyes were locked on the three of them and not their environs.

“This is going to be great!”

They were taken to a square with a huge fountain in the middle of it. They were supposed to meet there at sixth bell that evening. Then Grev grabbed them, there were many places that he decided they needed to see. After a while, Ranvir was starting to suspect that a vast majority of them were drinking houses, if not all of them. Not that they stayed at any place long enough to get a drink.

He showed them a statue that was supposedly of the first queen of Elusria. The years and weather had been rough on it. The nose had disappeared at some point and three of her fingers had broken off, but it was still an imposing sight.

A twenty foot tall statue of a statuesque woman. She had been dressed in a thick fur dress of all things. Ranvir had never even seen dresses made of fur before, but then again the statue was really old.

“Every visitor should see the First Queen, when they visit.” Grev explained, as they examined it.

Ranvir couldn’t help but feel eyes on his neck, as they stood there. While most people in the city seemed to go completely ignored, their uniforms took from them their anonymity. Instead, everyone was looking at them. Rationally, he knew it was only a glance before they moved on, but it felt like a long glare. It made white-yellow anxiety run up and down his spine.

“Now, let’s finish this visit.” Grev continued, like everyone wasn’t staring at him. “For good luck.” Then he bend forwards under the First Queens dress and reached up. Ranvir stared at him in shock as he touched statue of the queen, the first queen, between the legs.

“Grev!” Sansir hissed. “It’s not funny, stop it.”

Ducked back out again, Grevor looked at them like he wasn’t crazy one. “What do you mean?”

“It’s a little funny.” Esmund said.

“You know exactly what we mean.” Ranvir added. “You’re being… Inappropriate.”

Grev shrugged. “I mean when you’re already down there, it’s at least polite to acknowledge it.”

Sansir and Ranvir shook their head in unison. “Was there something else you wanted to show us?”

“Oh yes!” Grev exclaimed excitedly.

Grev tried taking them to one of the gardens, but luckily they all three agreed to cut that bud, before it took hold. Then he led them on a merry adventure throughout the city. They even visited the Royal School and saw the Queen’s Palace. The school was similar to the academy, except it was placed in the middle of the city, it also seemed noticeably smaller complex.

Ranvir felt a little happier seeing that. “At least we have a better view when we’re running laps in the morning.”

“Their’s do look quite shit.” Esmund agreed. The ten foot tall gate and twelve foot tall walls were nothing to sneeze at, but they certainly wasn’t much to look at either.

“They don’t do combat practice.” Grev said. “Why would they, they’re at most getting supplementary combat training. They’re mostly trained to be administrators and the sort.”

Ranvir should’ve figured that out. Their village had a City Lord on the way, educated from that very school. She was supposed to be a strong tethered, like the boys picked to go to the academy were.

“It’s actually very contentious.” Grev said. “Last year one of the administrators of the army killed a general in a duel, because he was ‘killing them quicker than the enemy was’.”

“I guess it makes sense.” Esmund said. “Any warp tethered would have no trouble fighting, no matter their specific training.”

“Exactly.” Grev replied. “Supposedly they’ve been throwing suggestions of change at the Queen ever since.”

“Wonder what’ll come of it.” Sansir said. “I don’t much fancy sharing class with a bunch of fourteen-year-old girls. On the other hand, sharing it with a bunch of seventeen-year-olds who are three years ahead doesn’t seem much better.”

“Not really our problem is it?” Esmund asked. Right then a door in the gates opened and a group of women, slightly older than them walked out in white-on-black uniforms. They each had an aura of power, similar to what Ranvir sometimes felt around the fourth or fifth year students.

The women looked at them as they passed but didn’t stop to speak with them, though the boys were unable to take their eyes off them.

“I could share a class with the seventeen-year-olds.” Esmund muttered, his neck strained to the point of snapping.

“Yeah.” Ranvir shared a glance with Sansir, who just rolled his eyes. Inwardly, he agreed with his friends though.