Ranvir dropped off Ragnhild’s book with Kirs, then left the library before they were thrown out. He’d missed dinner, and more worryingly, weapon class without telling Teacher Vigo about it.

“It’s gonna suck to be you, tomorrow.” Esmund exclaimed, as they walked towards the dorm. “I mean, who knows what kind of murderous torture he’s going to expose you to?” He did a little jig while giggling.

Ranvir rolled his eyes, though he also had to stop himself from swallowing nervously. “It won’t be that bad. I’m a first offender, it was an accident. I’d gotten distracted by a major event.”

“Yeah actually, why were you in the library?” Grev asked, followed by Sansir grunting his confirmation of curiosity.

“So…” Ranvir said, trying to figure out how to best phrase what came next. “I entered a bet, a competition, with Pashar and Master Grimar. I’m going to spar against one of the Master’s students by the end of this trimester. If I win, his theory and training will be reviewed and he will be taken down as an inferior teacher.”

“If you lose?” Grev asked. Esmund was looking decidedly more worried than before and didn’t speak up, instead staring intently at Ranvir. So was Sansir while they were at it.

“It’s not, as of yet, been defined.” Ranvir replied.

“You entered an open-ended contest, where you don’t know what will happen if you lose?” Sansir asked.

“When you say it like that…” Ranvir trailed off. Because it didn’t matter how one said it. Those noises put together made up something wholly insane.

“Please continue that sentence.” Grev said, grinning widely.

Esmund put a hand on Ranvir’s shoulder. “It’s going to be fine. You’ll make it out of this, no problem.”

Ranvir nodded with far less certainty.

“You’re so fucked.” Grev muttered.

“So what were you doing at the library?” Sansir asked, ignoring Grev’s ominous line.

Ranvir hesitated, not sure if he should tell them about Ragnhild. She could be a powerful advantage if fewer people knew about her. Though, he might need their help, in which case he couldn’t keep integral information from them.

“I asked Kirs for help about useful books.”

“Kirs?” Esmund jumped on the name immediately.

“The librarian.” Ranvir explained.

“Is she hot?” Es said.

Ranvir rolled his eyes and continued with his original conversation. “She helped me find a good author for more resources about training tethered.”

“Oh?” Sansir let out the inquisitive grunt, though Ranvir also noticed Grevor’s attention peaking. “What kind of help?”

“Ragnhild.” Ranvir began. “She was a scholar…“ He saw Grev’s shoulder sink and his attention wane, along with a sigh. Sansir’s loss of interest was less obvious and maybe not as intense, as he still seemed at least moderately interested. “…she wrote a lot of stuff about how masters trained and how they were different.” Even as Ranvir continued talking, he could feel himself messing up what her books were actually about.

“It sounds interesting…” Sansir let the words draw out, as Grev rolled his eyes.

“No offense Ranvir, but are you sure you should be putting stock into the secondhand information of a woman who wasn’t skilled enough to become an administrator, or blessed enough to become a tethered?” Grev asked.

Ranvir rubbed a hand against his forehead. “I don’t really have a lot of fucking options. Even among space generators, there have only been a handful of masters that practiced combat regularly. If I somehow overcome that, I still have to figure out how to replicate the technique with my powers.”

Grev puckered his lips. “I guess that’s a fair point. You really don’t have it easy.”

Ranvir rolled his eyes but didn’t reply.

They stepped into the dormitory hall, continuing up to their lounge in quick steps. “I actually think Ragnhild’s books are worth more than you give it credit for.” Ranvir said, as they sat down around a chess table. Grev and Sansir picking up the first game.

“I’m sure they are.”

Ranvir bit his lip. If he wanted to best a Master, then he needed to be working harder than him first. The biggest issue he ran into was Master Grimar simply upping the challenge for all his students to see one individual grow. That would push the spirit of the deal, but not the word.

And there were plenty of other ways that Grimar could bypass their rules, most of them involving going around the oversight Pashar represented. Something Ranvir hadn’t a clue how he’d do, but was certain he could.

If he was to beat Grimar, and his student, he would need his friends’ help, as much for personal support as simply to keep him disciplined and working. Luckily, he’d done a little extra work at the library before asking Kirs for help. More specifically, figure out what happened after the six-week introduction.

“Grev, you can probably clear something up for me.” Ranvir started his bet. “After the first six weeks are over, there’s a big change in how the academy’s run.” Nervous pin pricks of jittery yellow light stalked along his skin. He had to squash a grin that was trying to creep up on his face at the same time.

“Well, no. Not the entire academy. Just us first years.” Grev said.

“Really, how?” Esmund asked. His head cocked to side, causing his hair to fall out from his head.

“Right now.” Grev tried to stifle a wince as Sansir made a move on the board. “We have these enormously long classes. Haven’t you wondered how we only have three classes all throughout the day? One massive physical training class, one massive tether class and finally a massive free class.”

“I mean a little.” Esmund replied. “Mostly when I get bored in warp, though.”

“Right. The reason they are so long, like your warp class stretching for four hours, is because it fills the slot of at least two classes, if not a third. They are stretching us, pushing us to our limits. We’re always more or less exhausted, so we don’t have time to question all the routines they are driving into us now.”

“Routines?” Esmund asked.

“Getting up almost before dawn. Always having a clean uniform. Push us to the limit of our endurance, both tether and physically. Develop actual discipline, separate from the Disciplines.” Esmund frowned but didn’t reply, so Grev continued. “And yes, you are right, Ranvir. We get more free time after the first six weeks.”

“Which means we’ll have a lot of free periods afterwards.” Ranvir picked up where he’d left off. “I wanted to know if you guys would like to train with me. We could all get together in the free classes and do some exercises.”

“I don’t know.” Es said, sounding unsure. “I don’t want to lose free time.”

Sansir had a considering look on his face. Instead of answering he turned to Grev. The mischievous smile on the blond-haired noble’s face didn’t sit well with Ranvir.

“Since you like bets so much, how about another one?” We split the six weeks, forty-two days in total, into four. We hold three competitions which together will determine when we’ll be in control of training.”

“A competition?” Esmund visibly perked up at those words.

Ranvir hesitated. This wasn’t exactly what he wanted, but it could get reasonably close to it. He was sure Esmund and Grev would waste their days somehow, but they were also the most likely to be less demanding, which meant he could still get some training in when they were slacking off.

“Agreed.” Esmund reached over the chess game, accidentally hitting it and knocking most of the pieces over, as he offered his hand. Ranvir shook it, to the curses of Sansir and Grev’s relief.

“You don’t even know the challenges, yet.” Sansir complained, leaning back.

“It sounds workable. As for the challenges,” Ranvir said, gesturing towards the recently turned over board before taking Esmund’s hand. He wasn’t entirely sure why Es was shaking his hand, when this was mostly Grev’s bet “The first is chess, obviously.”

Esmund let out a sigh of resignation, but still spoke up, “and the rest?”

“The morning run?” Ranvir asked, hoping for better alternatives, but doubting he’d find any.

“Sure.” Grev agreed easily. He’d leaned back in his chair, looking intently at Ranvir. The student in question wasn’t surprised by his ready agreement. So far, he’d picked two things that Grev and Sansir were blatantly better at than Ranvir and Esmund. Esmund loved a challenge, not to mention his rampant competitiveness.

“The last will be a challenge that Master Vigo puts us through. I figure he’s been throwing a few games with more than two people in them often enough as of late.”

“Sounds good to me.” Sansir said. “Shall we start?”

Sansir pulled out a narrow victory in his chess game with Grev, which, of course, meant he won the rest of the games pretty easily. Ranvir worked him, like he had Grev, which was to say that he dragged the game out without ever doing anything telling. Even when he tried changing the tactic, it was apparently already too late and Sansir had adapted.

That night, Ranvir went to sleep feeling good about himself. Sure, he wouldn’t get the first or second place, he might not even get the third place, but he would get to try his hand at training them, and he would have their help. Not to mention whatever choices they made would be sure to make him feel like he’d wasted a vast swath of time and making him put pressure on in his free time.

The next morning Ranvir woke up along with the rest of his friends to Esmund eagerly pulling on all of his uniform at once. He fell multiple times in the process, but was too excited to care.

The others managed to change in reasonable time before heading out in front of the dorm. Here they greeted Master Vigo as usual before the run. Ranvir blinked as he felt Vigo’s eyes land on him.

The Teacher signaled to a fifth year standing behind him, then gestured to Ranvir. The bottom fell out of Ranvir’s stomach as a black pit opened up.

“You forgot?” Grev asked, clearly enjoying Ranvir’s situation. “You skipped weapon class yesterday.”

Fuck me. Ranvir thought, the pale thought smothering him as the student pulled him out of line. A minute later, Teacher Vigo let the rest of the group out, only this time, three of the students pushed a little harder than normal.

“Follow me.” The fifth year said, turning and heading towards a different field. It was one Ranvir had idly noted before. A small field covered in a thick layer of sand. A twenty feet tall lattice had been erected, four ropes descending from at regular intervals, each with an accompanying bronze bell. The bells hadn't grown a patina yet, so they couldn’t have been there long, either that or they were only put out when a student had to be punished.

The student pulled a small metal strip out of his pocket. It bulged out on one end, into a sphere. The clapper of a bell.

“You have to ring all the bells.” The fifth year explained, as Ranvir took the clapper. He could see the hook on one end where it would attach to the bell. He walked over to one of the ropes pooling on the sand below the lattice. Twenty feet was very high up.

“Shit.”