The moment passed, and the network fell into him. Ranvir blinked, realizing his eyes were wet. Absently, he brushed his wrist across his face.

“I felt it. It’s space, I think.” He cleared his throat. “If not, something more on top of that.”

“So it’s space that you’re letting in?” Kirs asked. Ranvir startled at her voice and looked over. The motion jarred the quiet blend of colors and emotions. Purple awe intrinsically woven through the red consternation’s webs, blue surprise and yellow joy intermingled like a blue cloud throwing off sparkling lights of yellow that surrounded the web. Green will desiring to see it again combined with the dark need to see it again, staining everything with such pre-emptive desires that Ranvir knew he would never forget this moment.

“It doesn’t particularly look like you’re letting anything physical in.” Kirs commented, noting down on her tablet. “Where does it come from?”

Ranvir frowned. “It doesn’t come from…” He let the words fade as he realized what he was about to say wasn’t true. It came from somewhere. At least it came through something. “Through the tether, I think.”

“Through the tether…” Kirs didn’t look up as she continued her notation. “So maybe it’s not something tangible, like actual space, but through the Goddess? Something like space, but given by her divine blessing?”

Ranvir cocked his head. “Maybe. It doesn’t feel right, but it could be.”

“Doesn’t feel right?” Kirs finally looked up, an eyebrow raised. “What doesn’t feel right about it?”

Ranvir cleared his throat once more. “It doesn’t feel like it’s coming from anywhere special. I feel like it’s just my surroundings that… slip inside. Besides, generators don’t experience it like that. They feel it like pressure from them going out.”

“So you think your tether is a connection from your spirit to the material?” She wasn’t writing anymore, but that only seemed to make her keen interest all the sharper.

“I guess. I don’t know, maybe both? The tether is both a connection to the Goddess and to the environment.”

“Fascinating? Do you think it’s your surroundings you let in, when you open up?”

“I…” Ranvir bit his lip. “No. It’s not the surroundings. Maybe a part of it? Not the physical part, but the Goddess embraced the entire world, right? Maybe it’s her touch I’m letting in?”

Kirs tapped the chalk against her chin, similar to when she tickled it with the feather of her quill. “That’s an interesting idea. I think there was a scholar that held a similar idea. I’ll have to look it up.”

“After tether exercises.” Ranvir commented.

“Well, yeah…” She sounded a little exasperated, but he had to make sure. “Back to this exercise. How are you feeling? Warmed up?”

Ranvir nodded. “I’m a little tired, but honestly, this hasn’t been as hard as I thought it would.”

“How are you two doing?” Orulf asked. His stomps rattled something in Kirs’ bag, presumably more slate tablets. “If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I’ll try to answer, for what that’s worth.”

Ranvir bit his lip. Looking up at the giant, he felt a small quiver of bone-white fear deep in his chest. Once more, it didn’t seem intentional. He was just so massive that he accidentally added intimidation to his actions.

“I do have a question, actually.” Kirs looked nonplussed at the new arrival.

“Speak up, then.”

“Can you feel the pressure when you’re sensing it? As in actually feel it, before it slips in?”

The Master paused for a brief moment, then Ranvir—still embracing the pressure—felt like he was standing on top of an ancient well made of glaciers, snow, and frosted over stone. The feeling disappeared quickly. Though the white and blue chill that had seeped in to the bones didn’t.

“I can. It’s like ice, but not quite.”

“More or less?”

Orulf quirked an eyebrow. “More than ice. Like it’s alive, but weak.”

“Weak?”

“Get’s stronger during the winter.”

“So it’s weak because there’s little of it?” Kirs asked.

Ranvir was feeling a little dizzy, and he realized he’d been holding his breath. Forcing himself to move, Ranvir took in a slow breath. The fresh air seemed to do what he couldn’t and dispel some of the chill in his bones.

“Are you alright?” Kirs looked worriedly at Ranvir.

“I… What was that, Master?” Ranvir’s voice shook, and he had to force himself not to shake similarly. He felt like he’d just been dipped in ice water. Quite the contradiction as he felt the sweat on his back wet his uniform, as the sun tried to bake them where they sat.

“You sensed that?” Orulf chuckled. “Sorry about that. It’s rare pre-stage tethered can sense others. Like a hole of ice, snow, and cold? I’m an ice tethered, which explains the cold. A manipulator explains the hole. Generators feel like hills, or even mountains. You got a powerful set of senses!”

Ranvir could hear the furious scribbling of Kirs’ chalk against the slate as she noted down everything the Teacher’d said.

“Can you feel me?” Ranvir immediately felt dumb for asking, but Orulf didn’t laugh. He closed his eyes. This time, the appearance of the dark, frozen chasm wasn’t as sudden. It felt more like walking up to a cliff than it appearing from one step to another.

“You are…” Orulf paused, searching for words. “I can sense the dip, definitely. You’re more solid than others, I think.” He exhaled a long breath through his mask of mustache and the cavernous hole disappeared. “Nothing really useful, sorry.”

Ranvir swallowed once. He could tell the Master had tried to be gentle in his words, but it clearly came across that he had a tough time sensing Ranvir. Maybe he was just overshadowed by the sheer presence of the Teacher, but realistically there just wasn’t a lot to sense.

“Thank you, sir.” Ranvir cleared his throat and looked to Kirs. “Do you have any more questions for him?” She was once more tapping the chalk against her chin, leaving smudges of white powder on it.

“Nothing of relevance to our study. Thank you for the time, Teacher.” She bowed slightly and the giant man let out an unintentionally ominous chuckle.

“It’s alright.” He stomped away, returning to the students, who had turned to other types of practice.

“Ready to take your measurements?” Kirs asked.

Ranvir nodded, lifting his hand.

“4.7 centimeters for your smallest effect and you held it for a minute and twelve seconds. 9.6 centimeters for your largest effect and you held it for thirty seconds. That’s a pretty dramatic increase, both in your fine control and your largest effort.”

Ranvir frowned. “Usually after the day-off I feel a lot better, like I got a stronger during the time, despite doing next to nothing related to training. But I held my largest for less time than the last measurements, didn’t I?”

“Just one second.” Kirs peered into her bag and pulled out a new chalk tablet. This one already had information written on it. Specifically, the date of the last test and his numbers.

“Yeah, thirty-one seconds, but I wouldn’t worry about that. It might be due to a difference in my counting, the use of the measuring glass, or any other fault. Maybe you were less exhausted, so you were able to try harder, which drove you to exhaustion faster.”

Ranvir bit his lip. Black and dark blue fear that he wasn’t good enough crept through his him, stalking the halls of his mind.

“Maybe you’re right. I managed a larger effect, after all.”

Smallest

Largest

First Measurements

5,2 Cm for 58 Sec

9,1 Cm for 31 Sec

Current Measurements

4,7 Cm for 1 Min 12 Sec

9,6 Cm for 30 Sec

Change

-0,5 Cm +14 Sec

+0,5 Cm -1 Sec

“That’s quite the quick growth for such a short amount of time.” Kirs said. Ranvir knew they didn’t actually have any data to suggest whether or not it was, but he decided against commenting on it.

“I’m going to work on stretching and shrinking space.” Ranvir said. “It’s probably going to be really boring, so you don’t have to stay.”

A disbelieving smile grew on Kirs’ face. “Are you kidding? I get to see tethered training! I’m not missing this for the world.” She gestured to the rest of the class.

Ranvir got practicing. Stretching and shrinking a field within his palm. Part of him wanted to avoid burnout, to try for the sustainable small technique that might increase his control. But that was boring.

He went picking through the surrounding soil. Finding what he searched for, he placed the small obsidian on his palm. The oblong black stone had been smoothed over from the wear of the world. It was the length of his pinky-finger and not much wider.

Placing it on his palm, his power surrounding it, he closed his eyes. Sitting in a moment of stillness, drawing together his concentration with a long breath. He shrunk the stone, forcing it into as small an area as possible. The glossy black stone shrunk until it was the size of a third of his pinky, then no more.

It didn’t matter how he pushed at it, he couldn’t diminish it further. There was a slight give and for a few seconds it would hold, only to then bounce back bigger than before.

With a sudden drawing sensation, his tether slackened, the stone popped back into regular size and Ranvir was pulled all the way through tether-space. The slight beginnings of a headache building above his ears, nothing that would stop him yet, but noticeable, along with the floppy limbed symptoms of over-expression.

Ranvir was taking a break from trying to make the obsidian disappear as he made his way over to Sansir. His knees were a little wobbly, but overall, he wasn’t feeling too exhausted. His friend was growing a tiny crystalline disc in his hand.

“How’s it going?” Ranvir asked, as the ice took form.

“It’s alright.” Sansir had a distinct smile on his face as he threw the disc at the target. It broke apart when it hit the dirt to the left.

“Is that supposed to happen?” Ranvir asked. “The breaking, that is. I know about the missing.”

“Haha.” Sansir smiled as he straightened. Ranvir noticed the forced rigidity in his friend’s wrist. Signs that were becoming more common as they moved towards the end of class. “We’re supposed to be able to grant it strength beyond normal ice. Reasonable amount of regular ice isn’t that strong, it’s not going to break bones or stop a metal weapon.”

Ranvir winced. “That sounds like it might not apply to this kind of training.”

Sansir waved it away. “It doesn’t really apply to pre-stage tethered, since we can’t do much fighting at all.”

“What’s the theory behind it?” Ranvir asked, partly because he was finding a growing desire to know more about tethered and their abilities, and because he suspected Sansir wanted to talk about his powers. “The stronger ice?”

Sansir gave him a suspicious look that made a brief flutter of orange mischief flutter in Ranvir’s limbs. “It’s pretty simple. There are naturally occurring weaknesses in ice that we can excise and strengthen. This will lead to new breaking points. Which we will then also secure and strengthen. This process makes the ice tougher. It’ll take a better edge and hold against blows better.”

“So you’re basically creating a block of ice. Then you’re examining it for weaknesses, using your senses. Then remaking those weaknesses, empowering them yourself. But you said this leads to new weaknesses?”

Sansir tipped his head back and forth. “Exposes new weaknesses. It doesn’t create them. These ‘new’ ones aren’t as weak as the first ones, either. Go through the process enough times and you can supposedly dent iron.”

Ranvir raised his eyebrows. “Iron? As in…” He mimicked striking with a two-handed blow.

“Maybe not from a hammer, but definitely with an axe or sword. You might even break it.”

Ranvir rubbed a hand across his chin. It sounded very interesting. “I wonder if there’s someway to apply this to space.”

“There probably is.” Sansir replied with an easy smile. “It’s actually a pretty similar method to how obsidian tethered strengthens their own stone. Obsidian is pretty brittle, you know.”

“Yeah.” Ranvir didn’t know when he would get to attempt the method, but it sounded interesting. Right now, he was already struggling to juggle as many subjects as he was. He still had to make a better attempt at sensing space in the dark, research the ralith, figure which Discipline he was taking first, figure out which technique he wanted to attune, make his powers eat the damned stone he’d picked up. And he was sure he was forgetting something.