“You’re not an asshole.” Ranvir said, the admission came slowly. Dovar nodded eying Ranvir.

“You’re smarter than I thought.”

Ranvir nodded. Dovar nodded.

“See you the day after tomorrow?” Ranvir asked.

“Yeah.”

They both nodded once more, before turning to leave the classroom. Most of the students had peeled out the moment the bell’s toll filled the halls with its presence. Teacher Eirik and Siv had remained behind in case any students had questions and a few had lined up to talk with them.

Ranvir paused as he headed out of the classroom, the domineering physical presence of Dovar making itself felt behind him. He was getting the feeling that Dovar wasn’t aware of the effect he was having on the people around him just by standing close to them.

“What?” Dovar asked, stopping just before he ran Ranvir over.

At the end of the hall, stood a figure in the administration version of the academy’s uniform. Despite the student’s growing forms, both muscularly speaking and many of them hitting their growth spurts, her presence still held its own. She stood among the students like a boulder in a tide.

Ranvir stepped up to greet her. “Pashar.” He was at once nervous and suspicious. The warring yellow, bordering on green frenetic ripples clashed with the more languid observant shades of orange.

“Student Ranvir.” Pashar replied formally. “Please come with me. We need to talk.”

Ranvir nodded and she turned on her heel walking swiftly away. As Ranvir had learned during the last end of trimester test, all the buildings had multiple entrances and exits, in order to stop student and personal from getting easily trapped in a building. With so many exits spread throughout the construct and locked from the outside required the attacker to surround the building if they wanted to catch everyone.

“I better not miss lunch because of this.” Ranvir muttered, once he was rapidly striding alongside administrator.

“It should be fine.” Her voice was stern and professional still. “This shouldn’t take long.”

She would’ve said if this was a reprimanding meeting, right? Ranvir thought. But her attitude makes me think that a reprimand is definitely part of it. His mind wandered back to the principal’s speech yesterday. Maybe partially for my handling of Master Grimar?

“So…” Ranvir said leadingly.

“We will discuss this when we arrive.” Pashar pushed a door open and sunlight blossomed in a brisk breeze. Ranvir felt a bit of shiver run through him as the lesser gale bit him. Summer was coming to an end.

The door the Masters’ Tower and the administration building. It was quickly obvious that they weren’t going to administration as Pashar veered towards the tower.

A meeting with the principal, then. Ranvir swallowed, trying to fight down the frenetic yellow-green ripples of nerves. He’d gotten a weird feeling from the man as he’d done his speech. There was a weight to it that Ranvir couldn’t define, but it made him uneasy.

Inside the Masters’ Tower, they headed up only two flights of stairs, before Pashar stopped in front of a door and knocked twice. Make sense, he likely couldn’t get to the top with his cane. Ranvir reasoned, though he’d been expecting a longer walk. Their sudden arrival at their location put him even further off balance.

“Come in.” Principal Ragnar said as the door swung open on its own. Stepping in behind Pashar, Ranvir couldn’t help but stare. The office wasn’t richly appointed, but it had wooden paneling placed over the usual gray stone walls and floor, only the ceiling remained untouched. A huge desk took up a large part of the room, behind which the principal sat. Behind him was a portrait of a man and a woman. To Ranvir’s eyes neither looked especially like Ragnar, except maybe the woman who had something of him around the eyes.

As for the principal himself. Ragnar looked more grizzled up close than he did from far away. He had a scar on his cheek that ran into a mangled left ear. His face was heavy with creases and grooves worn into it from war. His left hand was missing three fingers, and the fact that he held his cane in his left hand, made Ranvir think he’d taking a serious injury to almost the entirety of his left side. The scars looked old though, so he’d gone right back into the war afterward, probably more commander than combatant at that point, though.

There were no other chairs than the one Ragnar was sitting in, though the carpet under Ranvir’s feet was thick and obviously of high quality. He shifted his feet to shoulder-width apart, bending his knees very slightly, as Pashar stepped further into the room to stand behind Ragnar.

Ranvir took in a slow breath, wishing he’d embraced the pressure before he’d gone with Pashar, but he’d left the state to during class to better focus on the logic problems and better understand Dovar’s explanations. That’s what you get for not being prepared. Ranvir chastised himself.

“Student Ranvir.” The principal said slowly, his voice gritty and rough when not projecting it to theater full of people. “Do you know why you’re here?”

Ranvir could play it quiet and subservient, though Pashar knew him better than that. Maybe show a bit of himself, while remaining subservient?

“I have some idea.” Ranvir said.

“Do tell.” Ragnar said.

Swallowing, Ranvir said, “As you mentioned in your speech, I was the one who went to administration and Pashar about the former Master Grimar. I believe you mentioned something about me getting lucky in your speech, and that he was actually abusing the students.”

Principal Ragnar snorted. “That’s nonsense. Pashar would’ve gone after him if he’d given them all flowers and a kiss on the forehead.”

Ranvir felt somewhat vindicated, he’d been suspecting something had been off for a while. Part of Pashar’s readiness to attack Master Grimar had fitted poorly with Ranvir. Not that he’d minded Master Grimar getting thrown out, but how readily Pashar threw her lot in with Ranvir with little to no evidence.

“I see you suspected something of the sort.” Ragnar said, turning to look at Pashar. “You were right, he is clever.”

Ranvir bowed his head, he didn’t like the way the principal was talking about him like he wasn’t there.

“Pashar believes that you can become an asset to us, but I wasn’t so sure.” He cleared his throat. “You seemed more like a loose sword with strict morals, running around affixing his senses of right and wrong to a war that’s far beyond the poor foresight of what amounts to little more than a kid.”

“But you were ready to throw me to the wolves, so to speak.” Ranvir did his best to sound certain and sure. “You were happy to throw ‘what amounts to a kid’ up against not only a Master and Teacher of the academy, but also the very principal you’ve since replaced.”

Ragnar raised a single eyebrow. “Pashar did.”

That wasn’t denial. Ranvir thought. “But you came in to the academy, less than two weeks after the incident that let the Master’s Council remove the former principal. Somehow you already have Pashar’s support and a ready schedule, despite it meaning you have to wrangle ten-thousand students and all their classes to make it happen…”

Ranvir didn’t finish his accusation as too much heat was entering it. Sparks of orange and red fires were burning inside Ranvir. Flickering in and out of the nervous haze, that had now taken on a specific pale violet tint alongside the yellow-green color.

“That does make it seem like I knew what was going on.” Ragnar acknowledged, though he never actually agreed.

“Why am I here?” Ranvir asked.

“There’s a war coming.” Pashar said. “Not against the flesh-torn, but over the academy.”

“The Serpent-vein family and their support of Student Skufi was just the latest in a long string of attempts to wrestle control of our nations greatest production of weapons from the hands of the Masters.” Principal Ragnar said. “And it will not be the last.”

Ranvir scowled at them. “You want me…” He paused, ticking over what they were saying. “You want Grevor on your side.”

“Esmund too, he’s likely to found a noble house of his own with the powerbase he’ll grow.” Pashar said. “And now that you’re associating with Dovar that’s a good opportunity too.”

“So they deliberately put us together.” Ranvir argued.

“Won’t they? It seems so far at least, that you’ve had as much a hand in training Esmund as Master Svenar has. Not to mention you’ve had just as tight a grip on your other friends. Even re-discovering some old secrets.” Pashar said.

Re-discovering? Ranvir thought, sorting that away for later.

“I see no reason why I should help you try to convince them.” Ranvir said. “From where I’m standing you don’t look better than Grimar. In fact, you look even less prepared for the consequences of your moves.”

“Less prepared?” Ragnar’s condescension was clear.

The fire finally caught hold inside Ranvir. He took a step forwards. “Look me in the fucking eye. Look me in the eye!” He pointed to his scarred eye, pieces of his eyelids were little more than burn scars and pupil had run with black. “Look me in the eye and tell me that you weren’t ready to throw me aside!”

Ranvir’s eyes stung as he glared at the principal.

For a few moments, the old man’s jaw worked visible under his scars. In low rough voice that—despite Ranvir’s anger—sent a chill down his spine, he said. “You will leave my office now, Student Ranvir.”

Ranvir let out a frustrated growl as he turned, the door sliding silently open before him. Despite the anger and confrontational energy that filled him, Ranvir couldn’t help but feel like he was fleeing. The door shut behind and Ranvir stormed down the stairs passing a Master on his way up.