Ranvir shivered as the shrill wind cut through his coat and shirt. Autumn leaves rushed along the ground in small swirls. At the edge of the campus he could see the forest. He’d grown so used to it being magnificent, thick, and green. When the leaves turned yellow with change of seasons it still held a sense of weight of age and majesty. Over the last couple days, most of the leaves had fallen off, leaving the branches barren.

What was once magnificent, now lent the academy a sense of ancient dread.

The dark clouds hovering menacingly above them didn’t promise any good either. They were thick with rain, even if it was, as of yet, unspilled.

Returning his attention to Es’ training, Ranvir clapped his friend on the shoulder. Over the last three weeks Esmund had proved that if he set his mind to it, he could make strides in nearly any goal. The near perfect pentagon in the center of the wooden stump was evidence of that. Each stroke was almost equally long, and though it leaned slightly to the left, it was a far cry from what he’d been able to do just last month.

“You doing great.” Ranvir said, squeezing his shoulder. “I think it’s time you spent more time with Svenar again. He knows more about what comes next. And he might have techniques for you to practice.”

Es did a little jig on the spot, as he shook his fists in victory. “Finally! I’ve been waiting for this. We avoided attuning any techniques for me, during the last advancement because I wanted the control of Dagger before I locked anything in.”

“Smart.” Ranvir replied. “Seeing as you’ve done so well, why don’t you let loose. Go crazy, I need to talk with Kirs anyway.”

Rainbow energy shone from Es’ palm before Ranvir even finished speaking. He could sense the warp tethered’s Discipline. It felt nearly like Esmund himself, except hollow. Like he wasn’t fully there.

Ranvir turned and walked over to the two meditating tethered sitting before Kirs. “I wanted to talk with you.” He whispered, to avoid disturbing the other two.

She gave him a quick nod, before turning back to look at Sansir and Grev. “Take a deep breath in.” She spoke in a slow, mellifluous way that had an ability to slip past conscious thought. At least, that’s what it felt like to Ranvir. It was a massive help when trying to enter the right state of mind for rituals.

They’d both initially discounted her ability to get Esmund to focus on a single subject, but after her first session with the two tethered, it all became clear. Esmund’s progress with ritual training hadn’t been a fluke. It was Kirs.

Ranvir was all too happy to leave that part of the training to her. He liked meditating, and he liked discovering new abilities. He wasn’t much of a teacher, though. It felt odd teaching people who were more gifted than himself. Like a dog telling its owner how to cook.

It took another fifteen minutes, before Kirs brought them out. Ranvir trained his senses on them throughout that time, while occasionally slipping his chess pieces into a pocket space. He was surprised they managed to maintain their concentration with the new distractions coming from Esmund.

Warp energy wasn’t quiet at the best of times. It hadn’t been immediately evident before Es advanced to Dagger, as his expressions had been too small back then, but there was a significant level of noise when such an amount of force was unleashed. Ranvir didn’t really know how to describe it. On one hand, it sounded similar to striking a weapon through the air, particularly a sword. On the other hand, no sword ever hit a tree trunk and sounded like someone dropped a fifty kilo stone onto a piece of wood.

It was noticeable, to say the least.

“You did really well today, depending on what your teachers say I’m sure you can move on soon.” Kirs said, getting out of her cross-legged seat with far less grace than the two trained tethered.

Grev nodded stoically before turning to Sansir with a near child-like grin. “Advancement.”

Sansir nodded in return tempering his boyfriend’s enthusiasm. Which was well reasoned. From what Ranvir had been able to tell, Master Orulf hadn’t taken kindly to the extra training they were doing. Probably, because Sansir started doing Ranvir’s exercises during Orulf’s classes. From what Ranvir could tell though, it had hit Sansir pretty hard at the time.

A village like back home had a strong sense of community, strong enough that they probably wouldn’t chase Sansir out of the town outright, but he would never be accepted for his difference. As a tethered, it was the first time he’d found acceptance as different. The thought brought Ranvir’s mind back to the time he’d gone to Sansir’s class, the students excitement had been palpable, on levels similar to Esmund.

A dark feeling of creeping red entered Ranvir, guiltily stalking him as he turned his gaze from his two friends. “Kirs,” Ranvir said. “I was wondering if you had time to talk with me about the Wing exercise.” He’d been hammering his face into the obstacle for the better part of a month now, and he couldn’t crack it.

“Uh, sure.” She grabbed her bag pulling out her notebook. “ If you want an in-depth talk, I think I have time two days from now. Will that do?”

Ranvir stifled a frown and nodded. “Thank you.”

“Not a problem, you’ll crack it eventually.”

Ranvir smiled briefly. He was about to turn away, head back to the dorm as it was starting to get really cold, when his gaze met Sansir’s green eyes. The taller tethered nodded to the side and Ranvir gave him a thumbs up.

Ranvir said goodbye to Kirs, as he walked over to the ice tethered. “I figured you would’ve gone with Grevor, by now.” He looked towards their blond friend who was already headed towards the dorms in a half run, rubbing his arms aggressively. A gesture that seemed a little ridiculous. It wasn’t that cold.

“Playing chess is fun, but I don’t enjoy it like Grev does.” Sansir replied, as he started walking around the dorm building, instead of directly at it. “Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of fun and I think it’s an interesting game, but it’s not my favorite pastime.”

Ranvir nodded. “What then?”

“Whittling.” Sansir sighed. “I miss it to be honest. I’m kinda sad that I didn’t get a knife and bit of wood before the capital closed.”

“Couldn’t you just ask Himir?” Ranvir asked. “He has some connections, I’m sure he could get you what you need.”

Sansir shook his head back and forth. “I’m sure I could get it if I really wanted to- I don’t know. Maybe, I should…”

Ranvir frowned as he friend for a moment as they ambled through the fields. There weren’t a lot of people out at this hour and the days were becoming shorter, so dark had already fallen. Sansir had a pensive look on his face. Worry, too.

“What did you want to talk about?” Ranvir asked.

The bald man rubbed a hand over his jaw. “How do you do it?”

“Hm?”

“How do you do it? You put so many hours in, so much time into your tether. To developing exercises, to research, to getting stronger? Why?”

“I don’t know that I spend that much time-” Ranvir said, though as he spoke he slipped the pressure, passing through tether-space and landing back in his body before finishing the step. “Maybe I spend a little more time than most, but it’s not that much.”

Sansir snorted, his green eyes vibrant in the dark. “Grev and I have been killing ourselves over the last three weeks. Putting in extra hours, working ourselves harder than ever. We’ve been grinding ourselves down to the bone, trying to prepare for our advancement before the first runs at the clinics.”

Ranvir nodded in agreement. They’d spent long hours training their tether, both through exercises and techniques. They spent days trying to master ritual training, and even attempting his unfinished Wing exercise. It was getting better, more stable but still lacked in effect.

“And yesterday I realized, you’ve been right there alongside us. There has never been a time when I’ve haven’t been able to feel you embracing the pressure right alongside us or working on your notes…” Sansir looked over at Ranvir, worrying at his lip with his teeth. “I don’t have that drive. I can’t push myself forwards like that. I get distracted by Grev, by chess, by my idle thoughts. I let myself get pulled away, when I should be focusing, I should be getting stronger.”

Ranvir sucked air through his teeth. He hadn’t really thought of it like that. Yes, he was aware that he’d been working on the Wing exercise a lot, some of that time it had really felt like work. But most of the time it hadn’t really. If not for Master Stjarna explicitly telling him to slow down, he would still be embracing the pressure going down that road as fast as he could.

“I don’t know what to say.” Ranvir answered honestly. “I mean, I know why I work like I do, but I had a very real and very terrifying reminder that strength is a requirement for where we’re going.”

Ranvir rubbed at one of the scars under his eye. Sometimes, it felt like water was running over the scarred spot, like he was crying. The rest didn’t feel wet so he knew he wasn’t, but he still felt it.

“Why do you want to become strong? To survive the front lines?” Ranvir asked. “There might be other ways to do that more easily. You could look into healing with ice?”

Sansir scoffed, kicking at the sand underneath his feet. “I’m not a healer.” He said shortly. They walked silently for a while, Sansir staring out beyond the walls of the complex. They’d left behind the forest that surrounded one side of the academy and were now looking onto barren fields.

“I want to look my father in the eye. And I want to see him to recognize my strength.” Sansir said finally.

“I thought you didn’t-“ Ranvir started to say, but broke himself off. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Sansir stopped, tapping one foot against an obsidian stone marking the boundary between two fields. “I think I want to head back.”

Ranvir nodded. “The reason I can do it, is because I both enjoy it and have a really strong reason for not wanting to be weak. That’s all I can offer you.”