The yelling soon died down and only the quiet hum of their muttered responses slipped into the waiting room, leaving behind the detail. The entire room waited in silence, before a contemplative Master stepped through the curtain. He didn’t even look up as he strode out.

Moments later, a slightly flushed Yngvar pulled the curtain aside and brought Esmund, Dovar, and the next patient inside.

“I’ve got to get back to work.” Ranvir said to Iri, who was still gripping his hand so tight his fingers were turning white. “You can sit here for as long as you need, okay?”

The boy sniffed loudly, before nodding confirmation. Ranvir smiled at him and extricated his hand from the boy’s. There was plenty of things to take care of. They still needed more water and they had a few other supplies in a locked storage room on the other side of the square he could bring back as well.

Time passed quickly and soon they were back in speed, their operation flowing smoothly from step to step. The crowd seemed to have relaxed some over the last hour and was far much easier to manage.

Just as they were hitting their stride, they were interrupted again. The Master returned to the waiting room, Herlu and Kalf following behind him. Thick white steam falling from his fingers, the Master waved for Ranvir, and Grevor to enter the operation room.

“I apologize, but there will be a brief intermission in the treatment.” The Master announced to the crowd, loud enough that people could hear it outside the tent. Ranvir caught glimpses of the sun reflecting off metal and red uniforms, before the Master swept the curtain closed.

Inside, Yngvar was taking a break from healing. Ranvir had learned a few things about his power over the past three weeks. For one, he could fully heal almost any injury, but it took a lot more power than simply fixing the biggest and most often simplest issues. It would cut recovery from weeks to days, while keeping the amount of people he could treat before over-expression high.

It was a careful balance to strike, however, and sometimes he was forced into healing someone fully. Like when Grevor had been assaulted, or how he’d fixed up Iri.

“Students.” The Master said, looking around the room. Dovar and Esmund were already approaching, but Sansir was in the middle of re-frosting the room. A surge of power moved past Ranvir, before he even realized the Masters Discipline had enveloped them. In a moment, the entire circle Sansir had been maintaining had frozen over. “That should last the rest of the day, if you would please join me.”

Sansir nodded, stepping over the steaming line of ice and joining the group. Ranvir honed his tether-sense on the Master trying to get an idea of his Concept, but it was too complex and intricate for him to even begin to break it down.

“Students.” The Master began again. “Your complaints have been taken to administration and they have managed to supply us with a half dozen squads of soldiers from the barracks around the city, to help establish order.” He locked eyes with Yngvar briefly. “An administrator has also been brought in to gather information on all your feedback, feel free to tell them any issues you are having.

“Once more, I apologize that we weren’t prepared for the sudden popularity in the clinics and beg that you can be understanding. We’re trying new things and this grew much faster than we anticipated.”

Yngvar seemed to consider his reply, before nodding. “Thank you, Master. I, we, appreciate the fast response and the assistance.”

The Master nodded stiffly. “The administrator will be along shortly, please return to your duties.” Then he swept out of the room, leaving a cold breeze behind him.

Ranvir looked at Yngvar who nodded to all of them. “Very well, we have some soldiers at our disposal. Herlu, Kalf, please go take a look, they should be organizing the crowd. See if there’s anything we can learn from it.”

The two second years nodded.

“Ranvir, you’ll continue as an assistant wherever we might need one. Sansir and Grev, you stay at the desks. Esmund and Dovar in here with me.” With that, Yngvar dismissed them to their duties, until the administrator would inevitably arrive and spoil it all over again.

It barely took five minutes.

Ranvir was just returning from a water run, with Iri who’d grabbed two entire buckets on his own, when he saw the familiar administration uniform entering the tent.

Upon reaching the waiting room, Ranvir was surprised to find that it wasn’t a single administrator, but three. Two of them were already shooing Sansir and Grevor out of their desks and setting up their own notebooks, quills, and ink pots. The last administrator stood in the middle of the room, looking out over the crowd with a critical eye.

Her dark skin stood out amongst the pale natives of Elusria, darker even than the deepest summer tan Ranvir had ever seen. Her black hair was pulled into a high bun, and she carried with her a slate tablet under one arm. Her eyebrow quirked slightly, as she saw him entering with a bucket full of water in each hand, followed by an eleven-year-old carrying just as much.

“I’d like to talk with each of you individually.” Pashar said, the moment Ranvir entered the room. “If I could start with you, Student Ranvir.” No matter her phrasing, it was not a request.

Ranvir examined her with narrowed eyes, suspicion sparkling nervously in shades of orange. “Alright, let me just drop these off.”

“Excellent.” Pashar agreed, holding the curtain open for him and Iri as they slipped inside. Ranvir dropped off his buckets, leaving them next to one of the shelves lining the wall, bright-torch light glittering off the surface.

“Why don’t you go take a break.” Ranvir said to Iri, squatting down to his eye-height. “Ask Dovar for some snacks, I’m sure he has some he’s willing to share.”

Iri looked nervously at Pashar, who was waiting just off to the side, before nodding and running off.

“I assume he was the one that got hurt.” Pashar asked, once Ranvir straightened. She had an oddly vulnerable look to her.

“Yes.” Ranvir said.

“I’m sorry about all of this.” Pashar said. “I tried to plan this out, but obviously there’s been extensive growing pains. We’ll be bringing in more of a support staff. That includes more regular check-ins than a Master every few hours, and a single water boy.”

“That’s good to know.” Ranvir replied. As she spoke he turned all of his attention on the administrator, especially his tether-sense, trying to get a read on her. He could clearly feel the smoke from her element, though he couldn’t judge if she was a generator or a manipulator. Not that much of a surprise, really. He’d only been able to tell that a handful of times, though always with the same people. If he got the sense once, he would also get it the next time.

“I will be taking the guards back with me again.” Pashar said, her voice a little harder. “This isn’t supposed to be a simple healing clinic. This is a training scenario that also has the benefit of healing the people. I have come to find that with the increase in patients, the need for dedicated administrators has become necessary, but that’s not your job. Your part will be protection, crowd management, and injury handling.”

Ranvir’s brows drew down slightly. “That feels like a recipe for disaster. What if, next week, there’s an even higher demand. With only seven guards we could get overrun.”

Pashar raised an eyebrow, though he thought he spotted some pent up frustration in the tension around her eyes. “Only seven guards? You’re underestimating your team, a little. Yourself, too, if you think you rank no higher than a guardsman.”

For a moment, Ranvir caught a flicker of something deeper from her power. Her Concept, it felt like, though it disappeared again too fast for him to recognize it. Ranvir knew from Kirs and the public files on all the employees that Pashar was as second stage tethered, and from the glimpses he’d gotten of her, he’d say she was smoke.

But he’d never met a second-stage so capable of hiding their power from him. Though, if he had, would he know? Probably not, he decided.

“That’s good to know. How long until you leave?” Ranvir asked, looking across the operation room at Dovar handing out little pieces of dried fruit to Iri.

“Once I’m done interviewing the rest of your team.” Pashar replied, drawing his attention back to her. “I do need a full picture of the situation before I can help. With that in mind, do you have any suggestions?”

“Avoid letting little kids get caught in massive crowds pushing for their way inside.” Ranvir deadpanned.

“Of course, we’re going to fix that.” She replied. “We’re already thinking of solutions to the issue. Anything else?”

“Some actual crowd management training before you throw us in the deep end.”

Pashar pinched the bridge of her nose with one hand. “Ranvir, I’m sorry that Ragnar blew you off like that. I’m sorry the budget is as constrained as it is. I’ve wanted to make a peace offering for quite some time now, but I’ve been too busy, unfortunately.”

Ranvir’s lips thinned, the suspicion thickening. “A peace offering? What do you want Pashar?”

“You have nothing that I need.” She replied, her voice cool. “Ranvir, you may be discovering the uses of tether-sense, but your senses are rudimentary at best.” A smile crept onto her face. Then she waved him off towards the waiting room. “Go join the boyfriends.”