Queen Minul II strode into the meeting room. As the Queen she was never late, though she sometimes struggled to be on time. Such as today. An ongoing struggle between two city lords regarding a recently instated third such lord had escalated to the point that she’d been involved.

She would’ve preferred it if the ruling noble, Tonna Tage, could’ve handled the problem on her own, but that would require enough brain power to run a functioning personality. As such the meeting regarding the two lords had drawn long. As it was winter, the lords themselves had been unable to present themselves at court in reasonable time, and had sent representatives which seemed equally as abrasive as their lieges.

In the end, they’d just needed to air the grievances and be told that they need to get over themselves. Which had unfortunately run long, as it often tended to do with nobles.

“We’re all here,” Minul said stopping in front of her chair. The meeting room was smaller than the one she’d used with the councilors. The centerpiece table only seated at most five people with her at head. The ceiling was tall adding a bit of an echo, but the doors were thick and the walls were windowless, spies would be unlikely to overhear anything. Still, she’d placed a pair of guards at the doors.

Minul exchanged glances with the two other occupants and then she sat down, Saif and Leif quickly following behind her.

“You wanted to meet regarding the academy,” Minul started the meeting off turning towards Leif Serpent-Vein, formerly of the Lords’ Council.

“Indeed, Your Majesty,” Leif said rearranging his notes, “As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, there was an incident on campus regarding one of the ankirians. The third one, I believe, though one is unsubstantiated and the other’s only mildly related.”

Minul looked to Saif, who nodded, “This is the incident where an ankirian broke into the first years dorm?” She inquired of her Master of Education.

Leif nodded, but didn’t otherwise respond as he formulated his full reply. “It involves another name I’m sure you’re becoming familiar with. Apparently, she was searching out Ranvir, the space manipulator, who has been in quite a few incidents throughout the year.”

Minul glanced at Saif briefly before returning her gaze to Leif. “I’ve heard the name, yes. I believe he was first involved in your nephew losing his teaching position at the academy.”

“Ah, yes,” Leif said swallowing slightly. “So you do remember. Though that shouldn’t taint my words for what’s to come. I might owe the boy a favor, honestly. I hadn’t realized how miserable Grimar had gotten working at the academy, nor how deeply he needed a break from it. It’s done him a lot of good to get home and retire from the stresses. Relearn to relax.”

Minul nodded, smiling tightly before waving for him to get on with it.

“He’s been in multiple incidents, most noticeably the expulsion of a teacher, being assaulted by another student, caught in the riots, and this event where Saleema searched him out specifically. While doing this she attacked and imprisoned students, Sansir, Grevor, and Esmund in a space-pocket and sealed it away. It took both Master Floki and Ranvir multiple hours to break through the bubble and free the students.”

Minul sucked a harsh breath in through her teeth. She’d gotten a brief report as to why Saleema had been moved from the academy to the palace when the woman had arrived. The report had told her that the woman had attacked three students, but lacked in specific details only that it wasn’t lethal. That she could’ve very well hurt three of the four students with the greatest potential of their year stung.

“I can see that you understand the dire consequences we could’ve faced had Saleema been just a slight bit more careless.” Leif said, putting the paper down. “I don’t doubt that this situation is largely of Saleema’s creation, but it was targeted at Ranvir and threatened multiple of our students. As such, I suggest that we remove Ranvir from campus. Either we throw him out of the academy, or we simply move him to a different location to continue his training.”

“Is that viable?” Saif asked, sitting up straighter. “Moving him off campus? There’s plenty of room, couldn’t we just give him a private room?”

Leif sucked air through his teeth. “Maybe. But Ranvir is special. He’s a space manipulator and doesn’t have any teachers that can’t easily be replaced. He’s almost entirely self taught in his tether training and his combat instructions could easily be handled by someone other than Master Vigo.”

“Is it worth the cost?” Minul asked, drawing her brows down. Ranvir was a rare tethered it was true, and there were next to no records of what a space manipulator could do, but that didn’t mean they’d be useful. “To provide him private teachers?”

“Likely not.” Leif said. “Which is why I also offered the option of simply removing him from the academy. If discharged, he wouldn’t have to go to the front lines, not that he’ll be overly missed there. I believe this is the safer option, as Sansir, Grevor, Esmund, and Dovar are known associates of his. If we provide him with separate apartments he would still spent most of his time with them, putting them in danger regardless of our efforts.”

Minul turned to Saif. “What do you think of this?”

“I dislike the concept of removing a student because an outside source of problems comes after them.” The triplet master looked unusually serious as he spoke. “There also might be more than meets the eye with Ranvir. Like you said, he’s been in most of the notable events of his year. His friend circles also involves the strongest four members of his year. I’d like to at least bring someone in who knows him, or spend some time examining him myself.”

“Bring someone in who knows him?” Leif asked, looking surprised.

“Head administrator Pashar.” Saif explained. “She occasionally provides me with reports of interesting students.” He paused turning to Minul. “Honestly, I’d suggest inviting her to this council.”

Minul waited a moment, then arched a brow. “Just going to recommend her? Nothing about why she would be a good addition.”

“The fact that I recommend her at all is enough,” Saif replied with his signature confidence.

Minul stifled a grin at his attitude. “I will take it into consideration. We will postpone any decision regarding Ranvir until we have more information on his person. In the end, it should be the academy’s job to keep the students safe, including Ranvir.”

Leif nodded, putting one paper at the end of his stack. “The next issue, is the presence of growing tension in the academy. There’s some partial show of this in the Royal School but it is far more controlled and I have a handle on it.”

He pulled out a leather pouch and proffered it to the Queen. “These have been seen on multiple students as they take a stance regarding their affiliations.”

Minul opened the pouch and pulled out two pins. One familiar looking eye and the other a scarlet enameled droplet. She turned inquisitively to Leif Serpent-Vein. “These are…”

“The pins display your association with either Kurri’s Eye or Varumgándr.” Minul recognized Varumgándr, it was the association affiliated with the Serpent-Vein family and part of the move that earned Leif his current place as the Master of Education.

“So the Masters’ Council and… you?”

“In rough terms,” Leif explained like he wasn’t the cause of strife at the academy, “Kurri’s Eye does indeed come from the Masters’ Council and represents the tethered desire to be free of oppressing bodies, such as government, though they do stand by the alliance. They especially emphasize how they’re needed at the front lines to protect their citizens.

“Varumgándr represents a support for Serpent-Vein, yes, but as an extension of that the Monarchy, as I support the Monarchy. We represent the tethered’s connection to their country and their people. We support people supporting each other, creating a stronger nation. That said, neither are too big on nobles, making them a third group, small as it might be.”

“And the issue is that Kurri’s Eye doesn’t support the nobles…” Saif said, looking intensely at Leif. “I assume, since they’re at odds.”

“They don’t. They believe the nobles are trying to assert their control over tethered even though they have no authority to do so.” Leif explained.

“Like a noble becoming the Master of Knowledge?” Minul pointed out.

Leif winced, “Like that.”

“And your solution?” Minul asked.

“I’ve thought of two general ones. We take their pins away, banning the use of pins on their uniforms. This doesn’t necessarily kill the spread of the ideologies, but it does limit their immediate growth somewhat.

“The other option is to let them continue, but use it as an opportunity to gain information. We pay special attention to whom the teachers favor and where the students who gather into each group comes from,” He cleared his throat. "Ankiria would take issue if you needed to make sweeping changes to your ruling body, we could use this as a reason why we needed to make changes to the Masters’ Council. If we let them play their hand, we can counter it without them being ready.”

“I sense a slight bit of bias,” Saif said his eyes narrowing dangerously, orange and hard.

“Well yes, this is something I’ve been working on for a while. There are a few risks-“

“Few risks?” Saif interrupted. “We risk radicalizing the student body. It will certainly increase the tensions on campus. Fights will be guaranteed. It might force the teachers to pick a side, most likely Kurri’s Eye since they would benefit the most from it.”

They both turned to Minul. Neither of them bothered with pleading, they were both above that. Removing the pins was the safe choice, but was she looking to make the safe choice? There were huge issues in her country, from road infrastructure, and—like Leif said—to governing bodies. Temporarily dismantling the councils wasn’t unheard of but going any further would invite further scrutiny from Ankiria.

Leaving the pins and spying was a risk. A huge risk. But it could be worth it. If everything paid off there would be huge boons.