Ranvir sat up rubbing his temple with three fingers.

“There was…” Ayvir exchanged a look with Svenar, “Something in your Veil, in your native presence.”

Latresekt’s screams of pains were dying down as the color that represented him sunk into the surface of Ranvir’s mind. He wasn’t gone, he just needed time to recover.

“What was that, Ranvir?” Master Svenar asked kneeling next to him on the snow.

Ranvir sighed and shook his head, Should I tell them? I told Kirs and Esmund, but this is a little different, he embraced the pressure and reached out towards his friends, sensing them close by without trying to obviously eavesdrop on him. Maybe it’s for the best…

He rubbed the palm of his hands across his eyes, before dragging the basket closer and looking down at Frija. She wasn’t crying, but he got a sense that it was coming. He cradled her in his arms, as he considered what to do. Svenar waited patiently opposite him, obviously not letting it go.

“There’s—“ he waved his free hand in the air, “a creature, or something, that sometimes affects my emotions, I think. It touched me when I was attacked before my advancement, and it did something again just after my fight with those smoke students.”

Svenar’s brows furrowed, “It affected you? Emotionally? I what kind of way?”

Ranvir gnawed at his lower lip before shrugging slightly, “Just kinda pushes me off balance. Makes me a little more aggressive, I think. Though, I haven’t been more aggressive over the last few days.”

“What about guilt or sadness? Fear, maybe? Can you describe the creature you see?”

Ranvir perked up, sensing that there was something the master wasn’t telling him, “Why?”

“Your symptoms aren’t completely unheard of,” Svenar replied sharing a glance with Ayvir. Ranvir didn’t particularly enjoy their contemplative expressions but he moved on thinking on Svenar’s questions.

“It looks sort of like a man, mainly made of red, orange, and yellows. It has a much thicker frame and is muscular in way that doesn’t quite fit a human. Long arms, with shorter cat-like rear legs. It can stand on just the hind legs, though it most often is supporting itself with its arms as well. And it only has three fingers.”

Svenar stood up, “Can you give us a minute?” then he immediately headed off with Ayvir to discuss something quietly.

Ranvir watched them go, a gnawing ice cold blue feeling in his stomach growing as they talked. Frija finally started screaming, grabbing Ranvir’s attention. He doubted she needed anything. She’d just been changed and fed, so probably just some attention.

He started rocking her and cooing as she cried. Looking down at his daughter, her little limbs struggling in the thick coat, one of her hands grasping his finger, he was reminded of the fight.

Of the aftermath. Of him standing over the second-year, his leg twitching slightly as he writhed on the ground, tears in his eyes. The moaning had been nearly as incoherent as Frija’s cries, though, him being a grown-man made Ranvir less empathetic for the image.

I hurt him pretty bad, he tried to find some sort of remorse or regret that he’d hurt another student, but it simply lacked. Latresekt, for all that it’d been affecting him after the fight, hadn’t touched Ranvir during it. The student definitely wasn’t walking back from that fight. The image of his leg jerking as he tried to move it made that pretty clear. To his relief, Ranvir did find some hope that the injuries weren’t so severe that he was kicked out of the academy.

I’m still not sure what happened to his friend, though… Ranvir examined his Veil, which still lay limp and mostly unresponsive to his commands, I have a fair guess now. How did I do that? That could’ve done a lot of damage to someone weaker. If I’d tried that on one of the first-years… a shiver ran down Ranvir’s back at the thought.

His tether-sense wasn’t fully responsive either, though it did move at his command. As he stretched it forwards towards his friends, he felt the sensitivity greatly decline after only a meter, as it lost most of its cohesion. He wasn’t that worried since he’d suffered much worse after cracking Saleema’s pocket-space. That experience had completely burned away his tether-sense and it had still recovered within a day. Though, it had been pretty different afterwards.

Ranvir blinked, realizing that he’d let Frija drag the tip of his finger into her mouth. “No, don’t do that,” he admonished with a smile, gently retrieving his finger from her grip. Even though he’d been as gentle and soothing as he could, the extrication still made her start crying again. He shushed her gently, blowing on a lock of hair on her forehead. Red against pale white. He quickly retrieved a sucker and she eagerly set about sucking on it.

“Ranvir,” Svenar said the masters approached again, “It’s not an unheard of condition. Personally, we don’t know anyone describing such a creature as you see, but there are other stories. People with creatures appearing in their minds, affecting them.”

Ranvir’s eyes widened, and he protectively lifted Frija to his chest, though, she didn’t seem to care still going at the sucker. “Really?”

Ayvir’s face was grim, “Some tethered are affected similarly after returning from battle. Though they don’t tend to have the same symptoms as you, they tend towards a darker mood. They are most often associated with gloom. Specifically in tethered, only a few rare soldiers experience any sort of presence accompanying their gloom.”

Ranvir shook his head, “I don’t have gloom, though…”

“Yes, we know,” Ayvir said. “That’s why we even took the time to debate at all. Almost all of the teachers at the academy know someone who has gloom, but even among them it’s rare to see a creature involved in their mind.”

“Is that why I also feel in colors?”

Ayvir opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again with a frown. “No, I’ve never heard of that.”

“Oh…” Ranvir pursed his lips.

“Anyway, we were wondering how long you’ve been seeing this creature in your mind.”

“I think it goes by Latresekt,” Ranvir replied, “And it’s been appearing since the riots, I think…” he scratched at his neck, “There maybe a few other incidents before that, but not too long I don’t think.”

The youthful master nodded drawing back slightly, “My theory is that you have something like an aggressive version of gloom, something that, on occasion, makes you more likely to lash out and hurt people.”

Ranvir frowned but before he could reply, Svenar stepped in.

“I’m not so sure,” he said. “I don’t think we have enough information to truly tell if this is something that can even be classified. Master Knut has gloom and I think he once mentioned something similar, I would like to talk with him about it, if that’s okay?”

Ranvir hesitated, looking down at Frija who wasn’t crying anymore and he realized she’d at some point thrown her sucker away and was once more attached to his finger. He sighed, quickly finding the dismissed item on the ground. Not that he could get it without disturbing Frija’s once more peaceful rest. He decided to just let it be for now, not all fights had to fought at this very minute.

I owe Frija at least to try and dig to the bottom of this, Ranvir thought. If Latresekt really is making me more aggressive, then I should know. If they have existing material, then I should check it out…

Ranvir nodded to Master Svenar, “I think it’s fine, though, I’d prefer if you keep my name out of it if you can. It’s already been passed around campus too much for my taste.”

“Of course,” Svenar cracked a solemn little smile, “Coldfront.”

Ranvir sighed but got to his feet, “Could you put the sucker in the basket for me?” Ayvir nodded. He grabbed it and with a fluid motion flicked it through the air into the basket, before turning towards Grevor. The blond tethered was standing with his side to them, though he clearly wasn’t working any of his abilities, except to keep the center light going.

Ranvir walked over to Esmund, causing the warp tethered to stop his flowing lines of rainbow energy. He’d been forming some sort of wheel, almost like the round saw in the lumberyard back home. Ranvir’d heard of huge ones that could be used on full-sized trees. The one back home wasn’t nearly as big as that, however, it could help cut already split wood into planks and was quicker and easier than a two-man saw.

“Do you have time to try something?” Ranvir asked, shifting Frija slightly further up his arm.

“Sure, what do you have in mind?”

“I wanted to stress test hardened space.”

A slight grin spread on Es’ lips, Ranvir was surprised when he paused to look around, he briefly stopped seeing Kirs helping Dovar with something on the other side of the field, “If you want to stress test it, you should just tell Kirs that she’s too fuzzy with her notes.”

Ranvir chuckled, mostly from the cautious look on Esmund’s face rather than the joke, “Sure. Hey Kirs!”

“No, no, no,” Es cursed and grabbed Ranvir’s shoulder, “Don’t, please.”

“What?” Kirs asked turning to look at them. Clearly, she saw Es’ wide-eyed expression and Ranvir’s shit eating grin, because her eyes narrowed dangerously.

“Nothing, it was nothing. Don’t worry about it,” Esmund said unconvincingly.

“Yup,” Ranvir said. He didn’t let the grin slack one bit as he nodded at her.

She glared at them for a moment, before turning back to Dovar who was also grinning. She immediately snapped something that caused his expression to falter.

“So how did you want to do this?” Esmund asked.

Ranvir hardened a patch of space a meter to his left, braiding it together as strong as he could possibly force it.

“I was thinking,” Ranvir said his voice strained with effort, “that you simply try to cut through the space,” the area of hardened space was half a meter by half a meter. Ranvir saw little shimmers of something around the edges and light distorted as it traveled through the slate, occasionally interrupted by flickers of purple embers, like sparks emerging from the concentrated space.

“Alright,” Esmund said drawing his hand back. A spike of energy flickering with all the colors of light running across its edge. Before Ranvir could react, he drove the spike forwards.