Air gusted around Ranvir as he shakily straightened. The pocket-space had already fully vanished, fading away into nothingness. The wind from the excess air pulled at his short hair and clothes as it rushed out of the room.

He staggered over to the nearby wall, leaning on it as he slid down onto his rear. His eyes were prickling with unshed tears and his hands shook from the riptide of emotions that had rushed through him. He’d been angry, so violently angry Ranvir wasn’t sure he had the proper words to describe it. It had come on so suddenly and disappeared even quicker. Now he just felt empty, even as the adrenaline of all that emotion rushed through him.

He squeezed one hand into a fist until it stopped shaking. Sweat was pebbling on his forehead, alongside a headache and weakness in his bones. The odd late onset of the symptoms of over-expression startled Ranvir out of his daze enough to realize that both Es and Kirs were talking, though Kirs was waiting to approach until Es got to him first.

In his mind, he sensed Latresekt fading away. The creature, the entity, seemed lesser than previously. Remnants of yellow still sparkled in its fur, much of the detail in its body had been lost, however. What remained was an indistinct blurry vaguely humanoid shape, the overlong and powerful arms and short legs standing out.

“Ranvir, are you okay?” Es asked kneeling next to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

“I think… maybe,” Ranvir replied. Blinking he looked around searching for… “Where’s Frija?” he grabbed onto his friend’s arm, fingers tight as he realized he couldn’t see his daughter.

“She’s in the crib,” Kirs said, her voice had taken on a soothing and calming cadence, the one she used for guiding ritual meditation. “He didn’t just leave her on the table.”

Ranvir let out a sigh of relief leaning back against the wall.

“Are you okay? What happened?”

Ranvir blinked, forcing his mind to focus. Though he had a headache it wasn’t bad, merely annoying. It didn’t stop him from functioning properly. “I was in the pocket-space when Latresekt, the creature in my mind, appeared again. I haven’t seen it for a few weeks now, not since Master Ayvir and Svenar…” he paused for the right words, “crushed my native presence.”

Kirs hummed to herself leaning back, Es glanced at her before gesturing for him to go on. Ranvir nodded trying to bring his mind back onto what had happened, but much of it was just lost to exhaustion and the sudden rush of emotions. He could only vaguely remember much of what he’d been doing before hand. He’d been worrying about his tether and checking how the space had survived.

Ranvir winced, realizing that none of the space survived now. He cleared his throat, “I’m not sure what it did, but it made me angry. Really, really angry—“ he quickly raised his hand, “but not for long. Latresekt did something to me, through me, when I was angry. It took control of my powers, or it guided them somehow,” Ranvir shook his head bringing one weak hand up to it as the movement made his vision swim. “It tore the space apart.”

Esmund leaned back as well, “I noticed. I wasn’t quite going to rip it apart myself, but I was getting ready for it, when it disappeared. I don’t think I’d have noticed the actual act myself if I hadn’t been watching.”

Ranvir blew out a long breath, letting his head hang. “It was good, Esmund. It is good. Better than me, better than…” he shrugged, “anything I have the understanding to comprehend. The fluidity, the ease with which it wove power,” he cleared his throat, “It was like it was born to it. If I’d been in a better state of mind, I’m could be digging gold out of that memory for years.”

“Maybe that’s how tethered go mad?” Kirs asked. Her suddenly speaking up made Ranvir start, as he’d forgotten she was actually there. “The fact that people notice how good these creatures are at wielding the power. They feed it trying to get more glimpses and in the end, they go mad?”

Ranvir swallowed, “Maybe, there’s a chance you’re right,” his lips thinned as he thought about it further, “I could very well see that path leading to insanity. Master Svenar said he knew a few friends who had similar experiences to me, maybe it’s worth having a talk with them.”

Kirs pursed her lips, “Probably, but maybe not until after the academy’s lock down is lifted. Which isn’t likely to be for another couple months, during the summer break.”

Ranvir sighed but nodded in agreement, “You’re probably right,” his platter was full enough as it was, he couldn’t go adding more things to it on a whim. He’d never get anything done trying to bounce between everything.

“Not to derail the discussion,” Es said, “but why did the creature, Latresekt, destroy the space?”

Ranvir’s brows lifted, realizing that he hadn’t thought of that. He hummed to himself trying to bring up the exact details, “Um, the space was doing something, it was shifting, I think,” he pinched the bridge of his nose trying to focus, “The perspective through the connection was changing.”

“Changing?” Kirs asked, raising her eyebrows.

Ranvir cleared his throat, “At first, I was just sensing this room, then the apartment, then the whole building, then the whole complex,”

“Your senses were expanding?”

“Not really, I was losing details as it grew more expansive.”

Kirs cleared her throat, “So more like you were getting a new vantage point?”

Ranvir nodded.

“Like you were seeing from a higher position?”

Again he nodded.

“But more distantly?”

Esmund butted in at this point, “Like you were drifting away?”

Ranvir paused with his mouth open about to nod again. No, he would’ve noticed right? If he’d been drifting away? The connection had still been there, directed at the very room he was in right now, right? So it couldn’t have been drifting away.

“I don’t think so…” Ranvir said slowly, letting the words drag out.

“You don’t think so? What’s making you hesitate?” Kirs asked.

“There was a reason why Latresekt stopped the vision from growing more expansive,” Es said. “Previously, he’s only acted up to assist you in some way.”

Ranvir let out a disagreeable noise, “It was laughing pretty hard when the second-years came after me. And it provoked me to fight the others before my advancement.”

“But it also calmed you down after the smoke students attacked you, granted it lasted a little too long,” Kirs argued.

“And it appeared in your eyes when we were at the clinic during the riots. It’s definitely also interested in helping you.”

Ranvir sat back feeling disagreeable but unsure if he could explain it.

“Alright, let’s drop it then,” Kirs said, though, Ranvir could plainly see that Es didn’t want to drop it. Not yet. “What could it mean that your vision through the connection point was expanding?”

Ranvir hesitated, “Maybe a view from outside of Vednar offered me a different perspective. When I’ve been breaking down pocket-spaces previously I was able to touch the space anywhere so long as I knew where the connection point was. Maybe it was an effect similar to that.”

“Any other possibilities? Can you sense a pocket-space through the connection point? Get a sense of the insides?”

Ranvir shook his head, “Sort of, but only as far as my Veil can reach.”

“But this time was far more expansive,” Es said. “Could your connectiving point—“ he waved Kirs off when she tried to correct him and continued on, “have been breaking, fading? Growing, uh, fuzzy?”

Ranvir shook his head, but Kirs interrupted him before he could speak.

“He’s got a fair point and we need to consider it properly,” she said. “Could you maintain your connection point with the aperture closed?”

Ranvir snorted in disbelief, “Of course, I do it all the time,” he paused briefly, realizing that he wasn’t currently embracing the pressure. A moment later, he seized a handful of space and pinched it off into it’s own side reality, “See. Perfectly sustained.”

Kirs pursed her lips but turned to Esmund for any ideas.

“Flip it,” he said.

“What?”

“Flip it. Turn it inside out, turn the inside of the aperture to the outside.”

Ranvir shook his head, “Okay,” he flipped it with a flip of his wrist, flipping off Es in the process. The space remained and he could still sense the connection through it easily enough. “Not a problem.”

Kirs sighed and got up, “I don’t think we’re going to solve this one today, boys,” she let her hand run through Es’ hair as she stepped into the living/dining/sleeping room.

“Make two pocket-spaces and connect them together with apertures, then close everything down.”

Ranvir blinked, it was interesting idea. With a minimal effort of will, he gathered another pocket and brought the twos connection point close to each other, that should make it relatively easy for him to find them when jumping the connection from one to the other.

He was relieved to learn that with his Veil filling both, he could tell exactly where both spaces were in relation to each other in the void beyond reality. He quickly forged the connection and worked in an aperture on both spaces, allowing a crooked finger to cross from one reality into another. Ranvir paused a thought striking him, he tried bringing the spaces apart, but unfortunately they resisted. Some kind of interference forcing them remain next to each other.

“Now close all the apertures and sustain the connection,” Esmund said sounding way too confident in a power he didn’t hold.

Rolling his eyes, Ranvir did as he was bid, so he could only get the vaguest sense of the pockets at all.

“How long do you want to give them?” Ranvir asked cocking an eyebrow at Es.

“Thirty seconds is fine.”

They stared each other down for half a minute, then an extra five seconds because Ranvir knew better than Esmund how his own powers worked.

Rolling his eyes, Ranvir opened the aperture to the right most space, then searching for its internal aperture and opened that one… Nothing, it didn’t connect to anything.

“Son of a fucking bitch,” Ranvir closed his eyes, “you’re never going to let me live this one down.”

“BOOM! You’re bitch and an idiot! BOOM!” Es jumped to his feet and ran out of the room cheering. He continued cheering, which caused Frija to giggle and scream loudly distinctly different from crying. Ranvir heard him pause at the door removing the drop bar with a grunt and turning the locks then continued cheering and yelling as he ran into the hallway and down the stairs.

Ranvir stared at his two separate little pocket-spaces, as Esmund’s cheers slowly faded through the halls until it returned as he left the building the sounds coming from the windows in the hallway outside instead.

Finally, Es’ voice faded and Ranvir sat in silence. Examining it closer, he could tell that the connection point came before the aperture, which was what caused his connection to weaken when he stepped inside the space. With the aperture closed he suddenly had an obstacle that caused the connection to deteriorate. Ranvir sighed feeling tired.

“Hey Ran,” Kirs called, “I think she’s shitting herself again.”

Ranvir sighed heavily.