This was dumbest most stupid ass place in all of Vednar. It must’ve been a real fucking brainstroke of the Sisters that created this forsaken place and then left in the dumbass dark.

Rafeeda slipped on a patch of snow that still lingered on the ground, like it just refused to die and disappear. It was fucking spring. Fucking spring, Goddesses damnit! She breathed heavily gathering herself and pulling her thick coat even tighter around her.

It felt awkward in these stupid fucking asshole gloves. Goddess! She just wanted some fucking sun and heat.

“Piss and bleed,” she muttered as she made her way to the dorm. She almost had to summon a light, just to make her way. Despite it only being early evening. She growled in frustration as she stepped in a muddy pool that had formed where too much of the snow had melted. Honestly, if there ever was an argument for the Sisters not being real, this place was the best one.

What kind of brain stroke of person would come up with this place. She would rather walk for a hundred fucking— she slipped again. This time she almost fell over. She would rather spend a hundred days under Ankiria’s sun than another night in this stupid ass place. The ground moved under her feet as she started walking again. It moved.

With a wet squelch her foot slipped out from underneath her. She caught herself on all fours, feeling the wet—honestly maybe the Sisters deserved to die for creating this place—ground soak into the knees of her pants. Just before she could push to her feet, water escaped into her gloves. The freezing liquid instantly soaking into the inner lining.

“Fuck!” She yelled a burst of light escaping her from all over, “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” she repeated the curse followed by a flash of light from each exclamation. “Fuck this stupid place!”

She blasted a line of concentrated light at the ground, causing steam to rise from the wet soil. She never thought she would miss sand of all things, but this stupid, slippery, slimy, ugly, disgusting, worm-housing, insect-containing mud was the next worst thing she’d ever fucking seen.

Even after a full ten seconds of blasting, the ground still hadn’t caught on fire and she was standing out like a spotlight was on her. Pursing her lips, she stifled her outburst with a growl and continued onwards.

She was surprised that the sun was still lightening the horizon in the distance, even though it should’ve still been blazing high in the sky at this point. At least, it meant that an end was coming to this season of nightmares.

Rafeeda breathed a little easier after her tantrum, something she was sure her mistress would’ve noted upon had she been there to observe. Naadiya had been telling her that she lost her temper too easily. In fact, it was one of the very first things she’d said to her.

Taking a deep breath, Rafeeda following the oscillations of her tether, tracking her power back into tether-space. While she was embracing the pressure she could only get the vaguest of sense, but just breathing calmly and focusing on the tether was a huge help.

Annoying as that was.

Rafeeda shook her head as she finally stepped into the warmth of the fifth-years dorms. She garnered a few glances as she made her way to the rooms that had been set aside for their group, but mostly the students lingering in the halls ignored her. Either they were well trained enough to not openly show such interest, or the ankirian presence had been there for long enough that they weren’t as exciting anymore.

Taking a deliberate moment before entering the suite of room, Rafeeda cracked the door open carefully. She didn’t want any lingering annoyance to show itself in front of her mistress. She really wasn’t in the mood for another lecture.

The common room leading to all their sleeping chambers were empty except for Master Tayyib. The old master was slumbering on the couch, snoring softly, as his gray beard tickled his pot belly. Tayyib had been pulled from the front lines some time ago, having grown too old to continue fighting. At the loss of his occupation he’d dearly needed something to do, so taking the old master along hadn’t been that big of an issue.

Rafeeda shook her head as she walked quietly through the room. She easily made her way past the old master and approached her mistress’ room, when she heard Naadiya’s voice coming from the one opposite it.

High Master Zubair’s room.

Naadiya was making an effort to be quiet, likely to avoid waking Tayyib.

“We should do something about her,” Naadiya’s voice was firm as she spoke. Rafeeda hadn’t ever known anyone that could speak with such certainty to a high master, though, Naadiya herself was supposedly on her way to such a status.

Rafeeda stepped closer to the door, making sure that she couldn’t actually see any of the potential masters in the room. If she couldn’t see them, then they couldn’t see her. As she did, she tried her best to blend her presence in with the rest of the light in the room. It was easier for her with her Discipline as the edges of her skin seemed to almost diffuse in the light. It wasn’t an expression that even Naadiya could sense even though it had a visible effect on her.

High Master Zubair snorted and she heard him swallow something down followed by the sound of ice on glass, “You weren’t there. The last time was… Sister’s Tears, eighty years ago,” he let out a long sigh and a chair creaked with the weight of his body. “I was a boy, back then. Not even a master. I was however recruited for the evacuation process.”

“Still, you’re no—“

“Shut the fuck up,” Zubair interrupted, “please,” he added as an after thought, “You have no idea what you’re talking about. They opened up the entirety of Ankiria’s Arsenal. Every High Master currently still in Ankiria, Naadiya. Eighteen men and women at the highest level of power. I don’t know if you noticed, but Saleema’s still fucking walking freely,” his voice got a little heated towards the end and they were quiet for a long time.

“I’m sorry,” Zubair finally muttered with the sound of a rough hand running across skin. “She fought eighteen of the most powerful people in Ankiria and as many warp masters as they could drag into the field, and she killed four of them before they managed to force her into one of her own prisons. The power I saw that day… She’s not like us. I guess that’s not surprising with her history, but…” liquid was poured into a glass again.

Rafeeda listened by the door, feeling her heart slamming into her ribcage. She felt it beat so loudly that it should wake Tayyib up from where he was snoring on the couch, let alone alert the masters beyond the door.

Naadiya let out a disbelieving laugh that made Rafeeda’s heart burst. She’d never heard her mistress so unsure, so… afraid before, “What do we do then?”

Zubair was quiet for a long time. The heavy silence sitting like a choke around Rafeeda’s throat as she waited for the answer, “Run. Go back to Ankiria. We call an enclave. Petition all the monarchs. Pray that she stays here.”

“Is that really all we can do?”

“I don’t know,” Zubair sounded worried and Rafeeda heard the sloshing of liquid as his hand briefly appeared where she could see it. The clear liquid was a rare sight to Rafeeda as very few people were able to make such pure alcohol. “Maybe Saif has some trick, technique, or plan he can pull out of his ass. The Sister’s knows he’s old enough to have developed something.”

“He’s really that old?”

“You felt his tether when we struggled with her before, you tell me.”

“Right. Why can’t we just do that again?”

“Because there’s a difference between her being slightly distraught and confusion and her being enraged.”

“How,” Naadiya hesitated but as she continued speaking there was a hungry undertone to her voice, “How did she get that strong?”

“We don’t know,” Zubair said swirling the liquid in his glass. “There’s theories, hundreds of theories. Maybe thousands. Maybe all of his children were like that, maybe it’s a fourth stage, maybe it’s a Concept so strong it literally broke her mind, maybe it’s a mind so broken only it could create a Concept of this strength.

“Maybe it’s just her age that has turned her into such a monstrous tethered, maybe it’s a function of space we haven’t yet figured out. There’s been a thousand analyses on her move set. Her greatest technique is her ability to isolate her enemies,” there was a hint of fear in Zubair’s voice. “I still remember the look of frustration on the masters’ faces as she put herself into one of those pockets and they just had to wait for her to emerge. I’ll never forget it.”

The lull in conversation grew as both masters sat in their own thoughts. Rafeeda caught herself and realized Naadiya might soon realize that her apprentice should’ve shown up quite some time ago.

Carefully, her heart in her throat she walked towards the common room entrance. She quickly opened and slammed the door, causing Master Tayyib to yell out in surprise and start up. At the same time she felt just the whisper of her mistress’ tether-sense breeze across her.

“Rafeeda, I’m in here.”

She quickly strode over to Zubair’s door, bowing in apology to Master Tayyib. She tentatively shoved the door open revealing Zubair and Naadiya sitting across from each other, a small table between them housing the high master’s drink.

“Mistress,” Rafeeda said with a bow, holding it until she felt the acknowledging touch of Naadiya’s tether-sense. “They still continue their evening training.”

“And the boy?”

Rafeeda had been monitoring them closely for the last several weeks. They’d taken a break after Master Ayvir had so blatantly showed that she couldn’t hide from his senses, but had quickly resumed her observations. The information was more important than staying hidden. So what if they knew the ankirians were interested, even if she could only understand the bare minimum of elensk.

Rafeeda sighed, realizing what she was about to say would get her stuck watching them until they finally left this forsaken country, “I got a close view of them tonight,” she let her eyes slid closed as she doomed herself, “They are as you suspected, mistress. His eyes are unawakened.”

Zubair perked up as Naadiya nodded to her in acknowledgment, “Well done, apprentice. We will need to see if we can’t track down his heritage, then,” she turned to Zubair to continue their conversation.

“Pardon, mistress,” Rafeeda said her heart beating rapidly once more. “Should I keep watching them?”

Naadiya hesitated, looking slightly surprised but nodded, “It can’t hurt.”

Rafeeda grit her, “But do I have to, mistress?”

Naadiya narrowed her gaze as she examined her apprentice, “Why shouldn’t you?”

Rafeeda clenched her fist, stilling its shaking, “Mistress, I fear they’re learning more from me than I’m learning from them. All of their tether-senses have improved noticeably over the weeks I’ve been watching them. I fear that Master Ayvir is learning from what he can sense of mine and passing it on to his students.”

Naadiya glanced at Zubair who just shook his head, “He was the consort to Anva-Diin.”

The Master nodded and turned her full attention back to Rafeeda, “Very well, apprentice. Well spoken and well reasoned. We will not keep watching them.”

Rafeeda stood stunned for a moment before bowing. She barely restrained herself to a controlled walk as she entered her own room. She listened to me… And agreed? What the fuck? Rafeeda smiled with her whole face as she sat down on her bed.