6 Day Left

Pashar’s legs felt sluggish as she propelled herself across the swampy terrain before her. The dark was only faintly lit by the lights of the moons, the landscape cast in ominous shades. Crooked trees reaching towards the sky above her, their shadows clawing for her.

Normally, this wasn’t such a harsh journey to take and it hadn’t been. Not when she’d been on the way out to the the Queen’s mansion, but returning Pashar was starting to feel the limits of even a master. Especially, as she forced such potent power through an inferior Discipline. Under more normal circumstances she would’ve been fine fueling Lungs with her power, mainly because she didn’t have to last long. It was rare that tethered were drawn into extended fights that left them repeatedly channeling their tether.

But Pashar was starting to run into that wall, the most dangerous trap for any tethered. As a pre-stage and first-stage, most tethered could throw around enough power to exhaust themselves in minutes if not seconds. It was obviously easier for a pre-stage than a first-stage but it was possible nonetheless.

But once a tethered advanced into the second-stage, they could draw more power than they could easily spend. She could keep pushing at her max for hours, some masters could even do so for days. But as was only fitting, there was a cost. It took longer to recover. Rushing out to the summer estate with the other masters spending most of a day traveling, then rushing back not even a full week later, Pashar was starting to find her limits.

Still, she grit her teeth and pushed off again, the ground blurring underneath her as she pushed off with all her strength but the weight of a cloud of smoke. She’d long since given up on flying. Not only was reducing her weight that much unnecessarily draining, but she didn’t even know the state of things she would be returning to.

Likely, Ragnar would still be fighting with the rebels, unless he’d somehow maneuvered them into losing so fast. She shook her head, Focus, she ordered herself. Using as little power as possible, she rushed across the landscape.

She didn’t know how fast Saleema could go but from what little she’d seen of her records…

Pashar would need all the advantage she could get.

Ranvir molded the wall of his tether-space, letting it embrace the tether more perfectly. It was not a simple task, but his single-minded dedication allowed him the focus to do it. The rapid rotations of his tether did not make the task any easier, but when he’d tried slowing it down he’d sensed his own body faltering beyond the space.

He needed it as it was.

But that was fine. Ranvir’s will was iron and the ritual had honed it into the finest edge. Sensing the entry-point was just the slightest hint off, Ranvir returned to the wall, feeling the spiritual whirlwind pull of his tether as it rushed around itself above him. Slowly, gently, he adjusted the fitting until sparks of purple started flying around the connection.

The task had been hard, but Ranvir was finally getting the hang of it. He’d been manipulating his tether almost since his first day at the academy, but manipulating the space itself was harder. He hadn’t initially understood the underlying principles that made it up, but as he’d experimented he’d found the knack for it.

Not only that, but he’d started noticing similarities between tether-space and pocket-spaces. Not in their actual structural make up. One was a purely spiritual existence, while the other…

Ranvir had assumed pocket-spaces were fully physical manifestations, but they weren’t. Sure, as a manipulator he was controlling some sort of matter, but it wasn’t physical, not fully he’d realized. It just acted liked it. Really acted like it. But there were a few inconsistencies if he was actually controlling space. For one, how could he pinch off a piece to make into a separate pocket, especially if that pocket could fully drift away from Vednar’s reality.

Sure, maybe he was just making them no longer part of the same whole, but Ranvir thought it was something else. He could sense space and with that sense came the energy that traveled alongside it. Energy similar to that which was found in the light from the sun, the cold of ice, or the edge of a knife.

He was using that to mimic actual space, just like a generator was. He was just using what was already in the world, instead of making it himself. Which made his pocket-space mostly physical creation, or physically adjacent. And that ‘adjacent-ness’ he’d detected in tether-space.

As a whole they weren’t that similar, but in small details throughout both he found were repeating ideas and concepts. Ones he now used to shape the walls of tether-space.

Once he’d realized how to work his internal space, he’d soon realized he was able to sense the run off from the tether. The energy that wasn’t making its way through the three ropes that spun a loop through his soul. Most of it wasn’t even spilling into the space around him, it was just getting lost in the connection and he would fix that.

He twisted the connection again, sensing the run off lessening then shutting off entirely. Then the sensation of something snapping into place. The whirlwind storm in around him skipped a moment before his tether suddenly relaxed.

It slowed down within moment, then a flicker of purple lit up the core of the ropes for a moment. Just a flickering light passing through. Ranvir took a more distant perspective to get a better look at it. Victory and achievement coursed through him like golden fire, never burning but always glowing and warming.

The energy became more stable, more certain until a line of purple light ran all the way through the core of his tether, lighting it up from the inside. He smiled in the purple glow sensing his achievement and feeling how it had caught something else’s attention. A three-fingered hand pressed against the wall of his tether-space opposite from where he was looking.

Observing it through the limits of the space, Ranvir couldn’t make out any color but he had a good idea of who was watching. Purple flared further drawing his attention back to the tether again as another fluctuation of power moved through, the intensity ratcheting further.

He vaguely sensed Latresekt trying to get his attention, but Ranvir wanted to see what was happening. He quirked a smile as another more dense point of energy moved through. Examining it closer, he realized it was clump of inert tether matter that was being pushed through. They had littered all throughout his tether before but now the flow was drawing them out, purifying his power.

Then it hitched.

For a second the space dimmed.

Ranvir leaned in closer, worry creasing his brow.

Purple light exploded.

Power ripped through his tether so intense Ranvir was blinded. It sent waves throughout the space, rocking his core and blowing him out of the space. Gasping, Ranvir fell backwards his eyes stinging and watering as he sensed his tether working to accommodate the power.

He gasped rolling on the floor, knocking over lumps of burned down wax and tumbling the piles of obsidian. It was only sheer luck that protected him from getting cut by one of the knives as he gasped and cried out at the pain.

It wasn’t bad pain, however intense it was. It was like the soreness of overstretched and overworked muscles. It reminded him most of all of his early days at the academy, when his legs had been constantly shaking from the effort of the workouts and his entire body’d been too sore to partake in after class training.

He forced himself to still once he ripped one of his sleeves on a knife, determining to ride out the pain in silent acceptance. It wouldn’t last, that he knew for sure.

But it didn’t go away, nor did it weaken. The pain was unchanged and after a few minutes, Ranvir needed something to distract himself. He started with the basics. Examining his cell, he found day-old stew sitting at his door. It didn’t matter how long it had been there, all he knew was the sudden hunger that welled up inside him. The moons cast an eerie glow on his bowl, an almost purple light as he dug in.

He doubted the food would’ve tasted great warm and it certainly hadn’t benefited from staying out, but he was voracious enough that it didn’t matter. Then he got a smell of himself and noticed the stench. Luckily, he’d set the jug of water he’d cleansed himself with out so the keeper had exchanged it.

After eating and washing, if he could really call it that without soap and with his constantly spilling unnecessary amounts of water from jerking in pain. Tentatively, he started to lever open tether-space to get another look inside, but the gateway burned at his touch. More painful than his tether’s transformation, it cut through him like a searing knife and Ranvir couldn’t stop the cry from escaping his lips as he went blind with the headache that stabbed into the base of his skull.

He didn’t remember struggling onto the bench, though, he did note the idea coming to him at some point in the night, however.

Hildrid smiled and tossed her head again. It was rare that she let her hair down, it hadn’t always been like that, though, there’d once been a time where she’d never have tied it up at all. Let alone into a strict bun. It felt nice to have it move in the breeze or a casual twitch of her head again.

“You sure he didn’t do something to you?” Ulf asked curiously, he looked at her like she’d just told him about a particularly disturbing favorite dish. Their rivalry had faded with the initial dissolution of the Masters’ Council and then even further with her official withdrawal.

“Oh,” Hildrid smiled wider. “He did something alright.”

“Who?” Sven asked wrapping a hand around her stomach that made a fire burn through her veins sending tingles to the furthest edges of her body. “Did what?”

Ulf looked in surprised confusion at them as Sven kissed her on the cheek then the neck stoking the fire further. She wasn’t a young tethered prone to giggling at the slightest touch of her beloved anymore, but it was close. Instead, she ran her fingers down his forearm, still strong despite the years and knitted her fingers through his.

“I think you know,” She turned her head and kissed him on the lips.

Rainbow light burst through Ulf speckling blood and gore onto their lips.