Ranvir and Amalia stood towards the front of the line that had formed in front of the fold’s entrance. Mercy’s Redoubt had insisted on going in first, clearing the opening with a squad of twenty, including Sabas and Mihail.

Standing this close to a fold that strong was choking. The air didn’t move with its usual rapidity, the sun was as bright or hot, the shadows weren’t as deep or defined. Even the quality of sounds had changed. When Ranvir’d visited the fold where he’d gained Loce, the storm locust elemental currently hitching a ride on the bag of mercenary already inside the fold, he’d been too preoccupied with Kyriake’s attention to notice how overwhelming it was.

Though, looking back at the interaction and comparing it to now, Ranvir suspected she might’ve limited the impact the fold had on the environment somehow. The Orykto fold felt overwhelming to him, but he could see the nauseous expression on the even weaker merchants.

Stepping through was like passing into a bubble, his powers having to fight through the barrier between the two planes.

“Over here, please,” a mercenary called, waving for them to step aside as more people followed behind them.

Ranvir swept his senses wide, searching for monsters the mercenaries might be fighting. He felt Amalia do the same at his side. He shouldn’t have been surprised by the size of the fold, but it still got to him. It was a medium-sized fold, at least in width and depth, but once he included height in the measurement.

The Orykto fold comprised a series of stone pillars stretching up a kilometer or more into the sky, upon once such outcropping the Mercy’s Redoubt was currently gathering. Ranvir couldn’t easily count the amount of pillars, but most of them ranged from twenty to thirty meters across, with some as small as a footprint and some as large as a hundred meters.

Water filled most of the fold, stopping less than a hand-span from the smallest pillars. With the mana fueled wind blowing through the fold, waves regularly spilled onto the stone, making the lips slippery.

The fold was bowl shaped, water only reaching perhaps four or five meters down at the border and reaching the full kilometer height towards the center. It was a massive fold on a scale Ranvir’d never experienced before. And there were no creatures of note on the surface.

He sensed a pair of mercenaries making the rounds of their current pillar’s perimeter. They struck down some sort of water-type monster, though it was terribly weak compared to the ambient strength of the mana.

“Are you sensing that?” Amalia asked.

Ranvir frowned, glancing towards her. She was staring straight at the fold’s aperture, her fingers clenched. Cautiously, he followed her tether-sense as it ran over the crew of Mercy’s Redoubt.

They quickly swept over the outcropping together, Ranvir’s mind whirling as he tried to connect the dots she had.

Mercy’s Redoubt is still coming through. Sabas is at the center, creating a command-station. Mihail and Alexis are with him. He ran his senses through his surroundings again. We’re still ensuring the safety of the pillar, the mercenaries gathering around the entrance…

Ranvir licked his lips, a black and blue pit opening up within him, yawning to suck the heat from his body. Loce, sensing his distress, came flying to him from the crowd, landing on his shoulder. Inside him, Latresekt stirred.

“It’s probably nothing,” Ranvir whispered back, though he couldn’t stop his own hands from clenching into white-knuckled fists. Mentally, he reached for his pocket-space, preparing his hammer.

“Hopefully,” Amalia whispered back.

Ranvir focused on listening to the men talking around them, feeling the powers within Amanaris shift as he did. Yellow apprehension was welling up within him from all sides as his ears opened up.

“I don’t know about this,” one mercenary standing opposite them whispered. “They seem pretty nervous, you su—“

“Shut it,” their commanding officer called. “Orders are to keep quiet and calm. The captain will handle this.”

Ranvir tried to swallow again but failed, his mouth turning as dry as the sand he generated. People were still filing through the fold’s entrance one-by-one. By now, the company had half of their men inside with them.

Ranvir tried to hear what was going on with Sabas, but his senses couldn’t reach the captain through the ambient noise from the soldiers. Breathing deeply, Ranvir consciously relaxed his hands and grabbed at his bracelet, feeling the fine material of the chain and items on it, fingers buzzing lightly as they ran across the spear and glyph.

Then he breached the barrier of his soul with his Dagger, and sealed the fold shut from where he was standing. There were a few moments of quiet before people started realizing what had happened.

“Should we have gone through that?” Ranvir asked in a whisper.

Amalia shook her head and nodded towards the mercenaries gathered opposite them. “See how they’re watching us?”

Ranvir nodded, but before he could reply, Sabas’ voice rang out. “What’s going on then? Why’s the fold closed?”

Mihail followed behind him, whispering into the captain’s ear.

“Ranvir?” the captain asked. “What’s the meaning of this?”

Ranvir glanced around, realizing another squad of twenty had gathered to their right, also watching them intently. “I think it’s us who should be asking you that question. You’re the one having us watched and monitored.”

Sabas cleared his throat. “Ah well, it had to come out at some point. Yes, it’s true. We were hired to keep an eye on you. Rumor has it that you’re quite the rising start within the Sentinels and the merchants I’m working for would like for you to fail this test.”

“Fail how?” Amalia demanded.

“Oh please, you don’t think we would’ve killed you by now if we wanted to?”

“I think discovering what happens inside a fold is much harder when the aperture’s closed,” Amalia replied, taking a step forward. “I think you know that Kyriake’s taking him under her protection and you wouldn’t risk angering her. I think that’s why you waited.”

Sabas licked his lips and glanced around, his eyes sweeping over his men. Counting, Ranvir realized, he was tallying up how many men he’d got inside the fold.

Ranvir decided he didn’t want to wait. With his dagger still on the fold’s aperture, he wrenched it open as he tapped Amalia with his tether-sense, sending a sensation of urgency into her.

They both burst into movement. Sandstorm Rage burst alive inside him, giving fuel to the red and orange tension that burned so high within him. Gritting his teeth, Ranvir pushed for strength over durability as he lunged forward. Ranvir could match Amalia’s speed over short distances, his strength briefly overcoming the advantages of her speed.

The aperture wrenched out of his control with a snap, a huge symbol painting across it in purple. Ranvir instantly recognized the intention behind it as a seal, both he and Amalia sliding to a stop. Even as something like a dozen needles slammed into his Dagger, sending spikes of mind-melting pain into Ranvir’s head.

Gasping, he fell to one knee before retracting the Discipline back into the housing of his soul. He glared up, eyes meeting Alexis’ nervous eyes.

“What’s the matter, boy?” Latresekt growled. “Are you not enjoying the taste of your own medicine?”

Ranvir snarled but didn’t reply, just getting to his feet.

“Now, I don’t want to act too rashly, or harshly,” Sabas said as one of the junior members handed him his spear. A bright metallic sheen started gathering at the tip. “But it seems you two are too perceptive for your own good.”

“Traitor!” Ranvir replied, his voice filled with barely contained scorn. Inside, Ranvir felt red slowly overwhelming anything else that might appear. The vestiges of the gray goop dried, cracked, and burnt away as the forges of a rage Ranvir not stoked in a long time came awake. Hatred burned the color of blood.

Sabas’ jaw clenched once. “That is one way to look at it,” he replied. “But really, I’m just doing my job. The merchants are the traitors.”

Ranvir didn’t reply, he simply reared back and started gathering a Barrage into his palm.

“Ranvir wait!” Amalia cried out.

“Think rationally, boy!” Latresekt called at the same time.

For once, Ranvir didn’t hold back. He didn’t limit the scope the Ability; he didn’t hold back the size; he didn’t even try to contain the mana for it. Ranvir poured every drop of power he could Draw into it. Mana gathered so strongly it colored the surrounding air the same yellow as the mana coursing through him.

“Shields!” Mihail cried a moment before Ranvir thrust forwards.

Sandstorm Barrage was designed to fire a cone of sand about thirty to ninety degrees wide with enough force to scour a bear to the bones.

Stepping forwards, so Ranvir stood in front of Amalia, he unleashed a blast that was closer to 360 than 270, throwing out enough sand to mimic of a dune.

Mercy’s Redoubt was well trained and shields went up nearly the instant Mihail shouted. A few people weren’t covered well enough and were plunged into the water, but most sustained their protection.

Ranvir spun around and ripped at the seal with his tethered powers as his Veil extended. Whoever had crafted the item that put the seal on the fold was strong. I didn’t budge at all.

“Attack!” Sabas cried.

Amalia threw herself on the ground, Ranvir following a moment later as power ripped through the air. Fire, water, wind, and stone, hissed, growled, roared, and boiled as the above them blew apart. Only the impromptu cover of sand Ranvir’d created saved them from taking too many direct hits.

“Run!” Amalia yelled, mana welling up inside her.

Another mana type blazed, this one stronger than the others. There was a sharp-edged quality to the mana that made Ranvir’s teeth stand on edge. He knew that feeling, though this one was subtly different, less potent.

Sabas’ attacked ripped through the sand, catching both of them as they got up. Ranvir stood in front of Amalia and reacted on instinct. He hardened his Flesh, turning tougher than iron as his body locked in place.

The slash of rippling metallic force struck him with the weight of Sabas’ experience. The Ability cut him from his hairline and down over his crossed arms, chest, and into his thigh. Ranvir groaned. Only then did his skin regain the sensation of sandpaper as Rage boiled to life within him.

Amalia threw out her right arm, the left one cradled against her side, the remnants of Sabas’ attack having sliced a deep gouge into it. A dark rain cloud burst out from behind her. The cloud was thick enough that Ranvir could barely see his outstretched arm in front of him, but his other senses noticed Amalia collapsing behind him.

Ranvir’d taken the brunt of the attack, but he’d only been cut on a surface level. Her sleeve was already taking on a dark stain. She was gasping rapidly, clearly biting back complaints of pain.

“We gotta get away,” she hissed at him.

Ranvir nodded in agreement, grabbing her arm. The temperature was already rising explosively as Mercy’s Redoubt used their fire braced to burn away the cloud.

“Loce,” Ranvir hissed. “By us time,” he divided his draw in two, pouring half into Sandstorm Rage, and the other half into his elemental. The patter on his forearm grew slightly brighter, revealing the path the egg had devoured of his arm. Loce flew into the air, then broke into a dozen copies, then a hundred, then a thousand, then thousands.

There was all kinds of training that good military leaders put their men through. Obedience, strength, and agility training, just to mention a few. But there are some situations that you simply cannot prepare for.

The full weight of a pestilence seething through your friends, and ripping at eyes, noses, lips and ears, carried on the waves of malice and ill-intent of a hatred that had spent seven years forging at the core of Ranvir’s spirit was one such situation.

Ranvir wrapped both himself and Amalia in his Veil, pinched them off into a pocket.

“Cut him off!” Yelled Sabas at the top of his lungs, but all he received was a wordless and terrified howl from Alexis and then Ranvir and Amalia disappeared into an extra-dimensional space.