Ranvir leaned back in the cave, stifling a wince at pains across his back. Escaping from the last fight had proven more difficult than he’d expected. Sabas had packed a bunch of high-speed Abilities in amongst the crowd. Their sudden burst of speed had put them close enough to score multiple hits before Ranvir got away.

Sure, their focus wasn’t on hard-hitting attacks, none of them were especially bad. Unless you tried to account for the loss of medicinal items. The most annoying injury he’d taken from the fight was still the axe to his face.

Surprisingly, the injury itself wasn’t that bad. His jaw, however, was sore, like something else. Chewing, swallowing, even speaking sent tingles of yellow pain sparking forwards. Now, Ranvir had at first feared a minor break, but had since come to recognize the pain as something similar to an especially bad hit. Like the pranks, boys would do to each other back home, slamming their thighs as hard as they could to get it to lock up.

He twitched his mouth back and forth, feeling the scab pulling taut as he did. It was itchy all the way to home and back, but Amalia had strongly suggested he didn’t pick at it. Would be bad for it, might become a horribly large scar if he did.

“How’s the injuries?” Alexis asked. Ranvir was thinking something else was going on with the boy. If he was getting sick, then there should be other symptoms, but it was just his voice that seemed affected.

“Annoying,” Ranvir said. “Though not too bad. What about the items? Any of them useful?”

Alexis winced and rubbed his arm. “Yeah, but… I guess it’s uncomfortable. Like I can feel it right on the border of Amanaris, but not quite connecting.”

Ranvir nodded. “That is what they do.”

Power-items, usually jewelry sized objects, added a few points to a stat, somewhere between 3 and 7. Now that didn’t actually sound like a lot, but most people could have four or five of the items on them at anyone time. If each gave about 5 stat points, that was close to half a Kistios Tier of power.

Each of them, a little bubble clamping onto Amanaris-space and convincing it that the braced actually had a few more points in that one stat. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a few restrictions. None of the items Ranvir’d found gave a bonus to source stats, like Draw. Instead, they all seemed to add to Physique: Strength or Physique: Speed.

Of course, there was another disappointing discovery when Ranvir’d tried the items on. Like Alexis, he’d initially experienced a bit of discomfort after putting one on, but after wearing them for less than an hour, it felt like someone was rubbing a solvent on his spirit.

Not knowing the exact implementation of the items, Ranvir could only guess at the cause, but he had some pretty strong guesses. They started with spirit-injury, to him having access to two power-systems, to his rapid development of Amanaris, and his then feverish dedication to Mana: Draw. Or maybe they had to be designed for the person and he was just different enough from Korfyi humans to be rejected.

Personally, he would be happy to blame the injury.

At this point, Alexis had worn four pieces for longer than Ranvir’d worn one. Needless to say, they were working. Ranvir scowled down at the remaining items. Amalia had initially rejected the leftovers, which he couldn’t understand. She’d tried to explain about her acclimation to her current stats, but he dismissed her as being negative. He changed his stats all the time with Sandstorm Rage, and he did fine.

He twitched his lips again; the scab creating resistance across his face. A little of it cracked open, forging a tiny knife of a slightly more vibrant yellow pain. Yep, he was doing great.

Alexis took in a deep breath, spreading out his arms. Their new hideout was much bigger than the old one, though shorter too. Ranvir, as the tallest of the bunch, had to stoop to get around, but Amalia and Alexis got about just fine.

Perhaps for one who spent so much time within the hideout as Alexis, this one had fresh air coming in. At least, as fresh as it got within the fold. The scent of saltwater never left, but Ranvir had to agree it was a far cry from the stagnant air of their first cave.

This one was also only accessible through the water, but this platform was tall enough that the cave was actually above the water and smaller tunnels had been worn into it, allowing the wind to pass through it. Despite the fresh air, this cave was also slightly warmer.

Ranvir sipped on some thólos tea. The binding agent didn’t make for good tasting drink, but Amalia had found some seaweed they boiled it with now. It added a little extra saltiness and mellowed out the worst of the mushroom’s taste. Still would’ve tasted better with a recovery element added, Ranvir thought.

That was another issue. The stones they used to create heat didn’t last forever, and they were running low, too. This would be the last time Ranvir found himself so under-prepared for a mission. Perhaps the last time he did a job for the Sentinels as well. No amount of money was worth the fear that he might not see his daughter again.

Amalia pinged her mana briefly, the effect going unnoticed. Ranvir suspected he might be the only one able to detect it, especially at a distance. “Did you sense that?” he asked, looking over his cup at Alexis. Had he stuffed something under his shirt? Probably just the angle causing it to bunch oddly.

“No,” Alexis shook his head.

“She signaled that something’s definitely happening, so I’ll go into the gaze the lines as well.”

Alexis nodded and waved Ranvir off.

Turning his back, so Alexis would Ranvir wasn’t talking to him, he sat down cross-legged and extended his tether-sense etherealward. Soon, an image of the whole fold unfolded into his mind. The patterns of mana, swells and eddies, places where it flowed strongly and weakly, some areas were thinly covered, others so densely you could’ve picked any type of mana out of the air. And it was all connected, bouncing and rebounding off each other. Over and over and over again, a hundred times, a thousand times, a hundred thousand times.

Mana was still dispersing from the gathering of so many powerful braced. Whatever meeting Mercy’s Redoubt had held, they’d done so with all of their members. Subtle differences played across the scene. Ranvir narrowed his focus as he tried to pick apart the mana types, the density, even the disposition of the emanation.

Every braced—likely tethered as well—emanated a small amount of power all the time, some more than others. Kasos had claimed Ranvir let out quite a lot, though again that might be caused by either his spirit injury or the perhaps that connection between his physical and spiritual self as witnessed in his eyes.

These emanations of energy, mana, weren’t a constant even thrum, but fluctuated and changed with the rhythm of life. If someone was exercising, that would change the pattern, if they were sleeping, if they relaxed, or if they were agitated. These things had a minor effect.

Ranvir now attempted to part three score minor emanations only two people in the entire fold could even detect. He strained as he slowly parted the veil and the mess of energies slowly revealed themselves as nearly sixty different individuals.

Sabas stood out amongst them, the most powerful coming from him. But he was not the clearest among them. That was the fire braced. Alexis called him Stelios. Where Sabas might be stronger, there was a clear, refined edge to the old man. Despite perhaps being the easiest to readout of all the members, this signature also gave the least away.

The group had been smaller at first, just Sabas and his inner circle. They’d shared a moment, all of their spirit beating in unison. Then the others arrived. Shock, greed, annoyance, and then finally acceptance and trust.

A headache was gathering a lot of steam in the back of Ranvir’s mind as he parsed the information. Something big happened, many of the signatures changed. Not a lot. Ranvir wouldn’t have even been able to tell if it didn’t cause a blurring effect on the lines on such a wide scale.

With gritted teeth, he pushed through, searching for the connection, the clue to what happened.

Two moments.

The haze parted only partially to reveal it. The fog that covered the clues was actually two moments.

The aches turned to throbbing, shooting pains strong enough to echo down into his jaw and out, threatening to make his eyeballs pop. Ranvir fell back from lines, returning to himself and the pain.

“Could you make any of that?” Ranvir asked quietly, directing his attention to Latresekt.

“No chance,” the gorilla-like creature growled. “The only thing I realized is that you might be the least attentive person in the world.”

“What do you mean?” Ranvir replied, closing his eyes and gently cradling his head in his free hand after downing the last of the tea.

“Take a closer look at Alexis.”

Groaning, Ranvir turned to look at the young man. Alexis noticed, smiling awkwardly, pulling a strand of hair that wasn’t there behind his ear. Ranvir blinked once and turned back to stare at the wall, frowning.

It couldn’t be.

He glanced over his shoulder again, taking Alexis in fully. Cross-legged, a slight bunching of fabric at the chest, not a hair on his chin, thin shoulders, slightly wide hips. “Alexis?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re a man, right?”

“No…”

Ranvir swallowed. “Oh, okay,” he returned to look at the wall.

Latresekt started huffing and laughing so violently its entire chest bounced in the air with each barking laugh.