“Frija,” Ranvir said. “Vasso,” he spoke slowly, keeping careful control of his voice as the large windows rattled in their frames. “Please go outside and show Graywing inside.”

“Um,” Vasso cleared his throat. “Is it safe?”

Ranvir frowned, considering for a moment. There was no intent behind Graywing’s outpouring, it was a simple instinctive response. “Don’t get too close, but yes. Graywing is not attacking us anymore than Menace is when he lunges into your lap. It might seem a little violent, but the intent behind it isn’t.”

“O- okay,” Vasso said, tapping Frija on her shoulder. Blinking startled eyes, the girl looked away from the glowering figure of the vulture, its eyes glowing with the same color as Ranvir’s, though a faint hint of something obscured them occasionally.

The children scrambled out of the room and toward the front door. The meditation chamber’s windows were on the other side, but the bird reacted the moment Vasso and Frija called out.

“Over here!” Vasso’s voice rang out louder and clearer over the stormy fog. “Graywing!”

“Please don’t break anything!” Frija called out. She was less startled than Ranvir expected. Somehow, this situation didn’t seem to break her calm at all. Shaking his head, Ranvir reseated himself properly as storm winds rushed through his home. Graywing had stepped inside. The table in the kitchen fell over with a huge slam. Frija screamed at the sound. Even Ranvir felt the heavy wood’s impact through the floor.

Clouds, dark and heavy with water, billowed into the room, followed by the bird itself. Graywing skulked through the doorway, leaning forward and stretching its neck forth as it approached.

Tension built between them, almost electric in the pressure as they closed on each other. Body and spirit nearing a true melding. Ranvir’s soul vibrated with the resonance of their bond, attempting to shake loose every bit that he contained within. It seemed almost an attempt to make him fall apart.

But Ranvir’s spirit was not so untested as that, nor so animalistic as to give in. Both space and sand mana attempted to shake free of their confines, even the egg—still buried under layers and layers of protections—shook in its holdings. None of it escaped his grasp, nor even strained his control.

Ranvir’s prodigious Mana: Draw might make it hard to manage his Abilities, but it had only made the hold he had on his very being that much stronger.

Beak touched forehead.

The wind went quiet.

Droplets of water ran fat and heavy on the walls, puddling on the floor.

Wind still trapped in the house rushed through windows and the front door, catching in on the way out.

Ranvir’s essential being became under assault.

Graywing brought the entire force of its spirit against him and Ranvir finally understood why the Belnavir locals stopped bonding with older and stronger animals. The vulture was a powerful entity. Struggle was the only way to strengthen the soul in true. Exercise simulated the effect, but could not compare to the real deal.

The vulture had fought its way to the top of a very competitive eco-system. Defeating dozens of rivals, feeding on the flesh of those weaker, and fighting those stronger. It had claimed the best views and fought the lord of the lake frequently. Graywing was a king.

It’s first assault washed over Ranvir like so much rain.

Ranvir battered it aside with the alacrity and ease granted him by his human experience. The beast was powerful, true, but its animal cunning could not match his human sapience. Graywing, for all that it had fought for its place, lacked the foundational existence to fathom the struggles Ranvir’d gone through.

Burdened by lack of knowledge. Blinded. Burdened by responsibility. Targeted by those who should’ve mentored. Targeted by one greater even than that. Torn from his home. Burdened by the betrayal of his body. Burdened by a friend turning her words to weapons while he was injured. Burdened by the inability to care for his progeny. Burdened over and over and over again.

Ranvir had struggled more in the last five years than the bird had in its entire history. Ranvir didn’t even deign its attack with a response. This wasn’t a fair fight. It wouldn’t have been a fair fight, not even if their souls had been evenly matched. In the end, its animal nature fell short of his human capacity.

There was a reason no animal had conquered the world like the humanoids did.

Ranvir began drawing Graywing in. Showing the bird for what it truly was, an overgrown chicken ready for slaughter. Ranvir opened his eyes and raised a hand. He saw Vasso and Frija peeking around the corner of the doorway. Laying the flat of his palm on Graywing’s chest, Ranvir dragged it inside.

Dissolving into gray and blue light, the bird’s very form twisted into and beyond his skin. Within his newest space, Ranvir sensed the core of energy form. But something more interesting was happening.

He focused his attention on the bond and his hand. It was dissolving the bird into energy, turning it from matter to anima. Cocking his head, Ranvir straightened as he watched a little more siphon away.

Letting go of Graywing, he dug into his pocket. Ranvir considered what he found. A dark and wrinkly fruit, raisin-like in its appearance and saturated with sand mana, protected from the Second Order plane by the skin.

The fruits had only begun appearing recently. From trees that normally didn’t carry fruits at all. It wasn’t caused by his tether; it wasn’t caused by Amanaris, but they had appeared after his bond with Graywing.

If what he suspected was true, then mana had been coalesced and turned into a Second Order form just to house the sand mana within safely. It had been done naturally, just by his very existence. The tiny bits of power he released at all moments converting and soaking into the environment.

A connection to the world. Material Connection, perhaps, Ranvir considered. His mind turned to another event, many months hence at this point. He’d been lying in a dark fissure, barely enough space to roll around in. Latresekt turning the stone of the cave into fully functioning flesh.

In that same fold, Ranvir’d found pillars of fyla stone many meters taller than he was, yet the biggest he’d ever seen outside could fit in his palm. And they’d been at the fold to harvest fyla.

Why Material Connection? Ranvir thought, thinking back of the Laws of Stratos. It had stood out to him when he first read it. Why was Stratos so indirect with his messaging? He was trying to leave a legacy for his people, so why was he vague? When Ranvir’d talked about it on Belnavir, everyone thought it referred to food. Give the animals something they have a connection to.

But if the animals created connections wherever they went, wouldn’t they have noticed it? The bonded had been growing weaker. They’d been connecting with weaker and younger animals. So the smaller animals’ marks were too weak to notice, so the connection was lost. All they had left was the vague notion of mana-attuned food and animals were related, somehow.

If so, what did Graywing need? Storm? Ranvir shook his head. It had mana in abundance. His mind turned to tether-space and Amanaris-space, hollow voids filled with only the core of his power.

Enclosure. He needed to build an enclosure for Graywing. Even if the bird didn’t survive, it deserved at least that much.

Dropping the fruit, Ranvir put his hand on the stone and focused. Veil sprang out from his soul, enveloping the world around him. Dagger erupted from his hand, spearing into the ground below him. Flesh blossomed within him, brushing against the stone. Absolute rose to his forefront and Ranvir touched the stone with sand mana. The connection fuzzed at the edges as Ranvir touched on it. He could barely feel the dimensions of the flagstone through his sand, so he enveloped it with space to strengthen it further.

Ranvir laid his tether-sense on it gently, wrapping it as best he could. He strained, focusing on all of his powers at once, while fighting off Graywing’s bestial will was finally touching on his limits.

Groaning, he cracked down on the stone, forcing his will on it. Part of him suctioned into Graywing as he did and he reached for it as well, staving it off. Head throbbing, vision going black at the edges, flickers of something touched his Flesh, and he funneled it through the Discipline. The grain of material traveled through tether-space and slipped past the walls into his newest space. Graywing’s enclosure changed then.

A qualitative shift occurred and a tiny gray brick, about a centimeter on both sides, appeared within. Above it coalesced the power Ranvir’d already taken, taking the form of a single feather.

Graywing squawked at the top of its lungs, sensing the strain it was taking on him, and Ranvir had to focus on the bird first. Containing it and slowly siphoning, he piecemeal fed grains of stone through his soul and into its enclosure.

Ranvir gasped for breath, the vulture almost slipping his hold and undoing much of his work. Breathe, remember to breathe, you idiot! He cursed at himself. Returning to the task at hand. A small square of nine by nine centimeter wide bricks had appeared within the enclosure at this point.

Ranvir collapsed onto the floor, his clothes soaked like he hadn’t fixed the issues with his spirit. Only the sour smell of his sweat and taste of salt alerted him it was something other than storm water.

Looking around, Ranvir realized Graywing was gone. Pushing off with his hand, he tried to stand, only to find his body entirely too limp to even rise from the ground. The rapid onset of a headache struck him then, throbbing like the seasons had changed and cracking was on them.

“Dad?” Frija appeared. “That took sooo long,” she held up a cup to him. “Do you want some?”

He nodded and weakly reached for it, the presence of his daughter giving him just enough strength to take the glass himself. She still held onto it as he tipped it towards his mouth.

It was fucking room temperature milk.

“Frija, how long has this been out?” he asked, stifling a wince.

“I poured it when I saw you and Graywing fighting,” she said proudly. “Daddy, it looked really tough and I know that when I’ve been really tough, I really want a nice big glass of milk.”

Ranvir smiled at her. “Thank you, sweetie,” he muttered.

“I got some water,” Vasso said. “Fresh and cold,” this he muttered under his breath, so Frija, who was happily skipping away, didn’t hear it.

“You’re a blessing from the gods,” Ranvir mouthed, emptying the cup rapidly. Then Graywing’s enclosure rippled, a wave rupturing from its surface, and Ranvir passed out.