“Get it together,” Ranvir admonished himself, running a hand through his hair. The odd texture of the down almost becoming a normal feeling. Es and Kirs had stopped by for lunch with the kids, who seemed to enjoy themselves. Though he was fairly certain they’d detected a hint of the underlying tension between him and Frey.

But it couldn’t really be his fault that he got mad when she was babying him. She’d all but told him how to dress. He shook out his wings while alone. She’d gone on and on, like he was still that same kid that had left half a decade ago. Like he wasn’t a father. Like he hadn’t seen more of the world than she had. More of the worlds.

He was getting close to the yard, so he shook his hands out and wrapped his wings more tightly around himself. Many of the workers were still on their lunch break, sitting down and eating together. The Foreman and a few others, however, were still on their feet. Primarily the people at the mill.

The small supervisor noticed Ranvir immediately and quickly approached, bowing before him. “Tethered sir,” he said. “Gunnor, your father—“

Ranvir almost rolled his eyes, the simmering yellow annoyance bubbling for a moment.

“—told me you might be coming here.”

Frowning, Ranvir looked in the direction toward his father, who was out amongst the trees, taking his lunch. How did he know?

“You are, of course, welcome to just talk with him, or if you choose to help as well, that is well within your prerogative.”

“Thank you,” Ranvir said, nodding to the small man.

“Do you— oh, you’re already going,” the Foreman said, breaking off mid-sentence as Ranvir stalked away.

He tried taking a few deep breaths, but couldn’t make the tension in his neck fully go away.

“There he is!” Gunnor said, waving to Ranvir once he came into view. His father was sitting on a stump next to the tree he’d been working on.

“Alright,” said his partner, sighing loudly. “I’ll go.”

“I appreciate it,” Gunnor said, clapping him heavily on the back.

The young man nodded, waving to Ranvir as he passed.

“Hey Dad.”

“Hey Kid,” Gunnor looked at him for a long moment. “Thing didn’t go so well with your Mother?”

Ranvir shook his head. “I got a little frustrated, is all.”

“She’s worried for you. We both are.”

“How did you know I would come?”

“I remember what it was like coming back to work with my Dad after becoming a journeyman in my own right.” He smiled at Ranvir and brushed his hands off. “Your mother began her education in jewel work in her adult years, so she might not have as strong a memory. Going to from young man eager to learn to young adult confident in their knowledge is tough, even for the master teaching them.”

Ranvir nodded slowly, picking a stone from the soil to roll around his finger. “I guess you’re right.”

“Of course I am,” Gunnor said, pushing to his feet with a groan. “Now, I do have to get this tree down by the end of the day. We just finished figuring out how to cut it to make it fall as it should.” He raised an arm, describing a line through the forest, slipping past the trees on either side, while also pointing towards the lumbermill. There was only a narrow margin on either side, so they’d need to be very precise.

“Can I help?” Ranvir asked, getting to his feet as well.

“Of course!” Gunnor said, pointing to a tool in the forest loam. “Grab the saw.”

They worked in silence for most of an hour, before Gunnor needed a break. Ranvir took the time to shake his wings out and stretch his arms.

“So what all actually happened there?” Gunnor pointed his water skin at Ranvir’s arm.

“It’s a bit of a story,” Ranvir said, stretching his wings to their full capacity. Flapping twice, he brought down enough wind to tussle his father’s short hair.

The sweating man groaned in pleasure and smiled. “You can keep doing that.”

Ranvir grinned. “I was on a different…” he was about to say worldshard, but didn’t want to get too technical for his audience. “Plane. One where they bond with animals to gain power, rather than the Goddess.”

Gunnor narrowed his eyes at Ranvir. “That’s awfully close to heresy.”

“It’s even closer to the truth,” Ranvir shrugged his shoulders a few times. “Anyway, I found Graywing, a huge vulture taller than me with wings twice the size of mine. We found, I won, we bonded. When that bond reached its final stage, we merged, and I had to adopt some of its features and its strength,” he summoned gathered a ball of rain from the atmosphere. It took a little doing since Elusria was drier than Korfyi, but he still managed easily enough.”

“That sounds dangerous,” Gunnor said tentatively, glancing at Ranvir’s arm. “It won’t take over your body, is it?”

“Even if it tries, I’ll beat it back down.” If it can ever try again. “What’s things been like here?”

Gunnor shrugged. “For a time, we worried about what happened to you, but Esmund and Kirs assured us you weren’t dead. In the end, we were simply resigned to waiting for you.” He smiled then. “And you did. What about you?”

“Working with the Sentinels, mostly.”

“Sentinels?”

“We work to keep man… energy regular across Korfyi. Going into folds and fighting the monsters inside. It’s pretty fascinating. I get to see a bunch of new and exciting places, and practice my skills.”

Gunnor’s eyes narrowed on Ranvir’s chin. “Was that how you got that scar?”

Ranvir thumbed his the blemish. “Kind of. I was on duty with the Sentinels, but there were some complications.”

“So, you traded one battlefield for another?”

He looked at his dad for a moment, inhaling deeply. It only seemed to channel the simmering anger into yellow streams throughout his body, returning to his stomach to keep its boil.

“I have far more control over what I’m doing now,” Ranvir explained calmly. “I’m not tethered number four-hundred in a long line of tethered who have to fight because they’re told to.”

“Are you saying you’re choosing to fight? When you have a daughter who needs you? A son who already lost one set of parents?”

Ranvir rubbed his forehead. “You make it sound worse than it actually is,” he cleared his throat. “You don’t understand. I am ‘choosing to fight.’ But I am free to pull back, I am free to call it off, I am free to not pursue. I can make my own calls in a situation far more controlled and safe than any battlefield. Does that make sense?” Ranvir hissed out those last words harshly, panting for breath.

“It sounds like excuses.”

“Ex—“ Ranvir turned around and paced along the tree. Take a moment, calm down. “You think I’m what? Wasting my time? That what I’m lesser for my decisions?”

“I’m thinking of responsibility. I’m thinking of safety and protection, Son,” Gunnor said. He was on his feet, leaning in as he stepped closer. “I taught my son to put his family first. Or at least I intended to.”

“Oh!” Ranvir said, spreading his arms wide. “I’m just a fuck up who didn’t get it. That’s it! Of course, it makes so much sense.” The air was getting wetter and thick droplets fell on the surrounding leaves.

“I’m just trying to focus you on what’s important.”

“I know what is important, Dad. I see clearly. I’ve seen clearly since I was a fourteen-year-old! I know family is important. I understand that providing a better house, a better education, and better food is something I can easily do for my family without inviting unnecessary risk.”

“Have you looked in a mirror? You don’t exactly look like someone who doesn’t take unnecessary risks.”

“I am not in danger, Dad! Not when I’m cleansing folds, not when I’m visiting Belnavir, and certainly not here. There’s one person who might be stronger than me. I hope you understand that. Might. And you know what? She couldn’t trap me when I was a clueless seventeen-year-old and she fucking certainly can’t now.”

“What about Frija? What about Vasso? Are they in danger?”

“They’re with Es. He’s about as dangerous as tethered can get and you know what? He’d give his life for them, as any of my friends would. And that’s assuming I can’t just get to them immediately.”

“More excuses! You’re trying to explain away everything as if there’s no risk.”

Wind whipped at the trees and rain fell in a steady sheet, leaves were tearing loose and whirling in the wind surrounding them.

“There is risk in everything, Dad! But you know what? I’m getting stronger, I’m getting smarter, and more skilled. Everything I do, I learn a little more, and I understand a little better. And at the end of it all, they’ll never have to listen to me scream because I was run down by a fucking noble. The seas will burn, the mountains will crumble, and the nations will fall before I let them get hurt.”

Gunnor gnashed his teeth and took a step back. His eyes fibrillated between open and closed, his nostrils vibrating. “Let’s take a break.”

Ranvir said nothing. The simmer yellow channel through him had turned a vicious red that seethed with fire and anger. Gunnor passed beyond the subconscious barrier Ranvir’d formed and staggered a step to the left, his clothes and hair whipping in the wind as he instantly soaked.

Ranvir watched him for minutes, long after he’d passed from sight. A tree at the edge of his barrier began groaning and cracking, branches snapping as it fell, ruining the perfect path his father had originally planned.

Roaring, Ranvir slammed an unenforced fist into the trunk next to him, the sole protected tree. The bark cracked and his skin split. He hit it again. Ranvir hit it until sand cushioned his blow as insect crawled forth from all around him. Grasshoppers varying from the size of single finger-joint to the length of his palm.

Loce implored him to meditate. So Ranvir did.