Ranvir and Kirs had returned to the library the following day. Using the dorm to experiment with rituals was great, using them while working out what their next steps and problem solving? Not so great.

“We should be able to use a variant of the ambient energy collector.” Ranvir argued. “I’ve tried letting out power next to it and it does increase its speed, if not significantly, then noticeably.”

“That’s not enough.” Kirs returned. “The efficiency is horrible, at that point it might just be better to look at getting some wellstones.” Wellstones were rocks holding spatial energy. They were nearly unbreakable, yet seemed to ripple at the slightest impact. “You’ve said it yourself, it could take weeks to charge a ritual like that. Weeks where you could be working on something else.”

Not that there seems to be much of that. Ranvir thought, though he kept his mouth shut. He was still smashing into the wall of frustration caused by the nagging feeling that he was missing something important.

“Alright, there’s still the problem of the determination sub-circle.”

“We’ll figure it out, one problem at a time. Besides the ancient tribes figured them out, why can’t we?”

Ranvir leaned back in his seat, rubbing a hand against his forehead. “So you don’t know how to feed the basin sub-circle, and we don’t know the determination sub-circle, so what now?”

Kirs massaged the bridge of her nose and brow with the tip of her finger as she leaned forward. “I think we need a break, my head’s hurting from the circles we’ve run.” She looked up at him. “Call it quits for now and return to it tomorrow?”

Ranvir sighed then nodded. He began packing his notes together, organizing them how Kirs had showed him. His handwriting and general notation ability had grown by leaps and bounds since joining the academy.

“Let’s go check on the others, see how they’re doing.” Ranvir said. The others would be finishing after period training, this was one of the few times he wasn’t there. The others had their training set out for them. Dovar was working on Ranvir’s Dagger exercise, intermittently trying out the Body banding exercise as well. Sansir and Grevor were likewise working on expressing their power or the Wings banding exercise.

Esmund had mostly gotten control of his Dagger, he still couldn’t retract it fully which would likely be his final step before second stage, instead he was working towards achieving Veil, like the rest of them. At some point, Ranvir estimated that he’d taken over Dovar as the most developed tethered on campus. He wasn’t sure when it happened, but looking at Esmund now, he was definitely a powerhouse. Even if he lacked some control.

“I really want this to work.” Kirs said, as they began walking towards the exit. They’d been seated in the back of the library, where Ranvir could see if anyone approached them. Kirs hesitated, her mouth remaining half-open as if to continue speaking.

“The rituals?” Ranvir asked. Part of him didn’t want to pry. Partially because Kirs always seemed self-assured and capable, and it risked opening his eyes to her frailty. Something he could let himself forget due to her forceful personality. One of their first interactions was her pushing back against him, even though he was not only bigger, but also a tethered.

But Kirs wasn’t that big. She wasn’t even as tall as Esmund anymore and she was thin. She was paler than most too, due to all the time she spent indoors studying. Ranvir tensed up just looking at her now, with even a slightly vulnerable look in her eye.

Get over yourself. Ranvir admonished himself. Your friend needs your help. So he remained, walking alongside her, ready to listen.

“Yeah, the rituals.” Kirs said. “I- I’m not sure what to do anymore. I had this plan of making some grand research using light and tethered for my proof, but that’s been standing still for months now. Honestly, what I have now—our training—is better than anything I could’ve come up with just a year ago. In four years, when you graduate, the proof will be strong enough to stop arrows. Like a tethered onto its own.”

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She cleared her throat, and waved at the librarian manning the desk. The older woman waved back with a motherly smile, that made Ranvir’s heart pang with thoughts of his own mother. He cleared his throat uncomfortably.

“I was going to use that to move to Ankiria.” Kirs continued. “Get a research grant, then start my journey to become a scholar, like Ragnhild.” She smiled wistfully. A few hairs had escaped from the tail she’d tied at the nape of her neck, falling around her thin throat like wispy worries tickling at her jugular. “But now, with Esmund, I don’t know… My plan had seemed so simple… You know?”

No. Ranvir stifled his first instinct, instead calling his concerned friend side forward. “I can’t imagine it’s easy. But that’s life. It throws a tree across the road and then you figure out how to get around it. Or go get a lumberjack.”

“I guess.” Kirs said, bracing herself as Ranvir pushed the door open to the cold and snow. There was slow fall going on at the moment. Ranvir had heard of some areas of Elusria getting intense snowstorm-like falls, but that hadn’t happened either back home or here at the academy. It did snow more often than not, which while still an annoyance didn’t really compare to storms.

Especially when you didn’t have access to an ice manipulator.

“Now I don’t know what to do.” Kirs continued. “At first, it took a lot effort to keep up with all four of you, five now, and I thought that was going to take all my focus to manage the notes. But, even when I’m helping advice Dovar, he doesn’t actually need that much time. Most of my time I’m just working here, or spending it looking for a problem to solve.”

She crossed her arms before her chest, staring hard into the snow. “I’ve been working at the library for five years, since I was fourteen. First as an assistant, helping the older librarians push the trolley. Then as I got more acquainted with the library, I was allowed to put books back myself. Then I was raised to a librarian in my own right, but… That’s not what I want in life.” She waved her arms in front of her. “I don’t want to look up in thirty years and see myself walking down those aisles with a little assistant pushing my trolley. I want to do something. Be someone better. Someone greater.”

“So you hope the rituals work?” Ranvir asked. He had to look away from the frustrated, teary eyed look on Kirs’ face. The deep seated discomfort in his belly nearly made him sick.

“I don’t hope they work. I need them to work.” Kirs insisted. “No offense, but I don’t want to be the author where you go looking for Ranvir’s techniques. I want to be the author you go to learn about rituals. I want the kid pushing the trolley to ask their librarian about Kirs, the Scholar, the Ritualist.”

Ranvir could understand that. Goddess, he didn’t just understand that. He didn’t want to be the second Figir. He wanted to be a great tethered by anyone’s reckoning, not just measured against the subpar performances of the space manipulators.

“Then you’ve got to put that big brain of yours to work.” Ranvir encouraged. Though he felt uncomfortable he also felt them approach safer territories. “How did the ancient tribes determine their determination sub-circles?”

Kirs was quiet for a long while. He felt her turn her gaze towards him, though he stared straight ahead looking at the dome of blue light Grevor was expressing. It felt like thicker ice than returning her gaze. “There can’t be that many options.” Kirs said. “A. From an even older and more advanced tribe, like the People of the Goddess. B. They had some sort of source, or knew where to look. C. Generations of experimentation.”

Ranvir nodded, feeling the ice solidify under his feet, growing more certain in his footing. “C. Would have to be scrapped, since it simply wouldn’t help at the moment. You don’t have that kind of time.”

“A. Too, since we know frightfully little about the People. Supposedly, their country is beyond what’s currently the flesh-torn lines.”

“That leaves B.” Ranvir said. “That they had a natural source for it somewhere.”

Kirs sucked in air through her teeth. At this point, they’d come close enough to the dome that they were both cast in blue light. “I have some ideas for how to test this-“

She was rudely interrupted by a warp sized ball of tethered ramming into her, throwing her onto the ground. She let out squeal as Esmund fell on top of her, luckily the snow was thick and freshly fallen.

Soon, her squeal of surprise was replaced with an outcry of indignation that Esmund had thrown her to the ground like that. Though it seemed he was fighting her off with pecking kisses all around her face.

It took a while for Esmund to let Kirs up, but he finally let her go and she started getting to her feet. Hand on her knee pushing up to standing, Kirs froze. “Ranvir, look at the lights.”

Confused, he turned following her gaze to one of Grev’s globes of light. It took a moment, but when he saw it his breath left his lungs. It was nearly imperceptible, only the softly drifting snow allowing him to see it through the noise. The determination sub-circle for nightstones outlined in the falling snow around the globe of light.

An errant wind pushed the flakes a drift, but he’d seen it. Clear as day. He turned looking at Kirs with wide eyes.